Tom Crutchfield - dba Herps Ltd

Personally, I did a fair amount of business with Tom years ago, and never had a problem. I picked up animals at his place and had him ship to me, and was never disappointed in what I got from him. He was always gracious with my wife and I and even took us to his house to show us his croc and tortoise pens.

If Tom has something for sale that I wanted, I wouldn't have any hesitations about buying from him.

IMHO....

a $500 loss in a deal with Tom that made me not want to deal with him again.

I had traded him a proven breeder pair of Queensland Carpet Pythons for 2 Baby King Cobras that I was GUARANTEED were self feeding on live pinkies. They didn't feed and I ended up force feeding them just to keep them alive for 2 weeks.

Originally Posted by kmurphy

Actually I skimmed back through the posts and I couldn't find any negatives on recent transactions...

So John Apple's wasn't recent enough? What about the misabeled chondro in post 12? Would we give him a pass for that? I remember a recent thread where a seller got crucified over something similar.

And what about all the crap he shipped out in the 90's? Just because it isn't recent doesn't make that OK, unless he's made everyone whole. Paying his debt on the smuggling doesn't rectify that.

He's not a character whith whom I would do business. My standards are higher than that.

..........YES, I did business with Tommy Boy and got burned - not once, but twice. He had Herptefauna and I sent him some albino atrox from the Dallas Zoo strain, which then were actually worth something. One of the males was a caramel 6'7" 28 lbs. with 32 rattles. The fems were super nice and large as well. There was also an assortment of alterna and milks; I had some of the first milks described as "micropholis".
It was a trade. He was to send hondurans, stuarti, conanti, gagae and tri colored hogs. Keep in mind this was in the 80's when none of this stuff was available readily. The hondurans were nice 5'-6', but all males which was not the deal, the stuarti were arcifera and all gravid egg bound/impacted females, the conanti were not conanti(never really knew what they were) and the gagae were ugly polyzona and all males. There were NO tri colored hogs and he claimed that was not part of the deal. He kept my snakes and refused to take back the stuff he sent to me. He did send me additional snakes - again all males and nothing we agreed to. I lost big time on that deal. The second deal I was in with another herper and that herper got stiffed by Tommy. I never dealt with him again. He threatened me and anyone else who questioned him about a bad deal. Suppossedly he was some muscle head bodybuilder who thought he was invincible. Guess the USFW showed him otherwise. Wonder how the chow was in Federal Correctional ??? Now he is back. Do we give him a pass ? He's a convict. Seems no one on here forgives convicts. Why forgive this one ? I'm not saying he shouldn't be forgiven, but WHY ? Just because he's done a few good deals. Once a dog bites, it WILL bite you again if given the opportunity. Keep that in mind when dealing with this guy. The better story here is how Tommy Boy went down and who was responsible......but that is another story ! Nighty night.................

Tom posted information to a thread on Cuban Boas on KS. He said to anyone who needed more info to email him his number. He called me and gave me alot of good advice for breeding my pair. When others in the past wouldn't share any info, he took the time to do so. I can't address any past issues but this left me with a positive experience.

30 pages in this topic... I'll start looking over them but last I heard he closed down. I guess the state of Florida or someone busted him and he was in jail???

I use to buy from him 12 years ago or so. I have heard bad things about him but I never really had a problem. Only 1 time when he kept telling me my snakes would be there tomorrow so I drove from Jacksonville to his shop... 4 times I did this for the snakes that would be there tomorrow. ;-) oh well I was excited and gas was cheap.

Originally Posted by Rich Z

Personally, I did a fair amount of business with Tom years ago, and never had a problem. I picked up animals at his place and had him ship to me, and was never disappointed in what I got from him. He was always gracious with my wife and I and even took us to his house to show us his croc and tortoise pens.

If Tom has something for sale that I wanted, I wouldn't have any hesitations about buying from him.

IMHO....

Tom gave me the same treatment as Rich. He has been more than kind to me over the decades. Tom has been selling reptiles again for at least several years now, and has tables at shows. The last contact numbers I have for him are Tom Crutchfield, Herps Ltd, Inc. herpsltd@bellsouth.net 239-645-9661

Bruce,
Ditto for me.
Tom has ALWAYS treated me fairly, and I was his manager for several years.
A pleasure to work for and with.

I consider Tim Cole a friend and was surprised by his sour dealings with him. (Tom).

Randal Berry

Originally Posted by lanceheads

Marc,
Part of his probation AFTER he served his time, was to have no contact with anyone in the Reptile Buisness, or have any snakes, etc. for a five year period.

Tom Crutchfiels HAS contributed a lot to herpetoculture.

I wish him continued success!

Randal Berry

sorry for bringing up a month old post, but i wanted to mention something that i do not believe was mentioned earlier in the thread. Tom Crutchfield was I BELIEVE the person that imported the original ALBINO BURMESE PYTHON! The one that Bob Clark bought 20-30 years ago. I remember reading an article by Bob, saying that he started breeding Burmese Pythons as a teenager. He saw the albino Burm and HAD to get it. Later he saw it on Tom's price list, bought it and bred the first albino Burms in the world. If I'm not mistaken, the Albino Burmese Pythons are what brought the herp breeding hobby to life.
-Josh

Originally Posted by snakeworshipper

sorry for bringing up a month old post, but i wanted to mention something that i do not believe was mentioned earlier in the thread. Tom Crutchfield was I BELIEVE the person that imported the original ALBINO BURMESE PYTHON! The one that Bob Clark bought 20-30 years ago. I remember reading an article by Bob, saying that he started breeding Burmese Pythons as a teenager. He saw the albino Burm and HAD to get it. Later he saw it on Tom's price list, bought it and bred the first albino Burms in the world. If I'm not mistaken, the Albino Burmese Pythons are what brought the herp breeding hobby to life.
-Josh

I disagree, while Ol tommy has done some good for the herp industry, He has done a lot of bad and illegal importing , selling substandard animals and such.
The industry has been around for a LOOOOONNNNGGGG time and there are many other people who have contributed more legally for exotics with out stepping on importing and exporting laws. It is people like this get can get your house raided by all the tree hugging idiots out there. A bit harsh...well yeah but I was never a softy or afraid of being blunt.
When called out the threats start, phone calls and all kinds of secondhand conjecture spit out by Ol tommy to others in the industry.
There are many factors that brought the herp industry to life not just burmsor TC
A fair man...to some yes I am sure he was, to those he has wronged wellllll