Reptile & Amphibian Forums

people call you or e-mail you for a snake and act like they are really intrested and call you everyday for 2 weeks telling you to hold it for them . and ask 1,000,000,000 over and over and over again . and me being the nice guy that i am , i hold the animal that long and lose other potential serious buyers cause of these guys .. only to tell you after 2 weeks they changed their minds and have decided not to buy it now . i mean .. i wont call anyone on a snake , not even to ask questions unless im 100% certain i am really intrested in the animal . i mean .. if you wanna ask questions and so forth please feel free to do so .. but dont beg me to hold the animal and then back off after ive been holding it for 2 weeks .

i guess from now on i'll have to ask for a deposit like most people do .. before this happened for the 4th time .. id always thought some people used the deposit thing to trap you on to a deal .. but now i definately see where they are coming from .

ill stop rambling now .. thanks for reading
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NO BEAUTY LIKE THE BEAUTY OF A TRUE REDTAIL !!

I would ask for a small deposit, say like 50-100 dollars. Even $25 would work. If they have some of it then they should be able to afford that. It would be up to you to either give it back if they decide not to purchase. If I have someone "hold" it for me I will let the seller know that I have no hard feelings if they keep it on the market. But I have given small deposits on Boas before. It seems to work out OK.

It always seems the snake I want comes on the market at a bad time or a week before I get a pay check.

I am sure that is quite annoying though.....

say a week or two-depending on the animal and the prospected offers. Especially if it's a high dollar sale. Just like in restaurants-party's over 8 require a credit card # to hold the res, and there is a minimum fee if cancelled within 24 hrs.

Has happened to me as well, I now ask for minimal deposit and also require some form of payment within a reasonable time. I had two guys last year each pick out a pair, one I never heard from again, the second also never replied but at least did reply to my email to let me know he had changed his mind.
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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife
0.2 kids
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.1 Ball python
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Dude, welcome to the worlds of snake sales. There are lots of “tire kickers” and picture collectors out there.

I don’t even much mind people who ask for a few new photos or ask a few questions and then say “no thanks”. But those who tell you they want the snake(s) and beg for you to hold it, yet then don’t even have the courtesy to simply let you know when they’ve changed their mind…these types irritate me.

As harsh as it seems, the only way to really circumvent this issue is to require a non-refundable deposit. Of course, one might refund a deposit on a case by case basis, but in this fashion, one weeds out much of the hoopla mentioned.

I actually had an incident the other day with someone who said that they will never again use paypal because their paypal got hacked once and they got ripped off. Thus they said that I had to wait on any payment until it arrived in full as a money order through the postal service.

Just as I was on the phone negotiating with this guy, another guy calls me who said he would paypal me a down payment that very moment if I gave him the word. I talked to the first guy, letting him know that a sale to someone else was now pending, and he further insisted on not using payapl. In absence of common friends and having no prior dealings with this first guy, I awarded the sale to the guy who would pay 1st, even though he called second.

It was an awkward situation but that is how one needs to operate if they want to avoid what you’ve described.

Matthew

I agree with you if he said he would for sure buy the snake. But I ask questions when I am interested in a snake and I can feel that the breeder is not really interested in answering them. When you are spending 3K on a snake I feel you are entitled to know certain things like:

Did any of the parents have one eye?

Were any of the babies deformed?
What was the breeding? i.e. het to het or het to albino

Where did the parents come from? (this is b/c the sharp strain needs new blood and I don't want all of my animals to originate from the same breeder except Brian Sharp)

Can I see pics of the parents, even if the pics suck?

And other important questions that I can't think of at the moment.

Here is my short story. I was on a waiting list for a certain pairing. When they finally arrived the breeder held back many of them, he sold one, and I was left with one male to chose from. When the lone male was finally priced, I felt it was about $1500 over market value. When I let him know I wasn't interested his email to me read "ok." Nothing else, no name, no "thakns for your interest," or anything, just "ok." I felt it was pretty rude. I am interested on knowing peoples opinion on what potential buyers are entitled to know.

Michael Burton

And everyone else
Mike

ill answer any questions anyone has on any snake i have and i dont mind answering em over and over . but if you do so for 2 weeks and beg someone to hold it for you and then just decide you dont want it after that length of time .. after the seller has been holding it is rediculous . oh well.. like i said before .. from now on its small non re-fundable deposit like mathew said. non refundable of course depending on each different situation . im a nice guy and if someone gives me a really good valid reason why he cant get the snake id trully understand .. but lately i have been coming across alot of (i really hate to say this but) "BULL$HITTERS". pardon my french
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NO BEAUTY LIKE THE BEAUTY OF A TRUE REDTAIL !!

I have 2 boas on deposit right now and I had absolutly no proplem putting down a 50% deposit.

.
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Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo
'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin