How are your leo sales this season?

[acpart]

We had some conversation on the moderators' forum about how difficult it's been for some people to sell leopard geckos this season. At the time I thought "that won't happen to me", but I have to say that in the past month I've been to 2 reptile shows and sold a total of 2 leos! I've sold some other species, but the leos are moving very slowly. I had a problem a few years ago when the economy was worse than it is now but last year was fine. My geckos aren't really expensive, mostly $35-$50. How is it going with everyone else?

Aliza

 

[Gary Orner]

Mine is actually climbing... I have been doing great

 

[bohannbj]

As a person getting back into the game I'll give my opinion for what it's worth. Please don't get offended as this is nothing against breeders just my personal opinion. However now that I've graduated from law school and am making rather than spending money, I am the target audience for sales.
First off, I've been looking at the "new" morphs and laugh a little. To me it looks like geckos have gone full circle- back to yellow bodies and no carrot-tail. I've read the genetics on W/Y and I'm not impressed. Additionally, the same morphs I saw years ago when I was vending are still expensive. Some have even gone up in price. My fiance is searching for a good project with spots or stripes but to be honest everything is priced way too high. Despite what politicians and stock brokers say, the economy is not very strong and disposable income is scarce for most people. I'm willing to pay a reasonable price but not hundreds of dollars for a trait that is minor or simply different. I just purchased two incredible males from Garrick for $275 shipped and couldn't be happier. For what they were they were priced exceptionally well. She is currently looking for Bell boldstripes or red stripes but she refuses to pay 200+ for one. I'm not as hesitant but she is just starting.
Another problem that is even more basic is that there are very few males available. It's hard to start a project when you can only buy females. If she could find a male she liked, I would consider purchasing the females and "telling" her I got a good deal on them. This is certainly a problem.
Hope this helps.
Bohannon

 

[GexPex]

Well, seeing that I'm ending up with mostly males this season (incubator temp was off when it was perfect last year...so I didn't think anything of it until geckos started hatching earlier than planned)...and most people that are looking to buy from me are asking for primarily females...I'm stuck with several males for now. But this is only my 2nd season...1st season selling. I've also started out with local sales, but then just a couple of weeks ago, decided to do shipping. My prices are normally $20-40, with a half-off special going on through October. I've had lots of interest, but unfortunately lots of flakes came with that.

So far, I've only sold two, and donated one. But without a past selling season to compare to, I can't say on whether or not I'm doing better or worse.

 

[FBody355]

Hey Aliza! I bought the female Tremper Eclipse from you yesterday. I can't beleive more people didn't buy your geckos! It was my first time at the Brockton show ( I usually only do the Mancheser, NH ones but I missed it this month ) and I was totally not impressed. I only felt comfortable buying from you yesterday, and thought your prices were a steal too. There were a couple of vendors there with way too small geckos to be selling, and a couple that called morphs a different name then what they were, so I stayed away. One also didn't price theirs and had to inquire about pricing, and I'm pretty shy so I don't like doing that. I'm suprised you didn't sell more, I absolutely love my girl, she's beautiful! I was hoping noone bought her from you the second time I circled and thankfully she was still there!

 

[GreatGeckos]

I'm almost sold out again , but I've bred Leo's locally for almost 5 years and cut my collection back to less than half ... So selling out isn't that impressve when I only produced 75 babies this season... I have about 12 left - 6 to hatch. I'm sure your sales will pick up Aliza you have nice healthy geckos. To be honest it's harder for me to sell a 30-60 dollar gecko than it is to sell a 100-400 dollar gecko for whatever reason.... I honestly think it's because I attract a different crowd looking for breeding stock rather than pets .. People looking for pets have a much larger group to choose from than someone looking for a specific top notch breeder..which leaves a tough competition when someone that doesn't know a ton about Leo's can go get a $25 dollar pet from a huge store and not have to pay $40-60 shipping...

 

[Phoenix1115]

I was vending at the Brockton show yesterday too and didn't sell a darn thing. I started my prices around $50-75 for my more impressive ones and dropped down to 30-40 by the end and even offered a deal for if you bought more than one. still nothing. I agree that there were some I thought were WAY too small to be sold! Unfortunately I was placed next to Jabbawok which had 8 tables stacked and they were selling SHTCTs and normals for 20-30 bucks a pop so for people looking for just pets of course they'd go there. I was really disappointed. I think I might stick with local sales for now. It's now too cold to ship anywhere.

 

[OnlineGeckos]

This is my 3rd season breeding/selling, I've sold out every season so far. This season I tweaked my breeding projects and actually ended up producing more geckos than previous 2 seasons combined. But they are going out to good home at a steady pace, so no complaints here. Of course I'm a small scale breeder so things may be different for others.

