Some things I learned about doing Reptile shows

[Dbutton]

Well I did my first show with my baby boas this weekend and I learned a very good lesson. It doesn't matter how nice your boas look, how good a sales man you are or how long and patiently you talk to customers and educate them on boas and their care. All that matters is that you have the lowest prices!
I had my pastels priced well below market value and they had all just shed so they were looking great, and when sombody shows up with 25 babies on the first day priced at $80 for normals and $150 for normal pairs that is fine. I don't mind a little competition at all. And then on the second day they show up with about 40 more babies that were born on the 14th, which made them 12 days old, and tells all their customers that that they have already eaten (BS!) and all the snakes are in shed (their first) and then prices them at $55 ea. and $100 for pairs it smashed all the sales of me and 2 other people who had baby boas. These guys had the table that was right at the entrance so it was the first one that people saw when they walked through the door and one guy who had some nice Dubay pastels sold none of them at all because he was at the table right next to theirs. I spent two 7 hour day talking to people looking for a baby boa, some for 45 minutes or an hour, and had them walk right around to the other table and buy one for $55.
So it really doesn't matter at all if you have great looking snakes, pass out care sheets ( I had 3 people take care sheets from me and buy from the $55 table because I was trying to be nice and let them know what their boa would need if they bought one), work hard to get all your babies on F/T or are even nice to them. All you need is cheap snakes and you can sell all day.
So now instead of trying to get into the higher end morphs like salmons and albino's. I am jsut going to pick myself up about 20 normal females and about 5 normal males and breed the #$%^&#$%^&#$%^&#$%^& out of them and sell the babies for $50 each. What the #$%^&#$%^&#$%^&#$%^&, people are stupid and don't know what they are buying anyway and in the end I don't even think that they care what they bought.
It is just "Oh cool, I got me a boa".

Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest.

David

	Morph A morph is a color or pattern variation that is proven to be genetic. Common morphs include albino, anerythristic, gentically striped, Hypomelanistic, and many others. Morphs also include combinations of simple traits such as "Sunglow" which is Albino and Hypomelanistic. These traits may be recessive traits, co-dominant traits, dominant traits, or created through selective breeding (ie Pastel).

[Bubba_ho_tep]

I'm sorry to hear that you did so horribly, But you know what your wrong about a few things. It soulds like you had the better display, and quality of animals, and salesmanship knowledge you need by ten fold. The quality of the animal does matter. The lowest price is just one marketing trick in gobbeling up the market, when competeing against prices you must really educate cunsumer why your snakes are so much better then the other guy's. You may have talked to people about rtb's but did you tell them exactly what your selling and why the pastels are a much nicer and beautiful snake purchase.

[Kent K25]

I would imagine that he did explain to them why his were nicer. Problem is those people prefer to think about the all might dollar, and probably tend to think that he is just saying his are better cuz they are his.

Most Reptile show buyers that I've seen were uneducated on reptiles, the nicer snakes get more respect when sold online since most fly by night buyers don't buy online nearly as much.

[Bubba_ho_tep]

Tru that. But i've been thinking about that kind of thing (uneducated people buying herps) This is somewhat of the reason that herps are being banned from cities. A father and his son come to an expo and the father buys his spoiled kid a snake because he saw it on T.V.. The novelty weares off, the snake gets neglected, but fed regularly, and never get handled. One day the kid shows off to his friends and get bit, Then the kids afraid of it and he lets it loose to chicken to catch it after being bitten. So I guess what I'm saying is in a place like exotic animal expo's, It should be mainly for breeders and hobbiests. Therefore what he is sellin does make a difference and that any normal hobbiest should see that the pastel is the better buy. Depending on what there looking for.

[telefrag]

that sounds pretty typical for a reptile show.

there is always going to be a rock bottom seller that is going to sell a cheaper, but not necessarily better animal to whoever is willing to buy it.

I gave up on reptiles shows.


I only go if I order something in advance and need to pick it up from someone, and thats the best place to do it.

sorry it was so lousy..... I have worked shows with people who had identical experiences.

its frustrating.

