You snooze, you loose! Sucks to hear, but thats the way it goes. Ive missed out on a lot of snakes, Ive also come away with some amazing animals. You have to take the good with the bad in this hobby.
As far as bps selling faster than usual, ABSOLUTELY! And imho its a beautiful thing, a lot of people put their all into these snakes.
I am not one to get in the “drama” or arguments and I dont think this is either based on reading through. I think ultimately its frustration on one end with misunderstanding and questioning on business practices. Theres an array of right ways to do things based on each perspective or opinion. Morph Market is a large platform which makes window shopping the easiest thing. People ask questions, debate and browse to compare which is completely fine. There are plenty of brand new accounts every day with users messaging right after their login “I’m very interested, what’s the best you can do on this, how do I pay” ect. Is it a waste of time answering all those; I dont think so because it is part of business and a potential buyer shouldn’t be looked as as a waste of time. Can I say no seller plays games; no I’m sure some do questionable practices but I’ve seen the share of buyers playing their own games. One thing I recently noticed myself that was never an issue till this season is morph market provides a seen by time stamp however that shows to all people messaging when a seller opens their message center page; not when they click on “your” message. So what does that mean; well when a seller has 15-20 messages to go through, send quotes and so forth it can be 5 mins or 5 hours before getting back to all messages. Not to mention most people on this site have other full time jobs and everyone has family or outside life to juggle. I answer messages in the order of receipt. That’s the first thing. I dont ignore or skip over and I’ve had plenty of cases where payment was submitted and someone else comes back with a higher offer or full price vs perhaps a discount i was able to do and would that other amount be nice sure but is it right to avoid a sale for another no. I answer in order and state all animals are first come first serve, nothing is held without atleast deposit, ect. I’ve had several sales recently which I had anywhere from 5 to 15 chats going at around the same time over a single animal. The market moves quick and the turn over can be quick. If I let everyone had a 24 hour window let’s say to respond with payment times that by potential 5 to 10 people as you work down the line. I’ve missed many times with some breeders and that’s cause I dragged my feet. I didnt play the games of messaging someone I’ve never done business with and asked for a discount or best offer. Especially when I see they just put the animal up. If it was something I wanted I’d at best ask how do I pay and let them know I want to send payment at the earliest convenience to them. If they took 2 days to get back to me and said its sold or what not then I’m not going to be thrilled and may question it. If they come back an hour later and said its sold I wouldn’t put much thought to it.
I dont look to screw anyone over and if they think that’s what I’m doing then I dont know what to say. But I will say for new buyers; if your way of buying is always to see what the best someone can do especially when you’ve never bought from them and built a relationship atleast then that’s not the way to really go about things. Everyone on this marketplace is in different spots and abilities. Shipping is not cheap and the time people put into their animals has a cost to it too. The guy that turns around and blows out top genes probably is flipping, not putting the time into their animals or just wants the quick buck. The one that tries to keep a market value and wants to handle business with the animals interest first is someone worth talking with and quality doesnt come dirt cheap. Theres alot of people on this site and it grows daily. Plenty that need to learn and plenty to learn from.
Best luck in all your experiences this season and forward. Keep growing this market and dont get caught up in the bs side of it
If I don’t get a deposit they don’t get the animal. Been burned too many times. Even with deposits I have. I have an Axolotl on deposit right now that someone hasn’t finished paying for that I’ve been holding for a month. Now I’m gonna require payment in full before pickup and deposits non refundable and no local pickup holds for more than 2 weeks. I could’ve already sold this animal to 5 other people, and am holding it for someone who may or may not show up on the agreed upon date because I was being nice. I’ve had far more issues from buyers than sellers. Honestly a $100 Axolotl should not take a month and a half to pay when you even put a deposit on it. They buyer also tried to make me let them pick it up without finishing paying and she would ‘pay me on another day’ well I obviously said no and another day comes and guess what? Doesn’t have the money after a month and a half of agreed upon payment. Agreed upon another date if she doesn’t show the animal is already lined up to be sold to someone else and she’s not getting her deposit back. So it’s not always the sellers I’ve had more buyers who are the problem than sellers.
I recently inquired about a BRB and pictures were sent for me to choose one. During that same day as I was trying to decide, they were all sold. Although it didn’t work out, I cannot blame them as they are always first come first served, if you pay it’s yours.
What bothers me is when you talk to a place and ask about something that has already been sold, and you inform them what kind of snakes you are looking for and everything seems fine. You notice they post something else that interests you and inquire about it and its cricket’s on contacting you back. I would have gotten it if they would returned my call, but they never did. The snake is still available a week after calling them. So they lost a sale.
I ended up finding another snake that was on my list of ones I was looking for and that seller was very good, so I purchased from them and would do so in future.
To me its more than just the animal offered, but the care of the seller. You can’t expect them to hold an animal that hasn’t received at lest a deposit on it. Once contacted, I leave the ball in their court. So if they don’t reply after a few days, I move on to another. And I am happy with the little guy I got.
Buyers, put yourselves in our shoes for a moment. Let’s say you’re selling one snake. Just one. You have four to five people messaging you about that snake. So you’re answering their questions, talking about availability, feeding, weight, shipping, etc. For the sake of argument, suppose they all sound like great buyers! You would be happy to sell your snake to all of these fantastic people. But you can’t, because you only have one snake.
How do you decide who gets it? The first person to pay for it does. Once I have someone’s money I am under obligation to either provide the snake (if it was paid for in full) or to hold the snake for the specified amount of time. I treat that money as a contract between me and the buyer. I am absolutely not going to attempt to sell a snake to anyone else once it has been paid for.
When you complain about sellers selling their snakes to other people, do you realize that this is what you’re asking? Do you want me to cheat someone out of their hard earned money because you think you deserve the snake more?
Do you want a seller who favors you over everyone else, or a seller who is fair?
I have said this before. By the time I contact the seller I have already researched them. I have looked on Facebook, Instagram, MM reviews. I message them how do I pay? They respond back typically with PayPal information. If I have any questions afterwards I ask. I have always made up my mind before contacting them, I will buy the snake. I have never missed out doing it this way. I Send the money as soon as they send me PayPal info. Most of the time it only takes a few minutes.
I once contacted a seller about buying two snakes at once. Asked my questions (I don’t want picky eaters) and then offered to pay half then and there and wait a week for my check. They only took deposits by F&F on PayPal but if I sent the whole amount I could do G&S. I told them I wasn’t comfortable paying F&F but would still send the half the other way. They refused and told me to wait and send it all. The day before I had the money they informed me that my favorite of the two (the main one I wanted, the other was a really nice bonus) had sold. I was a little mad that they had told me to wait to pay and sold it the day before but now I know to pay in full if I want anything from them.
Amen, that is a beautiful analogy!