NSW pet shop with reptiles.

[jibbyt]

Prices like that for a lizard may increase the chances of kids just taking them from the wild.

 

[lizardwhisperer]

I was just in a local pet shop at Kellyville today. Thought I would check out all the reptiles, as I haven't seen them in shops yet.

I was impressed with the amount of reptiles and the natural looking setups. But I wasn't happy to see quite a few of them didn't have any hides and some hatchlings were housed together. One hatchling jungle in particular caught my eye, by how much it was freaking out (wedged itself on the background and was breathing very fast) in its massive glass enclosure, with no hides, just some fake shrubs.

I was also blown away by the price of the animals.
Bearded dragons $600.
Hatchling children's $329.
Hatchling jungles $399

Here comes the funny part though. I ended up speaking to a random couple, who were also blown away by the price of there children's. I happened to mention that I sell them for $120 and BOOM, I just made an accidental sale.

I doubt they'll be selling very many beardies or snakes at those prices. Not likely to get any impulse buyers (unless they have money than brains).

You sure they weren't selling as "complete packages" = reptile + enclosure + stand + lighting + tank furnishings + substrate + starter food + calcium and vitamin powder ?

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$600 for a beardie? Is that a typo?
$120 to $150 I could understand but $600 is highway robbery!

maybe it's a package deal - there is a guy on Gumtree or Petpages who frequently sells beardies, bluetongues, water dragons , and jackies , and I emailed him once and then spoke to him on the phone (he's in Sydney) to be told he sells as package deals (his preference) and by the time you buy the flatpack particle board tank and fittings and lights and heatpad and water and food dishes and pay the freight / postage the price grows considerably from the advertised cheap price for the reptile (obviously I lost interest in buying from him very fast) .

Personally - I'll never buy a reptile from a pet shop, I'll be sticking with buying from breeders and occasionally taking in rescues (for treatment, rehab and release).

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Prices like that for a lizard may increase the chances of kids just taking them from the wild.

Kids will do that no matter what the price of reptiles are. Isn't it part of childhood to catch and keep a few frogs, lizards, tadpoles, and even little snakes (I know I did as a kid).

The problem is when teenagers (who should know better and are probably frequent readers here and of other boards and of herp mags) and grown adults go into the wild to poach wild reptiles to add to their collections or to sell fraudulently as captive-bred. (really who doesn't know the name of the breeder they bought their reptile from or approx how old it is ?).

 

[wokka]

.

Personally - I'll never buy a reptile from a pet shop, I'll be sticking with buying from breeders and occasionally taking in rescues (for treatment, rehab and release).

It seems that what a lot of you new guys dont realize is that both the pet shps mentioned are owned and operated by breeders who have been keeping and breeding reptiles for years. They are just offering a legal convenient alternative method of purchase for customers who dont want to buy from unknown, often anonymous sellers on gumtree,aps and the like.A lot of customers are not happy to send money to an unknown internet contact and then incur the delivery and communication costs and hassle, sometimes with no after market service or presence!

 

[lizardwhisperer]

What a lot of you new guys dont realize is that both the pet shps mentioned are owned and operated by breeders who have been keeping and breeding reptiles for years. They are just offering a legal convenient alternative method of purchase for customers who dont want to buy from unknown, often anonymous sellers on gumtree,aps and the like.A lot of customers are not happy to send money to an unknown internet contact and then incur the delivery and communication costs and hassle, sometimes with no after market service or presence!

Personally, I'd never buy from someone I've not met, or who is "local" and licenced.
So I'll have their licence #, their email address from initial contact, their name, their phone number (should I need a little bit of advice), and if they are willing their home address if they are happy to have buyers go to their home to collect.

I don't breed my reptiles (have in the past - by accident and I actually gave my babies (BTS) away to family members, friends - who I made sure were licenced and kitted up first).

 

[wokka]

Up until now in NSW it has been the case that many buyers have had no alternative but to buy from anonymous sources as there have been no legally publicly available face to face places to find reptiles for sale. Many keepers, like myself dont encourage vistors, but many buyers want to visit-often referred to as tyre kicking. I am just saying that petshops offer an alternative for potential buyers who are not primarily driven by price.

