Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have posted several times trying to sell 2 pairs of 100% het pieds but i have yet to receive any reply from people. i have them priced competitively and wonder if anyone buys from here. just curious how other people are doing that are trying to sell het pieds. are people now not willing to buy from a little guy. any input as to what i need to do different would be appreciated.

joe

I purchased a pastel last week.
You must remember lots of people think hard before plunking down money on a reptile. Relax, a customer will be asking and buying. This business is NOT a fast food service......There will be that special person for you......
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RicK @ BbI

Ball Boutique,Inc.
Proud sponsor of this forum

"are people now not willing to buy from a little guy"

I am sure that has something to do with it. There are a lot of scammers out there now a days, and they mostly sell hets. That makes it even harder for the little guy. Next year I should have 5 clutches of 50% het albinos, I'm keeping all the females, and I expect to have a hard time selling the males as pos hets, so I'm just going to sell them as normals. Even then I think it will be hard to sell them as CBB.

Just stay with it, and if no one buys them you will have some more breeders to add to your projects.

Good luck

i am sure that somebody will come along and want to buy . i just remember last year i sold a pastel in one day and had emails left and right . now the first email i got was the nigerian scam wanting me to cash their money order. i understand that it is a bit of money i just figured that more people were getting into this hobby and it would be easy to sell.

joe

You might want to remember always to use your full (last) name when posting on here or in the classifieds or answering emails regarding your animals. I'm not sure if you listed your last name on your ad, but you have not here. I do not take anyone seriously if they are trying to sell and do not include their full name.

Christy Talbert

Well, here is some constrictive criticism. I looked at your ad and the first thing I noticed is your location... don’t just say Florida, give city state and zip if you are not a business. Give a phone number. Who is going to send $1200 to someone they know NOTHING about? Allot of the scammers just put one name like "joe" and no phone number. If all that didn’t denture people, the fact that the females are not even ready to be sold will. If I send someone $1200 I want them on a plane or in a box the next day. Elaborate on the guarantee. Are you going to offer a signed pictured guarantee? For how long? While I realize you are trying to sell these quick or just at all sometimes too low of a price can be the red flag. You are about $300 to $400 low on the pricing of a pair of het pied. I would say try pricing them at $1450 or $1400. I always factor it all in, then go... does it seem too good to be true? If its a maybe and its only $200, I will probe more to figure it out... if it is a major and time consuming investment such as a pair of het pied I most likely wont even give you a second look.

I just bought 2 pairs of het pied this last year. I bought my males from Mike Wilbanks, who I was fine with. I got my females from Joe @ HellFire Reptiles. Even though Joe had very good feedback on another well known websites BOI, I was still going to send him thousands of dollars. What made me feel better about it was I talked to him many times about them... evey time I asked for a crazy picture he was quick to give it to me. Once you get someone interested let them call you. I wouldn’t spend thousands of dollars unless I like who I am dealing with.

That all said I have still been scammed over a thousand dollars from sellers off kingsnake. KingSnake will do NOTHING! What types of payment do you accept? I sent this guy paypal, and it was a good thing, because paypal helped me get most of it back. You might consider saying that you will take paypal or credit cards. I am not about to send someone more than $100 if it can’t be traced.

If you make a buyer feel secure with you and your ad you will sell quickly.

Oh one last thing... use the BEST grammar and sentence structure you can. I am referring to not capitalizing the first letter of your sentences. I rule these ads out quickly because they could be from Africa. They are getting better about things, so I figure any mistake is suspect. Would you buy a living creature from someone who cant put a sentence together?

Ben
American Tropics

I strongly agree with these rules.

The legitimate advertisements will list:

(1) Full Name
(B) Email Address
(C) Phone Number

I would never send money to someone who I couldn't track down if needed.

And just a few random thoughts that may or may not apply to you...

You should also give as much information as possible -- age, weight, original breeder, paperwork, feeding habits, etc.

Also...avoid adjectives and adverbs. Words like "UNIQUE", "ODD", and "SCREAMER" are just desperate fluff. If the animal is truly unique, it will peak a ton of interest without the words.

No need for claims of financial success, either -- "This is a great investment opportunity; Double your money next season!" This just feels so used-car sales.

Here's a story:

When I was just getting into the selling game, I did a ton of research on how the big players market animals. That's how I figured out the guidelines above. Now my advertisements look nice and neat and to the point. No extravagant advertising for me. I show the animal for what it is. If the customers don't want it, they don't want it. At least I go to sleep with a clear conscience at not having to lure people with fancy adjectives or promises of financial freedom in six months.

Here is an example of an advertisement that I ran recently:

PDH Albino Piebald

This sale is for 1.0 PDH Albino Piebald – guaranteed healthy and feeding with copy of all original paperwork and documentation.

Scientific Name: Python regius
Morph: PDH Albino Piebald (100/50)
Sex: Male
Weight: 600g
Hatch Date: 08/04
Health: Excellent
Food: Rats (F/T)
Temperament: Docile
Breeder: Mike Weitzman @ Basically Boas
Sire/Dam: Albino (SK) x Heterozygous Piebald (SK)
Clutch ID#: 04HAPHP1M
Paperwork: Yes
Additional Notes: This animal has the so-called Piebald marker traits.

PRICE: $1500 OBO

Please call or email with any questions. Additional photos available upon request. All sale prices include shipping. FedEx Certified. Live arrival guaranteed. Trade offers welcome. Serious inquiries only.

(NOTE: This sale is for a limited time only.)

Chris Bianco
(864) 706-7399
cjbianco@charter.net

Notice how I give all the information up front, dismiss the fancy adjectives, and provide all my contact info? This is a good start...

I think if you followed a few general guidelines as mentioned by a few others on this forum, you would find a dramatic difference in the level of responses.

(NOTE: Oh! And PLEASE expiriment with your own advertising template. I've had my own formula copied (plagiarized) line for line a few times and this is really aggrivating and unneccessary. Find your own writing style and give it a whirl. You will thank yourself for it later. I guarantee.)

Good luck!

Chris
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mean people suck

After you write the first draft of the advertisement, think about which questions YOU would ask if YOU were the one responding to the advertisement. Now rewrite. And make sure to include all the answers in the new ad.

Oh! And spelling, grammar, and sentence structure count!

Chris
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mean people suck

"i have posted several times trying to sell 2 pairs of 100% het pieds but i have yet to receive any reply from people. i have them priced competitively and wonder if anyone buys from here. just curious how other people are doing that are trying to sell het pieds. are people now not willing to buy from a little guy. any input as to what i need to do different would be appreciated.

joe"

Hi Joe,
I just got on the classifieds and saw your advertisement. Don’t take offense, but honestly, people are not buying from you because your ad is a complete mess. Here is a list of some things I saw wrong with it.

1)You don’t capitalize any of your letters.
2)Your prices aren’t priced competitively, they are posted way to low...Red flag.
3)You are joe in florida. Try posting your last name
4)Tell me about your “guarantee,” joe in florida. Do you only guarantee they are hets? Will you guarantee that they eat? How about live arrival?
5)How will you ship? UPS?Delta?FedEx?

People aren’t going to spend a thousand bucks when it looks like the ad is written by a 12 year old “joe.” Try cleaning up the ad a little, post more info, and don’t get upset if it takes more than two days to sell the snakes. Again, don’t take offense, just take a little constructive criticism.

Wow! I like they way you think... your post was almost exactly like mine. I am glad I am not the only one who thinks this way.

One other thing is he can inclue a picture of hom and his piebalds. No offence here, but I always feel better when I see a picture of a goober and their snake.

Ben
American Tropics

I took all your advise and will try to post a new ad. I guess i took it for granted that people would just see the ad and then inquire further. I am not the best at grammer so i guess i will have to enlist the help of my girlfriend to do the typing. thank you again for the advise and i hope it helps.

joe

Thank you all for your constructive criticism of Joe's ad. I've helped him engineer a new one. Please check it out in the classifieds. Just so you all know, Joe is actually a very intelligent individual. Though he may have slept through four years of high school English, he excelled in math, physics, and all of his sciences. And he's a damn good cook. Thanks!

PS - He's not twelve, he's twenty-eight.

Bridget
"joe in florida's" girlfriend

Much better. Joe, you owe Bridget a nice dinner for that one...

>>Thank you all for your constructive criticism of Joe's ad. I've helped him engineer a new one. Please check it out in the classifieds. Just so you all know, Joe is actually a very intelligent individual. Though he may have slept through four years of high school English, he excelled in math, physics, and all of his sciences. And he's a damn good cook. Thanks!
>>
>>PS - He's not twelve, he's twenty-eight.
>>
>>Bridget
>>"joe in florida's" girlfriend

Chris
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mean people suck

LOL I wouldn't doubt it. I was the president of the college literary society, worked for two years at the campus library, was editor in chief of the campus literary publication two years in a row, aced all the 400-level English/writing courses, tutored countless students, won a few writing awards, and have been a professional writer for about four years now. That's after I failed out twice in high school (graduated at 19) and still never took English 101 or 102 in college. LOL

Oh! And I'm a college drop-out.

Perfection isn't everything!

Chris
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mean people suck

Yet once again thanks for showing that there is hope for us "failures!"... Just got back from a weekend with the inlaws... I was beginning to think yet again I am the only one in the world who never made a mistake or was not perfect at everything!
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
0-1-0 Mountain Horned Dragon - Ki
0-0-1 Aggressive Bearded Dragon - Zeus
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-1-0 Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

I was just being polite. I am perfect at everything.

Chris
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mean people suck

np
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
0-1-0 Mountain Horned Dragon - Ki
0-0-1 Aggressive Bearded Dragon - Zeus
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-1-0 Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

I like your style, Bryan. We should rob a bank together...or something.

Chris
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mean people suck

Thanks but being a state employee I am pretty booked up, criminally speaking that is.
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Bryan, Atlanta GA

1-0-0 Ball Python - Apep
0-1-0 Mountain Horned Dragon - Ki
0-0-1 Aggressive Bearded Dragon - Zeus
1-1-0 Rats... no wait... ROTTEN Little Cats - Ra, Bastet
0-1-0 Little Angelic Kitten - Isis
1-0-0 Horse... whoops... BIG Golden Retriever - Jake
0-1-0 Wife
2-0-0 Kids

Well, if your schedule clears...

Chris
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mean people suck

I'm feeling very left out

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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

7.33.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi - yeah I know but my kids love the book)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.2 frogs rescued from pool skimmer

Don't worry. You'll be driving.

Chris
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mean people suck

You just dropped your price $50.00 in the same day! That chases people away also..
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www.JasBallPythons.com./

You are right I totally overlooked that I didnt mean to do that I just hit the wrong key when entering the info.I will fix that.

joe