• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Bad Guy Nate Swanson Seattle reptile / Swanee's Exotics

hoppingherps

Arachnofarmer
Joined
Mar 13, 2007
Messages
310
Reaction score
15
Points
18
Age
42
Location
Grantville, Ga.
I am regretfully posting this since I have completed numerous trades with Nate which all but these last ones have gone on without a hitch. This trade in particular was really in his favor on value, and included a friend of mine that will also be chiming in on this. The worst part of all this is I recommended Nate Swanson to him since I had prevoius trades with Nate. We both ended up shipping are boxes near the same date which is included in one of the pics to give you a timeline. As you can see from the webpage pics below the trade in question halted on his end. At this point I am really fed up with excuses, and I have also been in contact with several other people that he has also ripped off in the past few months. I think really at this point, even though animals are owed, I will not see a single dang critter in return. I hope he actually comes on here to better explain his actions, but I doubt that will ever happen. I will leave it at that for everyones judgement.
Michael Wells
Hoppingherps.com


First pic will show where I posted one of MANY posts on his facebook for him to contact me. Luckily he has not deleted this one yet, but all previous ones by me and others he owes money to have been deleted so no one sees it.
page.jpg


Here is private messages between Nate swanson and myself during this time line.
page2.jpg


page3.jpg


Fed ex pick up notification of my shipment that went out to him. My phone number and addy have been removed for my privacy.
page4.jpg
 
I sent him a post on Facebook then defriended him. Ripping off a friend ticked me off more then me getting ripped off.
 
I can honestly say I really wanted this to go down a better way because I do not like putting anyone on the BOI. The unanswered emails is what really made me feel like nothing else could be done, and the fact that other people have contacted me on how much he owes them. I hope the best for Nate, and hope he can get everything squared away. I also will post on here if all is made right. I do believe everyone has a chance to redeem themselves and this I guess is a very good chance for him to do so.
 
He has already contacted me, and if he sets it straight I will let everyone know on here. As I said before I do wish it did not come down to this. Up to before this I had nothing but good things to say about doing business with Nate.
 
He has already contacted me, and if he sets it straight I will let everyone know on here. As I said before I do wish it did not come down to this. Up to before this I had nothing but good things to say about doing business with Nate.

A seller is only as good as his last transaction. I sincerely hope that you're able to update this thread soon with good news. Best of luck getting this mess straightened out!
 
I'm not surprised by this moron ripping off people. I contacted them months ago due to their ad on kingsnake wanting panther chameleons and he had the audacity to only offer $25 each for panther chameleons and claimed that is what he paid for them. I'd hate to see the quality of the animals that he's flipping.
 
I'm not surprised by this moron ripping off people. I contacted them months ago due to their ad on kingsnake wanting panther chameleons and he had the audacity to only offer $25 each for panther chameleons and claimed that is what he paid for them. I'd hate to see the quality of the animals that he's flipping.


$25??? maybe he is buying eggs. Bad eggs?
 
I have given him time to ship out his end of the trade with no response or animals. I have pretty much come to the conclusion that nothing will come of this.
 
Man, sorry to hear this bad news. I have a pair of northern concentric DBTs that I bought from him as hatchlings, and they are doing very well to this day. He also did a great job of picking me out a 1.1 pair when they were way too young to be able to sex accurately, but he did it. I'm thinking you might want to call him and leave a message letting him know you just want to talk and put this bad voodoo behind you so you can move on. Tell him he can owe you the critters for as long as he needs to, but you really want to not have hard feelings for anyone, and see how he responds. I imagine he has done everything he can to to keep his head above water, and like a lot of people these days, was not able to make good with everyone with who he deals - file it under 'sad but true'. If worst-comes-to-worst, chalk it up to a learning experience to trust no one, and never front anything you can't afford to lose.
 
Tell him he can owe you the critters for as long as he needs to, but you really want to not have hard feelings for anyone, and see how he responds.
he responded already that he would take care of his end of the deal.... has not done so.. By your line of thinking any person who is scammed or not given their part of a trade should just give the person as much time as needed as long as there is no hard feelings.

Michael is a super guy and does not deserve to be treated like this. Nate needs to man up and finish the deal.....
 
Man, sorry to hear this bad news. I have a pair of northern concentric DBTs that I bought from him as hatchlings, and they are doing very well to this day. He also did a great job of picking me out a 1.1 pair when they were way too young to be able to sex accurately, but he did it. I'm thinking you might want to call him and leave a message letting him know you just want to talk and put this bad voodoo behind you so you can move on. Tell him he can owe you the critters for as long as he needs to, but you really want to not have hard feelings for anyone, and see how he responds. I imagine he has done everything he can to to keep his head above water, and like a lot of people these days, was not able to make good with everyone with who he deals - file it under 'sad but true'. If worst-comes-to-worst, chalk it up to a learning experience to trust no one, and never front anything you can't afford to lose.

Although I tend to agree with diplomacy, in this case....not. The last 2 shows I've been to, Nate's table/booth was doing just fine with animal and supply sales. Ive also been to his shop recently (wich was teaming with customers) Bottom line- Nate needs to make good on his debts if he wishes to continue seeing people at his table and store.

