Buying at Events vs Buying Online

I've never been to a show, but want to and been saving my money for an August show in Southern California. I was wondering, do you think it is best (price-wise) to buy online or would I be better off buying with vendors? And is it like a swap meet where you can negotiate pricing or are they all basically firm?!

I prefer to buy at a show, because I can see the snake in person, and also there's no shipping cost or stress. Prices can be better at a show, or more at a show, depending on your area and access to the show. I think prices are generally lower in my experiances at shows.

Some sellers will negociate with you, especially on the last day of a show. Some prices are firm. If you're nice about asking, most sellers won't be insulted by you offering a lower amount.. but if you really low-ball someone, or you say insulting things like "I've seen better snakes at a lower price" or "so and so's pastels are cheaper"... then you'd probably get nastier responses obviously.

Not that I'm saying you'd be insulting, just I've seen people say those things and worse, then walk away complaining that the seller was "rude and wouldn't lower his prices at all!". So I've seen it happen, and some folks think saying things like that is "hard bargaining". Shrug.

Talk to folks, chat them up and get a feel for the seller's attitude about things. Generally folks are happy to tell you about their snakes. Have a lot of fun, I know I always do at a reptile show!

I prefer buying at shows because like wolfy said, you can see the
animal before you buy. And you can usually get better prices in my experience, especially if you know how to haggle.

For me buying at a show has been cheaper. Much easier to haggle with people when they know you have cash on hand.

Good deal. Thanks!

I actually mostly prefer to buy from online sellers who post individual pictures of their animals on their websites. That way there are no crowds or pressure. You have time to correspond with the seller and check out their reputation on the BOI before actually deciding to purchase. There seems to be plenty of selection out there online, and you can actually bargain some online as well. For example, I recently bought a nice spider het albino ball python and asked the seller if he would consider discounting one of his het pied females, since he would save shipping money by sending both to me in one box. I was expecting he might take $50 off the price of the second snake, but he offered me a whole $125 off the asking price. That was nice! Perhaps the shows in my area are fairly limited, but I usually have had a hard time finding high-end female snakes at the shows I have attended. My suggestion would be to look around quite a bit online and compare prices before attending the show, and then you can really know if the show prices are a better deal, and it might give you more bargaining power if you can tell the seller that you saw the same thing cheaper from an online vendor. It worked for me one time when I politely told a show vendor that I had seen lower prices online, and he instantly offered me $200 off on a desired pair of snakes. So, I have gotten a few nice animals at expos, but the vast majority of my collection I purchased online with no regrets at all.

Respectful haggling, the key to shows!

Just remember, "respectful". And if you're buying more then one snake off of the same dealer, even better deals!

Example...
You are looking for a pastel male and a pied female.
Seller one has a pied for 800 seller two has a pied for 900 and a pastel male for 100. Go and chat up seller two about your husbandry skills and what snakes you own, the weather blah blah. Ask him the typical questions, what it eats, steady eater blah blah. Now a respectful person (when you have the snake in your hands) would say "this is a beautiful snake". "I'm really looking at buying the pastel and the pied, you think you could swing a deal on the pair?" He/she will either say sorry no or sure what'd you got in mind? Make an offer that you think is reasonable. Even if they say no, make your offer. Don't be shy, you already established you're a good guy.

Online it's so easy for a seller to say no to an email or just ignore it. In person it's all about people skills! Don't be a douche and you'll always get a deal! If it's a breeder you'll usually get a good deal considering they know it will go to a fellow hobbyist. If it's a flipper, move along lol.

It's late, I'm hoping my post made sence. Good luck!!!

I dont have a preference, I have found sectacluar animals with great prices at shows and online

Being as picky as I am about the looks of the animals that I add to my collection, MOST of my buying is done online. It's not often that I see an animal at a show that meets my picky criteria.

Now, I will pick up some kingsnakes from a show, but when it comes to ball pythons, my most phenomenal animals (IMHO) are purchased online.

when i go i make sure that i hit up and talk to a few of the venders for a bit if im buying or not. this way they get to know you and when ever the time comes that they have something that you want your more likely to get a better deal than some stranger that just walked up and asked for one. plus in talking you find out about a bunch more great breeders that youll want to deal with that pretty much stay under the radar.

Personally, I have had good experiences buying both online and at shows. I like that at shows I have the opportunity to see and handle the animal myself before making the purchase (photographs can sometimes be very misleading!) and talk to the breeder in person. I've never tried haggling, though, but then, I've only bought one normal at a show! However, I maintain that she is one of the prettiest normals I have, too, and she's only gotten prettier as she gets older.

Buying online does offer you a lot more choice, and as picky as I am about the animals I buy, although I've been to a few shows, there isn't always an animal that meets my picky standards, whereas I see more animals offered online that make me go 'wow'.

I would personally hold out for the animal that you fall in love with and a breeder you can trust, regardless of whether it's at a show or online. Both times, the animals I got were at a more than reasonable price, and both times I was very pleased with the purchase. I personally am not inclined to haggle if the animal is already priced fairly and I like the breeder--and if the animal's right for me. Usually I'm happy to pay the price for the right animal.

So is it fair to suggest that perhaps at these expo's, reptile shows most vendors sell their overstock and save only the best and holdbacks for online sales?

I think most vendors will carefully choose what to bring to an expo--they want to show off their very best in person, and many vendors will even bring a few animals NOT for sale, to show the quality they have.

They don't want to undersell their best animals, but they do want to show them off. In their position, I would bring a combination of things. (We're starting selling at expos, but at this lower level, we pretty much just bring everything, lol).

I've never known a vender to hold back animals from a show to sell them online instead. They might have higher prices that are firm on better stock, but I don't know what purpose would be served in not bringing animals in order to hope they would be sold online rather than bringing to a show to offer for sale there.

The less hassle because of no shipping works on both ends after all. The seller can set his price on any of his animals at any level he chooses, high or low.

I like shows. I've never brought online, but from what I've seen, prices at shows are better and theres no shipping. Feeders are definitely cheaper to get at a show. I can get 50 mice for less than $30 at a show. Or the same for more than $70 online. I only have two snakes so it makes no sense to order enough mice to make shipping reasonable.