Reptile Shows - The Best and the Worst

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Originally Posted by Vypyrz

I think there are two reasons that the Fall Raleigh show suffers: 1) scheduling, 2) competition.

For those who are not familiar with Raleigh, it is a major college city (Duke, Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, as well as, quite a few smaller colleges). The production company that puts on the Raleigh shows always schedules them for the same two weekends. the first weekend of May, and the first weekend of September (Labor Day). On Labor Day weekend, there is a large exodus of people out of Raleigh. They all head to the coast for the last big beach weekend of the year. I know, because my town gets overrun. And for those who stay in Raleigh for the weekend, there is a big music festival, as well as all of the "end of summer" parties.

In addition to all of the other things going on, competition from another production company seems to be having a big effect. It seems that the number of shows that Repticon puts on in the region has greatly increased over the last couple of years. They also changed the dates of the Fall Charlotte show from October to the last weekend of August, the week before the Raleigh show.

My opinion is, that it is this increase in the number of shows throughout the Southeast and Northeast that is reducing the overall quality of the shows as a whole, because alot of the vendors and customers, who would have travelled several hundred miles to attend a big show, now stay more local, because there will be shows that are closer to home. It seems that what has happened is, instead of a few big production shows each year, it has become more of a larger number of smaller, local shows. I wish it would go back to just a few big shows each year. More vendors, more people, more fun...

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It has to do with the poor marketing of the Raleigh show promoters. I use to go to every Raleigh show and even with the weekends the Raleigh shows are on it was always packed. They made a big mistake moving the show from Dorton arena and also do no promote the show. Look at Repticon how they promote their shows, Facebook and social media. Look at Gila Productions facebook wall and their website, there is hardly any activity or change, just like their show. Heck, they do same seminars, same stage show every single year as they have for past 10 year and it is very old by now. Hardly any good vendor go to it any longer and with good reason. I was so surprised at the fall Raleigh show, they did not even promote their own New Orleans show and 2 weeks later were forced to cancel the show. On their website they claimed was due to health issue of show promoter but yet go to their bakery wall and you will see they were very active there. Sad to see what was once a great show flop as it has.

I just went to my first reptile show!

My lady and I went with 3 snakes in mind that we wanted: a pastel female, a fire female, and a lesser male.

We immediately "cased the joint" and found 3 snakes we thought would be great. We haggled a little bit, and got good deals on each snake.

I had a lot of fun doing comparison pricing on the pastel female, and we walked out with a 350 gram lady for a killer price. Little did I know.....

Here's why my experience might fall under "worst:" the pastel lady had a respiratory infection coming on. It didn't show the symptoms at the show, but when I put it in its tub I heard the first wheeze. Over the next couple days it got progressively worse. We are currently treating her.

So, it was a mixed bag to me. It was cheap to get in (8 dollars) and we got good deals on the 3 snakes we wanted even though it was a small show.

It was really fun to walk around and see all of the beautiful animals.

The drawback is, you could get really disappointed if your purchase comes home with a condition! (but, wouldn't that be the case with any purchase?)

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Originally Posted by sharkrocket

I just went to my first reptile show!

My lady and I went with 3 snakes in mind that we wanted: a pastel female, a fire female, and a lesser male.

We immediately "cased the joint" and found 3 snakes we thought would be great. We haggled a little bit, and got good deals on each snake.

I had a lot of fun doing comparison pricing on the pastel female, and we walked out with a 350 gram lady for a killer price. Little did I know.....

Here's why my experience might fall under "worst:" the pastel lady had a respiratory infection coming on. It didn't show the symptoms at the show, but when I put it in its tub I heard the first wheeze. Over the next couple days it got progressively worse. We are currently treating her.

So, it was a mixed bag to me. It was cheap to get in (8 dollars) and we got good deals on the 3 snakes we wanted even though it was a small show.

It was really fun to walk around and see all of the beautiful animals.

The drawback is, you could get really disappointed if your purchase comes home with a condition! (but, wouldn't that be the case with any purchase?)

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Have you contacted the seller informing her? I would just to let her know. Also it gives you a bit more of security because if she does pass then you deserve to get a refund or another snake. I apologize for sounding so morbid here, but im trying to save you a huge headache :oops:

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Have you contacted the seller informing her? I would just to let her know. Also it gives you a bit more of security because if she does pass then you deserve to get a refund or another snake. I apologize for sounding so morbid here, but im trying to save you a huge headache :oops:

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Thanks for the advice, and yes we have already been in contact. He said he would accept her back for a refund.

We don't have many reptile shows up here in the northwest that I'm able to get to. I'd try to go to the ones in Canada, but I wouldn't be able to bring anything back (at least not easily, or cheaply). I know that there's going to be a show down in Seattle Center this year, super excited for that! And there's a decent show in Puyallup every year that isn't bad at all, but it -is- a 2 hour drive there. There are a couple of smaller ones, but they're either in Portland (NOT drivable) or small enough that it's not worth losing 2 major days out of my paycheck.

My boyfriend wants to go visit some of the places he grew up in down in California this summer, I'm just hoping the timing works out to coincide with one of the bigger shows down there :please: