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What would you like in a show?

What would you like in a show

  • Good food at the show

    Votes: 34 31.5%

  • Nice, clean facility

    Votes: 67 62.0%

  • Larger variety in animals at show

    Votes: 89 82.4%

  • Reasonable price to get in

    Votes: 63 58.3%

  • Reasonable price for tables

    Votes: 58 53.7%

  • Ample parking

    Votes: 49 45.4%

  • Contests, lectures, presentations, etc.

    Votes: 42 38.9%

  • Dore prizes, raffles, give aways...

    Votes: 42 38.9%
  • Total voters
    108
I refuse to be a vendor at a show that has "price fixing"! If the promoter states that he has the right to tell me what I can sell my herps for I walk! Price fixing is illegal! No promoter or show owner has the right to tell a vendor that he/she has to sell his animals for a certain price or higher. I refuse to be part of any illegal practice. I understand that when the herp show comes to town, the promoter does not want to rock the boat and upset the local hometown pet store owners. But, wrong is wrong!

David Rivers
 
David, I'm not sure what prompted that comment but it really seemed to come straight out of left field. I have never been to a show where the promoter had anything to do with any price fixing. Every show that you will ever go to there are some vendors that will worry about their sales and walk around and try to get other vendors to not go below a certain price, but that is about it. I set my own prices before a show and I could care a less what anybody else sells their animals for. I have been to shows where at two tables in the same aisle there were carpet pythons as low as $25 and as high as $125 for nearly identical babies. I have seen so many huge price variances at shows sometimes that is funny just to see people that are very out of touch with market values. I really don't know where the comment came from though. Are you angry about a particular promoter? Evan Stahl
 
David, another thought, at the big NARBC Philadelphia show last year, you had four of the biggest ball python guys in the biz with pastels and albinos on their tables (I always go to say hi and check out the animals). Pastel males ranged from $900-1700, females $1500-2500 and albinos were $2000-3000. Then you had pieds from $7000-20,000. Albino retics from $1500-2500. I think you get the idea. I never see any price fixing at the shows that I go to. Evan
 
No Evan, I'm not upset with any particular promoter. I sell a lot of the low dollar pet shop stock. But believe it or not, I have been at shows and was told not to sell my hatchling Ball Pythons for under a certain price, etc. Let me also say at this time, I do very, very, few shows, so what goes on at the shows is not that big of a deal to me. Good, bad, or ugly! I also know if a price war starts at a show, it is not good for any of the vendors at the show. I also believe its bad for ALL herp dealers and the industry as a whole. However, when a price war starts that is "Free Enterprise" at its "best" or "worst", depending on what side of the vendor table you are on! That being said, if I'm at a show and a price war starts, I'm not going to sit on the sidelines and simply watch the other vendors loose money. I'm going to jump in and loose money with them!

Until next time folks, always remember there is three ways to do everything. Your way, my way, or the RIGHT way!

David Rivers
 
They can all "loose money" if they want.
My animals stay at whatever price I want them to be.
They will not go lower just to make a sale.
I have more pride in my animals than to join some price war and get taken to the cleaners.

Now evan that is interesting.
If I was at that show with the carpets...and mine were $125 (normal market price) and I saw some guy selling them for $25.....I would buy him out...take them home. make sure they are all okay. And sell them myself. At normal market price.
Shoot I can't even get carpets wholesale for $25 they are higher than that for wholesale.

Whoever was selling them probably had no clue.
or maybe they were deceased.
 
Oh, tell me about it. It was at Orlando about 6 years ago. There was a guy with one table and all he had on the table was a couple clutches of baby carpets and a couple clutches of baby spotteds. He was really cheap on the table at like $25-40 an animal. A friend of mine went and bought him out and sold all of them off his table at double. Evan
 
A friend of mine went and bought him out and sold all of them off his table at double.
Click to expand...
Entrapreneureal skills....

I would have trippled it.....or at least 2.5 x

David...I would be interested to know what show promoter was price fixing? I never heard of the practice myself.
 
the worst miss

I was just thinking about the second time that I went to the Orlando expo. I think that was like 8 years ago or so. I walked into the back big room just to look around during Friday setup. There was a guy who's entire table was like 5 or 6 big aquariums. I waited to see what he was putting in them. The first thing he pulled out was a spectacular calico burmese python female about 6' long. Impressed, I felt he bought some of my time and I waited for the next item. He them put out some other awesome stuff (I don't remember the rest). Every thing he has looked super, but better yet, he wanted to leave and priced everything super cheap! I went to put some money together with a friend and hit a couple people up for money they owed me and by the time that I got back some friends of mine from New York had bought almost everything (everything I wanted). That was when I learned my lesson. If there is something I want I really go after it hard. If I can live without it, my attitude will reflect that and the seller will have to work to get my money. Evan
 
Another idea or two ...

