LZRDGRL
Active Member
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- Southern Illinois
For those who are interested: here are some show pics from Wheaton, Aug. 6th. We had a great time and sold 45 leopard geckos :main_yes:
It would be nice to have a separate sticky where to post show pics and experiences, so upcoming breeders can get first glimpses of the market reality and some ideas how to set up a booth....
My experiences: the Wheaton crowd consisted mainly of little kids with their parents, and college kids (and "snake guys" who were not interested in leopard geckos). Most of my customers just wanted a cheap pet gecko, and very few wanted breeder animals. Normals, Mack Snows, and Trempers sold best; especially when they had some kind of nice pattern. I took ALL my beautiful Bells het Radar back home; nobody was interested in anything above USD60! What was important to many of my customers was that the gecko was friendly, because they looked for a pet they could handle. I made the experience that adult and juvenile geckos sold better than skittish little hatchlings (unless somebody looked for the "tiny, cute" factor).
The few very knowledgeable people bought Tangs with a lot of carrot tail, Rainwaters, and a Raptor for breeding purposes.
Generally, my customers were somewhat educated about leos, and some people possessed leopard geckos already; however, there was the occasional person who asked about sand as substrate, what kind of heat they needed, what they eat, what kind of enclosure was needed, what to breed with what, etc. One guy asked me if I had Black Pearls :main_laugh: Another guy brought me a gecko back he had bought there from me last month; he didn't want it anymore, because it "didn't eat." The gecko had a fat tail and looked healthy. He told me he had kept it in a "2-gallon enclosure." Oh well! No wonder he didn't see it eat. I don't think there's a heat mat small enough to fit under 2 gallons. What did I make my care sheet for? I refunded him and took my gecko back. It's now in a 18x18x18 enclosure and gaining back its happiness.
Several people asked for adoptable geckos, of whom I always have a few with me (Enigmas with the syndrome; bullied geckos with missing tail tips; retired breeders looking for a pet home).
For those interested in statistics: I had 86 leos with me, 8 were pre-ordered through the Internet, and I sold 45 geckos (which includes 5 adopted leos). We paid for gas for a 7-hour drive in each direction, and hotel for three people, and of course restaurants/food at the show. We also paid table and entrance fees, the manufacturing of the big banner, new deli cups bulk order, table cloth, advertising signs, etc. So after all deductions from the profit, we probably made a gain of 400-500 bucks. (Every "snake guy" there who sold a single snake made twice as much!!!) It was a nice "family event," and we made lots of little kids happy and disseminated knowledge about leopard geckos
We also have more space and empty cages at home -- for the new babies :main_rolleyes: :main_thumbsup:
For me, that was a successful show. I'm a small breeder with no more than 100 animals available per season (rather fewer). It would be interesting to see how the big breeders are doing at shows!
Chrissy
It would be nice to have a separate sticky where to post show pics and experiences, so upcoming breeders can get first glimpses of the market reality and some ideas how to set up a booth....
My experiences: the Wheaton crowd consisted mainly of little kids with their parents, and college kids (and "snake guys" who were not interested in leopard geckos). Most of my customers just wanted a cheap pet gecko, and very few wanted breeder animals. Normals, Mack Snows, and Trempers sold best; especially when they had some kind of nice pattern. I took ALL my beautiful Bells het Radar back home; nobody was interested in anything above USD60! What was important to many of my customers was that the gecko was friendly, because they looked for a pet they could handle. I made the experience that adult and juvenile geckos sold better than skittish little hatchlings (unless somebody looked for the "tiny, cute" factor).
The few very knowledgeable people bought Tangs with a lot of carrot tail, Rainwaters, and a Raptor for breeding purposes.
Generally, my customers were somewhat educated about leos, and some people possessed leopard geckos already; however, there was the occasional person who asked about sand as substrate, what kind of heat they needed, what they eat, what kind of enclosure was needed, what to breed with what, etc. One guy asked me if I had Black Pearls :main_laugh: Another guy brought me a gecko back he had bought there from me last month; he didn't want it anymore, because it "didn't eat." The gecko had a fat tail and looked healthy. He told me he had kept it in a "2-gallon enclosure." Oh well! No wonder he didn't see it eat. I don't think there's a heat mat small enough to fit under 2 gallons. What did I make my care sheet for? I refunded him and took my gecko back. It's now in a 18x18x18 enclosure and gaining back its happiness.
Several people asked for adoptable geckos, of whom I always have a few with me (Enigmas with the syndrome; bullied geckos with missing tail tips; retired breeders looking for a pet home).
For those interested in statistics: I had 86 leos with me, 8 were pre-ordered through the Internet, and I sold 45 geckos (which includes 5 adopted leos). We paid for gas for a 7-hour drive in each direction, and hotel for three people, and of course restaurants/food at the show. We also paid table and entrance fees, the manufacturing of the big banner, new deli cups bulk order, table cloth, advertising signs, etc. So after all deductions from the profit, we probably made a gain of 400-500 bucks. (Every "snake guy" there who sold a single snake made twice as much!!!) It was a nice "family event," and we made lots of little kids happy and disseminated knowledge about leopard geckos
We also have more space and empty cages at home -- for the new babies :main_rolleyes: :main_thumbsup:For me, that was a successful show. I'm a small breeder with no more than 100 animals available per season (rather fewer). It would be interesting to see how the big breeders are doing at shows!
Chrissy
