What Kind Of Shop Do You Run?

o.k now she acts fine in public. and all the tables are 18 dollars i am not buying a table for one snake. seriously talk to people who go there!!!

If you have never been to Lee's swap let me tell you that carry ins are a pretty common thing.  At every show you can expect to see probably 20 to 30 people just walking around with animals to sell who paid nothing more than the $3.00 admission fee, unless he charges more for people bringing in animals.  Many of them are people with gators or burms or other big herps they don't want any more. Sometimes  they are just people wanting to get rid of some babies that their animals had. Ive seen some pretty stressed out chameleons being carted around because at most shows the crowd is shoulder to shoulder and anything you are carrying is at risk of being crushed or knocked out of your hands.    Sometimes you can get good deals other times the people want more than the vendors.  I don't know how the paying vendors feel about it but on some occasions there are more carryins than paying vendors.  Of course where else can you go and get a capybara, or maybe even a wallaby (note, these were for sale by two different paying vendors.  One of them a regular)

sschind  thank u very much!!!! i also hate the crowd there so i am there very early as soon as it opens or 1 hr b4 closing.

depending on the show, I have been known to pay the table fee just to be able to get in early and get in on the best animals.  Besides, many vendors will give other vendors a better deal.  I can't count the number of times I have seen animals for sale at a show that were purchased from another vendor just before the show opened to the public.

Steve Schindler

r u going to b there on sunday if so let me know where your table is i will stop by and show u some of what i have.

I don't usually set up at Lee's show.  I own a retail shop and so I do some of my buying from there when the price is right.  I probably won't be there this Sunday as I only have on girl that I trust to run the shop when I am not around and she isn't available much through the summer.

Steve Schindler

I am just getting in on the "trying to pay for my hobby" side. spam_I sell most of my leos to a friend of mine who supplies pet stores - and will start "trying" to sell my higher end leos, velvets, crested and gargoyles on line. spam_Right now - my set up is small - I'm breeding less than 30 geckos - and the wholesale stuff is paying for crickets, mealies and a few other things. spam_I don't expect to make too much. spam_In fact, I probably do more for myself by breeding/raising mealies than from the sales. spam_

I don't ever plan to quit my day job. spam_Selling a few geckos helps calm my wife down when she sees the cricket bill!!!!

why don't u raise the crickets or is just not worth it?
i used to do the same ting accept with mice until my dad's friend found out i had snakes and gave me discounts.

one more thing sschind he still has the capybara, i think he wants 600 or 400.

Well, I have increased my collection in the past year-year and a half to over 400 snakes now. I have burms, retics, balls, boas, colubrids and even some big tegus. I find that as a full time breeder I have as much work as I can do 18-20 hours a day seven days a week. On top of this I still set up at shows and am hosting my own annual show. To be a full time breeder and make enough money to pay your bills and maybe some day get ahead in this world is not an easy task. I have friends who are full time large scale breeding business'. They have thousands of animals. As a hobbiest that has a small collection can any of you imagine the work load maintaining thousands? It is staggering. One of my friends produces in the neighborhood of 70,000 snakes a year while another produced over 50,000 leopard geckos on top of his snake collection. They make money, but work very hard and make many sacrifices. I would just like to say to all of you that you have to find that balance between having a nice collection that you enjoy and having more than you can handle. Never let the animals go without the care they need in pursuit of a profit.

As for Steve and Patrick, I'll be at the Sunday show in Streamwood with all kinds of goodies. Hope to see you there.
Evan Stahl