greenville reptile show

It sucked !!!! There was not 140 tables full. DNR was not there. Some of the other venders he advertised was not there. Chris Harper was not there. Venomous was poorly housed and very unsafe. There was no venomous escort. At closing time the lights were cut off no matter who was still there. The show promoter should consider getting out of the business. There was a lack of attendees. We were also at the Tampa show and it sucked as well !!!!

I think this thread would better serve it purpose in the Shows and Events section?

As a vendor, I did well. But only because I wholesaled a lot of my lizards. But if I were a paying attendee, I would have been highly upset. I feel that it should have been more honestly advertised, then people wouldn't have been so upset. People expected to see the vendors listed on the website, but instead, found only a 1/3 of them there. If this was the "Biggest & Best" show yet, the promoter has huge problems. Established show- 8 years. Well, I just didn't see that the 8 year experience helped much with this one. Tony's shows are getting worse & worse. If he'd applied all his effort to making his show a success, instead of spending so much of his time trying to sabotage Cathy's SERC show, he'd been better off. I did just as well at her show(without wholesaling) the prior weekend in Columbia SC. There was also a one hour live TV broadcast, as well as a radio station at her show. I failed to see any of this in Greenville. Tony needs to stay focused on his own shows, and stop worrying what other show promoters are doing.
MY $.02

Direct from Tony's front page on his website...

"10/30
Thank you to everyone that attended and made the South Carolina Reptile & Exotic Animal Show this past weekend a success. I was disappointed with the numbers at the gate, but that was to be expected when another show promoter flooded the SC market this year with not one but three new shows all in one year. "


First off this other promoter had TWO show.
He failed to mention he put in 2 SPUR OF THE MOMENT one day shows in Columbia. And one he did only 2 weeks before a brand new 2 day show in spartanburg.....

We went to the greenville show on sunday expecting to spend some money. Once we got there we were disappointed at the number of vendors that were there. We left with only a few baby copperheads and a baby box turtle. We were hoping to buy some more leopard geckos for our breeding projects. However the ones that were their were either in sad shape, too small or way over priced.

We live in greenville and came across one place with fliers in their store. A pet store which was a good 20 min drive away from the place of the show. No fliers were seen around the expo center. WHAT HAPPEND?!? Who knows maybe Audry is right he should have focused more on his show than trying to trash the other shows.

I knew that he would blame the poor attendance & lack of vendors on Cathy. That was expected of him. He's so predictable. But the truth is, his own lack of advertising and BS he's pulled at previous showsturned out to be his own downfall. The long list of vendors that he had on his website was who he hoped would show up. Not the vendors that had actually registered. Did anyone notice that LLL Reptiles & Max Pet Supply was not there? They were not listed, but had always done Tony's shows until they started flopping. His shows were going downhill, LONG BEFORE Cathy's SERC show came into the picture. She just made an easy target to blame all his shortcomings on. It's not her fault that he lied to people, didn't advertise properly, or chose to bring in a crowd of children for a fun day at the petting zoo. Maybe he should start over & take some lessons from Cathy. She aims to please the vendors, plus bring in a crowd that is truly reptile enthusiasts. I didn't much appreciate the fact that Tony asked us to leave right at 5:00. Attendees were still in there walking around. At least Cathy lets the vendors hang around, socialize, & compare our animals. We actually have time to enjoy ourselves. Plus she lets us in long before the show opens to insure that we have adequate time to prepare our animals for the day. I'm sorry Tony. But your shows lately have sucked BIG TIME. Some of the attendees at your show didn't even know about the Greenville show until picking up one of your fliers from Cathy's show. Instead of being so darned vindictive, I think you owe her a "thank you".

Originally Posted by audrypayne

I knew that he would blame the poor attendance & lack of vendors on Cathy. That was expected of him. He's so predictable. But the truth is, his own lack of advertising and BS he's pulled at previous showsturned out to be his own downfall. The long list of vendors that he had on his website was who he hoped would show up. Not the vendors that had actually registered. Did anyone notice that LLL Reptiles & Max Pet Supply was not there? They were not listed, but had always done Tony's shows until they started flopping. His shows were going downhill, LONG BEFORE Cathy's SERC show came into the picture. She just made an easy target to blame all his shortcomings on. It's not her fault that he lied to people, didn't advertise properly, or chose to bring in a crowd of children for a fun day at the petting zoo. Maybe he should start over & take some lessons from Cathy. She aims to please the vendors, plus bring in a crowd that is truly reptile enthusiasts. I didn't much appreciate the fact that Tony asked us to leave right at 5:00. Attendees were still in there walking around. At least Cathy lets the vendors hang around, socialize, & compare our animals. We actually have time to enjoy ourselves. Plus she lets us in long before the show opens to insure that we have adequate time to prepare our animals for the day. I'm sorry Tony. But your shows lately have sucked BIG TIME. Some of the attendees at your show didn't even know about the Greenville show until picking up one of your fliers from Cathy's show. Instead of being so darned vindictive, I think you owe her a "thank you".

Who didnt see it coming? Oh well maybe he should have put more effort into this show like he said he was...

I don't know anything about whose show is whose, but I do know that I was very disappointed in the Greenville Show.

The doors opened fifteen minutes late.
There was nowhere near the expected 140 vendors.
And everyone who entered recieved a free goodies bag. (I count this as a negative since I spent the extra money on VIP tickets just to receive the goodies bag. I could've kept the cash and still received one.)

There were a few more little aggrivating things, but nothing really worth mentioning. I wish that I hadn't skipped the Columbia show this year. Oh, well. There's always next year.

Chris