Spring Tinley Park 2023

A person can stumble on some pretty bad finds at expos. This guy is in a cup that is 4 3/4" across the top for reference, and is being sold by a flipper so got wholesaled the day after morphing or so. There were a bunch more exactly the same size:

Bad photo (there was a glare on the cup top), but a warning that one animal can bring home collection-ending pathogens. The poor gecko (WC; people breed these and offer them for less than they cost to produce but the market doesn't care) in the first photo has crypto, pretty likely, tree frogs are from same vendor:

But there is also lots of other cool stuff:

And there are many hundreds of ball pythons at most expos, if that's how a person leans.

Last reptile show I went to was a small local event. Jam packed absolutely horrible and unfortunately some people are just.. well my wife tells her coworkers I hate people so don't invite us to weddings, dinner, etc...

1. Limited ticket sells or bump prices up to reduce numbers just too many in too small area. Last event I saw a guy in wheel chair and he couldn't get around because of it. At times he was pinned in an area for minutes.
2. Charge for kids no matter the age. May help reduce numbers and overall young kids toddlers and under take nothing away from the event experience but in return diminish the experience for many.
3. I like kids I have three of my own. If my wife and I couldn't carry them or they couldn't walk the kids didn't come to this sort of event. There is no room for mega strollers or carts. It is unfortunate that adults are either unaware or don't care that they ruin the experience for others. I can't count the number of times no ne can move because some idiot's cart/stroller has been pushed aimlessly into traffic as they are trying to point out a snake to Johnny.
4. I understand that reptiles and amphibians draw a broad range of people and have no problem with people pursuing what ever life style they want. However for these type events. at the very least splash something on to cover up odor, and if concerned that causes health issues just shower/bath. Last show the feeder rat/mice area was refreshing compared to the many of the people I was standing next to. It wasn't just a few, a large percentage of people smelt horrible. It was funny to see all the strange faces of people trying to figure out who the hell smelt so bad near them.

One thing I've learned from selling herps online and at expos is that I can get along with a wider range of types of people than I thought I could. When I'm behind the table, anyway, a dirty stinky farting slob who is otherwise respectful and actually did a little research before asking me to sell them a gecko (no, I'm not selling this advanced species to you so your 3 year old can kill it) is fine with me. Herp hobbyists range from the dregs of humanity to some who are incredibly compassionate and kind, and a very wide range of incomes and education (which of course aren't always as closely connected as we'd like to believe). And it isn't always the most experienced keepers (or those who consider themselves experienced) who are the most pleasant to deal with.

I guess my thought about higher ticket prices is to discourage the more egregious sorts of tourists, those who just want their kids to touch all the animals until they get too rowdy they have to get them out of there, and the whole family doesn't care to learn a single thing. There can be a lot of value in kids coming to an expo, but that value is hopefully education rather than sheer entertainment; that's kind of my view of keeping in general, though.

Maybe the limited ticket thing -- sell online until they're gone -- is a good compromise. Serious attendees can and will plan ahead. Not sure if all vendors would be on board with quality over quantity, though; based on what I know about vendors, I really doubt it. Maybe timed tickets, which works great at museums and such.

This is where I would be in trouble.... How much could I pack into the back of the Expedition. At times I have been tempted to just order a pallet of stuff thinking I could pick what I wanted then resell the rest.

Harpspiel said:

What is wrong with this? Just the size/maturity of the frog?

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Yes, that's just a tiny frog, too small to sell.

Harpspiel said:

How could you tell?

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Sometimes you'll read about gecko 'stick-tail syndrome'. That's a name like 'red-leg' in amphibians, a name for the look of the condition. Anyway, in geckos that appearance is either caused by severe abuse (months without food and water) or by cryptosporidium infection. Fresh imports (that's an imported gecko at that price, and it is colored/patterned like a WC) usually look a little rough, but when they get to looking like that one, that's a sign that the stress of importation has caused a subclinical crypto infection to take over. I'm under the impression that crypto is sometimes in gecko collections without symptomatic animals (there are snake viruses like this too), but so long as individual animals don't get stressed and pathogen transfer is minimized there's no issues.

That gecko assuredly will die, and it is shedding pathogens that cannot really be disinfected (high concentration H2O2 or straight ammonia with a contact time measured in hours is recommended to inactivate spores). Given what I presume are biosecurity conditions at vendors like that one, there are above average chances that other animals from them are at risk of having picked up crypto. That's why buying CB from vendors who deal also with WC is a gamble. Extra sad because there is no reason whatsoever to be importing that species, and there has not been reason for years.

I attended the Gettysburg Reptile expo this past weekend. Its only 10 minutes from my house and its a good sized expo though prob not as large as Tinley. I've always gotten up early and would be within the first 30-50 people inside. I normally stay about an hour, get what i'm looking for and get out and i've never felt like there were to many people. This past weekend however I had another morning commitment and didn't get there till around 12:30 PM. The place was so packed and could hardly move around. Not a fun experience. I got my bottles of repashy cal+ and Vit A and a few bags of amazon rainforest leaf litter and left very quickly. People with large strollers were the worst. Its heavily promoted as a family friendly event, free for kids and people making balloon reptiles etc. Best just to get there early, know what you want or need and leave just as fast.

Did run into a guy I saw had a couple cups of dart frogs from a flipper. He had a healthy sized tinc froglet and several small auratus. The tinc was labeled as a red galactonus and no morph info on the auratus. He was at a different CB dart frog breeder table and was getting educated though.