What would you like in a show?

Hey Glen, in every industry, at even the largest trade shows in the world wether product is for sale or just for show, the same formula is applied. Vendors rent space and guests pay admission. If there was no admission charge, the other side of that would be a poorly advertised show and a poor turnout. Even if it is free, people can't go if they are unaware that it is going on. And 100% on the broken Home Depot analogy, but more extreme. Home Depot gets 100% of every single sale in their store. I do not take one cent of the vendors sales at my show. Home Depot is also a multi billion dollar company now in all of North America. I am just one single working guy. Evan Stahl

As far as charging admission, it all depends on what the show offers. Perhaps quality of the show should be reflected in the admission price as well.

There was one time that me and my wife went to a show at a hotel down here in TX. We couldn't really see inside at the entrance, so we payed like $5.00 only to find a show containing about 10 tables, and not all of them had animals! Yes, that was too much for that experience!

The Houston shows in Tx always rule. Always clean, well organized, nice variety, and CB only. The Dallas shows ( Arlington mostly ) were a bit of a problem and as far as those shows are concerned, the only one I will ever go to is the ones run by Carl from Carl's Creepy Crawlies. The first one he had had all CB animals and was very clean, carpeted, and the breeders represented their animals well.

The nice shows here in Tx are around $5 or $6 admission.

The Daytona shows, for us, have been very enjoyable. Not only am I in snake heaven there from the worldwide variety of breeders there, but it is clean and CB. The price to get in was either $15 or $20 this past year ( 2002 ) and $20 in 2000 and 2001. That admission covered both days. That is a good deal!

The subject of security at shows has been on my mind. Do they have people that do just that at shows in other cities? Maybe even having them wear a SECURITY shirt. Perhaps that would deter some thefts? I have a good buddy that has had to deal with people trying to take things off his table, and pulling some sort of switch-a-roo trick with handing them money. If there is maybe one security guy on each side of the show ( if it is a big show ), that would help when things start to happen.

OR....making sure there are people to check animals at the exit door, complete with a sticker for proof of purchase. Some shows here have that, but do all?

Food.....down here at the local shows , that really doesn't matter to us. In Daytona though, the food court was nice and set aside from the show. It was typical stadium food. Sharing pretzyls ( ? ) with my wife just to get through the day and drinking hotter than freak coffee as I look upon my newly found pituophis additions to my family, somehow that feels great! At times like that, life is good.

If it were up to me, I prefer CB only shows. There may be some that get away with it at these shows I like, but nevertheless, to me, having CB is best. It really is a disservice to fellow breeders when some guy trucks in a batch of tick and mite infested wild caughts or infested cb's, and puts other people's animals in jeopardy. One breeder that I have done business with was at a local show and put his hand down on a table. He felt something, looked at his hand, and it was COVERED with mites! Yes, he packed up his animals and left.

Not letting people off the street to come in and sell their animals is a good idea. Allowing it is very rude to the breeders that made your show to begin with.

Carpeting would be preferred, as it tends to wear the feet down if it was concrete. Heck, the certain shows I don't go to anymore here, the hotel ballroom floor the show was in was covered in a clear plastic tarp. I felt like I was walking in sand or 3 feet of snow, with the plastic all around my ankles.

Proper advertising should be a big goal and reason for success at the shows. You can't control people's buying impulsed, but the more people that know about the show, the more potential there is for money to be made on both sides, thus everyone is happy.

My idea for a perfect show would have only pituophis and alterna, and 500 tables of just that!


Take care!

Billy Fraser

In regards to admission, I think a $5-$7 entrance fee is fair for the average local show and something around $50-$75 per table for vendors. There are very few shows I attend in this area that I would pay over $7 to get into or more than $70 for a table for a vendor. The really large shows would of course be an exception. I don't often go to a show with the express intent to buy something, at least not a particular animal. Mostly I'm going to look for cages, cage furniture, or other supplies. If I find an animal that I want or that I've been looking for, I'll usually get it but I don't go with the express intent to buy X animal. There's always a lot of stuff I want, but that doesn't always mean I buy it right then and there.

