advice for herp show attendees?

Evan has a pretty good thread going regarding what people want in a show but I thought it might be nice for a few helpful hints for people attending shows, be it as a buyer or a vendor. I know there are a lot of you here that are vendors and can speak from experience what to do and not do, what to bring etc. This might help everyone, and it may be the difference in a successful show and a nightmare for some people.

I'll start with a few things right off the top of my head.

--As a vendor, bring plenty of change. Lots of singles, fives and 10s. the show location your product etc. will determine how much to bring but I would say at least $200.00 worth. Even if you are selling $10.00 corn snakes, I can almost guarantee that the first customer will want 1 snake and only have a $100.00 bill.

--As a buyer, don't bring $100.00 bills. Unless what you are looking for is expensive and will require a few of them, bring small bills.

I did a sports card show once and the first customer came up and bought a $1.00 card and said all he had was a $100.00. I had been warned about this guy in advance, other vendors said it was his way of initiating new dealers, and I was ready for him. I gave him the card and smiled as I counted out 99 singles and handed them over to him.


--As a vendor have enough appropriate containers to send your product home in. A paper bag is generally not appropriate.

-- as a buyer, while you may resonably expect a vendor to have a deli cup to send a snake home in, it may not be reasonable to expect him to have a box for you to carry 10 deli cups home in. If you are planning large purchases, bring a box, preferably an insulated one, or even a cooler.

-- as a buyer, if you need a box or container (other than what you should reasonably expect) from a vendor (espescially one you did not buy from) offer to purchase it. Many times if you make the offer they will give you one and tell you not to worry, but if you just ask if you can have one they may say no, and rightfully so.

--as a buyer, if you are spending the majority of the time yapping with your buddies, get the heck out of the way. Get out of the flow of traffic, and for petes sake move on from in front of a vendors table. Tables cost money, and frontage is a premium and if you are blocking half the table you should not be offended if someone asks you to move. This is common courtesy but I see it happen all the time.

-- a suggestion for vendors. If you are planning on making shows a regular part of your business, make up a "show box" that contains all the miscellaneous things you might need. Tape, markers, paper towels, pencils, pens, notebook, calculator, etc. restock it after every show and don't take anything from it between them.

these are just a few things I could think of. I am not including many of the common courtesy things, as I think that these are things that some people just won't get no matter how many times you tell them, and those that do get them will already know.

Steve Schindler

As a buyer, keep your hands to yourself. Ask before touching. You dont know how nervous you make the vendors when you start moving your hands twords merchandise, even just to point at something.

As a buyer, carry hand sanitizer with you, use it between animals. As a vendor, provide hand sanitizer. It may not kill everything but it helps.

I'm sure I could think of more but I'm pretty tired, sorry for the typos also, like I said, I'm tired lol.

As a buyer, CONTROL YOUR CHILDREN or do not bring them!

I've never been a vendor at a herp show, but plenty of Ren Faires. I used to lean over and whisper to little children that they had better go find their mother/father NOW!

Really, you don't know how annoying it is, or how much business it drives away when a vendor suddenly finds himslef/herself as the ONLY adult in a 12 foot radius who has any idea where this child is, and the vendor has no idea where it's people are. Most of us are parents ourselves and we can't just chase a 3 year old away from our tables when we don't see an adult to take care of him/her, but the child is NOT our responsibility.

Don't bring them if you won't take care of them and control them while your there. We are NOT your babysitters.

Cheryl.... Just for the record.... not ALL kids are bad.... IF you know how to COOK 'em??.... lol

As a buyer.... LEAVE YOUR CHECK BOOK AT HOME!.... MOST of us vendors WON'T take checks.... If you want the best deal for your money.... BRING CASH!

With that in mind.... If you're browsing a table and come across something you want, but, you think the price is a little too high??.... The WORST thing you could do, is ask the vendor, "What's the lowest you'd take for it?".... or, "What can you do or me?".... That is NOT the way to get a lower price.... if you REALLY want the animal, you TELL THE VENDOR.... "I will give you "X" amount for that animal RIGHT NOW, IN CASH!".... USUALLY (if the amount you offered isn't totally out of line), most vendors will take it!.... The vendor's that won't take your FAIR offer, are NUTS!!.... But, BE PREPARED to purchase that animal RIGHT THEN AND THERE WITH CASH!....
I can't tell you how many times people have come over and asked me, what's the best I'd take, and I'd usually lower the price a little, then, the customer gives me the, "Well, let me go talk it over with my wife and I'll let you know".... If he DOES come back.... I WILL NOT SELL IT TO HIM FOR THAT PRICE!!.... But, that's just me.... that has got to be one of the rudest things you (as a buyer) can do!.... If you need someone else's opinion before you can pull the trigger??.... Keep your mouth SHUT until you get that note from your mother!

Another thing.... to get a lower price from ANYBODY.... the vendor has to like you to some degree.... when you walk up to a table for the first time.... don't IMMEDIATELY start looking at the animals with your head down.... first, take a second and say HELLO to the vendor??.... It's called common courtesy, and everybody will get along much better with a smile on each of your faces!

Vendors.... DON'T "HARD SELL"!!.... If you really want to drive the folks away from your table, try "talking them into buying something".... LEAVE THEM ALONE!.... After you've both said, "Good morning", or something along those lines.... you could ask the buyer if there is anything in particular they are looking for?.... if the buyer says no.... the vendor should only speak again, to that person, when asked a question from him/her.... let them look and browse at their own pace.... If you see them staring at a particular animal for an extended period of time, you might want to tell them that you'd be happy to take it out of the enclosure for them, so they can get a better look??.... But, that's ALL you say!.... You're just looking to help, not force something down their throats....

....Neil

Originally posted by Cheryl Marchek AKA JM
As a buyer, CONTROL YOUR CHILDREN or do not bring them!

I've never been a vendor at a herp show, but plenty of Ren Faires. I used to lean over and whisper to little children that they had better go find their mother/father NOW!

Really, you don't know how annoying it is, or how much business it drives away when a vendor suddenly finds himslef/herself as the ONLY adult in a 12 foot radius who has any idea where this child is, and the vendor has no idea where it's people are. Most of us are parents ourselves and we can't just chase a 3 year old away from our tables when we don't see an adult to take care of him/her, but the child is NOT our responsibility.

Don't bring them if you won't take care of them and control them while your there. We are NOT your babysitters.

Oh yeah I know this one. I went to a few ren faires and a rock show last year where at all 3 someone's kid broke display cases or items to be sold. I shudder to think that could happen at a reptile show That would be really, really sad.

get the heck out of the way. Get out of the flow of traffic, and for petes sake move on from in front of a vendors table.

This is one that really gets me. I only go to shows to buy, and when I go I always come home with something. I get so irritated when I have to wait for window shoppers to finish blabbing about what they have or what they want so I can make a transaction.

If your going to LOOK, get the hell out of the way if there is somebody behind you. Dont crowd the displays.

And also, If your not planning on buying, DONT ASK TO HOLD ANYTHING. I have yet to go to a show or even a store and hold something that im havent bought. I just bugs the hell out of me seeing the same person hold 5 different snakes from 4-5 different venders, and then ask to "see" another. When I know damn well they are not going to drop any money.

Hah!

How about having two families with baby strollers parked in front of YOUR tables with mom and dad making goo-goo eyes at the babies? Has anyone in the history of the universe actually had ANYONE pushing a baby carriage BUY something from them?

And a clue to buyers: A QUANTITY DISCOUNT doesn't mean buying a pair of animals.

When someone comes up to me and looks at a $25 animal and asks if I can do any better on the price, I tell them, "Yes, I will take $35 for it. That is MUCH better for me."

Oh and another clue. Standing in front of my tables saying "Darn, I wish I had brought some money with me" will NOT make me wilt in sympathy and give you animals. Matter of fact, the thought going through my mind is more like "Well what the hell are you doing HERE?"

Please do NOT ask me to take a check from you in payment. It embarrasses me to have to tell you that I don't trust you.

Oh here's another one I like. The show starts and some guy will come rushing over to the table, pick out about a half dozen deli cups and then ask me if I can hold them for him while he looks around the rest of the show. When I ask him to pay for them first, he looks at me like I have lost my marbles and says "Man, I haven't even seen the rest of the stuff here yet. There might be something else I want more than these!"

And buyers, when you find an animal at a competitor's table for a dollar cheaper than my price, please don't come back to me expecting me to be thrilled by your diligence at seeking out a cheaper price.

One last tip for the buyers: Under NO circumstances call a vendor up to say something like this: "Say, I bought some animals from the guy next to you at the show but didn't catch his name. I'm having some problems with them, and remembered you were there, so could you give me some advice?"

