Beware of Serpentminded

I inquired to http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=133534 for 0.1 07' Kahl Coral Albino boa $500 that was stated the response I got was:

If you are referring to the coral for $750 shipped yes she is.

I was a tad bit confused, so I copied the add and sent him this e-mail:

I was referring to:

0.1 07' Kahl Coral Albino boa $500
We have this beautiful 2007 Kahl line coral albino boa. She is feeding
on P/K rats in between small and medium size. Sheds socks consistently
and coraling up nicely with each shed. Her price is $500 or would be
open to some trades for other boa morphs.
zach@asnakesview.comcastbiz.net

I'm confused?

He responded:

I only have her sister left that is 3lbs and is coraling up alot more than the one that I ended up trading. I could do her for $750.

Before I could respond with an email for pictures, I received another e-mail with two pictures of the same exact snake just in slightly different positions.

I responded matter of factly:

No offense but you stated in you add 0.1 and it looks like the same
exact identical snake to me...going off the tail pattern in the
pictures. If you've changed your mind then just update your add.

His response was nothing surprising:

I have no want or need to deal with rude people I have other people interested thank you have a nice day.

I was impressed that he said have a nice day after all. I was to advise and warn anyone who was "truly" interested. Be aware of what your dealing with.

The rest was quite amusing so I'll include that as well.

And I have no desire to do business with dishonest people...

From Zachary Bevins:

If that is dishonest then so be it.

So there you have it, word for word, and a final admittance of guilt...I POST THIS SOLELY TO INFORM THOSE TO BE CAREFUL WHEN DEALING WITH THIS PERSON

I don't want to forget, Immediately after the exchange of emails to cover himself he posted: The $500 girl is sold but I still have her sister who is larger and has a lot more coraling that I would sell for $750.

Heres the image he sent me...

Here are the pictures that Ned was trying to post:
the original picture

the two images sent to him

My experience with Serpentminded and the partnering ASnakesView (http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...=122185&page=3 see post 27) is limited to unsolicitated requests for trades, and very frequent requests at that. They found my profile on another reptile site, and realized that I was local to them. They basically offered me "trades" for some of there mislabeled animals, for several of my higher end boas.

Needless to say, I politely declined, and also let them know that, in my opinion, several of the snakes they had recently acquired were from a source that was thought to have some serious health concerns in the snakes. Almost immediately upon my email stating that I would not be allowing anything from their collection into my household, nor would I be allowing any snakes to leave my house to live at theirs, they placed nearly all the suspect animals for sale at extremely cheap prices locally on Craigslist.

Now, as far as the disease/health of their snakes are concerned, I admittedly and working with my own personal opinion based on where they acquired a large number of their snakes, and the fashion in which they did so (basically dropped a ton of money on someones ENTIRE collection to get a business up quickly).

Since then, I have posted an ad on the local CL posting an 09 albino male boa. They approached me, basically wanting to trade an albino for an albino, but I'd be getting a coral? Well, let me just copy and paste what the correspondence was:

My Ad:
Baby Red Tail Boas, 66% Het for Albino (Renton)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to: comm-stbee-1253648013@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]
Date: 2009-07-04, 2:17PM PDT



I have a few baby red tail boas that are in need of new homes! I have both boys and girls available, all have eaten and most have shed - after one shed and 3 consecutive meals, these kids are good to go! I'm asking $125 for the males, $175 for the females, although I'm negotiable to the right home. I can also work out something if you want more than one. Most are eating f/t (frozen, then thawed) mouse fuzzies, so I can send some food along with them as well. I also have one male albino that still needs a home (he's the sibling to these babies). Let me know if you'd be interested in more pictures

Thanks


Location: Renton
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
His Email in response to the ad:

albino‏
From: MattOlsen (Matt@asnakesview.comcastbiz.net)
You may not know this sender.Mark as safe|Mark as junk
Sent: Sat 7/04/09 2:52 PM
To: comm-stbee-1253648013@craigslist.org (comm-stbee-1253648013@craigslist.org)

** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY --- AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html Hi im interested in your albino boa. I have some coral albinos, reg albinos, and 04 hets but im a sucker for homo,s. Im pretty sure its a Kahl? Let me know what you are asking and if you are looking for any other high end boas. Matt @ A snakes View ------------------------------------------------------------------this message was remailed to you via: comm-stbee-1253648013@craigslist.org------------------------------------------------------------------

So, again, while I have not actually completed a transaction with SerpentMinded/ASnakesView, aka Matt and Zack, I would not do so in the future, given some suspect behavior I have noted. I have no idea if their original intention was to resell the animals that they acquired in the suspect trade in the first place, it was just a bit disconcerting to have them do so almost immediately after my letter indicating my unwillingness to work with the animals they had in their collection

So, apparently SerpentMinded wants to say that I am mean and spiteful, and have no rights to my opinion. The is the email I just received:

sorry you have such a problem with me‏
From: serpentminded @ FaunaClassifieds (serpentminded@gmail.com)
Sent: Fri 7/10/09 6:03 PM
To: kmrkvicka@hotmail.com

This is a message from serpentminded at FaunaClassifieds ( http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/index.php ). The FaunaClassifieds owners cannot accept any responsibility for the contents of the email. To email serpentminded, you can use this online form:http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...member&u=59731 OR, by email:mailto:serpentminded@gmail.com This is the message:
Ever since the first time I talked to you on iherp you have been very rude and spiteful. Im sorry we are all not as cool as you. And im sorry we are not all knowing like you. I have ran into a lot of people around the nw and we are all helpful to each other. Im sorry you are such an unhappy person you have to post on all threads even when you are not interested in the animals. I post pics of animals and parents. Thats all we can do. Ive been breeding snakes for a long time now and learn new things everyday. Thats why I am on first name basis with all the well known breeders in the us. Ohh and I do business with them. Maybe thats why you are mad. And they will let me use them as references because they are happy with my honesty. I may not be right but ill tell you what I think and you can go from there. Again I did not misrepresent I always send pics of parents to prospective buyers. Have a great day.

Here are the original correspondence with Zach, exactly in the order they were sent - meaning, if I didn't post a response here, it was because I didn't respond them at the time:

Mail Center : Read Email

FROM: serpentminded
SENT: 1/11/2009 12:17:52 AM
SUBJECT: are you in seattle?
saw an iherp member in seattle that has a lot of similar snakes. are you in seattle, wa?

Mail Center : Read Email

FROM: serpentminded
SENT: 1/11/2009 12:22:02 AM
SUBJECT: do any trades or have anything for sale
I noticed that you were in Seattle and I am in Tacoma and was wondering if you had anything that's high end that you were selling. Would love to talk snakes some time give me a call. 253-***-3067 or serpentminded@gmail.com
Zach

Mail Center : Read Email

FROM: serpentminded
SENT: 1/18/2009 1:52:23 PM
SUBJECT: trades
sent you a message to see if you were interested in trades of the same calabar as your collection and haven't heard back from you. Send me an email or preferably give me a call 253-***-3067 It's hard to find good herpers around this area that take as good of care of their animals as we do and i was impressed with your charges. Zach

Mail Center : Read Email

FROM: serpentminded
SENT: 1/18/2009 7:11:01 PM
SUBJECT: call
can you please call me? Zach 253-***-3067

Mail Center : Read Email

FROM: serpentminded
SENT: 1/18/2009 7:19:38 PM
SUBJECT: Re [2]: trades
Blossom, Sheva, Delilah, Tye, Lamb, Tulip, poss. Onyx i have a seven foot female i couldn't tell how big he was. Please call me i prefer to be able to talk someone. 253-***-3067

Mail Center : Read Email

FROM: serpentminded
SENT: 1/20/2009 12:08:13 AM
SUBJECT: Re [2]: trades

haven't heard back from you yet. would love to know about sheva, delilah, blossom, lamb, tulip, tye, onyx, andromeda, adonis
anything that you saw that you like?


