Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Why does'nt Kingsnake start up an aution for reptiles and reptile related products? This would be absolutely great. I know of Reptibid but they just dont get the traffic that Kingsnake.com gets. Kingsnake has the $ and resorces to start up an auction site as secure as EBay. Why not? I know I would use it. Share your thoughts. If enought people like the idea then maybe Jeff will consider it.

Thank you, Lee

Reptibid has a lot of people on there that don't know how to do auctions. A lot of them treat it like a classified. They have starting prices that are too high instead of starting out with the lowest price they can let the item go for so people can shoot for a good deal. And also, their reserves are too high. Actually, I think reserves should be outlawed. It's a waste of time. For example: If someone has a reserve at $100 then this means they won't take anything less than $100... so why not just put $100 as a starting bid and get the show on the road? Anyway... if people would auction their reptiles, like most of the people auction their stuff on ebay, then I'm sure it would be as big a hit as ebay.

Just my thoughts on the matter....
MissHisssss

We have consdiered doing Online Auctions but there are a number of reasons that we don't currently offer them but below are 2 major ones.

#1 Licensing - Auctions, and Auctioneers, in most cases have to be licensed and regulated. If you go to an auction site and they do not disclose their license or permit information prominently on their web site, I would run, not walk to the nearest exit. Most auctions and auctioneers are licensed by the state that the business is located in, however all state laws and regs are a little different state by state, and then when the auction crosses state lines there is a question of jurisdiction. Legal compliance with all the various laws and permits can be tricky.
Not only is holding an unlicensed auction illegal, the results of that auction are not legally binding.

#2 Laws on Auctioning of live animals/livestock - Each state maintains different laws, rules, and regulations regarding the auctioning of live animals and livestock and once again the question of jurisdiction comes into play. I suspect that this is one reason that large companies such as EBay have tread only lightly in this arena.

All in all, to run an auction site, and to do it legally in all
jurisdictions which may be involved, can be a tricky and costly
undertaking, and some day the axe will fall upon those auction
sites that are not being run in compliance with the laws.