Jim MacDonald aka pythonjim:dgrin:
 
he responded already that he would take care of his end of the deal.... has not done so.. By your line of thinking any person who is scammed or not given their part of a trade should just give the person as much time as needed as long as there is no hard feelings.

Michael is a super guy and does not deserve to be treated like this. Nate needs to man up and finish the deal.....

Like I said, if you can't afford the loss, then don't front it. Anytime one loans money, animals, or carrots, one should count it a loss until it is made good.

In other words: homines accipiunt tamquam dant (People receive just as they give).
 
Like I said, if you can't afford the loss, then don't front it. Anytime one loans money, animals, or carrots, one should count it a loss until it is made good.

In other words: homines accipiunt tamquam dant (People receive just as they give).

So basically you don't feel like Nate is in the wrong at all?? Michael should just chalk it up to as a learning experience? That's ridiculous.. Tell me what will you do when something like this happens to you?

The point is Nate has not lived up to his part of the trade. And not just with one person. There are others who have yet to post. Two people were shorted in this thread alone.

BTW Nate cannot post in this thread cause he is banned from Fauna for trying to rip off Webslave.. But again I guess Rich should have just sucked it up and took it..
 
Anytime one loans money, animals, or carrots, one should count it a loss until it is made good.

It wasn't a loan, it was a trade, and a bad one at that. That's not a learning experience - that sounds a little more like theft. Nate 'bought' something and didn't pay - in this case the payment was supposed to be in animals, not cash. That doesn't change the fact that he ripped someone off. The OP has every right to be upset and is owed his end of the deal.
 
So basically you don't feel like Nate is in the wrong at all?? Michael should just chalk it up to as a learning experience? That's ridiculous.. Tell me what will you do when something like this happens to you?

The point is Nate has not lived up to his part of the trade. And not just with one person. There are others who have yet to post. Two people were shorted in this thread alone.

BTW Nate cannot post in this thread cause he is banned from Fauna for trying to rip off Webslave.. But again I guess Rich should have just sucked it up and took it..

That's not what I am saying at all, so don't try and put words in my mouth (or in this case, on my post?)
Anyway, what I am saying is if you have a legal recourse, and want to take it, go for it. In this case, I am pretty sure there is no legal recourse, so like the OP stated earlier, "I have pretty much come to the conclusion that nothing will come of this." So, rather than burn up any chance at all, I would suggest what I suggested earlier rather than back the guy up against the wall.
BTW, I've got over $2k owed to me by various people, but who cares if I ever see it? I'm not going hungry, and either is my wife or kid, we have houses in multiple states and two different countries, a hard choice sometimes as to which vehicle to take into town, boats, and overall, are blessed well beyond the top 1% of people on this earth (notice I said 'blessed'). So I must be doing something right, right? That something is putting people ahead of money, and living well off of 90% of my income that is blessed, rather than 100% of it that is cursed. Ooops - I just gave away my 'secret' to great personal wealth.
Here is my question for you now: How has this thread hurt Nate? It hasn't in the slightest. He'll still keep going on being Nate. Now if the OP, who seems to be a fine person, were to follow my advice, how do you think Nate would respond. I'll tell you. He would at first be defensive, then he would eventually drop his guard after he sees the OP doesn't really care about the money so much, and this would lead ol' nate to one conclusion: his friend he ripped off actually cares for him more than the all-mighty dollar. The only thing that would be rational for Nate to do at that point is to feel guilty and want to really set things right. Now this might not happen, but statistics would agree it has a higher probability with my line of reasoning than yours.
Consider this example of a recent transaction I did with the "King of Drymarchon". It had been 6 weeks of bugging my buddy in NJ to sell me one of his prized Suriname YTCs. These are the YTCs that act like an indigo, but look even better. They are the only ones you really want - not the Guyana locale that everyone has, which are mean, hard to get started, and don't have the beautiful purples in them like the Suriname do. The only guy who has them right now is this guy. He also has over 200 Drymarchon of the various other species. None are interbred as he is against this - something I argued with Tom Crutchfield about in recent emails. You can't interbreed Drymarchon and expect good results. Anyway, my friend tells me $650 for this Suriname, but then doesn't tell me how to pay, and keeps shirking me whenever I pressure him in the slightest. I can tell he really doesn't want to sell this animal even though he has 4 others just like it from that same clutch of yearlings. So what do I do? I send him a check for a grand and tell him the animal and his friendship are worth more to me than money. No what I got in return? He not only ships the Suriname I wanted, but adds in a wild-looking Unicolor Cribo whose mother is a WC from Nicauragua and is almost black. At first I thought it was a black tail, but the giveaway is the tail, as it is not jet black, but flecked. Basically, it is a minimum $500-750 animal that he threw in because he could afford to give it away, like he does a lot of his animals. Matter of fact, he probably gives away more than he sells, and how did he get into that position? I tell you it wasn't by putting money ahead of people.:NoNo:
 
Although I tend to agree with diplomacy, in this case....not. The last 2 shows I've been to, Nate's table/booth was doing just fine with animal and supply sales. Ive also been to his shop recently (wich was teaming with customers) Bottom line- Nate needs to make good on his debts if he wishes to continue seeing people at his table and store.

I agree. He contacted the OP after he failed to perform his part of the deal, and then apparently has not followed through. I would never do business with such a person.

Here is an interesting thread:

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=108967&highlight=swanson
 
Back
Top