I apologize for the quick changes and just having an alert and not an actual blog article about these changes, I will definitely keep this in mind on all future changes.
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I apologize for not responding back to that, as I’m sure you can imagine I have about a million things going on each day and I honestly hadn’t even thought to come back on here. But I will get on where a few days a week to reply and engage with the community.
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I will start being a lot more engaging in here, it’s just not as user friendly and takes a lot more time for me. But I will work on getting used to this site and using it!
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The free membership went from 3 ads at a time and 3 per month to 1 ad at a time and 3 per month. So not a whole lot actually changed. You can still list up to 36 animals per year. At just $100 per animal that is $3,600 you can list per year for $0. Let’s say you have a clutch and now have 10-20 animals to sell. You can pay $19 for a single month and list all of them. For only $1-2 per animal which is minimal. Our basic plan is $132 per year which is still less than the cost of doing a single reptile expo. Unfortunately this is just a change we had to make due to scammers and the time and money it takes us to run things. But it’s still the best value for the money of any reptile marketplace or even reptile expo.
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I just learned how to open this back up, so it’s now open. Not sure why it was locked. 
If anyone has any other questions I’m open for discussion. I’m very transparent so ask away! 
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I believe it was locked to give you and @eaglereptiles a chance to respond to everyone.
If you ever need help navigating the forum just let me know, the interface definitely has a bit of a learning curve
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Yeah it’s definitely not the easiest, I’d suggest we simplify it but I’m sure people wouldn’t be too happy
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I appreciate you coming back to give us some of these answers.
I honestly don’t understand how those changes will help with stopping scammers?
When I applied to become a seller here I had to submit proof of my ID and animal ownership in the form of me holding my own ID in one photo and a photo of myself with an enclosure of mine.
If they’re going that far as well, changing the amount to 500$ from 750$ and limiting to 1 ad at a time doesn’t make much sense to me in scam blocking. It’s still take a few photos and make 500$ bucks.
If you’ve ever been into online games, people will still pay a monthly fee just to spam botted game currency and scam. Even just nuking the free category as some had suggested won’t make it stop, but it would alienate the less productive or newer hobbiests more.
I feel aside from the way these changes were communicated, my biggest issue with it is the assumption that if a free seller is here with 36 animals they’ll make $3,600$. That’s the kind of selling that is a scam. Cheap animals for a quick buck.
I’ve had an animal on the market since Oct because I don’t want to sharply undercut the market just to make a quick sale. I’ve had 2 offers that did not pan out. That’s what? 120$ in membership for an animal currently listed at $250.
This year I’m hopefully expecting 20 or so eggs. But that doesn’t mean anything until they hatch, I verify health and decide if I’m holding back. The odds of none of them selling is extremely low… The issue is when.
As a free seller, or even as a newer shop with a paid membership, I’m eyed as either a target for scammers or not good enough to purchase from unless I really undercut the market, which is a different can of worms…
This is currently a hobby, not a business for me at the moment. So membership isn’t a tax write-off.
I don’t necessarily mind that things have changed and it’s not really a huge change to being a free member. (aside from mysteriously loosing the other 250$ in potential worth for an animal, if that wasn’t recent when did that change happen??) It’s just that it wasn’t properly communicated… And having seen how scornful some of the people on Facebook were, I wish they were listed by shop name so I can make a blacklist for myself when I want to shop for another animal.
It’s just been an exercise in learning how disappointing the hobby can be at times because elitism still exists. The forums here were mostly a nice reprieve from it and it’s easy to forget that it’s not just reddit with some toxic reptile groups.
Again, I appreciate that you did indeed take the time to come and answer and unlock the thread. I will probably be putting a lot more thought into how I’m going to tackle my hobby growth and management from here.
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The limit lowers the amount of animals we have to check on free accounts, promotes paid accounts that are generally less likely to be a scammer, and with our new advertising and local section we expect a ton more people to be selling on the free plan. It’s going to become much harder to manage.