To the individual above asking for more males, you have to understand it's very hard to sell males, so breeders tend to not hatch out too many males each season. If you hatch too many males you risk having to hold onto many males and not able to sell them. For large scale breeders this may not be a problem. But for smaller scale breeders, geckos we have to hold onto take up space, and we quickly run out of space for hold-backs and future hatchlings.

As for some of the things I've noticed, there's a sharp price drop for some of the morphs. Part of the reasons for this is that some newer breeders coming in under cutting the market value by large amounts, forcing everybody else to drop their prices. I sell my geckos at the lower spectrum of market value, but I don't undercut so much that end up crashing the market value for certain morphs. Then there are also a few large scale breeders that seem to have expanded their collection, so they're producing even more geckos now. This has an effect on smaller scale breeders because it used to be that once large scale breeders sell out during a certain period of time, people go to the small scale breeders for what they need. But now it seems some large scale breeders never run out, they list 200 new geckos every few months. It makes it harder for smaller scale breeders to sell the same things.

But, I find that if you know what your clients want, you are helpful and friendly, and you can find your own niche, then you can still move geckos at a steady pace. Things are likely not going to fly off the shelves, but that was never the plan for some of us small scale breeders anyway.

 

[Poppy243]

I'm not a breeder (yet) but from a consumer's POV I'm rather unhappy with a lot of the prices I've been seeing from some people. I'm a college student, and while I won't have any debt for my undergrad I will probably have some for my grad degree. I'm working a little bit but I still need to be conservative with my money. And whenever I start breeding, I will only be doing it as a very small-time hobby, not as a source of income, and will probably end up giving at least a couple of the leos I breed to friends. But while I don't want to spend a couple hundred dollars on a gecko, I still want neat morphs, something that'll attract a bit of attention when I show them to people. I'm very careful and do a lot of shopping around. I also watch for good sales and deals. I've always been a conservative spender and hate seeing beautiful geckos I'd want at prices I feel are a little outrageous.
I understand the quality of good genetics and healthy geckos. I also understand needing to make a little money, and how much it can cost to keep a lot of geckos. But I think most of the sticker price at some breeders can be attributed to the prestige of the name. It's unlikely I'm going to purchase from certain big-name breeders because the geckos are so pricey! They're extremely beautiful, yes, and that's not to say I don't want one from them, because I do, but I'm not someone who needs that prestige of a certain line, so I don't want to pay the price for the prestige that I'm not going to use. I want healthy, pretty geckos that I can keep as pets foremost but also have cool genes that I could breed and make neat-looking hatchlings from if I so desired.
At the end of the day I'm reasonable. And if someone is friendly and helpful when I'm communicating with them, I'll be more likely to spend a little more there, or be a return customer. Also if I get a deal there once I tend to want to shop there again. I got both my leos for around $100 each, and both tabs included the shipping costs. If I add the individual tabs up, the cost for both was like $190. I've seen single geckos priced that much and that doesn't include the shipping. So one can understand why I might be hesitant to put down that much for one.

 

[LepoInc]

Well I produced 4 hatchlings this year. One sold immediately, which didn't surprise me because it was a rather cool color and had it priced for $120 shipped. I have a holdback and two tangerines left. The clutchmate of the guy I sold is a really cool looking guy and his younger sister that's for sale looks almost exactly like him at the corsponding age. So when she is a bit bigger I will probably sell them as a breeding pair.

I've had a lot of interested clients but I either don't hear back from them or they flake out. I also didn't have much, if any, variety so its hard to reach out to people with 4 hatchlings. That and people hear "Normal Tangerine" and don't think anything of it, and don't look to see how rather impressive they are.

I have high hopes for this upcoming season as I'll have 4-5 laying females and maybe a late breeder (my holdback). Having a few different morphs and combinations will help steer people to my page and available albums

Sent via Tapatalk whilst caring for Eublepharis macularis'

 

[Gary Orner]

I am going to comment on this more later.

But one thing you can say about leos is this. There is something for everyone. You like bell, Tremper, Rains... W/Y or anything. It is a place where you can almost dream it and make it.

Not everyone is going to like what you breed. The important part is you like what you breed and there always will be people that like it too

 

[acpart]

Lots of interesting responses. I'm still not sure what's going on but am also still optimistic. I've sold out of the 50 or so geckos I produce every year by Jan/Feb and hope to do so again. I'm proud of what I've produced this year and feel that my prices are reasonable. Keep the reports coming, and thanks for the vote of confidence.
One thing I have to say about males: until this year I incubated for female and got about 95% female. This season I raised the temp to about 85 and even though they all still took 7 weeks to hatch, about 1/4 are male. I never want to do this again. The night before the show I spent hours looking at gecko bottoms with flashlights and magnifying glasses. I see pores and bulges in my sleep and I'm still not sure of everyone. Next year it's back to females!

