Morning Gripe: A thought on lowering prices too far

[anatess]

Thank you very much for the input, I am really working hard at making a solid rep for myself. I would love not to have to drop my pricing, I'm just a bit worried about the possibility. My one reference is a sale, and I am certainly happy to have that, even if it isn't on the BOI. Any other sage words? I really appreciate it.

Hi Mr. Robertson, I bought Salazar (my spider) from a 12-year old that I drove 120 miles for. If I remember correctly, I paid $400 for him. That's a lot of money to have to drive 120 miles for to buy from a 12-year old. But, I did it. The kid is experienced too. I wouldn't be surprised if he's on BP.net... (if you are, you must be around 16 now and I'm super interested to know how you're doing, so give a shout out over here!). From what I understand, he chooses his snakes carefully and his dad is the "legal" side of things as well as the driver and overseer (to meet buyers). He doesn't breed (not yet at that time, at least). He goes to Reptile shows and builds his stock from there, picking great babies that he can grow out and then sell.

I decided to purchase from him even knowing that he's a 12-year-old because of the way he handled himself. The pictures of his stock was top-notch. He knew everything there is to know about ball pythons, especially proper husbandry, answering all my questions. All his emails and all our phone conversations were very professional. If he did not mention his dad (which led me to ask how old he is), I wouldn't have guessed he is 12! Good grammar on the emails and none of these short-cut teen-age speak. Very respectful on the phone calling me Ma'am and very well modulated voice (I pay attention to that kind of stuff). I asked him to meet me halfway but he refused as his dad did not want to drive that far but he was very respectful in saying it and tried to counter it by telling me all about how the reduced pattern in his spider is really worth the trip (quite excellent, confident but non-pushy salesmanship). And one thing that really impressed me is he told me that his spider does not have a noticeable wobble at this time but all spiders have the potential of wobbling as they grow older. Shows me he wants to make sure I'm going to keep the snake. It made me think hard and do more research on spiders. I met him and his dad at a public place (I've never spoken/written to his dad), I wrote the check out to his dad's name (I did not want to pay cash so I can dispute the sale if needed). They had to give me that extra level of trust that my check is good. Now, the funny thing is - his dad is deathly scared of snakes but he is a businessman, so he lets his kid keep his snakes in his room and nowhere else in the house. He had a lemon pastel that he brought just in case I'd be interested in it as it would be a good breeding pair with the spider (another good salesmanship). I had no interest in breeding, I just wanted a pet snake, so I didn't get the lemon pastel but it was very very tempting! Love that kid! And he's TWELVE!

I wonder how that kid is doing now...

My advice: Learn what it takes to be a professional and pay very close attention to economics class (that is if you have a good teacher, if not, go take some business courses or something... there should be some community education summer courses available on those circulars that come by the house).

And one last thing: one bad review wipes out 10 good ones just like one rep-killing post on EBN wipes out 10 good posts that can potentially kill your chances of having EBN customers. And EBN members usually know members or are members of other forums and this rep could follow you around. Be very careful with what you say/do on these sites. Not many people will give an age-pass when it comes to parting with hard-earned cash.