Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently had someone respond to one of my ads for an Anery Boa. In the response the person asked if I had “paperwork” for the boa. This has come up from time to time and if someone wants a piece of paper with my name on it saying what the snake is it is no problem to me, I have a form letter for it, but it did get me thinking…..
What purpose does this piece of paper serve? Here is a piece of paper that states that I sold this Boa to this person and this boa has these traits. So what if the piece of paper is just someone else making it up on the computer? Or even more to the point, what if I sell this snake to a person with this piece of paper stating that this snake is this and what stops the person from selling the next 10 imported snakes with this piece of paper saying that this snake is the one I sold him. I will sometimes get an e-mail or a phone call from someone to verify that a snake I sold to someone is indeed the snake that they are buying, but more often then not, I will get an e-mail saying that they bought a snake that came from my line of this or that and they are looking for more info on it. I have never came across any one who was told that they bought one of my snakes that did not really have one of them, but it does make me wonder, what is the piece of paper really doing for anyone?
Any thoughts form anyone on this?
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Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com

Well Hopp,
I know we all have had the same needs from our buyers so I think it is a sort of proof of purchase that the buyer wants to have so that if for some reason you sell him a het for albino and he breeds it to an albino and gets no hets, then I think he may claim you on that proof of purchase that what you sold him was not that, it is a confidence thing the buyer is looking for from the seller and if it is not true then they will most likely slander the seller or warn others that they are bogus.
I also think it is for a RE-SALE value that the buyer who happens to be a Joe Schmo wants to sell the snake later down the road but has no reputation, their buyer will at least take into consideration that what they do have is verifiable with the orriginal seller, you fallow?

What I am starting to do is(with the help of digital technology) take an individual pic of each specimen and place it on a birth certificate with the parent animals info and stock # and so forth, I use my corporation stamp to crimp the pic with the birth certificate that way someone cannot replace the pic of another animal and use the same certificate, this has great resale value for proof of purchase and claim of genetics.

sooner or later everyone will be fallowing this trend, it only makes sense.
Thats my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

Nick Gancarz
Boa's Ark c.b.r.

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The stamp inprint is a great idea and makes alot of sense. thanks for the suggestion
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Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com

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