OK guys let me see if I can answer all those questions. Man I love this argument stuff <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='

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Alan, I only suggested the tipping thing as a way to help some people out. I know that if I order animals to be shipped to me I'm at the mercy of the people on the other end. To me, (I'm not saying anyone else has to do this), if I was to ever make a large wholesale order, that I couldn't pick out my self, I would ask the person on the phone to let me speak to whoever was going to be pulling and packing my order. I would tell that person, "look man take your time and pick me out some good stuff and I'll throw $20 your way." (Ciro you can throw the $20 on your card along w/ the order). To me, and maybe only me, it's worth $20 to have that guy (the one picking the animals) looking out for me. Now I wouldn't tip an individual who was selling a snake over the net or something. I wouldn't tip a business owner like Neil (Snake Pit) or Joe (JP). But if I know that some guy who's probably packed 50 other orders that day is the one whose hands will pick out my animals I'll throw him a bone. I have also tipped guys down at Strickly's just for helping me find stuff and answering my questions. I'm a teacher full time so no I definately don't have too much $$, I just know that sometimes $5 goes a long way.
Now, as for how I spend my money, to me it works out better to buy lots of animals at low prices w/o a guarantee and get more animals for my $$. I don't buy many ball pythons after about the beginning of June because that's when the "bush babies" start coming in. If I do buy any they have to look really good from the start. But starting about two weeks ago and continuing for about the next 6-8 weeks all the c.b. baby ball pythons on EVERYONE'S list come from 2 or 3 different farms in Africa. I know that if I get them soon after they arrive most will be great little snakes, reguardless of where or whom I purchase them from. I personally don't need someone to feed it twice and give me a guarantee, that if I can't get it to feed, I can send it back (at my expense) and they'll replace it (as long as I pay shipping). I know all the same tricks they do to get them to feed. I've been doing this 10 years and I have a degree in biology so I know a little about how living things work. Would I suggest that everyone use my method, hell no. It won't work for everyone. But it works for me. Many people just don't have that kind of time. To tell the truth, I don't either, so I hire one of my students and teach him how to do it. He can feed and water 30 or so snakes an hour and he gets paid $7 an hour (about .23 per snake), the mouse costs me .35 so each feeding costs about $1 if I include gas to go get the mice. I said before about 10% of the snake don't make it so if I buy 100 snakes for $500 and 10 die, I end up w/ 90 snakes that cost me $5.55 plus $1 per feeding. I can sell those snakes to my customers for $15 and still make a decent profit. That's exactly how a Pro Exotics or other dealer does it so why can't I?
Now finally, as for the morphs, I think it's more than the cash that the snake sells for. There are PLENTY of people w/ all kinds of cash who would love to get their hands on those animals. I think it's who that exporter calls first. And I think he calls the guy that makes him the most money first, or maybe it's the guy who flew the importer over from Africa or India and bought the guy and the guy's kid Disney tickets. But hey, that just conjecture on my part.
Brian and Laura, I believe you're right JP used to buy almost all of his stuff from other importers. That has changed right now I would say it's about 50/50 depending on exactly which animal we're talking about. I personally don't really care where the animals came from, I just want them to be in good shape when I get them. Sorry to hear about those balls, what type did you get? Adults or babies? I just won't even bother w/ adults they just always seem to be problem feeders and I don't think it matters where you get them from. As for JP's business practices, it's my opinion that if a business' practices are that bad they don't stay in business. I.E. if nobody in a particular town wants a porn store in their town AND nobody patronizes the store it won't be there very long. But we all know that it really doesn't work that way. Everybody sneaks in the back door buys their video or their magazine and goes home to enjoy themselves. I could name names of people that buy from JP, but I won't. Many of you might be suprised, I will only say that I buy from him all the time and will continue to do so in the future. He gets some great stuff. And based on how busy he is, I'm not the only one.