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10-24-2006, 11:07 PM

Lee Watson called me and told me that he wanted to sell me a "baby" crocodile monitor. I immediately asked him how large it was as so many people call them babies when they are in fact quite large. So I told him that I would take a look at it when I came to his next show the following weekend (I used to be a vendor at many of his shows).

When I got to the show Lee showed me the animal and as I thought the case may be, it was very far from a baby and was in fact a large juvenile. Many months of size difference. Babies sell well and I had a customer for one, as I told Lee, this animal was too large to call a baby many many times over and I would see if he wanted it but did not think he would. I also told Lee that I would not pay nearly as much for the animal as it was not as described. At the time babies were selling for $1000 each, while animals the size of that one were worth half that.

I took the animal and tried to sell it. As I had predicted, it was way too big for anyone that wanted a baby and I had a tough time getting rid of it. I told Lee I wanted to bring it back to him as my buyers did not want it. He told me to keep it and we would figure it out later. I had given him the bulk of his price up front. As I told him when he gave me the animal, again when I could not initially sell it and then again when I called him a few weeks later, I needed to pay the juvenile price for the juvenile and not the baby price. Before it had been "we will figure it out", now it was "you owe me money". The animal sat at my house for 2 years. I finally gave it to my friend Tony in Detroit in trade, for a loss. Anyway, I talked to Lee on the phone quite often and informed him that we had a couple problems.

1) While he was telling me it was ok and "we will figure it out" I was getting piles of calls and emails from people I knew telling me that Lee was running around behind my back, telling people I was a thief, liar, etc., for not paying him the $285 he thought I owed him. That was news to me. When I confronted him with what he had said, he of course said that he just made comments in passing to people about it. Which still was not cool with me. Keep in mind that for many many years I defended Lee and his show on the internet while it was getting blasted for being a filthy barn with a dirt parking lot. For having many vendors with sick and mite covered animals. For having vendors that were convicted drug dealers and poachers. I also bought many cages and animals from Lee over the years and never had a problem.

But Lee talks about everyone behind their backs. He is the only good show promoter if you ask him. Over the years he has gone very far out of his way to bad mouth and blackball other show promoters. Telling me how bad my firends shows were run and that his was much better and he could not figure out why they were still in business.

2) Lee vouched for a regular of his named John Urban, who had bought a couple animals from me. While I was still doing his show, with Lee's approval I gave John a reticulated python on credit that he still owes me $800 for to this day. When he came back to Lee's shows and did not pay me for it, Lee told me he would help me collect it. Until I was told by several people there at the show at the time that Lee told John not to give me a cent and that he would just keep it. That was really nice. I won't even go into details about the kid that Lee let steal an albino burm from me and then Lee walked over and told me that the kid had just walked out right past him when I was trying to find the snake. He laughed about it and thought it was really funny. This all took place before the monitor deal and were still problems I wanted resolved.

I stopped doing Lee's shows when the local, state and federal authorites raided Lee's show and found that he was allowing vendors to break piles of laws and ordinances at the show. I had to sit there all day and could not sell anything. Then pack up and go home. 9 hours driving and all that work for nothing.

I owe you nothing Lee. You lied to me. You helped people steal from me. You cost me money in lost sales. You have slandered me for years thinking that people would not tell me what you were saying. You are classless and you have lost your show because you arrogantly allowed people to break the laws at your show because you bragged about having enough money and influence in your municipality that you could do what want. Now your show is yet another black eye on this business. Do you still sell venomous animals and native animals out of your house?

10-24-2006, 11:07 PM	#4
evansnakes	Lee Watson called me and told me that he wanted to sell me a "baby" crocodile monitor. I immediately asked him how large it was as so many people call them babies when they are in fact quite large. So I told him that I would take a look at it when I came to his next show the following weekend (I used to be a vendor at many of his shows). When I got to the show Lee showed me the animal and as I thought the case may be, it was very far from a baby and was in fact a large juvenile. Many months of size difference. Babies sell well and I had a customer for one, as I told Lee, this animal was too large to call a baby many many times over and I would see if he wanted it but did not think he would. I also told Lee that I would not pay nearly as much for the animal as it was not as described. At the time babies were selling for $1000 each, while animals the size of that one were worth half that. I took the animal and tried to sell it. As I had predicted, it was way too big for anyone that wanted a baby and I had a tough time getting rid of it. I told Lee I wanted to bring it back to him as my buyers did not want it. He told me to keep it and we would figure it out later. I had given him the bulk of his price up front. As I told him when he gave me the animal, again when I could not initially sell it and then again when I called him a few weeks later, I needed to pay the juvenile price for the juvenile and not the baby price. Before it had been "we will figure it out", now it was "you owe me money". The animal sat at my house for 2 years. I finally gave it to my friend Tony in Detroit in trade, for a loss. Anyway, I talked to Lee on the phone quite often and informed him that we had a couple problems. 1) While he was telling me it was ok and "we will figure it out" I was getting piles of calls and emails from people I knew telling me that Lee was running around behind my back, telling people I was a thief, liar, etc., for not paying him the $285 he thought I owed him. That was news to me. When I confronted him with what he had said, he of course said that he just made comments in passing to people about it. Which still was not cool with me. Keep in mind that for many many years I defended Lee and his show on the internet while it was getting blasted for being a filthy barn with a dirt parking lot. For having many vendors with sick and mite covered animals. For having vendors that were convicted drug dealers and poachers. I also bought many cages and animals from Lee over the years and never had a problem. But Lee talks about everyone behind their backs. He is the only good show promoter if you ask him. Over the years he has gone very far out of his way to bad mouth and blackball other show promoters. Telling me how bad my firends shows were run and that his was much better and he could not figure out why they were still in business. 2) Lee vouched for a regular of his named John Urban, who had bought a couple animals from me. While I was still doing his show, with Lee's approval I gave John a reticulated python on credit that he still owes me $800 for to this day. When he came back to Lee's shows and did not pay me for it, Lee told me he would help me collect it. Until I was told by several people there at the show at the time that Lee told John not to give me a cent and that he would just keep it. That was really nice. I won't even go into details about the kid that Lee let steal an albino burm from me and then Lee walked over and told me that the kid had just walked out right past him when I was trying to find the snake. He laughed about it and thought it was really funny. This all took place before the monitor deal and were still problems I wanted resolved. I stopped doing Lee's shows when the local, state and federal authorites raided Lee's show and found that he was allowing vendors to break piles of laws and ordinances at the show. I had to sit there all day and could not sell anything. Then pack up and go home. 9 hours driving and all that work for nothing. I owe you nothing Lee. You lied to me. You helped people steal from me. You cost me money in lost sales. You have slandered me for years thinking that people would not tell me what you were saying. You are classless and you have lost your show because you arrogantly allowed people to break the laws at your show because you bragged about having enough money and influence in your municipality that you could do what want. Now your show is yet another black eye on this business. Do you still sell venomous animals and native animals out of your house?