Inquiry: Aaron Fink afink802@msn.com

[Mark and Aimee]

Has anyone heard of or done business with Aaron Fink? His username on here is sfink327 (Registered to Stephanie Fink), and his email address is afink802@msn.com

The reason for my inquiry... Mr. Fink has an ad in the trades section, which I replied to. He has a few Blood Pythons that I am interested in - one red and one black.

In his response to my initial inquiry, he stated:

hello Mark, the worth of this pair is open the black is het for albino , but I am getting out of bloods to do more work with burms

This struck me as odd... The only albino Bloods that I am aware of are Red Bloods, and not available for very cheap, even as hets. NERD's het albino Bloods are $1300, and VPI's het albino Bloods are $1250 each. So I inquired further... The below quote is my question to Aaron:

you said the Black Blood is het for albino? I'm a little confused on that one. I've only seen albino Red Bloods - so I'd have to think any het albino Black is really a albino red X black. Help me out here...

Aaron's reply to that message:

the mother was a by luck albino that I produced about 4 years ago 1 out of 17 the others were all black and tan . that is all I can say about that .

So now I can't help but think... This guy's either sitting on a gold mine, or he's full of.. you know. If baby albino Red Bloods are still going for around $4000 ea - an albino BLACK Blood should easily be a $10,000 snake. Hets would be priced similar to 100% het pied ball pythons (in my opinion).

So my last message to Aaron was:

Do you have pics of the albino black blood mother? We'd really love to see them!

I haven't heard back from him yet - but I will be sure to post it here when I do :-)

I've attached a picture of the het albino black blood to this post...

Anyone have any thoughts on this one?

[Mark and Aimee]

The animal I offered to him in trade is a 5' 10" female Albino het green Burm. He is willing to trade me both blood pythons for her.

[Neil Gubitz]

You're kidding, right??.... He's WILLING to trade BOTH of those "supposed" het Albino BLACK Bloods for an Albino Burm het for Green??
OK.... who's willing to bet that it's for real??

And you guys wonder how Jeremy Stark gets away with it??

Mark and Amy.... please.... RUN LIKE YOU'VE NEVER RUN BEFORE!!

Unless, of course, you WANT two REGULAR Black Bloods???

Neil

[Neil Gubitz]

Excuse me.... that should be Aimee.... sorry bout that....

Neil

[Mark and Aimee]

Niel - Welcome back (I think?).

Actually it was a male '02 red blood, and the female '03 "het albino black blood".

The animals look nice - but there's definitely something fishy about this one.

If it wasn't for the "het albino" story, I probably would have gone through with this trade - as I thought a red blood and a black blood were of a fair enough value to trade my albino burm for.

After all - my end goal is primarily to sell a surplus female burm - or trade her for something I actually NEED! We've got burms coming out of our ears over here.

[Mark and Aimee]

Sorry, I guess it's "Neil". :dgrin: :D

[Neil Gubitz]

Marcc and Aymie....
I hope I got your names right this time??... lol

Like I said.... if you want two regular Bloods, that's not a bad trade, especially since you have a surplus of them.... but, two things....

1.... Forget about the Black Blood being het for ANYTHING.... and 2.... DON'T SHIP FIRST OR SAME DAY!.... Either make sure that he ships first, or don't do the trade.... no matter how much you want to get rid of your surplus burms.... you'll get rid of it alright, but you'll be VERY LUCKY if you get anything in return.... know what I mean??

Kneel

[Mark and Aimee]

How many people here sell EXTREMELY rare animals, and erase any and all proof of it ever existing, as soon as you sell it?

From Aaron Fink:

Mark that is fine and no I do not have any pics. all pics. and records went with the snake as I do with all and will do with you as well.

So... He's telling me he sold the ONLY albino Black Blood in existance, and never kept a single picture. Sure....

But to raise another red flag -

I should be good to ship friday

Who ships snakes on a Friday?? Unless the animals are being sent via Delta Dash, shipping on a Friday is generally discouraged. Or at least with the people I have dealt with...

Even though he was willing to ship first - I just had to call this deal off. No good. Too many loose strings, unanswered questions, red flags, etc.

I have no proof that this kid is really a bad guy - but so far he's struck out.

Mark

[Rob @ RK Reptiles]

I think you probably did the best thing you could have. The entire situation sounds off kilter and I think you would have regretted the trade even though you would be rid of the snake you need gone. There is no way that he produced an albino Black Blood. Even if he had produced it and sold it he would not have any babies left from its offspring. The person that would have bought it would have purchased all other offspring as well. If there really had been an albino black Blood produced the Barkers would have paid a VERY HIGH price for the animal and all siblings as well as the parents that produced it. This guy definitely sounds full of *insert expletive here*.

[Neil Gubitz]

Mark.... Rob is probably correct, but, I don't know if I would have cancelled the trade.... IF he was willing to ship first, you had absolutely nothing to lose.... Sure, you probably would have never seen his snakes get to your house, but, you knew that already??.... If they HAD got there, you had the chance to look them over first and then, either keep them and continue with the trade, or send them back.... AFTER you got him to send you money for the return trip!....
Even if a trade sounds "fishy", I would always tell the other guy to ship them.... as I said, you have nothing to lose.... oh well, maybe next time....

Neil

[Mark and Aimee]

you had absolutely nothing to lose....

Neil - The most I had to lose was MORE TIME on this stinkin deal. I wasted 2 days of emailing back and forth - trying to get this kid to fess up. I've got too many animals that need daily care, cleaning, feeding, etc to waste my time on kids with long noses.

The real reason I finally turned the trade down was because I didn't feel comfortable putting a female Burmese Python into the hands of a dishonest person.

Call me crazy - but I've always considered dishonesty to be right in line with irresponsibility, carelessness, laziness, and all the other things that do not need to be placed in the line of fire with a large constrictor.

But to close this... I sold the female burm last night - to an individual I am confident will take great care of her - and might even send me pictures of the babies she throws in a year or two.

Now that's a satisfying sale. All parties happy - case closed.