[Dbutton]

Well I did have many people want to know why mine were more expensive and what the differences in the prices were from. I explained about how they were priced by lack of black in the saddles, how clean their pattern was and how much color they had. And then they would nod as if they understood and walk over and buy the $55 snake. But as QuenteK25 said, most of the people who were their were uneducated about reptiles and really only knew what they had been told by the sellers about the snakes, frogs, lizards or turtles that they were looking at. All they were really sure of is that it looked cool and had pretty colors. I think that I am going to stick to mostly online sales and maybe to some of the higher end shows like Bob Clark's show up by Dallas once a year or maybe Datona when I have a good enough inventory of high end boas to make the trip worth it by only selling a few snakes. I did sell 3 on the first day and 1 on the second which put me about even for the weekend with my cost for a table, time and other money spent. I also had one of my babies die in a freak accident where it got an aspen chip wedged in it's mouth which held it's mouth wide open and had it's tounge and air hole mashed down so that it suffocated. That about broke my heart this morning. Now the ones that are left are all comfortable in their rack with fresh water and plenty of space to stretch out. And I am slowly relaxing too.LOL!


David

[budgie]

yeah dave but you know,the people who buy snakes for $55 always get rid of them,once they start to grow there not cool any more,most stupid people dont really know there only to have a 6ft snakes in a year or two they buy the snake cheap so they can look cool to all there mates,yeah its sad im sure you spent a grip of cash to set up your stall and all that good stuff,but at the end of the day some people are cheap,you just got to look on king snake to see the #$%^&#$%^&#$%^&#$%^&ty boas for 65 bucks,

[lethargiic]

=/ as budgie said at least your snakes didnt go to any of the morons who bought the $55 ones.. there's one good side to your story...not a huge but enough. Besides all of the people who go to reptile expos just want to get their names known in the market so that they have repeat customers n all that stuff...they're selling their image, not the snake. unlike those idiots i look at quality not $$. If that dude had a bunch of blah looking boas for $55 i wouldnt think twice because who knows what he was telling them other customers...

oh and if you ever come to daytona... 1. drive if you can.. 2. make sure there are no hurricanes heading toward florida..lol and 3 let me know!

[Dbutton]

Thanks for the encouraging words guys/gals. I know what you all said was right and I wouldn't want my babies to go to just any yaahoo anyways. I was just really aggravated by the unscruppulous tactics of the other seller. That is why I have posted the rest of my babies here so that I can find decent homes for them that know what they are getting and who I know will at least ask a question on the forum if they don't know something.

David

[Bubba_ho_tep]

You have my condolences David towards your recent loss. At least you know that by posting your snakes on the forums here instead of selling them at the expo, they will go to the proper homes the animals deserve.

[toker]

Sorry about your luck bud. I can say however, I can see why people would go to the lower price table.

How many of use crossed the road because the gas station over there has their gas for 5 cents cheaper? I know I have

Most people IMO are looking for a pet, they have no idea why they want, just perhaps that its a cool critter. Now that being said, who, for example starting out at pool, goes out and buys a $500 stick when they really don't know if they will even like the game.

So, it seems that its less of a risk for a newbie to pay X less to get started then paying Y more... they don't take into account vet bills (if they even take em) for a sick snake.

Now, why would your better looking ones not sell over theirs? Simple, price per product. I can picture those people thinking, why do I need a snake with less black? Clean pattern? Oh well, a snake is a snake! And hey I can get it less over there!

Its not so much telling them why yours are more costly, but rather telling them why, for example they are better than his. Tell them, Sure I know you can save X amount if you go over there, but here is why you shouldn’t, go into what a vet bill costs, tell them the truth, heck, a cheap boa is likely to be a sick one. Now I know that isn't always the case but understand who you are talking to. I, as a buyer would rather pay 100, than 55 (base price) and 65 (vet bill) and 25 (meds). Or, 55, snake dies, pay 55 again, snake dies, wait, I am now down 110?

I really get into sales so sorry for the ramble. Anyway, I am sure you get my point.

I hope you have better luck next time.

	In My Opinon IMO = In My Opinion and IMHO = In My Honest Opinion