• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
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    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.

Getting rid of your collection - How do you do it?

X

Xelda

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For the past couple of months, I've been toying with the idea of selling or giving away my entire reptile collection. That would be about 35 geckos and 50 colubrids. I'd like some advice from people who have ever had to do this sort of thing before.

Let me talk a little bit more about my situation. I'm the kind of person who gets extremely attached to my animals. They've got names and stories. Almost half of my herp collection has had some kind of check up at the vet. I worked really hard for what I have--to be able to afford it, to maintain it, and to rehab some of my animals when they were sick. I dreamed up fantastic breeding projects but I discovered one irony which is that I had a hard time selling any babies I produced because... they were my babies. I guess I'm not cut out to be a reptile breeder.

I think what got me considering getting out of reptiles is that I've been concentrating more on the invertebrate hobby. I enjoy working with inverts a lot more and see possibilities pursuing this academically. But I feel like the reptiles hold me back because they take up time and space.

My main questions are:
1. How do you handle watching the animals go one by one? I think that's the one thing that might make me buckle down and hang onto my animals even longer. I'd like to have all the reptiles gone in one fell swoop and not live with reminders of what I used to have.
2. Should I consider selling the animals for less than they're worth or giving them away? My main priority is to see them go to a good home, but I've always believed if a person can't afford to buy a reptile maybe he or she can't afford to take care of it.
3. Should I keep some of my animals or stick to the plan of not keeping any at all? My current plan is to first sell off the animals I'm not quite so attached to and see how small I can get my collection, but that might not get anything done at all. I've also heard from one person that if I hold back any animals, I will just get back into the hobby all over again.

Any thoughts?
 
The easiest way to sell off a collection is to wholesale it to a dealer - keep in mind, though, that you will be lucky to get half of market value. You can try advertising a group sale, but you will invariably get people that want to pick and choose. Another option is herp shows - but unless you have something that is in high demand, or of exceptional quality, you have to be prepared to take things home. Pricing, of course, can be the difference. As a general rule, when selling off a collection (if intent upon doing it in one fell swoop), you should plan on getting somewhat less than market value...just how much will depend on how quickly you want to move them. Keep in mind that no matter how low you price things, people will usually try to dicker...especially when dealing with quantity. (beware, if you price too low, people tend to wonder why, lol)
 
I would suggest finding them homes through an good reptile rescue. That way they are finding loving homes that know and care about them. The rescue i help spends a huge amount of time screening all the people interested so they know if it is the best home or not. When your selling something for really cheap you are not usual going to get good homes at all.
Send me an email if you need more info or help with any thing.
~Samuel
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Olivia,
for a number of reasons I had to give up my large snakes. I was difficult but I thought the person who they went to was an exceptionally good reptile person.
I still have a handful of snakes, and my lizards which I love. I think for me even though there is a time crunch, having them around is part of my life. I personally think you are a terrific reptile owner, I've seen your questions and posts.
You might consider a two step process, putting aside and keeping for now your very fave animals. If the time factor still is too much to handle you can always sell those also.
I think you have exceptional and healthy animals. I would ask some sort of fee just to make sure they are not immediately resold.
Good luck Olivia, all the best to you.
 
When I had to give away my chameleon (I was running low on money and barely had enough to feed him), I just put myself in the mindset that he was better off with that person. That was a couple years ago, I havent really had to give too many away.
 
Thanks for the replies, you guys. I'm overwhelmed by the offers to adopt or buy my animals. I will have to think about this more.
 
You can list all of your animals and have a sort of auction with an ending date and one ship date. By the ending date the highest offer for each group or animal posted pays you and everything sold gets shipped out or picked up on the same day. Leave a week or so between end and ship dates so animals that are backed out on can be offered to the 2nd highest offer.

I'm looking for a few colubrids and leopard geckos, so if you can send me a list I might make an offer on a few.
Jake
[email protected]
 
When my hubby started having serious health issues, I had to give up many of my repts .I contacted my local herp society and found someone to take them to be used in an educational program.I can only hope thats what happened.I lost money but felt good about it..I only kept my most favorites, the ones that Ive had the longest and just couldn't bare to part with.So now I have only 3 snakes and 2 lizards, very manageable...
 
Olivia, if theres anything I can do to help, just let me know. Send me a list of the colubrids you have if you get the time. :)
 
Sorry you have to part with your animals. If it were me I'd post adds and try to sell them that way.. There are some good rescue orgs. out there but there are also some that will take your animal and turn around and sell it or breed them and sell the babies so be real careful there. Good luck..Randy
 
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