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I think repticon can take this rule and shove it up where the sun doesn't shine.

And I'm trying to be nice. -.-

Oh Shannon, dear, feel free to express yourself fully. Its the healthy thing to do. ;)

So you put your sand boas in something that isn't a deli cup and you bring one million of them, only showing 5 at a time. Also, you punch the Repticon people in the face with your face. All of them. At the same time.

I call shananigans.

+1 to Shannon

I might have used a bit more colorful language so I'm glad you said it first

If somebody pulled that exclusive market crap with crested geckos or ball pythons, 80% of the vendors would be affected and/or ruined. I would boycott that show in a heartbeat, you do not get to play Dictator With Money and take away our rights to sell what we have, and as a vendor who pulled that on others, shame on you!! That sort of thing kills new breeders before they have a chance to step up and vend, and it's not as if a sand boa only has just exactly 5 babies in a litter. What if that exclusive vendor didn't take good care of their snakes? What if they were skinny and showing signs of bad sheds? Then you're either SOL in finding a good sand boa to buy from them, and you have a limited selection from the rest of the entire show. Also, the "no other vendor may display their Sand Boas in deli-cups" is a laugh. So now we've got exclusive markets on deli cups too? I call bullbacon.

What makes an expo so fun is knowing there will be multiple vendors, many many species, and diverse selections to choose from among them!

That's just uncalled for.  I doubt we'll ever see this at Havre de Grace though.

Repticon can do whatever they want, they own the show and can set whatever rules they want.

With sand boas, probably not likely going to have a ton of fallout from it.. people will still go to the show, and there are few sand boa vendors.Minimal impact to table sales and bodies through the door.

Do this with Ball Pythons at a show, and that show is going to die.

I'm very "pro" a businesses' right to do what they want. I am very "pro"  free-market as well. And I'm very very "pro" for consumers to use their dollars to let that business know how well (or not) they're doing.

So you can put up to 5 on your table, but NOT in deli cups?
What is that supposed to do?
I don't get it.

I bet if the name of the vendor behind the deal goes public, they'll take a big hit in business.

I definitely do not agree with this, however, I do think it would maybe be nice to put a cap on the number of vendors selling the same species at shows.  I'm not saying 1, or 5, maybe not even 10.  But when you go to a big show, like Tinley for example, and 75% of the show is BPs it really takes away from the fun of seeing a variety of animals. 

 Laura this is iherp and I got Aarons ok to post the full rules here before I did. Its not the other web page I posted it on that we cant bring up names. ;) reread the post.

I think the exclusive vendor thing is crap, even for feeders. For the species I work with, I want to see a variety of CBB options at the show, not the usual unfortunate animals at broker/flipper tables. If, for instance, LLL had a bunch of farm-bred chondros and had exclusivity so a hobby breeder could not promote/educate the public about CBB chondros, that'd be a total finger flip IMO.

In general, exclusivity raises the hair on the back of my neck and makes me not want to support any entity that promotes such a thing. I'll drive 13 hours to Chicago to go to Tinley, but won't drive 45 minutes to hit the Repticrap shows unless I really, really need to stock the freezer.

I think this is crap... but Aaron is right, it is the show's right. Does that mean we have to support it though? Nope. (and I know you weren't sayin' that Aaron!)

I know Mark at SandBoaMorphs.com and he is a stand up guy with great animals but I think this is pretty lame and I wouldn't be okay with it regardless of who the vendor is...

OK so someone in the group I originally got this info from just got a reply from a letter they sent to Repticon. She said it was fine if I reposted it.

"Good afternoon Brande,

Thank you for contacting us regarding your concerns.
While you are correct in noting that Sandboamorphs.com has a sponsorship agreement with Repticon, which limits the amount of Sand Boa's that any other vendor may place on a table, this does not limit the amount of Sand Boa's that a vendor is allowed to actually have at a show.

Should someone choose to vend at a Repticon show at which Mark is a sponsor, they may bring as many of the reptiles they choose, however they are simply limited to the number that may be placed on the table at any given time. A vendor may have 5 sand boa's on the table at all times. If one is sold, then the vendor is certainly welcome to bring another from under the table to replace it.

There are several factors involved in a vendor being considered for sponsorship status, so we can assure you that these decisions are not entered into lightly."

Definitely a crock of bacon. Watch out for Mice Direct who is already pulling the same crap.

What's happening is that some bigger vendors are looking for guaranteed sales. They know they help to cover costs of the show and want a kick back for some reason like their bacon doesn't stink or they are better than others..

What is really sad about this is soon they won't have enough other vendor support. And, soon new shows will sprout up to hurt them even more (which is already happening in some areas) and it won't be worth their while to attend the show. Which means no more show.

I understand the economy is bad. But, really???

I was debate to purchase some animals from them, but I think I will look elsewhere now.

Grrrrrrrr!!!

I can definitely relate to travel expenses and it hurts when wholesalers comes to the shows with less than quality imports or neglected hatchlings and it causes confusion to the end buyer.

I think healthy competition is good and I also like the chance to decide who i want to buy from ...  We have lots of rodent vendors at out shows  and I have used most of them .. However  will not buy from some of them again because of poor quality  or the mice  being soaked in urine .. so if it came down to that one vendor having a monopoly  i would be quite  Pissed !!!

