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Warning on a possible dishonest seller "Covington Reptiles"

Rob @ RK Reptiles

Rob @ RK Reptiles

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This person is selling RED ball pythons and it is clear and plain to see that the animals were soaked in Orange Gatorade before the pictures were taken. This is the same person that was selling (and suposedly sold a ball as a Pastel when it clearly did not look like a pastel). He is saying that his offers are presently at $1000 and $800 for the 2 of them. I just would not want someone to spend that kind of money and find out they are nothing more than a normal soaked in Gatorade. Below is a link to the ads regarding this. His name is Marshal at Covington Reptiles. I have not personally done buisness with them but with misrepresentation like that I know I won't be.

http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=32&de=94409

http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=32&de=94427

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Pastel ball

The ball in the ad was clearly not a pastel but a normal and he sold it for $1,000. I was about to post it in the General Business Discussions in the "jump the gun" thread and now I regrett not having done so. Maybe we could have avoided someone from being scammed. If my memory serves me right the name of the person that bought it is Charles.

It's the first time I hear Gatorade could be used to enhance the color of a ball python.

Regards.
 
If those were real, they would be going for tens of thousands of dollars and major breeders/dealers would snatch them up in a heartbeat.

Or..........he would keep them, breed them, and control the market on red BP's.

More and more scammers seem to be showing up lately.
 
Gatorade

Daniel,

There are many unscrupulous dealers that will soak animals in Gatorade to enhance their colors. Some soak animals in it to replenish lost nutrients and fluids but the honest ones will tell you up front. This person is now saying that the high bid is $2500. If the animals were truly that color they would have been bought immediately by some of the big breeders but they are aware the animals are not the color. It is ridiculous that people would do that to sell an animal. Also if that were the real color the belly would be white and not the same color as the rest.
 
The latest update:

the latest bid is $2500. the first pic is an outside pic to show you there is no camera trickery. the last ones white spots on there bellies is from the flash. there are no imperfections on these snakes. i dont think i have ever seen a normal patterned red ball in my whole life. i am almost possitive this is a pair too. they ate yesterday as soon as i put the mice in and are super tame. the pics should say it all. the highest bidder gets one or both depending on what you want. email me on the contact or marshall the pet store owner @ [email protected]
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They are going to be sold for the highest bid tonight. I'm e-mailing kingsnake.com right away. The more people we get to send their complaint the more likely we can avoid another person being scammed tonight.

He got away selling the fake "Pastel" for $1,000.
 
The guy already has email addresses of potential buyers...

If his ads get pulled he'll just continue to spam those people.



Definately make sure he can't fool anyone else though.... that's horrible.
 
Damn

I must be stupid. Guess I have a real weakness for Red (gotta be the Red Dragon Tattoo doing this! It's in my blood now!)

I bid on those animals. But I didn't think their color was spectacular enough for that high a bid. I bid 200 for one, or 300 for both. I was turned down imediatly, probably a good thing.

Are you sure they are fake? I soaked a BP in betadine (for injury) for over an hour each session, for several days and she never picked up that kind of red. A little, but nothing like that. (BTW~ for those wondering, I was always carefull to hold her head out of the betadine solution and the next shed the injury was healed up with no infection)

On a side note~ Can I soak a snake I beleive to be dehydrated in gatoride with no ill effects to the snake?

Sure feel bummed about the Red ball pythons, I really wanted them to be real. Guess thats why I was willing to spend my cheapo $300 on them.
 
There are quite a few people that soak Mali Uromastyx in gatorade to replenish lost electrolytes and it works very well. I have seen some people do it with snakes as well and it works great to bring them around but it turns them the color of the gatorade. Betadine does not stain like gatorade does for some reason.
 
Gatorade, huh?

~Damn, I bet those were the most energetic snakes around!! >>chuckle<< It is unbelievable what some people will do. And just how stupid are we supposed to be when the animal arrives and his "colors" have run? :rolleyes:
~Actual, Cheryl, I have used Gatorade for Bearded Dragon rescues, as well as, many other herps, I felt that Pedialyte was better and not so full of sugar. It seemed to rehydrate better, taken orally or topically.

~But it sure didn't fine color like that !

~FYI~
Another way to "color" is by using food coloring or easter egg colors. I found that out by accident. coloring eggs and decorating a cake with a dragon too close!! I had a "True Blue" BD!
~:dgrin:
 
Cheryl,

You know what really upsets me though? That after all the pages of discussion on the thread Seamus started titled "to jump or not to jump" (http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17800), my decision was not to jump. After all this guy was naming this ball "Pastel" and not "Pastel Jungle". Bad choice! Someone fell for it and paid $1,000 for a normal ball python. We can argue that "he should have done his homework better". Kudos to the seller? Absolutely not! I feel remorse. We could have helped this guy and we didn't. It wouldn't be a surprise if he showed-up in the BOI in a little while stating his "experience".

