• 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.

Psychology 101: Price.

What kind of pricing attracts more your attention

  • The price of the animal alone

    Votes: 7 10.4%

  • The price of the animal shipping included

    Votes: 29 43.3%

  • The price of the animal plus shipping

    Votes: 21 31.3%

  • I don't have a preference

    Votes: 10 14.9%
  • Total voters
    67
I prefer it when a seller says "$100 shipped"... I hardly ever reply to ads that say "$50 plus $50 shipping", in my mind, it looks like price after price after price... I go for simplicity. The simpler the transaction looks like it will take place, the more I am intrigued... but I guess I'm not like a lot of people, because I never ask the seller to take more pictures of to prove themselves that this animal is legit. I HATE being annoying to a seller. I know there are a lot of animals I will be selling, and I know myself I'll just be ignoring the one-lined responses I get, or the "show me more pictures" replies. But I take a lot of pictures so that's why I guess I would ignore them.

Anyway, back on track, I never reply to posts stating "$50 + shipping". I hardley ever reply to posts stating "$50 + $50 shipping", even if they are animals I would buy!
The posts I ALWAYS reply to are "$100 shipped", I LOVE posts like that!
And then when I'm interested in that animal, I look to see what other animals that person has for sale. So then I just email them all together with the list of ani's I'm wanting to get a total + shipping for all of them. :)
 
When you selling a single animal, I prefer the "$total Shipped" approach. But when selling multiple animals that mix and match, I prefer to see the price of the actual animal since I know that the shipping cost only has to be added once. I don't like saying "100 shipped for A, 200 shipped for b", because they (almost) always leave out the fact that it's $250 shipped for A and B ($50 for A, $150 for B, $50 shipping). It gets even more complicated when doing this for 5 or 6 animals. I think listing "shipping included prices" for multiple animals seems like a higher price if buying multiple animals, which discourages larger sales and means more, smaller sales for the seller (which is in turn more work).
 
My answer actually changes based on the price of the animal in question. For low-priced animals (say, $100 and under) I prefer to have the animal price with shipping listed separately. It just makes it easier to quickly compare prices and also it's easier for my brain to accept that I'm paying $30 for a $30 animal instead of seeing the price listed as $60. Yes, I know that it's silly, as I pay the same no matter how it's listed, but it's hard for me to quell that initial reaction of "There's no way I'd pay THAT MUCH for that snake!" when the total price is quoted.

Now, when I bought a green tree python for around $750, I liked having the simplicity of shipping being included in the price. When we're talking several hundred dollars, the extra money doesn't strike me as making the price appreciably higher and if I'm willing to pay $700 for an animal, I'm likely to also be willing to pay $750.
 
I voted no preference but I think if I ever listed anything I would do something like price + shipping because I do not deal with high dollar items. Like others have stated, it avoids that initial sticker shock for the $90.00 normal corn. If you don't mention shipping in the ad I would assume that the price in the ad includes shipping. Something like "normal corn snake $50.00" would make me assume that I if send you $50.00 you would send me the corn. For higher ticket items I would probably add shipping in. To me $800.00 shipped sounds better than $750.00 plus $50.00 shipping and in the first case I would feel like I am getting something for free (the shipping) and that would make me happy. In either case, if anyone asked how much I paid for the snake I would say $800.00 (unless it was my wife then I would say $300.00)


Clay alluded to a pet peeve of mine regarding the pricing and selling of pairs or groups. When I see an ad that lists 1.1 of something and then the copy goes on to list a price of $100.00 and when you contact the guy he says no, that's $100.00 each and gets insulted because he was not smart enough to post a decent ad. Granted, value should dictate the "each" part but not always. Sometimes people have very legitimate reasons for selling animals at bargain prices. To me, 1.1 means 2 animals and if you put up an ad that says 1.1 leopard geckos, $100.00 that means you get 2 leopard geckos for $100.00 and not $100.00 each.
 
I also voted for the prices of the animal and the shipping together. It lets me know what I'm going to be paying up front. Either way it's usually going to be less than I'm paying at the pet store.
 
Here's one to consider.
I had an animal listed at what I thought was a very good price. The response to the ad was questions about whether it was sick since the price was "low". I relisted it at a higher price and now there is a ton of interest. Are people that cynical that they think a low price automatically means sick snake?
 
For some reason I don't like the word "firm" in the ad. To me it indicates a seller that is hard to deal with - no pun intended. They don't like emails or questions etc. Any seller can be firm on their price. So why is it necessary to put it in the ad. I feel we are starting out on the wrong foot.

