What would you like in a show?

Evan,
I too am a "night owl", I work nights and I love it! On the average day I get about 4-5 hours of sleep. Although my new puppy decides that is way too much for me to sleep! But the best part of sleeping the day away and staying up all night is NO tele-marketer phone calls!!! I can imagine that you can get all your cleaning and feeding done throught the night with no distractions. Plus your snakes are nocturnal as well so you can see them active during this time. Yeah drop me an e-mail when the show gets closer and I'll be more than happy to help you out!

Thanks Ken. That really is cool of you.

For everybody that has read any of this thread and not posted anything, come on. I know you have thoughts and ideas. I am really curious what you think. This is a really cool thread. One of the most enjoyable conversations I have ever had online. I love to get real, unfiltered opinions from people and I find online people are much more apt to speak their minds. Much more so than on the phone or in person. So positive or negative, if you want to mention the show or not, vendor or customer, dish baby, dish.

One of my least favorite things about shows, being that I drive 3-15 hours before I get there at 3-6am and then don't leave until 4-7pm, is an uncarpeted cement floor. Man, by the end of the day my feet and knees are dying. When I booked my own show, it had to carpeted. Plush it cuts down on the dust and makes the show look much nicer.

There have been times when I have run out to get Tylenol or something and I come back and can't park anywhere. That used to kill me at Orlando. I would end up being parked a week away and then would not be able to get a good loading spot when it was time to leave.

Well, I have spewed enough, somebody tell me what you think. Evan

I forgot to mention, thanks John. It all helps. Hopefully some other show promoters will read this thread and have something to think about. Evan

Hey Evan
Howse about
captive bred animals and healthy animals as a catagory
peace

Hello Evan,

I have been to several shows and admit that addmission has not been a real problem. I didn't think the $15 price a Tinley was bad. Of course I always go to these shows with the intention of buying something. Some of the time I have a list of what I want and others I am just looking for something I don't already have. I did actually get VIP tickets for Tinley $100 apiece. The benefit was to be able to meet the vendors the night before and maybe set up a deal. We were also allowed to enter early each day. I conducted almost all my transactions prior to the general admission people being able to enter. I do think that the price of $100 was fairly high added to a 4 hour drive, 2 nights in a hotel, meals and of course a trip to the casino (girlfriends idea). and did have some affect on what I did purchase. Would I do it again? You bet. I have wanted to come to your show, but I think I am looking at and even longer drive. I have talked to you at several shows and I think you are one fo the good guys. You always answer questions and if not busy are willing to just chit chat. I have seen some of your animals and realize that they are excellent quality. I guess all this rambling was to lead to the thought that perhaps you would also consider VIP tickets with early addmission. I know most vendors at Tinley offered price breaks to VIp because the badges said "Vendor" on them. This I felt was great. Like I said I paid $100 for my pass and another 100 for my girlfriend but felt the discounts I received were greater than that $200. Sorry I took so mmuch time. Keep up the good work Evan.

Thanks George. I think your right. The VIP pass is a good idea. I don't know if it is $100 good idea, but something less definitely. I don't think there is any incentive to doing that at my show as it is so much smaller than Tinley. If you paid for a VIP pass to go to Tinley and there are 200-300 tables you feel like a kid in a candy store. At my show there are only about 60 tables. I think I would be taking advantage of people with that one. Maybe someday, who knows. Thanks for the kind words though. I appreciate them.

My theory is do a show that has enough stuff for people to make a day of it, but not so much that I don't know what's going on and can't police the quality of animals in the show and handle any problems anyone has personally. Big shows are great and certainly have they're place, but I am happy to do a smaller show knowing that every animal in the building is awesome, every vendor is taken care of and all the public see good stuff and leave happy. Those are my goals. Evan

Well Evan, if your VIP was 30 dollars or a bit more and I got in early with enough time to browse and deal, it would be worth it to me. I do like the idea of not having 20 people trying to push in front of me to look at the animal I am considering. I also like to talk to the vendor and having him able to take a few minutes to answer my questions. Not all vendors are like you and take the time to answer questions. I have had animals I was ready to purchase be sold out from under me because I was waiting for an answer about it and someone else said I will take that one. Of course that meant I have never even approached that vendor on any of his animals and most likely never will. His loss as I may have ended up being a very good customer considering I buy at least 20 or 30 animals a year. Not big by some standards but still a profitable customer. The part they will never realize is I am also one of the PR people for a herp club and have told many people why I don't buy from this person. Guess what? They don't buy from him either.

Not that this matters but the animal I was looking for that day was a high gold male BP. I left his table and bought one from you. I probablly made the better choice.

This is how I look at admission fees:

If you are having a 'reptile show' combined with a sale, then a $6.00 fee is a good idea because there is sort of an admission to the zoo type thing going on. If, on the other hand, you are only having a sale type event with no 'show" - and by this I mean the typical mislabelled Herp Show that should instead be labelled as a Herp Sale instead, well then I believe that you are a crook for charging an admission. Think of how you would feel if Home Depot started charging you $6.00 admission to their stores everytime you go to buy a gallon of paint but wind up spending an hour salivating over power tools. I think you would be pretty unhappy about it. That is the same way I feel when I go to an event advertised as a Reptile and Amphibian EXPO or Herp SHOW and all it consists of is vendors selling their animals. Just because it is commonly done like this does not make it right, the whole idea of charging admission for me to be able only to buy things and nothing else sucks.

I would much prefer to get what was advertised, and see a show or an expo when I pay for such. There are actual Herp Shows around the country that cyharge a flat admission rate and when you get in they actually have a show or some sort of non-commercial display in addition to vendors. These are the ones I much prefer to attend.

Glen,

I do understand what your are saying, but I also realize that there is a difference. In this case the promoter is funding the advertising, suppling the facility and all the extras. If he was charging a percent of all sales it would be more like Home Depot. They make their profit on each sale. Paying a small price to get all of these vendors in one place is not so bad. It also seems in most cases there is some fairness to the situation in as much as the larger show charge more but offer more selection to the buyer and charge more to be a vendor because they offer a larger group of buyers. I do know a few breeders who sell most of their animals in a few shows that they do each year. In my case I enjoy going to large shows and being able to purchase after comparing several options. With out the shows I would have to travel to several breeders or compare several adds in a classifieds site (which I do anyway). Just my opinion, but some food for thought.