Regards.
 
re:Red Ball Pythons

Rob, I've seen this before. These things pop up now and then. Just when someone thinks that everyone forgot about a scam it pops up again. Yes, I'd have to agree about the white belly. From his statement it is implied that he has seen plenty of these "red ball pythons"! "I've never seen one with a normal pattern...". It's been done on several species. Back when Honduras was shipping out iguanas, they were fed diets high in betakarotine(Dammit spelling!) and given large amounts of Blue food dye. This brought about a bright blue green color. They lost this a few months after being imported due to the lack of these chemicals. Also, babies were given syringes full of raw egg to make them look fat for a few days after shipping. Iv'e even seen some species dye'd to disguise the subspecies on a superficial level. What garbage. Ray Goushaw Herpetological Breeding Research
 
I wrote them about the snakes being colored and this is their response to my e-mail.
well i have had them for 4 days and i soaked them in water for a while because i didnt believe it myself but i am going to wait until they shed then we will see.
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Kind of looks like they are really trying to make themselves look like they are not pulling anything.
 
If those snakes were for real they would have never showed-up for bid in kingsnake. They would have been days ago in the collection of RDR or VPI, etc.
 
They don't know when to quit do they?

Posted by Covington Reptiles (Contact Me!) on May 23, 2003 at 22:10:57



it is @ 5000. i cant wait to post pics of the shed.
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LMFAO!!!!!!

My basketball was sitting in the garage for over 3 years, it did deflate a little, but it did breed with my ball pythons too.
 
The gatorade scam is an old one but not seen all that often in internet transactions because of the avaliability of photoshopping...

Speaking of which... my eyes aren't so great but correct me if I'm wronh, but the normal ball python almost appears superimposed on a previously color edited picture. The shadows don't look quite right, the curves of the body where it should be angled up over the animals below it don't look correct either... And where the other animals have pretty distinct although small shadows to the right, the normal has much fuzzier ones... and the color bleeds along the few points where it overlaps the "red" animals beneath it, the same thickness for each bleeding like someone used a "blend" tool in a photomanipulation program and the background is an odd purpley color.

Just a thought of course, if it wasn't altered via a computer program, then it was certainly altered somehow, the bids are way too low if it were real, even unproven simply because of the dramatic difference between normals an the animals in question.

Used to see a lot of green bearded dragons in local shops when Calci-Sand first came out with the colored stuff because it bled and stained if it got wet or even moist, always made me wonder if the glow in the dark sand did the same thing. (Might be a worthwhile precautionary measure for escapees, just turn out the lights and look for the glowing Eryx... Maybe not.)

This sort of ad really is what I was trying to talk about on the other thread, it devolved into a much more specific discussion about Brian's animals... but the big difference there is that Brian's estimate of $200 was something he could reasonably get from someone looking for a pet without misrepresentation (although I still don't like his use of the term) whereas this guy is an out and out scammer. The other thread was started more for those scammers who might be fooling people and just went off on a tangent.

Good catch though, thanks Rob.
 
good catch Rob

and Seamus. Are you saying you do not believe in green animals?
I have a lime green ballpython if you want one ;)
 

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Now we also know what his screen name is
http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=16106,16106
Posted by: djdhrone at Fri May 23 23:46:47 2003 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ]

im not doing this as a last minutre effort to get more bidders, actually i think the whole bidding process is kind of dumb i wish i could do things in a little more civil and professional manor. but this one is either a hit or a miss. if you pay the 15000 and this turns out to be a new morph then in a couple of years we will have more of these red babies. if it turns out that my dependable source screwed me then i lose. i give back the money in full and i sell ball pythons for the 25 bucks that they are worth and i take the loss. but i am not out to screw anyone and i am not out to mislead anyone. the pastel ball post was an honest mistake. it was an individual who sold it to me that said he got it as a pastel from a show. i thought his pricing was a little low but nothing else. when i posted it and someone emailed me and said that is just a light colored ball python its no pastel i said i sold him to save some sort of face and to not look like a fool. i sold him today for 75$. there is a decent chance that this was a hoax but like it said it is hit or miss. the probable buyer is coming sunday to take him home. he is going to know where our business is and i will give him my address and name. what dumbas would pay that much and not do it this way. how would i scam someone think about it before you start making up complete lies about me. i know most of you had good intentions and were just looking out for each other but talk to me before you go making blind accusations about me and my business. obviously i care what people think or this wouldnt have bothered me so much.
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poor schmuck
 
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