St Roberts Show

I was wondering if anyone went to the show in St Roberts Mo. over Memorial Day Weekend? I was thinking of setting up at the next show. How many people came? Any feedback would help.
Thanks in advance.

Hey Lynn Jim here from Oklahoma. Thank your lucky stars that you did not go. This was the most pathetic show ever in the history of reptile shows. It was a total joke right from the night before it even started. I don’t even know where to start but this is going to be a long one.
We will start with the night before. We arrived around9 pm with 8 8-foot tables reserved. When we get there it’s all 6 footers. Not a huge problem just needs to make up for the shortages. As soon as the second promoter showed up it all started. She was cussing and screaming at the top of her voice, in front of the vendors that were there, for not getting her way. There was a major argument over everything from who was where to who was doing what between the 2 promoters after 2 hours of debating on what to do they came to the conclusion that we could have 2 extra tables for the same price. Well 8x8 is 64-foot ad 10 x 6 is 60 feet. They seemed to think they were doing us a major favor by giving us 2 extra tables. Even though it was 4 foot shorter. Well ok we accepted it and went to setting up and needed more room. Absolutely no to us having more tables. They were already going to be short tables as it was. They were sold out. Well I thought to myself then yea right but o.k. After dealing with all the arguing and temper tantrum throwing it was time to go to the room at 2 am. So we get back around 7 am the day of the show and start getting everything ready. The show starts at 9 and I thought it was a little slow on vendors showing up since there were still 30 empty tables. So it hits 9 and still 30 empty tables. So 1 person in my group snags another table to spread out a little more. Well the power went out as the doors opened and was out for about an hour into the show. Great now we need flashlights to see what’s for sale and make sure nothing walks off. We get lucky and about an hour later we get juice again. Well now the shows going on and we go looking around at other vendors stuff for sale. No customers so might as well go chitchat. As I was looking around I noticed that 1 of the vendors was selling below wholesale prices. I mentioned this and the response I was given was yea he’s been banned from other shows for it. Now I don’t mind people lower priced than me. My problem was it was 90% animals on their deathbeds. Ball python babies for $12.50 or less that you could nearly see through. Now that’s not the main problem with dying animals being sold. What few customers that were there only knew price tag. They didn’t realize that this animal would be dead in a week. Now I must defend the vendor selling these animals. I did over hear him telling 1 customer that the ball was a little thin and needed fattening up. What very few customers that were there were only looking.kinda like the St.Robert zoo for the weekend. So now the shows close to over, that is if it ever really started. Everyone starts packing up and loading. I was just started and the promoter was on me like flies on flypaper saying she needed her money. Then made the comment that she wouldn’t charge for the 1 more table.ok so we wound up with an extra 4-foot at no charge. You would have thought the world was coming to an end over that. You know 30 empty tables at a sold out show and treat the vendors like $hit.other than the herp club I would say there were 20 tables sold. Then if the show in whole wasn’t bad enough it got worse for some.1 vendor sold absolutely nothing and had no money. Was there trying to raise some. Jim which is 1 promoter and a great guy in all ways did as he should of and told her no problem that she didn’t have to pay.O.M.F.G you would have thought the world came to an end. The other promoter came over and made a huge seen in front of everyone and told this woman she would pay that no one was free.yea she made her an extra $15.00 for that day but I can guarantee that vendor will never return and will tell everyone how she was treated. It was truly sad. Then as everyone is standing around 1 of the vendors tables collapses. Glass shatters and animals are probably hurt. All that was said is were not responsible. So we didn’t even make enough to pay for tables and gas to get there. And
from the other vendors I spoke with it was the same with them. I know we will never return and all of the other vendors I spoke with said the same. Jim is a great guy. His partner is verrrrrry greedy and only there for the money.dosen’t realize that without vendors there’s not going to be customers and without the 2 there’s not going to be shows. From what we heard from the locals there was no advertising of any kind. They hoped for word of mouth I guess. So truthfully unless Jim takes it over 100% it will be a total failure and certainly not worth driving more than 2 or 3 miles for. Lynn we have been at a couple of the same shows in the past and a couple have been bad. This was 10 times as bad. I really hate throwing Jim under the bus on his show but I really think he will agree with most if not all of what I say and he reads the forums and I’m sure will voice his opinion which I welcome. Sorry for the book all but it’s been boiling over for 2 weeks now and someone asked so I let loose.

Jim burns

Wow, Thanks for the replies...I sure am glad I went to the All Pet Expo instead....I am so sorry you and your reptiles went though all that. Does not sound like the kind of show I want to be involved with. Thanks again

Now that the fantasy is over, the truth. We had 300 paid people through the door, not as good as we expected, but better that we were told we would do.
Second, yes the city of St Robert screwed us on the tables, they promised us when we rented the space we would have 60 new 8' tables, we showed up saturday night and we had less than 60 6' tables. Funny the only crew that complained was the Tulsa crew, they reserved 8 tables we let them have 11 for the price of 8. We asked for them if that would acceptable and they were all happy.
We had East Ozark Reptiles there, I did not know they were banned from anywhere, but when Jim ask me the night before if I would make Jim raise his prices, I told him that price fixing was not my bag. Jim said good cause he could sell those redtails really cheap and still make a profit.
Yes Michelle blew a fuse, you know what noone had to move and noone was inconvienced. So that's a dead issue.

We don't hassle the vendors to pay their rent, but when show time is up its time to pay the rent. We have deadlines to meet as well.
We spent $1000.00 this go around on advertising and handed out over 1500 fliers. We advertised on 3 radio stations, reptile magazine, the local weekly trader and through the local vets.

We did everything in our power to make this a good show, we had some vendors no show on us, that happens. We fought memorial day and tornado warnings and still had 300 paid people. If that was a disaster, what wat the last Broken Arrow Show??

I like Jim, but I will not stand by and be stabbed in the back while someone is shaking my hand. OH and yes we lost power, well let see, being the electrical wizard that I am, maybe I should have said let there be light and that would have solved it.

As for The vendor with no sales, she brought very little with her, 2 hedgehogs, 1 pair of breeder ferrets a cockatiel and a used cage. Everyone out there knows the rules for show rentals, yes she paid the rent with a bad check, so we lost out. The fact that she won't be back is a shame, but if ya bring nothin' ya can't make nothin'.
As for the vendor who collapsed the table, we talked with him to make sure all his animals were ok, and from what I remember they were.
So that's it in a nut shell, basically the Tulsa crew showed up early, we busted our asses to help them out and theyhad a chip on their shoulder from the get go.

The other promoter will most likely be out after this show, I cannot speak for her, but I get the feeling she's gone. By the way, her husband didn't sell anything either, but his ass wrote me a check for his tables.

We will be back in the community center on October 24th that should resolve some of the location issues. We will update the website in July to let everyone know the particulars. We are stuck with the 6 foot tables, but we'll adjust for them.

We had 20 vendors show up out of thirty we had committments from. We had 38 tables filled, not including the three we donated to the Herp Society. And yes at 8pm the night before we had only been contacted by two vendors who said they would not be there so we were a little leary about stretching tables, but I stayed there til 5 am trying to round up extra tables to make sure we had enough if everyone showed. One was you Lynn (and that was my fault for misunderstanding you in Feb) The other was Anthony Christifano.

Thank Ya for your time and sorry for such a long message, but it needed to be addressed. I don't own a scanner, but if I can get access to one I will gladly scan the receipts for the radio stations and the weekly trader in.

Thank you again,
Big Jim

I’ll start with I’m not wanting to be an ass to you Jim. You do the show and it will be a good show in the future.i would still like to be friends and if you were the promoter we would consider returning. (But if 6' tables again we need 12-15).I spoke with every vendor there other than the t-shirt guy and I guarantee you we were not the only one's complaining. This includes the reptile society or who ever they were. The others may not have had the balls to face you with it.
The B.A. show. Well it doesn’t really matter to me how many people show up. I’m a vendor not a promoter so I look at cash spent. I made exactly $1173.00 more at the b.a. show than at the st.roberts.now that number may change.i took a $75.00 check from a pet store up there that bounced and still has not been paid so with service charges from my bank the # may go to $1251.50 and that would mean our total sales from st.robert was $35.00.these numbers are from my sales and not as a whole.
But I’m not pissy over not making any cash at the show. You do not control that. My main bitch was the fact that the vendor selling the animals below wholesale was selling garbage.theres no price fixing to it. The pet stores he deals to won't take it so let’s dump it on people that don't know any different. I may be wrong but I feel as a promoter you have a little bit of responsibility on the quality of animals offered for sale. He had ball pythons that may have made it out the door before they died. Albino burms that had been chewed up by rats. and so on.
And the chick with no sales. I totally agree. She should have brought stuff to sell and she should have paid her tbl.rent regardless of sales or not.We did.But my problem there was you had told her she didn't have to so that should have been the way it was. Also as she was writing the check she told you that it would not clear the bank when she wrote it.
We showed up 1 hour after you told us we could. There was already a half dozen others there so we were far from early.
No fantasy to my post just all facts.

jim

Please, whoever you are, email me about the sick animals.

FYI the albino burms were hatched by us THAT WEEK therefore they have never eaten and therefore never had ANY rodent near them so no bites. You're a liar. We still have them. As for selling below wholesale, when you breed your own animals you can sell them for whatever price you want to sell them fore. You're just jealous I guess.

As for the ball pythons, we still have them too. They didn't die.

Write me back, creep,
Karen

1st i never said it was east ozark reptiles jim said that.i really don't know who it was and don't care.
i find it very hard to believe that 3 foot burms were hatched out the week before.and i can guarantee you the balls i am refering to are the same c.b. in africa everyone has and not us born.no one sells healthy true u.s. captive balls for $12.50 ea.and anyway my complaint was not over the price but the quality.outright garbage.
jelous ???? hahahahahahahaha.i get jelous over nice animals not alot of garbage.but before you go to getting all pissy with me you may not be the person i'm refering to.i never said names and do not know names.there was more than 1 person there with balls and burms.

and the albino i'm refering to was sold.i know this because i was going to purchase it and keep till healed.it had several bite marks.

jim

Please enlighten us as to the show(s) East Ozark Reptile has been banned from. I would like names and placed please. This is not true.

We did have one that was larger but it didn't have any bites. I don't know who you're talking about but it wasn't us. And our balls weren't $12.50 either.
karen