There seems to have been a bit of controversy over kids at the shows, and like others have said, reptiles are a family affair in my house. I have an 11-year-old who wants to start breeding her own, and is certainly capable of making purchases at shows (with the animals checked and approved by mom, of course).

I think a reasonable approach would be (using Evan's ticket pricing as a guideline) $6 for adults, $3 kids 4-12, kids under 4 get in free, $5 per stroller surcharge. If listed on all the promotional materials, folks would know ahead of time to leave the strollers home or in the car or be prepared to pay the surcharge. Likewise, there shouldn't be a problem banning backbags and large purses/bags, but I think that needs to be on the promotional material along with a definition of "large" so there's no confusion. And when I say "on the promotional materials," I also mean on the signs that say "reptile show this way!" or whatever, as there may be some traffic from passersby, depending on location.

Additionally, I'd like to see every show -- without exception -- provide one free table to a reputable local or regional reptile rescue. They can offer animals for adoption for a reasonable fee and have better odds of someone prepared to deal with an adolescent male iguana iguana or super-size snake taking it home. Additionally, they can offer care sheets and educational materials, collect donations, and distribute business cards. This is a win-win for everyone. And Evan's great idea about offering herp sexing would be a natural fund-raising idea for a rescue.

For what it's worth, I also really like the idea of doing half-tables for smaller vendors. It has the potential to bring more variety to the show and also gives smaller breeders a chance to bring in whatever they may specialize in. I don't think there's really any need to allow an area at the show for trades or sales by the guy who wants to trade his corns for kings or what have you, but if possible, a separate room with a separate admission for a "swap meet" would be great. Admission could be minimal and essentially just pay for whatever the cost of the additional space and any related costs may be. A plain room with a table or two and a few chairs (to allow for examining animals, setting down packages, writing up receipts or phone numbers, etc.) would be adequate.

My $0.02.
 
My opinion..

First let me say I did go to Evan's show last year, it was in the nicest place I have ever seen a reptile show, beautiful hotel. I thought the admission price was very fair. The vendors that were there had great setups and real quality animals. In my very humble opinion, I would say the one thing that hurt the show the most was the fact that another show was going on about 20 miles away. The other show has a fairly esablished following. It has been around longer and is a monthly show. Will the shows be the same date this year?? I actually did not have tables at either show, due to the fact I was sold out by then. As for admission prices, I think this year I will offer a refund of admission with purchase of an animal. I know someone selling anoles for a buck could not do that, but if someone wants to but an albino for $1000, I will be happy to give them their 6 bucks back. As for "lookers" I hated dealing with them as a customer, waiting for them to get basic care info while I had cash in my hand to buy something. We do have to remember when dealing with kids and lookers though, they are the new blood that this hobby needs to stay alive. I truly wish you the best of luck with your show Evan, maybe I will have some animals left by then to sell. I am expecting LOTS of babies this year. Craig Kade
 
I would like to see more people coming in the door. This means more people are getting into reptiles and I would like to see more captive bred vendors. Neither of these were on the list..
 
free tables?

How about free tables for vendors? Free up front that is. It might be hard to keep track of if you have some shady vendors but what about charging the vendors based on a rate of what their sales are?

For example:

$0-500 = 25
501-1000 = 50
1000+ = 75

Or something similiar. I could see a problem about tracking what is getting sold etc but in principle if I was a vendor this would be a great thing.

The reimbursable admission for buyers is good but I would add in a $25 minimum or so to it.
 
I agree about getting more people involved in reptiles. Maybe more advertizing? This is going to sound very dorky, but with our gerbil shows we get ad space on local radio stations (college and family AM stations) as well as local newspaper space. It's a way to get families involved. Since a lot of kids get in to reptiles, getting their parents aware of shows gets the whole family involved.

I also love when the vendors are all in a good mood and will spend time with any of their buyers, from people buying $10,000 snakes to $10 snakes. You can tell a show where they vendors are happy to be there, showing off breeding projects they worked so hard on, and are proud of their animals. It makes the whole day fun.
 
There are gerbil shows?

Some big shows like the NARBC are advertised ob radio, in newspaper and on televison. You just have to realize that most herp shows could not do that as the cost is tremendous for this biz. The promoters for the shows I mentioned above spend a tremendous amount of money on a public relations firm that runs all the advertising for them in all media in the 3 different parts of the country they do their shows in (LA, Chicago and Phily).

No, really.... gerbil shows?
 
I probably should have put this question up as a new thread but it ties in with this one so well!

What do you think of having a show outdoors? Have it more of a "festival" type scenario with Ez-Up tents for vendors and a couple larger tents for activities, contests, and food? Some opinions would be greatly appreciated!
 
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