• 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.

Southern Exotics and Reptile Convention 5/20-5/21 Aiken,SC

Yeah, I'm interested as well. I was planning on going but I had an non-reptile animal emergency come up this weekend. Would've liked to see the herps available and chat with the vendors. Maybe next time....
 
Well, im the person who bought the rack from Alan at Jungle. Though the vendors didn't enjoy the show, I got some good deals....number one, an awesome rack from an awesome company. Also picked up some Eastern box turtles, one that is crazy orange....a russian tort, some colubrids, and 3 CBB balls, and yes, i think they were the only cbb balls at the show, and they were underneath someones table in a bag...go figure.

It was nice to put some names with faces...Very nice to meet Audrey of Cricket's Critters....there was a bunch of BS around the show though (not audrey's table of course).

I'm just tired of seeing 300 RES in a dish, and half of them dead with their eyes being eaten out. That just seems to be the norm at South Carolina shows to me....

Hunter Jackson
 
Thanks Hunter ,

After seeing you post before mine i remeber you saying abouthe wedding Glad you like the rack and thanks for the purchase lol
 
I thought the show went okay for a first time show. Cathy had a lot of vendors with some very nice animals. Saturday, there was a steady flow of people through the door, but Sunday was slow. For a first time show in Aiken, it was all right. I think people are scared to put faith in an awesome vendors list because of all the false advertising done by a different promoter. But I think the ones that did come through the door finally got their money's worth. A building full of vendors instead of the 20 they were seeing at previous shows. Some people did not make their expenses back, and others did extremely well. This is typical of all shows on the east coast(with the exception of Hamburg & Daytona). I did not sell out, like I usually do. But I also chose not to wholesale my animals. And I still made money after expenses. I will vend Cathy's next show. I'm sure the next one will be even better.
And to you Hunter: It was really nice meeting you. I love to meet other people from the forums. Can I count on seeing you again at the next one? Maybe we'll have more time to talk.
 
Oops. Sorry, forgot about Alex. Gila Productions also have good shows. And I'm sure that in time, Cathy's shows will grow larger. You have to start somewhere.
 
Cathy & Danny are GREAT people no doubt about that , it was never questioned . But i will say i never saw that steady flow of people through the door saturday and not on sunday. I will say that MANy of the people i spoke with in regards to there utcome when i left sunday aroun 2pm had not made expenses back and many had not sold anything. Sunday shows are always the worse unless vendors dod good saturday dueto the bible belt but who are we kidding bible thumpers dont buy there kids snakes and cages lol . I will say for me the shows are just not profitable ... I was advertising cages presold to pick up at the show for three motnhs prior and none were purchased the show prices for pickup at the show were 4 ft cages $135 each as many as they wanted to buy... i took NO cages to the show to sell. Nonethe less i think the eastern shows from what i have seen in NC & SC are going down and yes because alot has to do with other promoters lying to vendors & customers.

I really dont see why promoters cant work together to promote ALL thier shows with each other by all accounts its extra advertising for the promoter and lets the customers see that promoters look out for everyone not just themselves .
 
I didn't say that the place was packed Saturday. But I did have someone passing by(or stopping at) my tables consistantly. Sunday was slow. But I still had a great time talking with other people. Also had a chance to really look & see what everyone else had.
 
I guess maybe by the time the people in the show walked around the two isles they just never saw me and a stack of racks and snakes sitting by ourself against the wall. I think total saturday & sunday we might have spoken to around 30 ppl TOTAL that were not vendors, mopst of who i spoke to at the booth were vendors that were sellingnothing at thier booths because they would be at mine ( not that there were people to sell to ) but none the less I know for me shows have come to a screeching hault The people of NC /SC/GA & Tenn just aint looking to buy cages / racks or captive bred boas at a show so for me to continue to drop $500 a show and sell nothing becuae people would rather buy a WC $10 ball or a $49 boa that has not eat yet and likely aint going to then something thats been eating two months CBB & clean. thats what kills me when a CBB show is done and 90% of the tables have WC or something people were walking through the door with because they went down the road leaving the show and come across some box turtles at the pond and then bring them to sell to a vendor for $2.50 ea .... just shows that a true CBB show will never happen in the carolinas not longs as WC can be sold for 1/10 of the price the CB cant compete.
 
I know what you mean. Junk dealers make it hard on the breeders. However, there are still ones that want only high quality healthy animals.
 
My wife and I did pretty good at the show. We were able to make our money back on the hotel, gas and our tables. And, we were able to come home with some great animals that we wanted. We always manage to come home with more animals than we left with, lol.

There definitely wasn't alot of people who came through the door on either day. In fact, we were told Sunday that less than 500 people came in on Saturday. And I know there was even less on Sunday. The turnout was bad, but, I think it was a good show overall. I would have liked to have made more money. But for my wife and I, it gives us a chance to get away and hang out with some good friends that we only get to see every couple of months. I love being around the animals, and I love sharing stories with everyone.

Thanks to Jungle Habitats Plastics for selling me one of the only cages that they had for sale. Thanks to Alan and Terry, I was finally able to display my Big Blacktail Rattlesnake(my "prize" animal). I am highly impressed with this cage and would recommend Alan's cages to anyone.

