Ballbids.com

[aviBallBids]

Zach and Avi... who are you guys?! How long have you been in ball breeding? I got that same "Along Came a Spider" Nerd poster. If I take my smiling picture in front of it, can I be legit too? Excuse us for being skeptical but the Ball Python/Reptile industry is inundated with scammers and people straight up in it just to make a buck.

I'm getting flashbacks to a company a few years ago that overnight put out a ton of ads using "cheap" and "buy morphs for less" in their advertisements. Morph King Reptiles and the people associated with that company are still looked upon as a black eye to this industry.

How about showing us some pictures of your facility? Collection? Snakes breeding? I'm thinking that this will just be another chapter in this highly drama-filled Ball Python industry...

Hi MarkieJ!

Please, let me tell you a little bit about Zack and I. We're both from South Florida, but currently living in Louisville, Kentucky. We've been best friends since right before we started High School.

As long as I can remember, Zack has been involved with snakes, in one way or another. I still remember the first time I got bit by his retic, square on the neck It wasn't that bad, so I got a bit more comfortable around them from that point on (Ironic, huh?).

I have a computer science and digital marketing background, and it's this fact that made Zack originally approach me about the idea for BallBids.com. It's certainly not something that happened overnight--we've been planning and building this slowly for more than 6 months now.

Seeing as how major penny auction websites are all competing day in and day out for the same customer base, we thought it made sense to create a niche penny auction website that catered to a specific audience (In this case, reptile owners, breeders, enthusiasts, etc.), in exchange for a smaller overall crowd.

As for the NERD poster, we simply didn't have anything better to use as a backdrop, and we really like the look of it!

We plan to put together a few videos to announce our first few winners, but I'll be sure to share our office, breeding facility, and print shop with the community at the same time.

I was reading some of their comments on other sites (facebook, other forums) and it seems like they purchase the snakes from top quality breeders and then sell them on their website. My assumption is that the model allows them to make a decent profit off the snake.

Butter: market value of $350
She is currently at $2.08

Lowest rate per bid seems to be $0.55, and highest rate per bid seems to be $0.90 (correct me if I'm wrong) so I'm going to average $0.72 per bid.

There have currently been 208 bids on this butter female if my average calculations are correct. This means that they have to sell her at $4.86 minimum to break even. Everything after is profit.

Let's pretend they purchase a snake from NERD at $1,500.
They need to have 2,083 (average) bids on the NERD snake for them to break even. The snake would sell at $20.83 at this break even point. Everything after is profit.

Please correct my math if I'm wrong, it's late.

Interesting business model. It might work for some people. I would be wary that the person winning the snakes at the end is not a legitimate customer (like you or me) but a friend or bot. But I guess if we see that people from BP.net or Fauna or something are winning the snakes and singing the praises of the site, my opinion might change. I know some of the bigger penny auction sites have auto-bids and shillers that increase the price or never allow a real customer to get the product.

This is not to say that ballbids.com is going to do the same thing, but that it's a complaint many have against penny auctions. As time goes on, we'll see who is getting the snakes and that'll verify legitimacy

Hi Slashmaster!

I appreciate your perspective! All we can suggest to others is to sit back, watch how things pan out, and wait until the community speaks well on our behalf.

Unfortunately, like you say, the penny auction model is notorious for being taken advantage of by scammers, but you know very well how valuable a successful breeding program can be in the long run. I would never risk our reputation on that end in order to make a few quick bucks.

In the end, all we can ask of the community is to give us a chance to show that we will, in fact, honor the final auction prices of our ball pythons (and hopefully other reptiles in the near future), and our winners will, in fact, receive those animals in the mail, as promised.

-Avi =)