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REPTICON / Super Pet Expo (NOT GOOD)

jtkuhl said:
Same story @ their Omaha / Council Bluffs show recently! The wife and I paid the $10 each to get in the door and they had (3) vendors there! Total waste of my time and money! I could have went to PetCo and seen more selection of reptiles! Being a boa breeder in that local area, I didnt even know there was a show until a few days before! Piss poor!

Jeff Kuhl
Kuhl Exotics
Click to expand...

My exact feelings as well. Took my family there, at the time we went there was probably 4 other people in attendance. I felt horrible for the few vendors who drove there, one guy was from Colorado, no doubt he lost money. Other 4 people in attendance were from South Dakota. They drove hours to get there. The whole thing should have been a huge embarrassment to Repticon. Got suckered once, that will never happen again!
 
I think Shows are a thing of the past. Buyers are not saving their money to go to the shows like they did in years past. They go on facebook and bid on auctions now. Times have changed, It sucks, but its the truth!
Click to expand...

I'm interested in this topic but I don't want to derail Repticon's BOI thread. I started a thread in the general discussion forum about the plight of reptile shows in general...
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1758949#post1758949
 
I agree with Jason...
Too many shows. I think there are about 15 shows per year within 2-3 hours of Tampa, FL. So many people coming to look (which isn't all bad) and not enough serious buyers.

Repticon is getting theirs with the admission, etc. but I remember when shows used to be a destination and people went to buy. You would mark that day on your calendar and make sure to get off work, or whatever you needed to do to get there...

Now, if you can't make it to one, no big deal, there is another a month (or less) away.

If you take the cumulative sales of those 15 shows and put them into 2-3 shows a year, I guarantee you'd have some very happy vendors...

So I don't know that sales are down (at least in Florida), they are just so spread out between all the shows. I vend 2-3 Repticon shows a year, because I hate to miss and lose out on a potentially good weekend, but I'm getting less and less optimistic with every one.
 
SafariPets said:
I agree with Jason...
Too many shows. I think there are about 15 shows per year within 2-3 hours of Tampa, FL. So many people coming to look (which isn't all bad) and not enough serious buyers.

Repticon is getting theirs with the admission, etc. but I remember when shows used to be a destination and people went to buy. You would mark that day on your calendar and make sure to get off work, or whatever you needed to do to get there...

Now, if you can't make it to one, no big deal, there is another a month (or less) away.

If you take the cumulative sales of those 15 shows and put them into 2-3 shows a year, I guarantee you'd have some very happy vendors...

So I don't know that sales are down (at least in Florida), they are just so spread out between all the shows. I vend 2-3 Repticon shows a year, because I hate to miss and lose out on a potentially good weekend, but I'm getting less and less optimistic with every one.
Click to expand...

Totally Agree with you Troy. We actually did the Ft. Pierce (1) day show last Saturday and did very well! I am assuming that we did well because 1. we had a few mutations that others didn't and 2. It was a brand new location/ Venue with a new crowd of people. There was definitely a higher percentage of Buyers than there were at the last Ft. Lauderdale & West Palm shows. I think those that do go to the shows now...go there to look to see what new mutations they may want to work with...Then they wait for one to show up on a facebook auction. There are still some loyal customers that understand the benefits of purchasing directly from the breeder. Unfortunately, they are few and far between. I'm not to sure how successful and/or profitable Repticon will be in the not to distant future. They have lost a bunch of their larger venders down here: Ben Siegel Reptiles, Underground Reptiles, YellowBelly Ball and several others. I only listed them because they normally book 4 tables each.
 
I have to say that my experience with Cathy and Danny Elrod as vendor coordinators with Repticon has been great. I never call Cathy without getting a call back in less than an hour. Usually less. I understand that not all of the vendor coordinators actually return calls or emails, byt Cathy sure does.
 
A lot of good points in this thread. I decided to try vending at the Repticon Baltimore show this past January and was less than pleased.

As previous posters have mentioned, the Repticon folks sell tables to non-reptile related businesses, which does indicate that this solely about the money and nothing else. I was assigned to a table that was wedged between the kitchen cabinet salesman and the people slinging sugar gliders. Next to the sugar gliders was a roofing & gutter salesman. Then they had the nerve to come around during the show and try to sell me a table for the next show in May!!!

They also need to change the way they advertise this event. Maybe change the wording to include "sale." The majority of the people who attended were families with small children who interpreted "Reptile Show" as "a place where people come to show off their reptiles." So basically there were many families who set up in the food area and stayed the ENTIRE 6-8 hour day. They would move from table to table asking the vendors to hold animals. I was surprised to see so many people on Sunday (which was Super Bowl Sunday) who had already been there 5-6 hours on Saturday.

I won't be doing another Repticon show ever. Nothing about this experience was positive. The behavior of the Repticon management and some of the other vendors was beyond atrocious.

Vote with your wallets, people. If you don't buy a table, Repticon goes away.
 
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