Oh, I've got another one for the vendors. This happened to me at the last herp show I went to:

If a customer asks you if your animals are Captive bred or Farm hatched, the likelihood is we asked because we CARED about the answer. If you answer "I don't know," then chase me down to tell me you were just informed they are Captive bred, and when I get back to your table I hear another employee tell another customer they are Farm Hatched......all that does is REALLY piss off the customer.

Now, this could work if you actually own TWO tables under TWO different names at the show, because I then went to the VERY next booth and bought 3 overpriced snakes I didn't really want just so that idiot had to watch me NOT spend my cash with him.


Who me, cut off my nose to spite my own face?

Now THIs is an interesting subject!


REPTILE SHOWS


* * *Organizers/Promoters- ADVERTISE the show well, vendors shouldnt have to plunk down hard earned cash just to talk to 200 people that come through the door dureing a two day event..spend the money...advertise effectively. Also....severly limit or prohibit the amount of wild caughts animals at the show and the vendors who just slam fresh imports onto the table next to a established breeders c/b offspring.


* * Vendors- Have hand santizer on HAND at all times, and, if you do let people touch your snakes, make sure that they sanitize their hands thoroughly BEFORE they touch your snakes or reptiles. Look at your fellow vendors snakes, do they have ticks and mites?If so, report them to the show promoter IMMEDIATELY and demand that they leave!


* * * Vendors- Provide sufficent lighting so that customers can actually see your snakes. ANSWER questions, every person that talks to you is apotential customer, includeing those baby stroller toteing couples. I personally have no problem talking with everyone that comes across that table, as I am a people person and like the business and banter. Others may not and its understandable.

* * * BUYERS***- -
First off realize that most vendors dont take personell checks, money orders or credit cards. period. Bring cash or stay home.
Secondly, realize that allthough the person selling you a snake on the other side of the booth is trying to make money, the reality of it is that they probably have a FULL TIME JOB in addition to breeding and selling reptiles, which means that they have to put up with crap all day by their bosses, which means that allthough your purchase Is important to them, giving them GRIEF about anything is totally unnecessary, and since it is a hobby they dont have to tolerate it, and probably wont......

Things that buyers do that really suck:

a) Say "Ill be right back with the cash,Im going to the ATM machine around the corner".Then have you put the snake aside, and after 1 hr, you realize they aint comeing back. I personally would rather have someone tell me that they need time to think about it, then tell me that theyll be right back and put the snake aside for them.

b) Try to get the lowest price-Asking a vendor to shave some off the price is fine and totally understandable, unless the snake is rare. Example:I was selling Eastern Indigo Snakes at a local show. I was the ONLY vendor at that show to have any easterns for sale, and I was the only well known breeder of them. My article had just come out in Reptile & Amphibian magazine ON Eastern Indigo Snakes. I had a person come up......ask me about 200 questions on Eastern Indigos, which I was glad to answer, then they kind of meandered about it, because I do not sell them cheap. They found a vendor there...who had one lone male...had gotten it from somebody else(Brokering it no doubt) and this broker came over to my table...saw my price...and dropped his by $100.00 lower than mine.

They bought the snake.......
then had the audacity to come over to me and ask me questions about it, what sex it was etc etc.
I told them to go talk to who they bought it from.

Update: The snake died 2 months later.


C) Buyers-DO NOT WAIT until the second day of a two day show to buy something you want, thinking that it will still be there, or that somehow the vendor will go down on the price. Usually , the second day of a show mens that the vendor wants to walk around himself and see whats left to buy...or perhaps socialize, and if you come over to his booth 6 times in 2 days..but expect him to pay attention to you the last 40 minutes of a show the last day...your probably going to be dissapointed.

d) Buyers-If you need to confer with your spouse to see if you can buy something....hey thats your life and I wouldnt want it but theres no law against it, just DONT bring him or her by the booth to have them shoot the sale down. Its insulting, esp if the vendor has been giving you their undivided attention, only to have someone they never talked too say"No...it looksjust like a Mexican black king..and I saw them for $40. BAD FORM


and FINALLY.....


Guys...dont bring your totally hot girlfirneds over when youwant to buy a snake, they distract us single male vendors and make us
give things away!!lol


sincerely,

Fred Albury
AZTEC REPTILES

I have to agree with Cheryl on this one. If you are going to sell animals then you should know what you are talking about. When I ask a question it is not just for curiousity, I am actually thinking of getting an animal, but if the seller doesn't know the answer than I will take my money to someone who does. And I DO bring cash!!