REPTlLE RlNG ??? legit?

[Emilio]

I think they want less smaller breeders in the ring that's why the fee's are excessive. Less breeders less competition. I would expect more of these sites down the road if they aren't here already.


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[Skiploder]

In addition to the $200 for just getting an account established, you have to cough up another $100 per year to keep your account. And they collect 5% of the final sales price for every animal sold. Then on top of that, you are required to spam facebook/twitter/google+/etc. or you're considered a "Free Rider" and they can revoke your selling privileges. Sounds fun.

But it's got Wilbanksies name on it, so you're supposed to like it - even admired and possibly worship it.

If you are going to go far in the reptile forums, you better brush up on your blind fanboi rulebook. If some newbie came up with the idea, THEN you can pan it. If an established name sets those type of rules - you know - the $200/$100 fees, the license to spam and the built in excuse to bust up market prices - well, then it's a brilliant and groundbreaking idea.

Are we clear on all this? Go read your Fanboi Manual and it will all make sense.

[PweEzy]

That auction has a very limited selection anyways. I do check it every once in a while, but I'm not going to go bid on a snake just because the price tag looks attractive. If it isn't in my plans, then I don't want it. Plus, I don't think people will actually change their searching methods from finding a particular snake for sale to just waiting and hoping one pops up on the ring and has a nice price tag. We all know that the value of different genes goes down in time anyways, so if that many people wanna sit around waiting and hoping that their 5k dream snake will sell for 2k, chances are that by the time it happens it will have already dropped in value anyways. And for the few lucky people that get the good deal while the gene is hot... congrats, but you have to imagine that the quantity wont be there to crash anything. Maybe I am missing something, but I definitely don't think that this is "where the market is headed" per say. It's just a new idea that gives people a different way to shop for what they want.

[bcr229]

I did start to work on a ebay type of site also. I figure people would start bids at their minimum price and go from there, if they didn't like the auction, set starting bid and buy it now at the same price. but it also had the ability to search by morphs, weight, sex, ect., a notify list, where you could set conditions and get an email if someone post an animal that meets those conditions. "I want a double het hypo/clown female" or even specific as "I want a snake with at least enchi and lesser that is over 500 grams and posted for under 3k". that way no ad gets missed. easy access to make a charity auction and have the money go directly to them. I was going to talk to SYR and see if we could even make the sell to shipping part streamlined. I abandoned the idea after seeing mikes site tho.

Why? If you can get it done, with a better search capability including one for location for those of us who prefer semi-local pickup whenever possible, no annual fee, listing fee, or spamming required, just a fee to the seller when the animal sells, your site would probably attract more sellers and buyers.

[Dave Green]

I'm currently selling on ReptileRing and I find it to be an additional way to sell my animals. If you asked me a year ago I would have been against auctions but at a certain point I realized that they are here to stay. ReptileRing brings sellers and buyers together in one place instead of having a bunch of separate auctions on FB.

I have a waiting list for my customers for animals I hope to produce this coming year. When I produce stuff that's not sold via my waiting list it goes on my site. I would then sell animals to my customers and anyone else who would see my ads etc. Now, with ReptileRing I can have another option for certain animals and stuff that's been on my site for a while. If something is on my site for a long period of time I figure the demand isn't there or I overestimated the value of the animal. ReptileRing can be an outlet for such animals. I'm also getting new customers once they receive my animal and are happy with it and my customer service.

Also, the fees and 5% isn't really a concern for me, there are always costs of doing business. I'm sure there are large expenses maintaining the ReptileRing website as well as the initial costs of setting it up. I am also benefitting from Mike's customers as well as the other breeders customers. In return they benefit from mine. Why should I get these benefits without a cost? Mike has approx. 80,000 Facebook followers last time I looked and a huge customer base. I just started my Facebook page and have a much smaller customer base. Shouldn't that cost me something? In addition, we aren't asked to spam, we are asked to simply promote the site. I have never been asked to promote other peoples auctions nor have I been asked to spam.

[OhhWatALoser]

Why? If you can get it done, with a better search capability including one for location for those of us who prefer semi-local pickup whenever possible, no annual fee, listing fee, or spamming required, just a fee to the seller when the animal sells, your site would probably attract more sellers and buyers.

First mover advantage is huge and hard to compete with. The amount of time that would need to be put into it is huge. Say I do finish it, mike site adds the same features and changes his policy to accept everyone, already has a user base and the known name. Now im out hundreds of hours with nothing to show for it. That combined with the already bad taste in many peoples mouth about auctions already, i decided it wasn't worth pursuing, too much risk.

[JLC]

Bring people to one place helps the market though and the hobby really needs a site built for selling. kingsnake and fauna are just modified forums with keyword search. I'm surprised they haven't been replaced yet (especially kingsnake).

Coming Soon.... Very soon.

I'll tell you why it's taken so long to do something better than KS and Fauna...it's hellishly expensive and difficult to do it right. Very few people have the money AND the time, drive, and ability to pull off something on that scale. But someone did. Coming soon.

[sho220]

But it's got Wilbanksies name on it, so you're supposed to like it - even admired and possibly worship it.

If you are going to go far in the reptile forums, you better brush up on your blind fanboi rulebook. If some newbie came up with the idea, THEN you can pan it. If an established name sets those type of rules - you know - the $200/$100 fees, the license to spam and the built in excuse to bust up market prices - well, then it's a brilliant and groundbreaking idea.

Are we clear on all this? Go read your Fanboi Manual and it will all make sense.

I'll pass on the Wilbanks fanboi club...I prefer doing business with the small timers...

[zee-man]

One question I have is for folks who post their snakes on the auction site - do you feel at all guilty when you list a snake at one price and then it auctions at half that at auction?

Say you have four siblings. Enchi clowns. You sell one on your site for 2
5k (guessing). The others dont really move so you post them on Reptile Ring and the remaining three auction for around $1k each.

Do you think / feel you cheated the customer that bought on your site? Yes they get a quality animal and "first pic" but at the cost of 150% increase. Do you worry you could damage your relationship with that customer? I know I wouldn't be happy if I found out. Couple hundred sure but that's a hell of a lot more than a couple hundred when you can get the same genes from the same breeder and your "buy price" is leaps above anyone elses.




Justin Kobylka has a solid article on his site discussing reptile auctions and both Mike Wilbanks and Ben Seigel offered comment to the article. Its worth a read and Mike comments and clarifies on the fees and setup.

[Dave Green]

One question I have is for folks who post their snakes on the auction site - do you feel at all guilty when you list a snake at one price and then it auctions at half that at auction?

Say you have four siblings. Enchi clowns. You sell one on your site for 2
5k (guessing). The others dont really move so you post them on Reptile Ring and the remaining three auction for around $1k each.

Do you think / feel you cheated the customer that bought on your site? Yes they get a quality animal and "first pic" but at the cost of 150% increase. Do you worry you could damage your relationship with that customer? I know I wouldn't be happy if I found out. Couple hundred sure but that's a hell of a lot more than a couple hundred when you can get the same genes from the same breeder and your "buy price" is leaps above anyone elses.

That was an issue I thought of early on and I will try and avoid it at all costs. I try and make my customers happy and this would be a real negative. I don't plan on auctioning high dollar snakes, morphs in high demand or new morphs. Also, if a customer buys a certain morph off my site I think I would hold off on auctioning the same morph at least for a while.