I only gave $100 as an example of low priced animals. I don’t expect you to pay $132 for a membership for an animal listed at $250, that’s why it’s free up to one animal. But let’s say now you have 3-5 animals at $200-250. Well, you can stick with a free account and add one at a time, remove it and add another and never pay a penny… OR you can pay $19 for a month and list all 3-5. If you sell even one at $200 you still made $181. Or let’s say you have 5-10 or more you can pay $19, sell an animal, and pay for an annual account for a total of $132 and now sell 10 animals over a few months or a year. Still cheaper than doing an expo and only reaching a few thousand people in a single weekend.
The good news is once you do have 20 animals available you can pay $19 for a single month and list them all, sell one or two, then upgrade to the annual for $132 and sell all 20 over the year.
I do appreciate your questions, and in no way am I trying to do any kind of gatekeeping here. Just trying to do what’s best for the buyers, sellers, and ultimately the animals. I’m excited to make a lot of improvements to the hobby and industry, and I’m hopeful that a year from now people will look back and see that.
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We are currently putting in around $1500 per day or $45,000 per month into advertising. Previously there was around $100 per day or $3,000 per month into advertising.
Actually, we weren’t even putting that much into advertising in terms of specifically AdWords or social. In the past I was using AdWords more but then I did some experiments and did not believe it was very effective at all. So I was focused on investing a lot of money into building the platform (I put $1mm last year), but not much into this kind of advertising but more in terms of the development of making the platform better.
Darien has both increased product development investment AND has also added the big advertising budget he mentioned. That’s a big “both and”. He has a lot more experience in advertising than me, and has a crack team working on tuning and testing its benefits. Our social exposure has increased a lot, which is not just a matter of money but of optimizing things. I’ve been very impressed with this.
Some have raised the question of what kind of quality of users this bring into the site. Sure it may not bring in someone who’s going to buy a $10k animal. However, I do think long term this is great as it helps to grow MorphMarket as a “household name” and the reptile hobby as a whole. And, those folks who start off buying a $100 animal may later grow into serious hobbyists. After all, this is how I started. 
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And on site communications decreased.
I understand that social media is the big thing, but when you force your users out of the website to social media to learn about site updates, it’s a problem.
Something as basic as communicating updates to users with more information than a little box to click should never be sacrificed for your big “Both and”.
And a CEO blaming a facebook post flub on chat GPT is sad. AI learns from what you’re putting into it. And from facebook posts it seems like there’s a lot of snark about pot stirring and angry mobs. At the very least, I would expect a level of professionalism in keeping business to the MorphMarket page side and private jokes on a personal account. But when you’re publicly announcing updates and venmo incentives on personal? That’s now the face of business jokes and all.
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And on site communications decreased.
Yes I was referring to social exposure in terms of driving more traffic to the site, to drive more sales for sellers.
I was not referring to notifications of changes. Darien and Thomas have already both said we’ll do better there.
And a CEO blaming a facebook post flub on chat GPT is sad
Must have missed that, not sure what you’re talking about.
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It is my personal fb account and I will post things that aren’t always considered “professional”. If you don’t want to see it you don’t have to friend me or follow me, but I will continue to post things on my profile to inject a bit more humor and discussion into peoples days.
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My problem is you now making business announcements on your ‘personal’ page. That’s no longer a personal page that’s now a source for your business.
None of your recent announcements have a handly little bar at the top of the forum here to “See what’s changing at MorphMarket !” and a link to the updates to read in detail. Only the shiny new giveaway does.
I have to go to your personal page for business updates, where your personal humor also incites other people info a ‘screw the free account’ mentality on those posts.
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I’m not aware of any significant posts that have only come through Darien’s personal page. We posted a banner on morphmarket.com about the free seller change. Moving forward we’ll be careful to post more blogs again. Next week we’ll be sending a newsletter summarizing all the recent change, as we have always done.
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The banner disappears and does not link to a news post. If you misclick before reading it just disappears. If you just click it expecting it to open to a news update? It’s gone.
Not everyone uses the sales page everyday. How is that being forewarned? I can get a MorphMarket email about new shed testing available, but not changes to the sales site where business is conducted?
A newsletter with changes should be sent in advance of the changes. not after being posted on a personal social media page.
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Yet again.
Post to Darien’s facebook at 9:55AM
Post to MM facebook at 9:58AM
Nothing posted on the sales page or community.
Yes, I absolutely agree with the mentioned update. But why is it not posted here BEFOREHAND?
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What’s the update today?
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