Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The Nerd table was definetely one of the best. They brought the albino spiders, and the ghost spiders. I was amazed at how they looked in person. Awesome colors on them! Then at Ralph Davis's table he had a lesser platinum, and the butter, I love the butter. I have to say my favorite there was the clown though. Yea, it isnt the most colorful, but it looked the coolest to me. Also, I think someone brought a lucy, but I was so caught up in looking at the animals, I forgot who brought it. Maybe I was just seeing things, but I am pretty sure I saw one. Damn, I wish I would've brought my camera!!
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Josh
My Email

Home early....
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RicK Denmon

Ball Boutique,Inc.

I only live an hour away. I left at about 9:00 and got there around 10:00. I looked around for a few hours and then left.
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Josh
My Email

The T positive albino boa (caramel) , that thing is beutiful, pictures dont do it justice. My fav ball,hmmm... probally the pinstripe and NERDS killer bee and bumble bee. Mostly a bunch of overpriced snakes.
But if i come up with a one of the kind, or something rare, ya can bet im gonna get ridiculous too ~ It was a cool trip, but after an hour or 2 the place was packed, started smelling like ass everywhere. Had to vacate. Next year ill have a table, so it should be cool.

Yea, it started to smell after an hour or two. I had to look at the bumble bee over someone else, so I didnt really get a good view, but it looked awesome. I enjoyed looking at a bunch of stuff I could never afford though.
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Josh
My Email

I've only been to small local shows in Colorado, the most exotic ball I've ever seen there was a single ghost hatchling.

I'd love to know more about the big shows and especially THE big show. I used to hear about the great last day deals but lately hear from the big names that they don't take much to sell (presumably they do well enough outside of the show so why compete). Do smaller breeders still sell a lot at the show and are there lots of good deals? Or is it mainly just a forum to look at the one or two of a kind animals? Is Florida sales tax a consideration?

And on the subject of display animals and for that matter high dollar for sale animals, do people ask to hold and photograph them out of the cage and what is the usual answer? I know at my little shows I usually let a lot of kids hold my normals but am not sure how much of that I want to keep doing much less if I some day have some valuable ones. Do sellers do anything to qualify a prospective buyer before you let it handle an animal? Are any kind of hand cleaners used?

Thanks!

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Do smaller breeders still sell a lot at the show and are there lots of good deals? (there were quite a few smaller breeders. Id say there are some good deals, but if your serious and have cash, the deal gets better.)
Or is it mainly just a forum to look at the one or two of a kind animals?( even major breeders had some stuff for sale, plenty of 35, 40 , 50 grand snakes) Is Florida sales tax a consideration? (you are suppose to collect it, but im sure some breeders tellfolks ill pay the tax to seal a deal. its 6.5%)

And on the subject of display animals and for that matter high dollar for sale animals, do people ask to hold and photograph them out of the cage and what is the usual answer?(I seen plenty of holding going on, and folks taking animals out for photo ops, but no high dollar display stuff was gettin held, they were on lock down, that i seen anyhow)
I know at my little shows I usually let a lot of kids hold my normals but am not sure how much of that I want to keep doing much less if I some day have some valuable ones. Do sellers do anything to qualify a prospective buyer before you let it handle an animal? Are any kind of hand cleaners used? ( i think it depends on the dealer and what your looking at and if your serious or not on a high dollar item. And i seen hand cleaners at most tables).

I got to hold John Piro's Lesser Platty and take a few pics with it . I was very excited about that...holding a 50 thousand dollar snake was very awesome.

Did the lesser double in price?
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RicK Denmon

Ball Boutique,Inc.

I really don't know how their price has fluctuated...it may have been a "show price"...but hey if people buy it for that much, more power to them.

The "Big Show" is certainly a one of a kind. It is an opportunity to meet some of the top breeders in person. Some like Bob Clark go out of their way to be be approachable. The prices of snakes offered are all over the place ($25-100) for yearlings. Sub-adult and adult normals seem to be always over priced by 25-50%. The price generally includes Florida's 6% sales tax. Breeders like Doug Beard of Flora & Fauna from Homestead Florida was a pleasure to do business with. He hand selects babies for color and special details and does a good job raising them to very healthy sub-adult weights. My daughter picked up a beautiful snake for $350. that will produce some nice looking offspring when bred to her albino. She could have easily purchased other sub-adults for $100 less, but would not have gotten such beautiful colors. Het prices are much better on kingsnake.com from my experience. Morph prices were high as expected. Most breeders were very friendly once you introduced yourself. After careful hand cleaning, you are permitted to handle reptiles if you appear to be a serious buyer. As far as good deals are concerned, I have not really seen any great deals at shows except for acesssories perhaps. Ken Foster
Link

I've never made it to any "big shows" but I've been following THE big one for about 10 years. I get the impression that it has become much less of a shopping opportunity than it used to be. I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise with all the things (like the Internet growth) that have happened in the last 10 years. It's just that shipping is such a pain for the little guys now days I was wondering if as more "little guys" get nicer snakes if the shows where swinging back the other way and becoming more of a competitive sales opportunity again.

Hopefully I’ll get to go myself in a couple years and see what it’s all about.

High priced isn't the word, but when I get rich...

Ralph Davis had a really nice piebald, it was almost all white. I think the only brown parts were the head, and a little part on the neck...
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Josh
My Email

I seen that 1 but really like the ones without that much white. It looked like it was dipped in paint, but the ones with more normal colors are my favorites.