Mail Center : Read Email

FROM: Katie M
SENT: 1/21/2009 8:24:15 PM
SUBJECT: Re [3]: trades
Hi Zach-
Sorry for not responding sooner - I've tried to find a polite way to decline your offer. A few people said to leave it at that, but I felt I needed to explain. First off, it was pretty easy to say no to Sheva and Tye, as they've just begun breeding, and are worth over $1300 as a pair (Ronne Line and JimiSnakes lines are pricey). Also, Delilah has been paired with Samson, Blossom with Brodie, Tye with Brodie, and Andromeda and Adonis were purchased as a pair for breeding, and Adonis has been a problem feeder at that. I've often joked that if I could only keep three snakes, Onyx would be right up there, and I finally found him a girlfriend this past Monday (he's way to small to breed right now). Another cause of great concern about where you'd acquired some of your snakes was confirmed on Craigslist. I don't really care for some of the people you've acquired snakes from, and don't really want them in my collection. I've dealt with them in the past, and prefer not to in the future. Sorry I'm unable to work with you now, but I will keep an eye on your collection to see if there's anything that sparks my interest if you want me to keep looking

Katie


I did my best to not sound rude - yet, I'm being accused of being rude from the get go. His request for trades was an unsolicited request, and was persistent even without a response from me. Not only that, but his request was for several of my animals, most of my higher quality animals at that. His page on iHerp indicated several animals of "higher" genetics, yet when you actually looked at the animals, they weren't what they were labeled to be.

I think the reasoning for his accusation of being rude comes into play with an ad that he currently has posted in the boa classifieds. He has for sale what he is calling Nic boas; he's only working on the assumption that the female is Nic based on another keepers opinion. The male is not documented as to it's genetic/locale background, yet he is saying these boas are pure nic, as opposed to labeling them as say, Central crosses, or something of that nature. I pointed this out, as I noticed a relatively new keeper was wanting to purchase a male boa that was not going to exceed 4-5 feet. Without knowing what the locale of these boas truly are, how can SerpentMinded state as a fact they won't exceed that size? Just because the parents are under 5 foot, doesn't mean the offspring would be. A lot of factors go into the final size of a boa (i.e. feeding schedule, fasting, PLUS genetics). I stated that he had the boas misrepresented, and I was told that he chose to call them Nics, and that should be that... well... I'm not okay with that

His Fauna ad:
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=136274
The Kingsnake ad to the sire of the boas:
http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=8&de=699047

What do you think?

I haven't understood why it's being called a coral albino in the first place. People are throwing that term around way too loosely when trying to sell animals, IMO.

Thanks for the heads up.

I posted a link to this thread in his ad, and stated that it was a bait and switch. Also, that's definitely not a coral, but I didn't say that.

Then got this PM:

" bait and switch?
I have many references and have 3 corals, you are entitled to your opinion but you sound a little jealous maybe. Look at board of inquiry on my deals with brendan magee he will vouch for me. I never would send an animal that was not the one someone wanted. Im all about karma but you wouldnt know that cause you dont know me. Im not in a hurry to sell any animals so it does not bother me, keep hating"

I thought he sold one of the corals?

He did state he sold the $500 one... so the other one, the smaller one, is $750, but the $500 was only 3 pounds... look at the picture - that is NOT a 3 pound boa. He also LOVES name dropping, as is evident in his response about Vin Russo himself saying that the female he bred was a Nic... also, if anyone wants to see the pictures of the male snake that was bred to the supposed Nic, I have screen shot of it, and of the complete ad for his 09 babies, as I was pretty sure it would be altered, and it has

Still selling this boa, or trying to.

http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=8&de=699249

(screenshot in case ad is deleted)
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c1...isc/Image1.jpg