I have to agree with everyones comments on WC animals. Some of the WC animals at alot of our shows are horrible. Personally, I am so sick of seeing these awful looking Copperheads, Canebrakes, Cottonmouths, etc. I would like to see a separate section for people who deal with alot of backyard animals. I usually only have 30-50 max at any one time. And, I care for these animals like they are for my own collection. With the fears of parasites and air-born diseases, I don't enjoy keeping my animals next to tables that are loaded with WC. But, that is just part of my opinion on the situation. I know that it will be just about impossible to stop unhealthy WC to enter our shows.

Enough of my babbling. Thanks to Cathy and Danny. DJ and I had alot of fun at the show.

SAL RICCO @ WNCHerps
 
Sal thanks for the business ... Terry thanks you for buying his cage lol aswell. Was nice to talk you and the wifey again. And your Blacktail is AWSOME !! and they dont look to shabby in that triplex either lol. Im could have alot more fun had i sold more but ehhhh live n learn . Hope to talk to you soon take care
Alan
 
I didn't come home rich, but at least I got paid something for having a great time. Thanks to Cathy, Danny, Monica & Jason for a great weekend. I love the SHBCT that I purchased from J&M Exotics. Jason, he will make a great sire for the offspring. He's settled in well & has eaten already. I'd also like to thank Brett from Snakehook.net & our friend Jonathan. Also Chuck Hurd. Love ya Buddy. You're wonderful. I'm looking forward to the next show. Til then, y'all take care..
 
Speaking of chuck herd ....

he hands down had the nicest Canebreak In the show .. that thing was blasting with colors .. pinks blues and chuck was real nice to talk to aswell , Jon Pulliam well hes still trying rogaine for men but is a fun guy to talk to and is alwasy fun to see at the show , Audry she will tell ya how great she is at pool and how she beats the locals in there own poolhall lol , Cathy , Danny Jason & monica are all great people aswell, there are more but im bad with names most of the time ,, oh yeah snake hook pimp was there as audry noted and Brett remember i told ya i needed another set of of long tongs .. sure coulda used them this evening at the river lol Ill be calling ya this week for a set Ohh audry thanks for the use of the "Box" talk to you later
 
Thank You All!

First we would like to Thank everyone who vended and attended the show this past weekend! We do appreciate your support.

Here is where it becomes a long post......

I do agree this was not a good show how ever I do think that it was a ok for most.

There was just under 500 paying attendees...At 3:00pm on Sunday we stopped charging people because there were a number of vendors that were packing up. I would like to say before anyone thinks it was not advertised...This is how we did it.....
We had radio ads running Tuesday through Sunday
Radio Remote on Sat
Fliers from Augusta GA to Greenville SC
Banners running on Fauna, Cornsnakes.com, TRR and a number of other sites
Reptiles Magazine Ad
Signs (realistate type) along the road
Those are the Major and we had lots of minor ones as well.

I am not really sure what if anything else could have brought in more buying attendees. I personally went to 90% of the vendors and asked them what should we have done different... Most were simpathetic and understood that not much more could have been done.
One vendor said that we should do 80 thousand fliers (we did 7000)
The one suggestion that I think would help is to do advertising in the local papers a week or so ahead of time.
We did have a great vendor lineup here is who I can think of ithout looking at my paper work....

G&G Reptile
Diamond Reptile Breeders
SerpenXotics
SunCoast Reptile Distributor
Pullians Pet Center
J&M Exotics
Don Hyatt Reptiles
Chuck Hurd(awesome SC Venomous Display)
Ron Nichols
Apostle Reptiles
Carolina Coastal Herp Society
Once Bitten Exotics (Thanks for the Bags and T shirts for door prizes)
SnakeHook.Net(Thanks for the 2 hooks you donated)
Cricket's Critters
Middle GA Exotics
WNC Herps( Thanks for the baby Bearded Dragon)
Full Spectrum Reptiles(Thanks for all your help)
GA Bearded Dragons
AHP Exotics
Alan Bosch Reptiles
Premium Crickets(Thanks for the Pizza and salad friday night and the 2 boxes
Crickets donated)
CCS Constrictors
New Age Pets
Carolina Constrictors
Dr Bob Herrington
Hot Herps
Mr John's Farm
James and Carrie Brewster (Thank you both You were a great hepl)
NC Geckos
Too Fast Reptile
Cold Blooded Interprise
This Pets For You( Great Cage you donated I think that young Lady that won it was very happy)
Just Lizards Inc
And last but not least...Jungle Habitats Plastics( Thanks for the great door prize you donated)

Ok I may have forgoten some anyways it is getting late and I am tired I will post more tomorrow

Sincerely,
Cathy Elrod
 
Jason and I would like to thank everyone that came to the show. We had a GREAT time hanging out with all of our friends and can't wait till the next show! Despite everything that went on we can't wait till ..................... Stay tuned folks its coming ;)
 
Audrey: You will see me at more shows, dont worry, and I will be getting a nice pretty chameleon once i get the proper setup (the only reason i didnt this show is that i do not have the setup at home and i would not dare bring in a 'high care' animal without the proper setup)

Hopefully by the next show I'll be on my way enough to have my own table(s), for now...it's internet sales....though i do have stuff setup with Tom from time to time...
 
OH MY GOD!!! I can't believe I left off our number one supporter..............
Speaker Showman Extrodinaire "The Big Snake Daddy" himself
MR. Roark Ferguson :bow01: :bow01: Please Forgive ME Oh Great One :bow01: :bow01:
 
Oh and A big Thank you to Roark for the awesome interviews with the newspapers and the TV station and for all your help. Those were some great articles about the show!
 
Back
Top