you can always find wanna be's on @bay for a starting bid of 15-25 bucks for 5-10 heads. They are close to looking like them but nothing like a true PPE.
I was really surprised that some people actually remember the original finders name of PPE, way to go viper staying on top of his game.
I had to write the name down in my tanks book notes
Like viper said, the growth rate of the “rare” coral even with a perfect tank, that’s what makes them a true rarity and collectors piece, perfection and beauty come only in time.
A lot of sellers would like the unwary keeper to believe that “they have true PPE” at a great price, and it works. A new keeper sees and reads about the elusive PPE and wants them and sees a ridiculous cheap price for them and jumps all over it only to find out they have a relatively nice purple zoo with a green skirt.
Any seller who has them knows they are going to get top dollar for them and its only a couple of polyps.
I paid 195 dollars for four polyps and only to get a baby sundial snail with it and now I sit with a blank piece of rubble rock and shell on my desk, little SOB.
Some will say they are not worth the money, but then again beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and one can only judge the value for one self.
If a seller on @bay can’t tell you where his original colony came from or who, then my suspicions would be the seller has replicas.