Ghost buyers

I 100% agree with you. I’ve done the same thing. It’s just common courtesy to communicate back to the seller that you found a better deal elsewhere. Sometimes I have multiple inquiries on the same animal and I always give the 1st guy in line time to let me know if he wants it or not. When I don’t hear back, the 2nd guy has to wait for his turn too. We live in an era where communication is simple…people just lack the respect to use it. I had a girl the other day tell me she didn’t want to waste my time because she knows how busy breeders are. Almost 20 messages back and forth with her saying she “wants this animal” and “how do I pay”. I send her the link to my PayPal and…gone. She didn’t even see my message for 2 days. People lol.

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Some of us are nice, but it has been going downhill for a while now. It takes very little time to respond by saying, thank you, but I found another animal that better meets my needs. It is inexcusable to ask for payment info then just disappear. Being rude is Ugly.

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I agree…people…

@stewart_reptiles
What about a feature where next to the username on every message a record is displayed of how many inquiry messages sent and how many successful transactions where completed by the user.

I feel like it wouldn’t solve the issue, but perhaps could give sellers/buyers a better idea of what to expect, and make people more reluctant to “window shop” in inquiry messages.

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To me as a breeder it would not make a difference I don’t have any expectation when people initiate contact I just answer their questions and go from there, some transactions materialize some do not and sometime it’s on the buyer’s end and sometime it is on my end.

You don’t want to dissuade people from window shopping because you would be surprised how sometime that window shopper actually is the sale you expected the least.

One thing I learned in this business is never assume something about a buyer whether it’s at shows or online.

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If all information is posted in the ad for the animal there is not a need to ask anything besides how may I proceed with purchase. So maybe a write up of most common questions asked guideline for posting an ad.

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i have only been a buyer thus far, and im probably the perfect example stewart is talking about. I will ask 10million questions to plan for the future and not 15 minutes later ill organize my thoughts and all the information and end up pulling the trigger then and there. You never know, if the breeders i had bought from in the past had dismissed my questions and disregarded me because it wasnt expected to be an immediate sale, then i would have found another. Instead they gave me solid info and really showed interest in their snakes and making sure i had the information i needed to make a decision, and because of that, they got a sale. If i felt asking questions, or not buying would have affected me negatively, i would not have started the dialog that led to the sale :slight_smile:

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I think a lot of sellers need to change their perception about this a little bit. Every message sent, even tire-kickers, is a potential sale. Some may be “hot” leads and some may not be but all of them are leads and how you respond will have a lot to do with whether you get a sale. You won’t get them all, but I started getting a lot more by giving regular pushes for a sale such as “There have been other interested parties in this snake, would you like to put a down payment on them to secure them for you?” You don’t have to be pushy to ask for the sale and many new buyers don’t realize how close they come to animals being purchased from under them sometimes.

I don’t like the idea of having a feature to “weed out” tire-kickers as numerous sales do come from them.

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I see both sides! It is work! running a business, Just think what a car salesman goes thru with test drives! It’s same poop different job! Like with anything, Research and experience will help you be able weed out the bad! There are no guidances in this market, a Breeder can charger whatever, It is like the wild Wild West from naming a morph to pricing! Heck! Some of these prices are more than a car! Lol! And some pay it! So if you are asking people to give you money, you get more with Honey! Just do your best, knowledge yourself and be polite! Also, it is you that decides how the transaction will; start, go and end! Stay safe!

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@artis-serpentium
I definitely agree. But I’m also in favor of everyone getting to run their business however they see fit. If they don’t want to push themselves out of their comfort zone to be an effective salesperson…more for me :slight_smile:

Many have been doing this awhile and get by without having to be advanced in sales, and if they don’t want to do “more” I think they earned the right to run their operations the way they want to.

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This goes both ways. As a buyer I’m picky and ask a lot of questions. If the seller doesn’t answer most of them or gives very little detail I’ll usually bail on the sale. I’m not about to drop thousands of dollars on an animal I know next to nothing about. I almost always thank sellers for their time though and make it clear I’m not ghosting them. The only time I ghosted was with a seller who gave me a very short response with info that conflicted with the sale ad. I’m not wasting time on that kind of stuff as a buyer.

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@verinium This! I ask tons of questions too and get satisfactory responses maybe half the time. I think some have had so many tire kickers that they expect me to do the same and lose the sale because they don’t want to waste their time providing detail/photos/etc.

