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Price Fixing by Kingsnake Moderators

bcherps

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I recently posted an ad on Kingsnake.com for 05 and 06 female balls. I priced them at 20 cents per gram thinking 100gram babies 20 bucks, through 200 for a 1000 grammer. I thought this was about what the market was at right now, but I guess I am wrong?

To my suprise I got a nice little email saying my ads were pulled as I need to have my animals reasonably priced.

Guess, I pissed off one of the bigger names who spends a bunch on advertising banner and is whining they can't make wheelbarrows of cash by the minute with their balls anymore.

Too bad you can be a blantant scammer, sell animals that are not yours, or not be legitamately permitted for the animals.business in your area that you are selling and post on Kingsnake as long as you keep the prices where Kingsnake wants them.

Thanks
ben cole
 
Interesting... I saw your ad, and didn't think much of it pricewise.

Reword it and try again! I think that the price is resonable.
 
Maybe math is not thier strong suit? Maybe they don't realize what a gram is? Maybe they don't realize that 99% of all the ball ads in the world have a gram weight? Maybe they have no idea about the reptile industry since they are trying to turn into a music site? Maybe they don't have confidence in thier customers being able to understand the pricing schematic?

or maybe I just haven't bought enough banner ads for them to consider me an important vendor!!!!!!!!


thanks
ben cole
 
Ben,

Just take a breath and try again...

If they take you down again after that, then you have a fight..

It may have been a mistake.

Good luck, and remember that we are all human, and a prone to mistakes and accidents.

:) It's gunna be alright!
 
My friend, you have the right to sell the animals for $1 if thats what you want. That is BS! Post it up again and if they give you a hard time, find a different site to post your ads. Goodluck!!!
 
This actually isn't the first I've heard Kingsnake.com doing this.

Alan of Jungle Habitats had his account suspended because the mods at Kingsnake thought his asking price for his male Snow boa was too low.
 
Everybody needs to remember that Big Brother, I mean Kingsnake, is only trying to protect us from ourselves. Afterall, who, other then Kingsnake.com, would know better about anything herp related. - {insert heavy sarcasm here}!
 
Thanks for the heads up. I'll be sure to check other forum's classifieds to make sure I'm getting the best deals.

There has been a lot of light shed on questionable business practices in just the past week here in BOI. With all of the price dropping and now price-fixing that seems to be happening, I'm glad this place exists. Whether the claims are with or without substantiation it does make me a more cautious consumer, which is very good.
 
I dont see how it was a mistake. They actually told him told him the reason they were pulling it so they knew exactly what they were doing. Im not the only one to notice a sort of "clique" (sp?) between kingsnake and the big name breeders. They pulled my question from one of the forums one time and all I did was ask if there were any places I could find rat breeder racks that didnt cost thousands of dollars like Freedom Breeder racks charges. Perhaps kingsnake gets a commission from certain peoples' sales.
 
If all of those people who have had problems at KS would use the classifieds here, they would have a genuine opportunity to get their animals sold at a price they wanted to sell.
 
http://www.justice.gov/atr/public/guidelines/211578.htm

In most cases price fixing is illegal , kingsnake nor any other private or public entity cannot in my understanding regulate the price of it's vendors to match other vendors prices etc..In fact I believe it is a felony. I would save the email and contact Jeff or whoever is running the show down there and ask for an explanation. If they cannot provide clear and legal explanation I would contact the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice.
I seriously doubt Kingsnake would want to open up this can of worms.
I would suggest your friend who was suspended do the same. This goes against almost everything American and I would definetly persue the matter.
 
The Mod has to be math challenged~ the prices are reasonable. I just posted an ad yesterday on KS selling animals at the same prices (and a few lower for animals that have been difficult for me and I suspect will continue to be a pain for whoever buys them). My ad was not pulled (now I better check my email to see if my ad was pulled!)

If I were you I would just send a note back with the math worked out for them~ $200 for a 1000 gram female is NOT an unreasonable low price. Just make it idiot proof for them~ and maybe the idiot will be justifiably embarrassed at his/her lack of basic math skills.

Good Luck!
 
To make my post a little clearer..
If you were to advertise ball pythons for 1.00ea kingsnake cannot ask you in any way to raise your price etc.. not by 1 red cent. This is price fixing. They connot pull you ad either.
Only people who should determine if a price is reasonable is the seller in setting his own selling price and the buyer.
 
Justin Mitcham said:
To make my post a little clearer..
If you were to advertise ball pythons for 1.00ea kingsnake cannot ask you in any way to raise your price etc.. not by 1 red cent. This is price fixing. They connot pull you ad either.
Only people who should determine if a price is reasonable is the seller in setting his own selling price and the buyer.
:iagree: This is a free market.
 
lucille said:
If all of those people who have had problems at KS would use the classifieds here, they would have a genuine opportunity to get their animals sold at a price they wanted to sell.
The only flaw, and I'm not doggin' you here, is that KS get's WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY more activity than Fauna does. Way more.

Still though, IF people would follow through with the process when they get ripped off or stepped on, it would be a better place for everyone. In regards to KS.
 
Wilomn said:
The only flaw, and I'm not doggin' you here, is that KS get's WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY more activity than Fauna does. Way more.

That's a fact.

However.

If KS is doing what I think I'm hearing on the post which started this thread which is micromanaging and messing with vendors, there is an opportunity for Fauna to blossom in the classified area as an alternative because I see it as much more user friendly.
I think there are many vendors who might not want to be told what to do and how to sell, and if that happens anywhere on any site with any frequency, the vendors will look for new places to sell.
 
That is really odd because I currently have a proven female ball on KS with the price listed as 25 cents per gram.

I would question the mod and demand an explanation.

I can't see why one would stay and one would get pulled when the only price difference is 5 cents per gram in asking price.

You could price it at 10 cents per gram and they should not be able to touch your ad.
 
I think someone must have either missed a decimal or put one in the wrong place BUT, that is still not cool at all and I do believe illegal as well.

Jeffy's got some splaining to dooooo.
 
KS Edits

I posted in a thread about the Ball Market about a 2006 female albino sold for $800 at Daytona. I witnessed the sale. That is all I said. Nothing against the TOS. In 15 minutes MY input in the thread was deleted. I then entered a ? in the same thread that I have never seen them edit only part of a thread before, why now. They usually just ax the whole thread. Then in five minutes just my part was deleted again. There is definitely some input from breeders, maybe big guys, maybe not, but when the truth hurts, the threads disappear.
 
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