check this out !@!!!!!

Does anyone know if you can set a reserve? It seems like an interesting idea. One thing I like is that the price of an individual snake will be reflective of the quality of the animal. If you have an excellent example of a morph you might even wind up with more than you would have asked for. Conversely, if you have a really crappy example you will get what is reflective of that. I see far too many people listing an animal of bad quality for a price reflective of top quality. I think this will reward the people that have taken the time to hand pick quality when it comes to their breeding stock.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk

I like the idea and think its cool.
I would like to see more pictures of the listed animals but everything has to start somewhere right?

Pretty cool. I see some potential. Thanks for sharing Steve!

Regards,
Kevin


Sent from my mind!

I agree it needs a lot of work but hope it stays relatively simple. Dont nuke it!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ohhhhhh boy, I can see myself in the future pissing the wife off with this.

The potential is interesting, but the only animals I have ever purchased site-unseen (i.e. held in my hand, because pics can be misleading), were from established breeders who I have a relationship with and trust. But then again, I've never been into owning a lot of animals at low-low prices. I'd rather pay more for a quality animal that I can see in person before I buy it.

As always, your mileage may vary ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pythonfriend

its interesting.

but it seems a bit incomplete. for example, each seller should have a detailed profile. right now the website appears to be in test mode, and i only see one seller, Mike Wilbanks. it says he can bring the BP to Hamm, Germany, or to Hong Kong for free. so the website should also contain the dates, when exactly he will be at what location. the overview should also list the name of the seller with each snake, and show the ratings for that seller. right now i only see one picture for each snake, only one perspective, and its not particularly high resolution.

there are many places where you see the name of the seller, but not the ratings for that seller.

so, some things need to be added. most importantly a profile page for the sellers, with information about the seller, where you can see past auctions and ratings and contact information, and a description of the breeding operation, what size, what species. and where the seller can introduce himself/herself. basically what breeders have on their websites under "about us" and "contact us".

---

First, thanks for posting this. We just launched last week and I am just getting things rolling over there. If you read the "About Us" section you will see the philosophy behind the site. In a nutshell, part of the problem that I see with the market is that sellers are too spread out. These fake market prices that everyone seems to love perpetuating are also hurting things and my customers. I can sell animals at the highest market price that someone comes up with. Here is an example. The first of the 2013 hatch season, people started talking about what Bananas would sell for. Most agreed that they should be around $5000. I figure people are going to undercut me anyway so I sell for $6000. A month later, after I have sold 7 or 8 at that price, someone advertises at $3500. Now I have 7 or 8 customers mad at ME because I sold them at an inflated price. They are not mad at the guy who sold at $3500, they are mad at me. That is only one morph, there are many other examples. I'm not playing this game anymore. I cannot continue to have my customer paying the price for buying from me. We produce too many animals every year to just sit on them because this stopped being a hobby for us many years ago. It is a business and I have payroll to meet, taxes to pay, etc. The market for many of these morphs has grown too large for any of us to control anymore. You can be in denial about this fact, but REAL market forces, supply and demand are here. We have to find a way to discover the REAL market prices. Bottom line, something is worth what someone will pay for it. An auction unleashes the real market and allows people to fight for what they want and decide what they are willing to pay. The problem with the FB auction on everyone's own FB page is half the time, I hear about something after it happened. Someone will tell me "did you see what such and such morph went for" and I would go to the page, after the fact, and say to myself I would have given more than that. How many times a day is this happening? My idea was to get a majority of us in one place where we could see what the market price really is for our creations. Like I said, you can deny this fact, but the auctions are here to stay, on FB, my site, some other site or somewhere but the toothpaste is out of the tube now and there's no getting it back in.

I resisted the idea of auctions for a long time. Sales slowed and many of my customers contacted me asking me when I would be doing them. It was becoming the only way customers want to buy. So, in November I started doing them on my Facebook. I was getting good prices and it was fun. Fun to watch and fun for the customers. So as I was researching, I participated in one of Ben Siegels auctions. Ben Siegel started the whole concept and has become the auction king. It was fun. I got caught up in winning and overpaid. I thought to myself this new way of buying is here to stay but Facebook is not the place for it, IMO. I don't like running them on FB because I have to constantly watch the clock and try to figure out when it ends etc. For those of you that are not familiar, the Overtime format adds 5 minuted to the clock every time there is a bid in the last 5 minutes or some variation of that. The point is it prevents someone "sniping" or waiting for the last second to try to get a bid in to steal the auction. This is a great format for sellers. It causes us to maximize the sales price. Ebay does not use this because there is no upside in it for them. They want buyers to get things for as cheap as possible, because sellers are always going to be there.

