Ok I have heard various ideas like this before.  Almost everone in the club is into frag trading . I love to trade frags. The problem is I may want to trade something for Adam who wants nothing from me but wants one from Mark. So I dont know how hard it would be organize but if we all had x amount of points to start out with and all frags were worth say 3 for mushrooms 5 for small common 10 for larger or more rare and so on.  There are companies that do this with various types of labor.  I know its very possibe .

The other idea is to have a tank that people bring corals to and trade for other corals in the tank. I dont like this idea because 1  it is not as convienant for people to always go to one location. 2 the tank would never hold all the corals people had for trade 3 someone would have to pay to run and maint the tank.

  I know ideas like this have been talked about before. I think its a good idea personally. I am willing to put forth some effort into making this work if people like the idea and the club presidentcy wants me to.

I have had lots of involvement with items like this.  I am willing to share all input and ideas.  This has been done before, and it is cetainly a doable idea once again.  All we need is one thing.....

somewhere to house the coral bank (which is what I call them).  If someone is willing to set up the tank and house the corals, I'll give you tanks, the salt, the water, the sand.  It may be possible that a local pet store is willing to do this, but if not it would require someone in Salt Lake willing to set this up in their house.  We've discussed this in the club many times before, but no one has really come forward wanting to do it.

Adam 

We would be interested in doing something like that for the club let me know how big of holding you are looking for and im sure we can come up with something...

Eric.Ryan

Marine Aquatics

 I think that a points system is the way to go. Everyone could just post what they have to trade on the forum.  That would cut out the expense of having a bank tank. I think IMO more people would participate with a points system.

I don't know if I should write this or not.  But here comes a rather lengthy post regarding this. 

The way the Coral Bank worked before when I started one was like this.  We have a coral bank.  It runs off of a point system.  1 point for mushrooms or xenia cuttings, 2 points for most soft corals, 3 points for larger soft corals or small stonies, 4 points for larger stonies, and one last one is 10 points for uncut full sized corals (of any type that is needed).  You can donate or trade in any coral where there isn't 5 or more cuttings already in the bank (so we don't have a tank filled with one type of coral).  For every 5 points you put in, you can take 4 points out.  That way the bank will continue to grow.

If you buy cuttings $5 small, $10 large or sps, $15 rare cuttings then that money goes directly towards purchasing more brood stock. 

For Eric/Ryan I am interested in talking to you about this idea.  Or to anyone else interested.  Anyone interested PM me and we will talk. 

Adam

Heres my idea, not sure how well it would work though.

We would need someone to use a spreadsheet or something to track it, but heres the thought.  Say I am at Reefdudes house and see a cool shroom I like, we decide to use points.  Here is how it would work.

Troy gets shroom frag from Reefdude. Troy -1, Reefdude +1

Troy visits Reefer and gets a small acro frag.  Troy -3, Reefer +3 

Reefdude visits Reefers house and purchase Xenia.  Reefdude -1,  Reefer +1

Reefer trades with Reefman for a Large Acro frag.  Reefer -4, Reefman +4

Heres a recap of where everyone stands:

Troy -4, Reefman 4, Reefer 0, Reefdude 0

Heres where the bank comes in.  It is an actual bank.  I PURCHASE 4 points from the frag bank for 5$ a point to get me out of the negative.  Troy +4, Bank +$20

Troy 0, Reefman 4, Reefer 0, Reefdude 0, Bank $20

Reefman has credits, so he decides to cash in some points.  Cashes in 2 points for 10 dollars.  Reefman -2, Bank -$10.

Troy 0, Reefman 2, Reefer 0, Reefdude 0, Bank $10.

I have a spreadsheet set up at work, VERY basic that could keep track of this.  I know, I am not very good at writing up my ideas, hopefully someone call tell what the hell I am trying to say and improve on it.  Just my thoughts.

hmmm, it seems that all this would do is complicate a rather simple CASH transaction, ie everyone just trade $$$.

I personally like Adam's idea best... the bank takes a cut of the transaction and uses that money to buy more "brood stock", only issue is where/how to keep the frags.

I think you guys are asking for trouble.  Someone better produce a complete and solid guide as to how much each individual coral is worth.  Not just softs, hards, and fulls.  If not, arguments are going to start about who's coral is worth more and so on.  A colt cutting is not worth as much as a neon dendronephthya.  What if I bring in 100 zooanthids.  Are you going to give me 200 points?  And who's to stop someone from buying a full coral for 10 points and fragging it and trading it back in.  I probably will not participate in this.  I would prefer to just go to others houses and swap there.  And I don't always need something in return.  What goes around comes around.  If someone gives me a frag and I don't have anything they want, then later when I do get something I give it to them then.  I'm not saying it won't work, but someone better make a rule book and put some serious time into it first.  I will probably just go about it the old fashion way.

More pennies for thought.

I fully agree marcus.  We would need MUCH discussion about any way that we decide. 

There is NO reason that anyone would HAVE to use this system.  It would be purely voluntary.  It would be a group of people that want to trade items between themselves.  There would be NO reason you couldn't go over to ReefDogs house and buy/trade all the corals you like.

The discussion was just started to figure out an easy system to help facilitate a trade between Person A who would like an item from  Person B who wants something Person C has. 

We would need to set FIRM points on different types of items.  And would need someone that would put the time into keeping track of all FRAG TRADE POINTS transactions. 

Please, other comments are greatly appreciated.  My post above is just something I came up with setting here a work today, there are probably plenty of other possibilities that are much better.

I am still interested in putting this thing together. I have thought about this and I think that the best way would be to start out with a frag bank and then progress from there to using the points with one another in the club. What I would like to see happen is to promote non cash trading within the club. I agrea with Marcus there is room for problems however with I feel that these things can be worked out. I dont think we have to any hot heads in the club.

The pionts would need to be paper of some sort unless we could set it up on this site however that may require alot of work .

I have a couple buddies that are into web designs.  I will have to see how much work it would be to put together a form where each person involved in the trade logs in and basically verifies the trade, then using a database it would keep track of everyones points.

We would need to put alot of thought into the points for the frags, and how much each point is "worth" if we want to be able to at some point Buy more/cash in points.  I think this would be a very good feature because it would give people with no viable trading material (ME) an option, and giving people that want to maybe sell some of their points the option to.

"What I would like to see happen is to promote non cash trading within the club."

I don't feel the club should be limited to a non-cash trading.  I get some of my needed items throught the selling of frags.

John

 Dont get me wrong. I dont want to stop people from selling frags. I just want to make it easier for people who want to do a majority of trading vs buying and selling. If we had a full trade system in effect I am sure there would be some ocations were I would still spend cash on certain items. Lets take you for example. right now you tank is very full you may not want any more corals so you would still just sell frags for cash because the pionts would be worthless to you. I dont have a problem with people doing that. I have sold a few things myself. Its my preferance to mostly trade however.

 I dont want to put any limits on selling just encourge trading for those who want to do that. 

Btw John any money I have spent with you on frags has been a good deal for me and I have not had any regret doing so. I hope in the future to buy and or trade with you.

Not a problem.  I just wanted to leave all options open.  I'm glad to hear that the frags are doing great.  I have Saturday day off and wanted to know if some time that day would work for you to stop by and see your tank.

John