I mean store front/setup as in the way your MM shop is setup. As in your store description and ToS, as well as descriptions on your animals and such. Maybe even a section showing your setups/care of your animals. I apologize if I come off condescending, but from the way the OP says it, it really does sound like they want to not work as hard as someone like yourself has to make their own name. As @john states, it would be extremely hard to manage in the first place with just how many people sign up on here everyday. On top of needing some way to weed through the scammers/bad sellers without being able to have any form of history on them since they lack reviews/message history/social media. You would be taking a 50/50 gamble each time you verify someone in that way.
It is false for you personally, but I am sure there are plenty of people willing to take shortcuts to make their lives and business easier.
Yeah, after seeing others’ feedback I don’t think this would be a good idea after all. I’m a new breeder myself, but would like to build my reputation on my own instead of having someone else do it for me.
Good to know the features I mentioned exist and/or are being worked on!
And I deeply understand the need of a reputation but I think most of us want to raise our starts into small businesses and then possibly a self sustaining collection plus some.
I’ll be a new seller soon and I would definitely be interested. I dont know any big breeders, but have done one expo and have purchased a lot through MM.
It would be helpful if there was a way to also show that we have the “infrastructure” prepared - shipping account and materials ready, feedback from other vendors, policies in place, legitimate website and verified PayPal, etc.
This sort of preparation is something I have been working on, but I’m not feeling quite ready yet to ship. It would give me more confidence too if I knew I had checked all the correct boxes and not forgotten anything.
I think this conversation is missing a point here as well. The work required to verify someone as legitimate by a trusted breeder, isn’t that what a buyer should be doing regardless? If someone was selling an animal I really valued, but had no sales on MM, I would be cautious and verify them myself. Send me a picture or video of your setup, tell me a bit about yourself, what other animals are you working with, how long have you been doing this? As a new seller, you should be ready and willing to do that to gain a bit of legitimacy before you have an established record, and as a buyer it’s your job to do the verification yourself.
This would be a shortcut for the lucky, and I am against it. If MM wants to construct a more detailed verification system using different factors (reviews, transactions, response time, community participation, etc.) then I am 100% for it, but putting this on the backs of “big breeders” is not the way.
What constitutes “big breeder?” gross sales? YT views? IG followers? and who is responsible for making that call?
Consider the fact that you have many MM sellers who work their butts off and have done everything right. They’ve been in business for years, have great reviews, and do well at their local show circuit. They have some social media accounts but don’t contribute to online strife.
So how do these MM sellers get verified if they have ZERO relationship with those who have been designated “Big?”
Let’s say you purchase a ball python from the biggest breeder. You exchange money for animal. You want to jump into project XYZ. But you also want to get “verified” on MM, so what do you do next? Do you start texting him? Do you start sending him questions via email? Do you send photos and ask for help with ID? Or do you flat out just ask him to vouch for you even though he doesn’t know you? I just don’t really understand how this would work for 95% of the people in this industry.
Let’s say that as a seller, you get to a point where you are now considered “big.” Are you then obligated to provide this verification for your customers? What if you aren’t comfortable with that, or simply not interested?
I’m not naive - I’ve been working long enough to know that success in business can come from who you know. But the verification system that has been proposed here seems like shortcut that may end up benefiting the biggest customers of certain breeders.
All valid points, my biggest question is what type of “staff” does MM have? They may put it on other breeders as an incentive (membership discounts perhaps?) because they cannot sustain that work themselves but want to expand their offerings and improve seller abilities even if they’re new.
This is so awesome!! I also am wary of buying from “new sellers” since I had a bad experience with the way a animal was packaged after buying from a new seller. And I think about how I will pass on a snake because of the “new seller” status, this may be a problem I will too deal with once I hopefully have my first breeding season this coming year. I’ve been trying to get more active on the socials, and think of starting a YT, but I will still be new. This will be a great thing thank you!
I’d definitely love a way to be verified since I’m technically not a breeder, but I do buy from highly reputable breeders and have a lot of credibility from them. I usually buy to raise for myself, but if something happens and I need to sell off one of my animals, it’s very hard to have some form of rep when you’re not normally in the business of being a seller.
It’s a hard world sometimes, and hard to know who to trust with live animals and with money, let alone with both. Take me, for instance. I’ve been involved with corn snakes since 2008. I was very active online back when that meant an old school forum. I bought, sold, and bred quality animals, and never had a complaint. I’ve always been willing to answer questions and to help anyone who asked. Then I had a serious injury. I had to downsize from about 100 snakes to about 20. I’m better now, thank God and health professionals. I do have long term challenges, including some which make dealing with 300 online things difficult. I’m more than happy to be working on new projects. But I’m a “new seller” all over again, lol.
See, I wouldn’t mind this process. I would actually enjoy it because I would be witnessing the realness of the person I am selling to. And of course I would hope that you leave me a good review after lol .
% agree here, the term "big breeder" always bugged me for the reasons named above. Just because someone has a youtube channel and 1000’s of followers doesn’t mean they have or will ever actually produce a clutch. I have seen a few "big youtube famous breeders who didn’t actually produce a clutch until this past year giving out advice on things they have never actually done themselves.
There are a few things that "new sellers can do that will help them gaint a positive reputation.
fill out your profile and TOS
TAKE GOOD PHOTOS! This is a big one, make sure you post a clear pic, for a few different angles.
Be professional and polite when answering questions for a potential buyer
You can always offer to give them references from previous customers, if needed.
As far as showing pics of setups and animal husbandry, i would find this one hard to verify. How would you know this "actually their setup? and not someones elses. Reputation is built up over time and will come in time.
I also agree with this. A decal on the thumbnails while browsing classified pages (and on the add itself) based on the above metrics would be great, and I’m sure considerably easier to implement (not to mention it eliminates nepotism and bias). Something that would take some effort but still be reasonable for a new seller (like 90% positive over X month time period, with Y total reviews, and <24hr average response, etc).
This could also be broken into categories like trustworthy for the first tier of metrics, SUPER trustworthy for a higher tier, so on.
Just helping the community, pleasegiveme5dollarsamonth.
.
% agree here, the term "big breeder" always bugged me for the reasons named above. Just because someone has a youtube channel and 1000’s of followers doesn’t mean they have or will ever actually produce a clutch. I have seen a few "big youtube famous breeders who didn’t actually produce a clutch until this past year giving out advice on things they have never actually done themselves.