On to ReptileBay. We are not in test mode, we are live. I assume most customers know when the Hamm show is each time because it's the largest show in the world, but I think it would be a good idea for me to add the dates to my descriptions. I will do that now, thanks for that advise. We already have many of the other features that you are asking for. We do not have a seller profile area where they can tell about themselves. I am not trying to make another Facebook or a website to tell about each seller. That should be done as part of the description on every auction in my opinion. The description area allows HTML so the seller can get really creative with banner ads and links to their FB, website, etc. This is the place where a customer is considering purchasing from you so why not tell them everything about yourself right there? I just have the HTML description saved on a notepad and I copy and paste the general info on every auction. If you are not familiar with HTML, you simply write your description, then click the source button which contains all of your font colors, links, etc and copy that info to paste into your next auction.

Many of the features only become visible when you are logged in. The Sellers rating/feedback is next to the stars on every auction. If a seller has a rating, you can click the number and it will take you to their feedback section. This is real feedback, from real customers. They are the only ones allowed to post feedback. Same for buyers. I post feedback on buyers, like fast pay, etc.

You can view "Sellers other listings" to see all that seller has to offer. If you click the "Advanced Search" in the upper right, then only check "include completed listings" you can see what animals really sold for. Eventually this will give us a database to show us where the market really is with enough seller participation.

The pictures can be super sized and are very hi res. Every seller has the opportunity to post up to 6 photos. I only post 1 because that's all I have mostly ever done, but that is the sellers choice. You can even post a Youtube video of the animal if you choose. In the future, I plan to have a youtube video telling about my company that I post on every auction, but every seller can make their own choices about how their ad will look. If auction is not your thing, then sellers can also post classified ads. Name another classified that allows a video to be posted as part of the ad.(there might be one, I don't get out much). The mobil version works great which is important because there are many users that only bid from their phone. We have translated many parts of the site into several different languages and we are working on that constantly. When we are finished, you will be able to navigate any part of the site in Chinese, Russian, French, German, Dutch, Spanish and of course English.

In the end, I truly hope it becomes a marketplace that will add stability to the market. If the sellers don't come, then I will have a cool place to post my auctions. I invited everyone, but that's all I can do is open the invitation. The customers are there and that's the really important part for me. I am not sure if the mods here want me to post a link so I will not out of respect. There will be a link on my website soon.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by scooter11

Does anyone know if you can set a reserve? It seems like an interesting idea. One thing I like is that the price of an individual snake will be reflective of the quality of the animal. If you have an excellent example of a morph you might even wind up with more than you would have asked for. Conversely, if you have a really crappy example you will get what is reflective of that. I see far too many people listing an animal of bad quality for a price reflective of top quality. I think this will reward the people that have taken the time to hand pick quality when it comes to their breeding stock.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk

---

Yes, you can put a reserve if you choose. You can also put a Buy It Now price where a customer will just click buy it now and it connects them with Paypal to send you the money. You set up your paypal when you sign up and when a buyer wins your auction, they can check out and the money comes to you. It is much more simple that chasing your money through a classified ad.

Gave the site a look-over, speaking from purely a technical point-of-view and as someone who buys & sells on other auction sites, I would very much like to see the following features added as I've found they're very useful:
- You need a better search function. Ideally when creating a listing the seller could enter individual data elements such as species, sex, age, base morph(s), price, etc. Users should have an easy way to filter on these, and just as easily be able to filter out certain values. As an example, if I'm looking at hypos or pieds, and don't want to see hets, give me a way to exclude those animals from my search. Similarly if I want to see two-gene animals with Mojave but not Spider, that would be great.
- As a seller I want to be able to block certain bidders from bidding, both based on overall feedback (e.g. no one rated D or less), and specifically by username (because some people's reputations precede them).
- Auction sites run differently and users may be used to certain policies. As an example, eBay permits sellers to cancel a bid, GunBoker.com does not. I don't care either way which you choose, but be warned that bidders used to eBay's policies will be in for a nasty shock if bids can't be retracted.
- Get a valid CC from all registrants before they can bid as it helps keep scammers away. There's a reason scammers abound on ArmsList but not GunBroker.

I know a lot of people hate auctioned because they feel like they hurt the market, but maybe this site can help solve that problem. I mean, I grew up around horses and in the thoroughbred industry there are a lot of breeders who will only sell at auction because there is this feeling that auctions are the best way to gauge market price. Of course, thoroughbred auctions are advertised and have good participation....I guess my point is that I don't think auctions are inherently bad. The problem is more with the way they are happening now. Mike, you summed it up pretty well. I also have heard of plenty of auctions after the fact where I would have gladly paid more.

I set up an account, and may try listing an animal or two to check it out. I do have one question, though. I selected "accept instant checkout." Is that all I need to do to be able to accept credit cards?