From a vendor standpoint, I don't mind those who just come to browse. I provide business cards to those who want them, even if they don't buy anything right then. Last August was my first show (Northern VA Reptile Expo), selling jewelry I make and helping my best friend sell her litter of boas. I have another show with the same group this Saturday, also to sell my jewelry. Hopefully by their May show in Richmond VA, I'll have some baby boas to sell as well. The point is, I hear from people who pick up my cards after the shows have come and gone. There's always contacts to be made and future sales that are a possibility.

While I like the idea of having some type of simple food court available (though I usually bring my own lunch), I also think it should be completely seperate from the show area itself. The whole salmonella, or other potential bacteria, viruses, etc. are something to keep in mind. And let's face it, with all the anti-herp sentiment around these days, it's better to err on the side of caution.

For me, the most important things at a show from the perspective of a buyer are cleanliness and quality of the animals and a little variety. I don't have a problem with healthy, clean imports though I prefer captive bred in most cases. And I also don't want to go to a show that's all corn snakes and leopard geckos - which, though I like those types of animals, that's not all I come to look for. While I may not go with the express intent to buy something, you can guaranty I won't if there's nothing to choose from.

With the whole mite issue, as a vendor, I took preventative measures last year to protect my friend's stock. We pre-treated our table cloth with Provent-A-Mite to help deflect any of the little multi-legged devils and made sure anyone handling her stock at least used hand sanitizer - before and after. It isn't foolproof, but it limits problems. Ideally, no one would come in with parasite infested animals, but with reality in mind, we try to prepare as best we can for it.

Hmmm, that's the best I can come up with right now.

Dianne

Here is another thought I had: I do shows all the time and other vendors and their customers constantly interupt me talking to my customers to ask me to sex a snake for them, put aside the fact for a moment that I really believe that most show vendors do not have enough knowledge or experience to do what they do and we will stay with the problem itself.

What if you had a booth at shows that was staffed by a couple people who were very qualified and good at sexing snakes? You could have two people at a table and they could charge a couple bucks to make it worth their while and sex snakes for people. I don't know if it is a good idea at a bigger show were egos are easily bruised but at most shows I think it would be a great thing to do.

Just this weekend I was at a show and a customer brought a snake to me that had just been sexed by a guy who used to be a veteranarian. It was sexed wrong. Even at 50/50 odds people crap out all the time. Any thoughts? Evan

You know Evan.....that is a great idea!!!!!!!!! Why don't you start having that at your shows?

Charge a buck or two for each snake. Perhaps from a customer's point of view, seeing a booth totally dedicated to sexing snakes would probably be a good idea. Try it for a few shows and see what happens!

Take care!
Billy Fraser

Hey Evan,
A little off topic here, but I am trying to find someone who can teach me how to sex snakes. Since your not really that far away from me, I was wondering if you could teach me? Heck I could grab a case of cold ones and come down for a day of snake sexing...That is if you be interested in teaching a new dog old tricks...

Hey Ken, I don't know how good a teacher I am but I can try. Evan

another thought I had, that I did at my show because I wish people would do at other shows, was sell general supplies to the public. I had styros and heat packs and stuff like that. So many people get animals at shows in the summer and winter and they die in the car. Vendors are always stingy with their styros because they have to repack. So I think somebody shouyld always have stuff like that and deli cups and snake bags, etc. Evan

Snake sexing??? man you guys are sick man just sick
as far as admission , look at it like this ....you pay 10 bucks to see a movie for a memory so why not pay 5-10 bucks to see some herps for a possible purchase

Hi,
1. Where and when?

2. I do not care how much a show is...the only thing I care about is ....Is it big enough? I like them big. I like to spend the whole day looking at animals. I hate going to a show and looking at the same 10 vendors over and over.

For a huge show or a smaller one with lots of quality animals. I would pay a kings ransom....or sneak in the back door(just kidding)

another thought I had, that I did at my show because I wish people would do at other shows, was sell general supplies to the public. I had styros and heat packs and stuff like that. So many people get animals at shows in the summer and winter and they die in the car. Vendors are always stingy with their styros because they have to repack. So I think somebody shouyld always have stuff like that and deli cups and snake bags, etc. Evan

That is a good idea Evan. When I first got started I was trying to find info on how to ship and where to get the supplies. Then I looked at the prices and realized it was not worth my money to invest a huge chunk of change to ship one animal a year. Well now it is a little different since I breed some of these bad boys. But when I was just collecting animals it was hard to find supplies.