Reptile Shows - The Best and the Worst

What are your best and worst experiences at reptile shows? Have you ever been a vendor at a show? Do you still vend, or did you stop because ... ?

I have never vended a show but the worst show I've been to is Repticon Charlotte. And it's every time not just one bad experience. There is barely any diversity, not many people attend so it seems most vendors leave a lot at home. I won't be back because I live half way between Charlotte and Columbia SC and can just attend that show. Columbia Repticon is really nice, but the best show I've ever attended was the Myrtle Beach Reptile Expo. Last year was the first year they put it on and it was awesome. There were a lot of big names (BHB, Greg Graziani, a few others), a huge selection, a great set up. If I were a vendor this is a show I would vend.

The Repticon Charlotte show is much better than the Raleigh show, but these have to be the worst two shows I have attended in recent years. I use to love the Raleigh show but in the past two years it has taken a nose dive getting worse and worse every show. It will be very surprising if they are able to pull off the show this year. The promoters had to cancel the New Orleans show which was scheduled shortly after the Raleigh show last fall because the Raleigh show was such a flop.
I agree, Columbia and Myrtle Beach are great shows.

The Pomona Super Show was pretty good this year. A ton of BPs.

Ive been to 3 different expos. The White Plains NY one, the New England one in NH, and a small one in RI that i dont even remeber the name of. The New england one was ok. The only time i went it was still fairly small but i hear they have moved it to a bigger room so its gotten better. The Rhode Island one was smaller and not that good. A pretty small room in a hotel. The only plus was it was only 1hr away. The White Plains expo is the best ive been to. Always at least 200-250 vendors there. BHB has been there so it was cool to meet brian and the snakebytes crew! Its only a little over an hour away so i go to every one even if im not looking for anything. Ive never really taken a vacation from work but i like to pretend spending a day at an expo is like one lol! :D

My worst experience was not buying a great looking lemonblast. Ill regret it for the rest of my life.

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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Originally Posted by GoFride

What are your best and worst experiences at reptile shows? Have you ever been a vendor at a show? Do you still vend, or did you stop because ... ?

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Is this just for vendors? Because I love attending all reptile shows =]. I just go to see all the cool reptiles and to take pictures with my phone :D.

Sometimes I can spend 4 hours at the expo, and sometimes I can spend an hour and a half and be done. Either way, it's fun and worth it to me :D.

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Originally Posted by jinx667

The Pomona Super Show was pretty good this year. A ton of BPs.

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Yeah it was I'm looking forward to the super show in June in San deigo and nxt weekend I'm going to the pets expo in costa mesa there is supost to be a reptile section so well see

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Originally Posted by Bert Specht

Yeah it was I'm looking forward to the super show in June in San deigo and nxt weekend I'm going to the pets expo in costa mesa there is supost to be a reptile section so well see

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I'm also going to the one in san diego :D!

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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: