My "opinion" may not fit in with the popular voice here...and I am not necessarily saying that I am supporting these guys (especially since I admittedly am out of the loop with people's prior experiences with one of the site's "admin"). And I hope you all remember my thoughts and feelings toward others who have been purposeful "market crashers" as such, i.e. MKR, and keep those in mind.
I really don't believe these guys started all of this with any intention of "scamming" anyone. I think they did indeed see money to be made, and rushed into many aspects of what they are doing, without enough thought into the ins and outs (and emotions) involved when you are dealing with living, breathing animals. They followed the model of these other "penny auctions" to a T, thinking that they had all of their bases covered...which obviously they didn't. And the herp community is certainly letting them know this. I think they got in over their heads, not expecting everything (good and bad) to blow up so quickly.
They appear to be trying to make it all right...they are amending their TOS, refunding bids, calmly answering posts, etc...that's more than many a "scammer" outed here has done. Were they truly out to simply scam folks, I don't think they would be making such an effort.
I DO think that they are reducing these live animals much more to simple dollars and cents and purely a business venture than most people like, however...and this is where all of the emotion and accusations are coming from. Of course, the quarantine and shipping concerns are still VERY valid concerns....again, something I don't think these guys thought through nearly enough. If they are going to continue, we can all hope that they get it sorted out...perhaps we could collectively offer them advice on the best way to go about this instead of just yelling at them about not doing it properly?
To reiterate, I am NOT saying that I really agree with this whole idea...but I don't think they are out to "scam" anyone (at least not any more than ANY of the "penny auctions")...and I feel in this day and age it was bound to happen eventually. Where there are high dollar ANYTHINGs, someone is going to see it and act on it. I am not by any means suggesting that everyone should accept and support it all, but perhaps by offering some constructive criticism as to how to make it better for the ANIMALS...we could ALL feel a
little better about it.
Of course, I could be totally wrong...which has been known to happen (I bought from TSE back in the day lol)...in which case I will gladly eat the crow that I am sure will be happily served to me, in multiple portions.
