Who Supplies the Suppliers?????

Ok I know it may sound easier then it is. Who supplies the importers down in florida? I know many/most represent themselves as direct importers, but the longer Ive been in this business the more Ive questioned this.

The recent batch of Uroplatus geckos is a perfect example. I know a couple of the big boys have/had them right off the boat, but from my conversations with them it seems they werent the importer. It seems the whole group was imported by "x" and then quickly disperced amongst the "importers".

I know often one company will import a large shipment, and all of them will split it up. However I believe there is a supplier I havent been able to find, sorta a super importer. With the numbers I buy, Id love to cut out another middle man, without trying to directly import myself (a very difficult thing to do as land locked as I am).

Is there some sort of "farm" that imports major shipment, and then distributes them to the "importers"?

If there is anyone know how to contact them? (like anyones jumping to give this info up, email privately if you will ....LOL)

Im going to start going to florida and pick my orders in person as much as possible, so any good leads on wholesale suppliers in florida would be greatly appreciated.

I believe Zoological Imports and JP Pets import tons of stuff themselves. I'm not 100% sure on this, maybe someone with more knowledge will post.

the suppliers, suppliers ? If so, many people of go betweens among catchers, middle people and wholesellers, importers, etc. ( not talking of captive bred in the USA now mind you ). Take a common ball python. It is collected by a catcher. Then delivered to some go between dealer ( sometimes ) , then delivered to a importer of that country, then imported out to the other country ( in USA ? ) , it arrives to a import wholeseller, it might be sold to another in " between wholeseller where the animal is marked up,. then is in the hands of a dealer or retailer. There might even be another " middle person " between the importer ( of the oringinate country ) and catcher, dealer depending how far it is to the last importer that will actually ship the snake out. If ya want to know " monies " involved, that's another story !

Mickey,
It all depends on who is who and who has what,
In Zoologicals case it was a split shipment between two dealers with ZooImp getting the majority. ZooImp usually imports their own stock but sometimes they buy entire shipments off of others if their supplier hasnt been able to get them the animals they need in time.
Alot of times an importer may bring something in and sell the entire shipment to another importer or trade the entire shipment for animals another importer has or is getting.
Either way its a locked deal and someone trying to buy the animals off the original importer direct instead of buying them from the importer that bought the entire shipment from the original importer, its not gonna happen.

An example is this which is purely hypothetical.
Say Xtreme Reptiles needs Malis. Zooimp has Mali's coming. Xtreme Reptiles may buy the entire shipment from ZooImp at a previously agreed markup.
(10-25% usually, depending on country)
ZooImp may keep 100 out of the 1,000 for themselves to add to their list but the majority went to Xtreme even though ZooImp imported them.
Everyone may think Xtreme imported them but ZooImp did , got their sale, and went on to import something else.

There is no "Super importer" sort of speak, the only ones that may fall into that category are people that soley drop shipments to different companies or split it among the companies like LA REPTILES or Richard Stubbs

Mike

Thanks for clearing that up a bit. Im just trying to figure out as many spots to hit as possible while Im down in Florida....LOL

I know that while buying from a wholesaler/importer for years in Florida , that he also bought from a wholesaler/ importer on the other coast of Florida and HAD to be there for cherry picking. When a particular shipment came in, it was CRAZY ! Vans, pick-ups, bob-tailed trucks were ready to go. If one didn't make it in a certain time period, there was SLIM pickings. But some of these importers have now gone to ship directly to retailers. While they may still do the " be there on time " deal on other whole sellers. In fact one is named on this site of south Florida. Your best bet is one of the " after " importers where the animals are picked out and even maybe held for a few days. Yes, you will be spending a little more money going that way but I always thought it safer ?