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@relicboas same here. It could depend on how much of what I’m looking for is available, but I want to work with someone who is detailed and knows their own collection etc so I do ask questions as well. I have moved on to other sellers if they seem to not know or have kept records of things like pairings etc or just don’t want to share that info. There are 2 sides to the coin, the nice thing is there is enough supply and demand you can sell and buy how you like and get by.

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I am going to share this experience with everyone mainly because of the last 3 posts. When i first started out selling online thru morphmarket before you could do the ratings and feedback, a buyer could give feedback on their experience if it was positive or negative. This customer asked all kinds of questions ranging from length, temperment, parents, current enviornment, and even asked what kinds of things it liked to interact with… and more pics. All of which i was happy to answer and supply the best i could. The snake was in a 6 qt shoe box tub rack setup so nothing for it to interact with other than water bowl and hide, but i was happy to try and answer the best i could. After all the back and forth i never heard from the customer again. A couple of weeks later i received feedback from the customer saying they decided not to buy because " I seemed disinterested in the sale" … so take from that what you will. Your perception of a seller not being interested in sale may not be the actual case.

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Thats a double kick. Its one thing if it was too expencive or if they discovered they didnt have the means to care for it and had to drop. But to gig you after you gave them the information they asked for is messed up.

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Let’s not forget the whole shipping cost issue. 90% of my ghost buyers will ghost AFTER they provide a ZIP code for shipping cost. A lot of folks seem to think that $29 will get them a snake sent from east coast to west coast overnight. I simply don’t do enough volume in sales to cover the deficit between $29 and what it actually costs me in FedEx fees, insurance, shipping material, and the drive to the hub.

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As a buyer, sometimes there just seem to be such huge discrepancies between shipping costs. There was a snake I was looking at with a listed shipping cost of $30-$85, and when I message to inquire about a hatchling, they quoted me $85 for shipping to the nearest hub. Granted I didn’t ghost them, but I ended up buying a snake 3X the weight, from a buyer even farther away, and the shipping cost was $40. I know this isn’t necessarily always the sellers fault, but sometimes it seems like the old ebay trick where people would list items for super cheap to get the views/bids, but would then make up the money by charging an arm and a leg for shipping. I just wish it was more standardized

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I don’t think most buyer understand that depending on who you go thru and where you are located shipping can vary greatly. If you go thru a company like shipyourreptiles, reptiles2you ect you get a small a discount on shipping, if you ship thru fedex as a verified shipper than depending on how long you have been verified and how often you ship your cost can be higher or lower. Some companies, will add part of the cost into the price of the animal and then charge you a “discounted rate” on shipping. Other larger companies can just absorb that cost. But as a buyer you must also realize that the boxes, padding and bags are not free all of that cost the seller.

For me to ship from where i am at in north carolina to ship to the west coast it is over $90. So depending on where you are located also effects the cost on shipping, and don’t forget time of year is another issue.

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A simple way to remedy to that is to ask the breeder for a shipping quote with a screen copy, keep in mind that shipping is dimensional not based on weight and SYR for example can be $30 more expensive than Ship your reptiles when getting a quote which in both cases is still cheaper than a direct quote from FedEx which some people may use if they are certified and do not wish to have a third party involved.

Also keep in mind that this is just shipping it does not include gas to and from the hub (not everyone lives within a vicinity of a hub) and or packaging which is about another $5

For years I lost money on shipping offering flat rate about $15 to $30 per package now I provide an exact quote (with screen copy) round it down and absorb gas to and from the hub and packaging. So I still lose money but not as much.

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Excellent points. When I was a new seller, I provided prospective buyers shipping quotes from SYR because they were well known and I thought it would help me look more professional. I quickly figured out that SYR is the most expensive option and I stopped unless a buyer specifically asked for them.

$80 to ship a hatchling is pretty standard. If a heat pack is needed, it increases the minimum size of the box. Every one of my customers gets a hardcopy personalized invoice and a couple of stickers. The box, foam, bag, zip tie, etc. and 30-some mile round trip to the hub is not free. There are costs incurred to ship the animal and I’d rather get ghosted than be expected to take a 50% haircut on shipping every single time. If the animal doesn’t sell online, I’ll just bring it to the next show.

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