Also, what does OBO mean exactly. If I make an offer, and don't get the animal, is the seller going to provide a list of the offers to prove to me mine wasn't the best? Does that mean after a certain time period the animals has to be sold - like in an auction. In truth, he isn't really going to take the best offer, he is willing to intertain a "reasonable offer". So why don't they say so. Something like "Make an offer" or "Reasonable offers entertained"
Kevin
 
Last edited:
I put this one on the quality issue. I think when you go to the store and you see a whole row of X from multiple brands for $20, and another exactly like the rest but $5, it really makes me ask the question "What's wrong with this one" If everyone else is selling for $20 in order to stay profitable, why is brand Y so much cheaper. I just dont' trust that it's going to be as good of quality as the entire isle of $20 items.

It's a good thing. It means you can charge more :)
 
In a marketing class I had many years ago we looked at an informal study that compared classified ads for the exact same item, I think it was a refrigerator. 2 adds were placed and worded almost identically, they were just changes enough to make it not so obvious that they were not the same thing but all the particulars were the same, they had different phone numbers so people couldn't tell that way. One had the thing as free for hauling it away and the other was something cheap like $25.00. The one for $25.00 got twice as many responses. I think there are a couple of things at play, one is a quality to price issue and another is the theory that if something is to good to be true it probably is. Many people will not respond if they think the add is too good to be true.
 
I don't think anyone has mentioned this reason for keeping the price and shipping separate. What happens if the buyer is not happy with the snake and wants a refund. There are no health issues, and there was no misrepresentation involved, it just wasn't what he wanted. Assuming the seller has a policy that allows returns for such reasons minus the shipping, how do you handle it if the shipping was included in the price.

Example: I buy a snake for 200.00 plus $50.00 shipping ($250.00 total for you mathematically challenged) with satisfaction guaranteed. I get the the snake and I am not happy with the color, it just doesn't fit in with my project or whatever. Anyway, the seller says satisfaction guaranteed and is willing to refund the price of the snake but not the shipping which is something I completely understand. I would expect a refund of $200.00 in this case and I would pay to have the snake shipped back.

If, on the other hand, I bought the same snake snake for $250.00 shipped, or shipping included, I would read this as the same as free shipping, and I would expect a refund of $250.00 in this case.

I'm sure some of you will disagree on my interpretation of the wording but it is something to think about and it could help avoid hassles
 
Although low price may not necessarily entail inferior quality it always makes you wonder. Not so long there was someone on KS selling baby ball pythons for $50 shipped. Can we say those animals were lower quality? No, not necessarily, but then again shipping overnight is running close to $50…On the other hand although high prices are not synonymous with high quality most people make that association.

Regards
 
We use total price

We have most always given a total price including shipping. The reason being is that people want to know how much the animal(s) will cost to get them. To use an above example 45 + 45 shipping is 90 dollars. Therefore the snake is 90 dollars, whether you call it 45 + 45 or 90 dollars. People like knowing how much something will cost to their door. To address another point one can also say this shipping cost includes up to 4 items or whatever amount with no additional shipping charges. Based on our experiences people like one price such as 950.00 instead of 900.00+ 50.00 shipped. After all 950.00 is the real price because however you slice it in order to get the animal you will have to pay 950.00 not 900.00.

Digby Rigby [email protected]
_________________________________
My feeders are cooler than your pets :D
 
If the price is listed as being $250 plus shipping, most breeders say shipping costs $75 for ground service. So, if I find another ad that says $275 shipped, I'm more inclined to go with that one, even if the other breeder may be offering $25 shipping instead of $75. It just saves time from having to ask everybody how much shipping is, and having it included just seems considerate. Nobody is really going to ask how much the animal would be not shipped unless they were planning to pick it up, which rarely happens, and in that event, they will ask.
 
In my opinion, being from a Winter cold weather state, shipping CHARGES aren't all that important, just that it is done properly and I'll pay more for BETTER shipping. I think price of the animal, and then get a seperate shipping estimate from the breeder when inquiring about the specific animal is the way to go...at least for me...Nothing like trying to order a reptile when its 28 degrees outside, and waiting for the weather to clear, but having some breeder tell you, oh, no problem, I ship with heat packs...der der der... :)
 
Shipping

We do not ship second rate even bugs we ship at least USPS express. WE include shipping in our prices. A;sp we state how much extrsa animals are for example if something would be 200 shipped we also say how many and what price each additional animal would be that could be included in the same shipping such as say 100 shipped 50 + 50 = 100 and each additional animal would be 50 dollars added to the previous price.

Digby Rigby [email protected]
 
Honestly, when I see a 'shipped' price, I knock 50 bucks off of it and see how it looks then. When I see a 'plus shipping' price, I add 50. The actual shipping charge is going to vary. I'm not necessarily more pleased with seeing shipping included in the price, unless that price looks REALLY good with the 50 knocked off.
 
Back
Top