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Wading thru "Who" is real and "whos" not!

tinmantribe5

tinmantribe5

THE TINMAN
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Hello I was wondering if any one else felt like they were spending more time trying to find out wich classifieds are Real people or Scammers!
When I first joined back in 2006 it seemed like their was a lot of reputable Breeders on here,you kinda knew who you buying from thru word of mouth from people you knew that got a real cool snake from lets say Jane Do Breeder who was a paid member.I guess what Im trying to say is back a couple 4 years ago I had real Mentor type Breeders that I looked up to and wanted to model my hobbie bussiness after!Well today everyone is a BLURR!
I see a lot of snakes High Qaulity coming out of no ware and yes yes Harald I know the wheel has to progress and more morphs are popping out with better Knowlege better Handling more people getting into the Market etc etc... (Just teasin Harald) I have looked at a lot of ads that really interested me held of a lil and then find out they are a NEW Member Scammer trying to get a new snake over on someone.I think it should be like some other forums where if you are not a paid verified member you can only reply to classified and not be allowed to sell anything until verified thru credit card or bank like paypal.It makes it real hard to trust new members IM tellin ya.
 
Well that'd suck if I ended up trying to get into the business. I don't try and sell anything yet, but if I did I'd be shit out of luck. :(
 
I now Kevin it just gets frustrating,I mean in your case you are a real verifiable Breeder that has good references and have paid you dues,I can Relate to you trying to sell a 2000 dollar snake and not question that but what about a guy or gal with7 posts just joined a month ago is it real or is they a Blurrrrr
 
Being "new" is not a bad thing. But anyone who has an expensive animal for sale here, should expect to have and provide a list of good references, likewise, anyone purchasing an animal should ask for and check references.
 
tinmantribe5 said:
I now Kevin it just gets frustrating,I mean in your case you are a real verifiable Breeder that has good references and have paid you dues,I can Relate to you trying to sell a 2000 dollar snake and not question that but what about a guy or gal with7 posts just joined a month ago is it real or is they a Blurrrrr
Click to expand...

Oh I understand what your saying. Im always wondering if Im gonna get scammed.... especially since I am always shopping for new blood for the business.

The one thing I have resorted to is paying for EVERYTHING with a credit card that way I have the option of a charge back should I get scammed.
 
tinmantribe5 said:
Hello I was wondering if any one else felt like they were spending more time trying to find out wich classifieds are Real people or Scammers!
When I first joined back in 2006 it seemed like their was a lot of reputable Breeders on here,you kinda knew who you buying from thru word of mouth from people you knew that got a real cool snake from lets say Jane Do Breeder who was a paid member.I guess what Im trying to say is back a couple 4 years ago I had real Mentor type Breeders that I looked up to and wanted to model my hobbie bussiness after!Well today everyone is a BLURR!
I see a lot of snakes High Qaulity coming out of no ware and yes yes Harald I know the wheel has to progress and more morphs are popping out with better Knowlege better Handling more people getting into the Market etc etc... (Just teasin Harald) I have looked at a lot of ads that really interested me held of a lil and then find out they are a NEW Member Scammer trying to get a new snake over on someone.I think it should be like some other forums where if you are not a paid verified member you can only reply to classified and not be allowed to sell anything until verified thru credit card or bank like paypal.It makes it real hard to trust new members IM tellin ya.
Click to expand...

As was mentioned, I tried this for about a year a while back and watched the traffic here drop like a rock. Had I continued along that path, I have no doubts at all that FaunaClassifieds would not be here today. People had been telling me for years to restrict classified ads to paying members only, and I resisted this, saying it would kill this site if I did so. Well, I figured I was just being hard headed by assuming I was correct, and decided to try their advice and see if perhaps I was just being too pessimistic. Hate to say "I told you so", but the facts pretty much leave no doubt about it. Charging for classifieds WILL be the death of this site.

I believe doing that again would just have to same disastrous results. I really don't want to lose even more ground with growing traffic to this site by making yet another mistake in management. So no, I have no intention of restricting classified ads in that manner again. The site is now growing quickly and new members are coming out of the woodwork. Beats me where those 35 to 50 new members every day are coming from, but coming to this site they are. Which certainly bodes well for advertisers wanting a lot of eyes seeing those classified ads they are posting here.

Quite frankly, YOU will have to do your own homework to figure out if the person you are considering spending your money with is worthy of your business and trustworthy. I just cannot do that for you. All things considered, do you really want to leave such an important decision in someone else's hands anyway? Heck, scammers set up PayPal accounts all the time, grab the money, then evaporate, so even that would not be any guarantee for you. So my advice would be to be cautious in the extreme with who you send your money to. Losing out on an apparent "steal" of a deal is much easier to live with than being on the receiving end of someone actually stealing your money. Anyone spending any time at all on the BOI can see the mental agony that this puts a lot of people through. So please take care and give due diligence in researching the people you do business with. I'm trying to give you all the tools necessary to do that, but it's really up to you to USE those tools.
 
True Boss true I totally really do understand and I dont buy from anybody without researching them first,Really just was wondering how people thought,about all the New Members with all them Pretty snakes Breed by their Nieghbor for sale all of a sudden! I certainly believe you have to Buy stock to sell Stock.I think everyone wants to try that Hobbiest that takes pride in a couple snakes but its just so Risky.
No Harm No foul to see opinions,but thank you for your response Rich.
 