Aliza

 

[GreatGeckos]

Lots of interesting responses. I'm still not sure what's going on but am also still optimistic. I've sold out of the 50 or so geckos I produce every year by Jan/Feb and hope to do so again. I'm proud of what I've produced this year and feel that my prices are reasonable. Keep the reports coming, and thanks for the vote of confidence.
One thing I have to say about males: until this year I incubated for female and got about 95% female. This season I raised the temp to about 85 and even though they all still took 7 weeks to hatch, about 1/4 are male. I never want to do this again. The night before the show I spent hours looking at gecko bottoms with flashlights and magnifying glasses. I see pores and bulges in my sleep and I'm still not sure of everyone. Next year it's back to females!

Aliza

I hear you there Aliza! It got over 105 degrees here in the summer and I have 4 hovabators it was extremely difficult to keep the temperatures correct in them. I ended up with more males than I was hoping for, but to look at the bright side...I produced some really nice stud males I'm going to sell at a discounted price. And I also produced some of the best extreme emerine stuff in males so I'd imagine that wont be hard to sell. Also got 2 male Extreme emerine raptors with solid red eyes.

In the last 5 years I've had some ups and downs with geckos...I've considered selling my whole collection and I'm very glad I didn't the joy from hatching out new geckos each year is well worth the hard times... Keep your head up I'm sure it will pick up.

 

[Phoenix1115]

This is my first year trying to actually sell them instead of just giving them to friends. I have 2 males left, 1 female on hold, and 1 female that someone is considering. I kept one male for myself, sold one to a friend, and unfortunately had one casualty due to a deformity. I've had a lot of interest but a lot of sales fall through as well. I think, though, that once I decided I'm just doing this for fun and not as a source of income, it was actually much easier to move them. I was less picky about what I think they're worth, and haggled a bit and made a few trades and combo deals and that helped

 

[Gary Orner]

Ok waiting on a computer to update VISTA... YUK... Yeah I do computer repair and some will not update to 7 lol.

My sales have been so good I have actually turned down sales on somethings. I do not list everything and a lot of people know that. I do feel there are three worlds to selling.

1) ONLINE
2) SHOWS
3) LOCAL

1) Online sales matters on how well known you are online. Shows can help build this but if you are not online much this area will hurt.

2) Shows are a world of there own. I have had shows in Cleveland I leave with 4K in my pocket... Then there are shows I make 100 bucks. But shows can be made to make a living.

3) Local is your area. You can really be the go to guy or gal.

I never think of anyone as someone I have to beat. I put my animals up and if they sell they sell. I am upping my breeding next season. I could use more mid range geckos then I produced this past season. I have people in line to buy wholesale. So I have a place to sell the low end stuff in packages of 10, 25, 50, and 100. See I plan for seasons to come not react when I have everything. I have a plan.

I will be doing shows again. I will be doing around 6 to 8 a month by 2015.

Shows- you sell low to low mid range geckos. Sometimes that high end gecko

Online- Mid range and high end or groups

Local- the animals that are great pets.

I am making youtube videos about all this. This year will be fun!!

 

[OnlineGeckos]

Ok waiting on a computer to update VISTA... YUK... Yeah I do computer repair and some will not update to 7 lol.

Now that's unfortunate, Vista is terrible :main_no:

 

[bohannbj]

I just wanted to clarify a couple of things. First, I was a breeder for three years until the demands of life and law school took over. The reason I mention this is that I have plenty of understanding when it comes to the difficulty of selling males. I was attempting to point out that with no males to offer, the buyer is forced to look somewhere else. This is especially true with "line bred" traits. Case and point. Bold and Bright has the nicest females I've seen this season. However, they don't have any males to pair with their females so my fiancé started looking elsewhere. A darn shame. When I was selling, I found that my best years were when I bred 90/10 females to males. The year I bred only ladies it was terrible. So was economy so who knows.

A tip for new and struggling breeders. I have learned this business is all about marketing and friends. You need marketing to sell and friends to keep the ticks off your back. Honesty in your marketing is the only way to move from small-time to big-time. I remember when people didn't make up new "morphs" just to raise the prices. I'm not stupid, that's still just an SHTCTB. If your lizard has a tail-kink don't cut it off and say an accident happened. Offer a guarantee that's wrapped in bacon and butter, that above all else goes a long way. I learned these from having friends like Marcia, Mike, and Jason. All of whom were world class when I dealt with them.
And one last tip, DON'T QUIT YOUR DAY JOB.

 

[Gary Orner]

Marketing names are just that....lol marketing.... like I have a line of sunglow bells.....but can't call them bright bells lol........ everything is a trade name.........eclipse is a trade name.....raptor......blood...........but the tangerine thing had gotten out of hand imo

 

[acpart]

I actually wrote an article for Gecko Time (published Feb. 2010) called "How to Sell Your Geckos". I'm not worried that things won't work out, I was mostly expressing some frustration about how long it's taking to be able to clear some tank space so I can separate my male and female breeders, and wondering if the low sales is just incidental or something that other's are experiencing as well. It sounds as if sales are essentially all over the map this year.

Aliza