question for those of you that have sold on Kingsnake or Faunaclassifieds...

[johnmauser]

I have bred and sold cornsnakes in the past but they have never had enough value for someone to pay shipping so I've sold them locally. I'm building a collection of bp's right now, but my biggest concern with breeding is finding homes for everyone. Once I have enough females laying clutches I'd like to do some shows and build a website. But for the first few years, I may only be producing a couple clutches.

Just wondering what kind of experiences you have had selling on Kingsnakedotcom and faunaclassifiedsdotcom? Do you get a lot of interest from buyers? Many lowballers or tirekickers? On average how long does it take to get mid price ($150-$1000) hatchlings sold once advertised on those sites.

Any info on your experiences, or any other advice for someone selling a few clutches?

Thanks in advance

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Depends some animals can be sold within hours and some you might have to sit on them for a while.

When breeding there is no guarantee, they might not sell right away which is why you need to be willing to keep them for as long as it take.

Of course if you are in a hurry you can always wholesale them to that up to you to decide whether you want full price for your animals or whether you want to wholesale them to someone else and get half of the price.

It's about patience, quality animals, customer service and reputation.

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

I've sold many more BPs on kingsnake then anywhere else. You get more traffic. I believe it's worth at least a 3 month membership during selling season if you really want to move your hatchlings.

It also helps greatly to already have a paid membership to fauna. Participate in the forums enough to become known as a good person. You need to build a good rep there also. Then advertise your snakes on both sites. That way, you're more likely to sell to some paid fauna members who will then add to your trader ratings and start a good guy BOI thread for you. Those last 2 are probably the most important details to being able to sell more in the future.

Which also means, learn how to pack and ship very well. Impress your customers with your care of your animals and your care of shipping. Also your customer service.

One more thing. Get FedEx certified so you do not have to rely on SYR. There are many people out there who simply will not buy from someone who uses a middle-man to ship.

[johnmauser]

Thanks for the responses so far. I see a lot of nice snakes on those two sites, and have always wondered if they fly off the shelf, or sit there forever.

Thanks for the advice on increases sales by joining the forums and building a reputation, and about becoming fed-ex certified.

[J.Vandegrift]

For me, the lower priced stuff (less than $400 or so) is very difficult to sell and the higher priced stuff sells very easily. Most important thing to remember if you are planning to sell is to make sure you are producing things that people actually want.

[johnmauser]

Well I know what I like, and want to produce, so hopefully it's what everyone else is looking to buy...I guess time will tell.

[Blue Apple Herps]

Good tips from others here. It really just depends. I agree with getting on fauna, and building up your rep a little. That's the biggest hurdle to selling on the internet when you're new. If no one has ever heard of you or you have no trail of good dealings, people are going to be hesitant to spend their money, especially with how many scammers there are and people selling poor-quality and sickly snakes out there.

I'm not saying that's you by any means, but if I as a customer can choose between someone with no reputation or any feedback, or someone who has an amazing reputation, I'm going to go with the person with the reputation. So at first it may be more difficult to move things, don't get discouraged. It will happen.

Also, learn how to properly ship and pack snakes. If you send a snake packed well, it is going to arrive alive and healthy, and that person will be pleased and more likely to buy from you again or tell others. Don't skimp on packing. Even if the snake shows up alive, but you packed it poorly, people won't buy from you again, as next time the snake won't be so lucky to survive sub par packaging.

And lastly, take good pictures of your animals to try to represent them as best as you can. Too many people post up fuzzy cell phone pics or they take pictures with the flash on bright mode to try to make the snake look like something its not. Last thing you want to do is to represent a snake in a picture one way, and then have it arrive to your customer actually looking completely different.

These sites are good and can get you a lot of traffic. You will get a lot of low balls (last year I had someone offer me $350 for a savannah bp I was asking $1200 for, and they got pissed off when I told them their offer was too low, and started trying to drop big names and how they're so well known and would regret not selling to them, etc etc).

Don't let idiots like that scare you off or try to bully you one way or the other. They're just internet tough guys. Even if someone low balls you, try to be polite and respectful. Nothing is a bigger turn off than a seller losing their cool (even if they have every right to).

You will also answer tons of emails and questions, and then never hear back from them again. I think it is super rude, but people just don't feel they need to spend 15 seconds to email you and say "thanks but I'm not interested." So just be prepared for that.

And my last advice, don't mark anything sold or turn down any sales until you have actual money in your hands. When I first started I was too nice and people would say "Hold him for me, I'll pay you on pay day in two weeks". So I'd hold the snake, turn down a few sale offers, only to have that person go MIA or to say "I can't afford it anymore, or just give me two more weeks" etc. Now I won't hold anything w/o a non-refundable deposit of some sort or paid in full.

Unfortunately no one's word is enough these days (unless you've dealt with them a few times and truly know their word is good enough). I lost out on so many quick sales holding snakes off of someone's word, only for them to back out.

Anyways, I've rambled long enough. They're good avenues to try through, it can be frustrating, and you'll deal with a lot of BS, but just be patient, it'll happen.

[Jason Bowden]

I've sold many more BPs on kingsnake then anywhere else. You get more traffic. I believe it's worth at least a 3 month membership during selling season if you really want to move your hatchlings.

It also helps greatly to already have a paid membership to fauna. Participate in the forums enough to become known as a good person. You need to build a good rep there also. Then advertise your snakes on both sites. That way, you're more likely to sell to some paid fauna members who will then add to your trader ratings and start a good guy BOI thread for you. Those last 2 are probably the most important details to being able to sell more in the future.

Which also means, learn how to pack and ship very well. Impress your customers with your care of your animals and your care of shipping. Also your customer service.

One more thing. Get FedEx certified so you do not have to rely on SYR. There are many people out there who simply will not buy from someone who uses a middle-man to ship.

I was actually thinking of not shipping with fedex anymore. The last snake I shipped from Louisiana to Cali costed me over $90 with fedex.
Damn, shipping has gotten expensive!

Great thread!

[Blue Apple Herps]

I was actually thinking of not shipping with fedex anymore. The last snake I shipped from Louisiana to Cali costed me over $90 with fedex.
Damn, shipping has gotten expensive!

Great thread!

Really? I'd call your rep and complain about that. I just shipped a snake from TX to Alaska for $80. A few weeks ago I shipped a box full to the brim of snakes to Cali from TX for only $60.

[johnmauser]

Blue Apple Herps,

Thank you for taking the time to write all of that. I appreciate it and will take it to heart.

Hopefully I've got a little bit going for me, I'm a photographer and have put together a few websites in the past to sell my photos...so this is something I'm actually looking foward too. My full time job is at a public aquarium and I've got about 6 years of experience shipping everything from snakes to jellyfish. Speaking of shipping, I've been very dissapointed with our fed ex shipments lately. I ship and receive a lot of jellyfish throughout the year and lately fed-ex has managed to bust, break, smash, crush or leak about 50% of the shipments. These animals are well packaged, bagged inside of styro inside of cardboard, so I have to wonder how badly they are treating these live animal packages to do so much damage. They could probably treat a snake the same way but the package wouldn't show as much dammage due to it being light and not full of water, but either way the animal would suffer during transport.