Semi-on-topic....

While I agree the number of scammers in the classifieds has increased, I don't think it's the fault of Fauna. It's very likely that the number of scammers everywhere in the country has increased due to the economy and people getting desperate.

Even if Rich would put the most elaborate anti-scammer devices on the site, there would still be scammers here. People need to learn to research sellers and think about whether the price, person, etc. make sense or seem fishy. If the BOI were on another website, it would be a little more difficult to say, "You should've known," to people, but since the BOI is right here, people don't have much of an excuse. Besides, there isn't a BOI in real life (other than the Better Business Bureau, but you'll mostly only find large businesses there); people need to learn to be careful both online and in person.
 
Thank you for your input Krystal,I really never buy from anybody that isnt an Established Breeder because I feel that the Het or Morph you buy has to look the part but also has to come from a good established blood line wich any true Breeder can provide.When I sell snakes alot but not all will say were or whos stock did this come from,when selling stock you most times will get more for a snake if it came from a recognizable Breeder than my friend joe 2 streets over.I certainly will use the BOI alot more now than I have in the past,I tend to go alot on Ratings,length of membership,Karma,do they have enough Interest to maybe have thier own website telling alittle about them etc.....
 
It is kind of a catch 22 for people trying to break into the business. They are not yet well known big breeders, but they cannot get to that stage without starting with a single sale. And while the stock that they are breeding does matter, ultimately it comes down to if the person is reputable or not. As others have said, I always ask for references/check the BOI before I ever consider purchasing an animal.

You can also glean a lot from the conversations you have with someone. For example, I was recently reassured that the seller guaranteed live arrival of an animal and was told that as an added precaution they put insurance on the shipment. Upon hearing this, and knowing that none of the shipping companies ensure live animals, I immediately put a red flag up and became extra cautious. I also ALWAYS put paypal purchases on a credit card as an added precaution.
 
scaledverts said:
It is kind of a catch 22 for people trying to break into the business. They are not yet well known big breeders, but they cannot get to that stage without starting with a single sale. And while the stock that they are breeding does matter, ultimately it comes down to if the person is reputable or not. As others have said, I always ask for references/check the BOI before I ever consider purchasing an animal.

You can also glean a lot from the conversations you have with someone. For example, I was recently reassured that the seller guaranteed live arrival of an animal and was told that as an added precaution they put insurance on the shipment. Upon hearing this, and knowing that none of the shipping companies ensure live animals, I immediately put a red flag up and became extra cautious. I also ALWAYS put paypal purchases on a credit card as an added precaution.
Click to expand...

Actually I believe this is the problem starting any new business, not just with animals. How do you establish a good reputation when people demand such from you before they will buy your products? If no one will take the risk to buy from an unknown, then the unknown will never even get started.

That's a pretty tough nut to crack, I guess. And certainly no easy answers will be forthcoming. Image and professional presentation can play a big part, but be wary of the business that is all fluff and no substance. Perhaps being a helpful hand in the general discussion forums where people can get into discussions with you would help a lot. People just need to learn to trust you via contacts outside of a direct sale before being willing to send off their money. If people believe that you are demonstrating competence in your opinions about how to care for the animals they are interested in, then they will naturally be more inclined to buy those animals from you, based on that implied security of believing you will send them healthy and desirable animals.

The internet is an easy method to get exposure based on the amount of effort you are willing to expend towards that goal. You can get a LOT of free mileage by using collateral advertising alongside your posts in the various forums. It will also take some money up front to pay for focused advertising to establish name recognition. People will be more inclined to believe you are a legitimate business if you are making a demonstratable effort to present yourself as such.

But it depends on how much of a hurry you are in to become a "business". If you are primarily a hobbyist with the desire to sell animals as a sideline, well then time is really of no immediate consequence, since that really isn't your primary goal. You can build up a good reputation slowly, but solidly that way, if you have the patience and the ability to let things take that course.

But to those people merely seeing $$ in this, or feel like they NEED to be making a substantial profit in under 5 years, well the temptation to cut corners and take short cuts to get this "reputation" will be pretty nearly overwhelming. And ultimately a fatal mistake. They will be the "flash in the pan" businesses that will look like a multi-million dollar business that suddenly sprang up from out of nowhere, only to flame out in short order when all the short cuts and cut corners makes their contrived house of cards collapse all around them. I'm sure we have all seen ample evidence of that in the BOI over the years, and yet people will still continue to try to take that path.

And I suspect we will see this sort of thing happen all of the time.......
 
When I started this thread my intension was never to make new members feel unwanted,or unwelcome I love to talk to meet new people so my appologys to anyone who felt that way reading this thread. I do however want to let all the lets just say UNSAVORY Types we are watching scammers closely more now than ever and although all cheats may not get caught when we do catch you watch OUT! I am a very very small hobbiest that just trys to not cheat some one and in turn not myself get cheated.I really have a pasion for reptiles and probably will never make what I have put into to it because of a little Virus I like to call I KEEPA TO MUCHA! If my wife truly new how much Really dont make she would probably cut of all my Belly Heat! Like I say I am a True hobbiest with a passion for animals.
To all may you have a Wonderfull experience and Welcome Brothers and Sisters!
 
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