The absolute need for pictures for Internet transactions

When buying or selling on-line it seems that a picture exchange of the animal is nowadays absolutely a must. Although a digital camera is more convenient when you are selling, I can understand it might be out of your budget or not justified if it’s just a few or one “low priced” reptile you are selling. But a regular (with good zoom) camera, and have the film developed and the picture scanned will do, and can be charged to the total price you ask for your animal. I will not risk buying or selling a reptile without a picture anymore. If you are selling it seems you are at the mercy of individuals that might either put a stop on your payment (Paypal), or send you back an animal for a refund that was not the one you originally sent. If you are a buyer you obviously trust just what was written in the text of that add (and we have enough examples to know how that can go). I would like to hear other ideas or solutions to this growing problem.

Best regards.

I have to agree. Pictures are an absolute necessity, and the pictures really ought to be recent. I won't buy animals sight-unseen with the exception of buying hatchlings from a major well-known breeder. Given that a cheap digital camera can be had for under $30 at OfficeMax (yeah, you heard me... under $30), there's really no excuse for not posting pictures with an ad.

I don't really have any solution to the growing refund scam problem I've been reading about lately... the problem is, the only non-refundable form of payment is cash. And paying cash puts you in the position of having to trust the seller. (Not to mention it's unwise to mail cash.) I guess the BOI is the best tool out there currently for dealing with these scammers.

Incidentally, most retailers will budget for a certain amount of theft each year. It's not a pleasant fact of life, but enough merchandise walks out the door even with all the cameras and whatnot that it needs to be accounted for somewhere. My mom used to own a retail bead store, and you wouldn't believe how many people saw nothing wrong with putting beads or even a handmade necklace in their pocket and walking off with it. She wound up putting space for a certain amount of loss in her operating budget.

-Kat Hall

Kat,

I have to agree. Pictures are an absolute necessity, and the pictures really ought to be recent.

Excellent point! When buying or selling I usually request or provide a picture with a piece of paper with my name close to the animal in question. That ensures me that the picture is recent.

I don't really have any solution to the growing refund scam problem I've been reading about lately... the problem is, the only non-refundable form of payment is cash. And paying cash puts you in the position of having to trust the seller. (Not to mention it's unwise to mail cash.)

Although they are not absolutely "fool proof" postal money orders are IMHO still the best option. Another alternative for people that request immediate payment would be to accept just a non-refundable deposit through Paypal (10-20% depending on the money involved in the transaction) and the rest through a postal money order. By doing so if something goes unexpectedly wrong the seller will only loose the deposit, while the buyer will still have the relative protection and guarantee offered by the postal money order.

Best regards!

Haveing a good visual image of what you are purchasing is very important, to be for sure. But, what I think is EQUALLY if not more so important is having verifable refrences that you can call, provided by the seller, that have purchased from him before.

Now..granted, any given seller is going to have some black marks in somebodys book. I am no exception, I have some and am not proud of them at all. But if you go by sheer numbers, with a 60 to 1 ratio of good expereinces to bad, then, despite haveing really screwed up, I weight out pretty good. I think that these "refrences" speak volumes about a breeder, and NO they cant be his good friends or buddies, they have be to be cash carrying customers that bought stuf from him/her.


Payment?
A LOT of breeders use pay pal. I dont. I have asuch a small operation, and produce suchs limited quantities of snakes, it doesnt make sense to have an account .

I use POSTAL MONEY ORDERS, sent via next day overnight.
Sending the postal money order via normal mail or express mail is time consuming and often doesnt get the payment there quicklym which means as a seller, that you are sitting on this snake and turning away prospective buyers from it, while you are waiting for this payment that may never come. Next day...best thing.



I have posted snakes on the net without pics. I still havethem.
but then again..I still have the snakes I posted WITH pics! Go figure!!

Glad its just a hobby, otherwise I wouldnt eat!


*Cheers*

Fred Albury
AZTEC REPTILES

I have posted snakes on the net without pics. I still havethem.
but then again..I still have the snakes I posted WITH pics! Go figure!!

Glad its just a hobby, otherwise I wouldnt eat!

Fred,

Not everything is lost.....From whay I heard, they taste like chicken


Best regards.

Daniel,

Cool!! I am pretty much down to either eating them, or

making sculptures out of them!lol

All is not lost, afterChristmas Im done

My goal next year is to buy as many expensive snakes as I can and then watch them depreciate in value, then sell them for really low prices..lol


Oh by the way......in case i didnt mention this to all you
Donkey fans a,nd Chefs fans out there:


GO RAIDERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1



Fred
AZTEC REPTILES

1.0 Albino Ball cb 2002
0.1 Albino Ball cb 2001
Both are high contrast beautiful snakes. Male is eating F/T weanling mice. Female is eating F/T adult mice. Each eat twice a week. Sorry no digital camera.

I don't want to sell but I spent a little too much this holiday season and now it's time to pay. I am asking $5500 shipped to your nearest airport. However, the first person that responds and pays via pay pal by 5 pm sunday, 12/29/02, I will sell the pair for $5,000 shipped.

A perfect example of what we were discussing. For all that I know, this might be the most honest herper in the whole world. It's hard enough to Pay Pal someone $5,000 having seen pictures of the snakes, but how about without pictures? No digital camera, that's understandable. But if one is going to sell 2 snakes for $5,000 wouldn't it be logical to at least go through the "trouble" of taking regular pictures, have them developed, scanned, and posted in the add? Don't have a regular camera? Well, take a few "lousy" ones with a disposable!

Maybe he gets lucky, but it is safe to speculate those snakes will stay with him for a long time.

Best regards.

January 01, 2003 at 00:04:04

I have 1.1 Albino Balls for partial sale/trade. The male is cb 02, the female is cb 01. I will take as little as $2500 cash if the trade is good.

I am looking for the following in trade:

Normal females, pastles (males or females), het and poss het albino females, het and poss het piebalds (males or females), and other genetic mutations of balls. Not really interested in any other snakes than balls.

As expected, no pictures, no weighs, the pythons are still for sale.

What was unexpected is to offer in partial sale or trade a 1.1 albinos for normals, pastels, het piebalds, and hetero and possible hetero albinos ?

Regards.

Ya, that is kinda rediculous. Why would anyone in their right mind want to trade true albino's for hets and possible hets? I can understand if you are in a bind and need cash, but this doesn't seem the case.

Matt,

It seems yours is the most likely explanation. I contacted him and he said that he needed cash but didn't want't to get out of ball pythons. Undoubtedly selling a pair of albinos and buying hetero for albinos and normals, is a huge step back in his breeding program. In one of his adds he offered the albino male with a female hetero for axanthic (to get into a "snow" project").

Weird situation.

Regards.