Pshhhhh, c'mon you at least have to go to pick up dry goods!I'd like to go, but just dumped a bunch of money with a local monitor breeder and realize I had better not...
Well luckily for you Repticon is semi hosed right now. Last minute and without any notice, Maryland State Fairgrounds told the Repticon staff that they needed to expand social distancing. All preorder tickets were assigned a random block of time for people to come in and look and purchase. No ticket sales are available at the door. And unless you were like me who found out just in time to order the last block of tickets (4pm to 6pm was the last available block today) you're going to have to hope you can find tickets for tomorrow, but I'm hearing it's sold out. Kinda suck as I I found this out while driving half way across the state from someone calling to tell me about the lack of door tickets. Luckily they were able to snag tickets from the website as soon as they couldn't get in the door.Ackies.
I have a 2-1/2 year old male red and just picked up three baby red x yellow mix on Tuesday from a guy in Baltimore.
I like the Ackies, small enough for easy handling/feeding and to be able to provide decent quarters in an average household, big enough to be interesting and show a lot of personality.
I had been looking for a female companion for my male that didn't have to ship across the country, but finally gave up and bought the babies - now I'm afraid I'll see the female I had wanted at the show and be in over my head, LOL.
After joining Dendroboard (brought here by all the great viv constructions), I want frogs now too...so there's that. I already accidentally bought a large bromeliad.
Dang, glad you were able to get in at all! Hope you enjoy!Well luckily for you Repticon is semi hosed right now. Last minute and without any notice, Maryland State Fairgrounds told the Repticon staff that they needed to expand social distancing. All preorder tickets were assigned a random block of time for people to come in and look and purchase. No ticket sales are available at the door. And unless you were like me who found out just in time to order the last block of tickets (4pm to 6pm was the last available block today) you're going to have to hope you can find tickets for tomorrow, but I'm hearing it's sold out. Kinda suck as I I found this out while driving half way across the state from someone calling to tell me about the lack of door tickets. Luckily they were able to snag tickets from the website as soon as they couldn't get in the door.
I am hoping to keep them communally, which is most of the logic of buying three little ones at once - better chances of them getting along long-term. It also gives me a fresh start with taming - my male was 'pre-owned', not handled/mishandled and was terrified of everything. He's much better now, but it has taken a lot to get him here.How are you housing your Ackies? Communally in the long run? DIY enclosures?
I tend to 'have' to go to shows, especially when my feeder source isn't delivering due to being at a show which means I have to pick up. Perk is knowing a bunch of the vendors that generally are there so I get a bunch of texts with heads up about how a show is going. I knew what I was getting myself into before I got there, but that was all from a snake keepers perspective. Figured I'd walk around the show and honestly it was disappointing. I'll start posting up more threads about local shows as they come up.Thank you for the report! I was regretting not being able to attend this show, now I am glad I couldn't make it. I was mostly interested in large bits of wood and plants and it sounds like nothing going on in that respect. Sorry it didn't work out for you, but if it helps, your pain did help a fellow Maryland'er feel better ;p
Thank you for the report!Well, to report back on the show...
...E. Shell, you would have been fine at the event when it came to Ackies. I saw one and only one Red Ackie available that the vendor was asking $700 for. Not sure what they normally go for, but that's what it was listed at...
As someone who has worked many vendor style events over the years (both animal and non animal related) I completely understand your take on it. On the animal side the WORST is being a vendor and selling to someone that's about to make an uneducated impulse buy. I always made a point to never let an animal go with someone if they had no where for it to go or were obviously getting into it for the wrong reasons and basically raised the flag of putting an animal in danger if it was leaving my booth and going home with some rando. There is a whole other side to impulse buys though. Keep in mind that we're not talking about little Bobby who is crying to his parents that he wants an animal and Mom and Dad give in and try to make it work, and we're also not talking about Felicia who is looking for a pet as an accessory. Let me apologize now if I used your name, I just pulled them out at random and mean no offense by calling out those situations and tying your name to it. The impulse buy I'm getting at would be someone coming into a show looking for some locally sourced/bred Terribilis after months of research and planning and has everything setup and is ready to go. Sadly they don't happen to find what they want at the show, but rather than leaving decide to spend more time out of their day looking at what other vendors have and possibly chit chatting with vendors to learn more about the hobby they have dedicated their time into researching. Their heart was set on their 18"x18"x24" viv build to house a trio of them, but they stumble upon a vendor with some Tinctorius that for some reason catch their eye in a way pictures never did. They end up talking to the vendor and find out more about the Tinctorius and start to get that itch that has them interested in these as well as their initial goal of housing Terribilis. Per some contemplation and a handful of back and fourth wandering through the show they end up coming back to the seller they spoke to and decide to pickup a pair or Tinc's. This isn't a fully uneducated impulse buy, but more so someone finding out they were interested in another species and were able to house them safely in an enclosure that was already setup, established, and waiting on frogs. There are also the other walk in crowds that have the one person in a group that were not really looking for something, but get drawn in by a table of gecko's or darts and speak to a handful of vendors to learn more. As they wander around with their friends they are on their phones doing a bit of research and they end up not leaving with an animal, but everything they need to setup an appropriate enclosure for them as well as a few business cards of breeders/vendors that carried what ever animal it was that they were interested in. Those are the walk-in sales that not only made me smile as a vendor, but were great to see as they were educated choices, though not initially planned, that were made at a show. As someone with a ball python collection that is working up to breeding, I've been in this boat. I go to a show looking for a specific morph and another catches my eye. I'm able to house them as I keep them in a racked system and have space for them, but again, it wasn't planned. Some of my favorite and most dear ball pythons came from those moments where I stumbled upon a morph I wasn't expecting to see, or let alone see for a price I was willing to pay.Years ago, the two best options for buying herps and dry goods were local stores and herp shows. Now, vending online is easier/more efficient for both buyers and sellers.
Speaking from the POV of a occasional local/regional show vendor, there are a lot of problems with shows that aren't related to the pandemic. They encourage impulse purchases of animals, a bad thing for the animals. They are stressful AF for the animals (a whole day, or more, in a too bright, often too cold environment), and the vendors (the next day is Advil and rest day). Easily 75% of attendees are sightseers, tire kickers and lowballers, which is somewhat demoralizing.
The swapmeet idea is nice, but local markets are very easy to saturate, so the utility of such events might be pretty limited. It would be fun, though.![]()
Ah, that makes sense. As I mentioned above, it was probably listed that high due to having some wiggle room for hagglers. BTW, I think I stumbled upon whom you picked up your baby Ackies from while on another site. You picked up some nice babiesThank you for the report!
Sorry it wasn't better than that. Guess I lucked out in not planning to go this time.
$700 is the high end of a nice red Ackie, like a young adult breeding age female or a spectacularly colorful male. Yellows usually run slightly less. Most, including some very nice animals, are less costly. Younger animals typically go for substantially less too, starting around $300-350 for baby yellows and $350-400 for baby reds.
It already has been replaced, for me. The Battlefield Reptile Expo in Gettysburg is much larger than Baltimore Repticon, and better in almost every way, including the venue. Ever since that show came into existence, I haven't returned to Timonium.The Fairgrounds reaction to all of this left a sour taste in a lot of regular vendors and patrons alike. I wouldn't be surprised if Repticon Baltimore no longer exists and a new large show takes its place at a new location.