I'd just put up a big friendly sign: "we have more sand boas available today than what you see here; please inquire!"

hmph. show sponsorship is a big deal, but they're sure letting their sponsors jerk them around. I hope they paid for the whole damn thing.

I am one of two feeder venders at our NW expo's, never had a problem in sales. I sell frozen rodents with live rats as pets, the other verner same with live mice. Works out nice, all ways sell out! I was told once that we(the show) already had a feeder vender, i just said good now there will be two! Never heard another thing about it. Limit selection, limit sales!

thats lame. We were going to hit up the Dallas Repticon. reconsidering now.

I think if they do that, all the vendor fees should go down. Since you have a limit as to who can sell/display so many of this, and they are paying extra for it, the rest of the prices should go down, right? This would definately make me think long and hard about going to a Repticon Show, even though it was the first show I went to and have enjoyed them. 

This is a monopoly and I don't like it. This is bad for small breeders and HORRIBLE for other larger sand boa breeders.

I also agree that this shouldn't be the case for rodent breeders as the prices at shows are suppose to be better (no shipping). Most of the shows I have gone to in the past few years have super high rodent prices. I would get just about the same deal if not better than ordering online and paying for  shipping. And that doesn't even consider the quality of the rodents. 

Boycotting seems like a great plan to me. 

Does SandBoaMorphs have to abide by the same rules?  If so, then still a ridiculous rule but somewhat less offensive.

+1 to the pope

This puts such a sour feeling in my stomach.  I don't think its right to limit any species or feeder to one or two venders.  Sand boa breeders tend to be a very friendly group who work together to improve the species (and not only Kenyan Sand Boas, which sandboamorphs specializes in).

If you want to contact someone at Repticon about the decision please contact:

Bonnie Hyatt at 863-874-0227 or email bonnie@repticon.com

There's no mention that a vendor can't have a photo album containing pictures of animals brought.  Even if there are rules that restrict and limit, there's always loopholes to be found.

Its not about how to find ways around it, and deal with it, its about the principle behind it.  Cutting out competition isn't the way to improve the species (or groups of species) that you work with.

My apologies for getting so ticked off about this and hope you will excuse my bad french. 

In a perfect world all vendors should be allowed fair competition and equal opportunity to succeed. Imports and farm raised animals should be clearly marked as such. And, animals that are in poor health or not displayed properly should be removed from the show floor immediately.

Buyers should ALWAYS have the freedom of choice to pick and choose who they do business with. Just as vendors should be allowed to build a solid reputation and new client relationships.

I know advertising and sponsorships are important. But, just because a buyer lives in a ceratin area they should not be spoonfed limited opportunities with their paid admission if more options are available.

Its bad enough we have the States and Federal Government cracking down on the reptile industry!

Oh for crying out loud, it won't accept my pasted email.  Anyways- I sent Bonnie an email linking her to this thread and to the one on Fauna.

Laura, copy and paste it to a word document, change the font to something like Verdana or Times New Roman and change the font size, not sure why, but when I've done that it works.

Oh and cut it from Word and paste here, I think that was self expanitory, but just in case it wasn't.

Likely your document had some HTML embedded that this site doesn't allow for security purposes.

Copy/Paste to something "dumb" and back in here... that should work :)

I'm sure the issue is my Godaddy email *sigh*

Third time's the charm?

Subject: Repticon Exclusivity Agreements

 From:
LauraLee@geckosintails.com

 Date: Fri, January 13, 2012 11:59 am

 To:bonnie@repticon.com

Dear Bonnie,

Repticon might be interested in the talk that's going around the the online reptile community about exclusivity agreements:

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=129608&page=5

http://www.iherp.com/Public/Blog/Detail.aspx?UID=96946

From my own standpoint, it becomes useless for me to go to expos when I know I won't see any new vendors or decent numbers of the animals I'm interested in.  I stay home and buy online when I need new blood.  These days, shipping is cheaper than gas.

Several of my breeder friends have decided they will be boycotting Repticons now based on their awareness of this policy.

Variety is the life of an expo, and I am sad to hear that Repticon has adopted policies that discourage that variety.  IMO it cannot be good for your business in the long run, and especially not in this economy.

Thank you,

Laura Lee

www.GeckosinTails.com

Very nice e-mail. I really hope they get the point. The things that repticon does sort of sets the standards for a lot of other big shows and I would hate so see this become a standard. The feeder thing is already out of hand, if they would only set a price point they they could sell them at and not gouge the prices and also have big feeder breeders that only use crap food I would not bother breeding my own, I would stock up at the expos. But no I breed my own and sell extras local to help feed the feeders and keep them on real rodent foods.

Screw Repticon. They have the legal right to do this, but that doesn't make it a good idea, and I'm damn sure not going to support it.

Did repticon drop this exclusive rights deal yet?

not that I know of... IDK if they can because it maybe a contract issue now.

I just went and checked the rule has changed...

"Sand Boas: For shows that Repticon Sponsor SandBoaMorphs.com participates in, no other vendor may display their Sand Boas in deli-cups. Any number of sand boas may be displayed by other vendors in acrylic displays, "critter keepers", etc."

...I really dont get this deli thing at all.

Apparently, deli cups are more professional and asthetically pleasing?    It's a bunch of bull...