 

[FAY]

I personally do not think it is anyone else's business as to what they sell their stock for. If it is priced too high....no one will buy it and they will have to drop their price. Don't try and tell me that the public out there are not aware of how much a reptile costs......anyone can just google prices. They fact that they can just see it in front of them instead of making arrangements with breeders etc...probably means more.

 

[Wild~Touch]

IMO

In NSW there seems to be a number of genuine keepers involved with clubs/associations and people do have other avenues (moreso) than pet shops to purchase from.

Qld. lacks in this area

 

[Erebos]

I personally do not think it is anyone else's business as to what they sell their stock for. If it is priced too high....no one will buy it and they will have to drop their price. Don't try and tell me that the public out there are not aware of how much a reptile costs......anyone can just google prices. They fact that they can just see it in front of them instead of making arrangements with breeders etc...probably means more.

I agree people with the money available will purchase these for ease of access that's like saying Pizza Hut is cheaper then dominos.

 

[cridon96]

High prices in pet shops are no surprise the real surprise is that people actually pay these prices.

I know and have sold hatchies to a few pet shop owners that have only placed small mark ups on them in their stores. I would assume pet shops selling reptiles would be similar to selling fish small mark up on animal but larger mark up on everything you need to keep them (you may only buy one snake from them but buy rats every week after that).

 

[Ramsayi]

Some of the shops selling reptiles have to buy their stock from existing breeders.Those breeders are going to sell at normal prices to them and the shops then mark them up to cover overheads.

 

[borntobnude]

Some of the shops selling reptiles have to buy their stock from existing breeders.Those breeders are going to sell at normal prices to them and the shops then mark them up to cover overheads.

Not sure about Kellyville but Extreme sell their own bred animals , and I don't think that the prices are that high , we bought of them when we had to do the deal in the carpark , and the prices would need to be increased from that to cover the fees taxes and housing inside the shop , they cant sell from T/A containers inside the shop!!

 

[wokka]

Here comes the funny part though. I ended up speaking to a random couple, who were also blown away by the price of there children's. I happened to mention that I sell them for $120 and BOOM, I just made an accidental sale.

I hope you pay tax on the sale and keep a few employees going along the way like Kellyville do.

 

[RSPcrazy]

I hope you pay tax on the sale and keep a few employees going along the way like Kellyville do.

No and no, instead I use the money to buy food for all my other reptiles.

 

[Newhere]

The pet shop near me had childrens or spotted pythons for $395. I can't remember which one as its been a while since I last went there but they were a total rip off.

Can anyone tell me how a normal reptile sale goes down with a private breeder? I've seen people on here say they don't want anyone coming to their house (and thats fair enough) but how do I view the parents and the conditions the animals are living in? (I want to know the person I buy off is keeping them in good conditions). If they send pictures of the parents how do I know they are actually the parents of the animal I am buying? And if they don't want to let me come pick the animal up will they bring it to my house or do we just meet in a carpark somewhere?

Sorry if this is off topic I'm just wondering how it all goes down.

 

[lizardwhisperer]

Can anyone tell me how a normal reptile sale goes down with a private breeder? I've seen people on here say they don't want anyone coming to their house (and thats fair enough) but how do I view the parents and the conditions the animals are living in? (I want to know the person I buy off is keeping them in good conditions). If they send pictures of the parents how do I know they are actually the parents of the animal I am buying? And if they don't want to let me come pick the animal up will they bring it to my house or do we just meet in a carpark somewhere?

Sorry if this is off topic I'm just wondering how it all goes down.

All the animals I've bought it's gone rather like this -

I decide I'd like 2 or 3 of specific species (for me always as babies about 4- 6 weeks old).
I set up in readiness (for babies it's a monster tub or a monster tub each), then I check out Gumtree and PetPages and a couple of Herp message boards and some bookmarked breeders (who are nearby - no more than an 1hr travel time away) to see what's on offer and how much.
If I was in a club , that would open up other options to buy animals or get animals otherwize.

When I locate the animal/s I am interested in I usually send off an email ( I prefer this means rather than phone or txt , and really only joined boards like this to learn stuff and have access to PMing - some sellers only advertise on boards and want txts or PMs ONLY), to ask the usual age, eating habits, size and other pertanent details as well how they prefer the transaction be done , some want cash, others take cheques, some will take PayPal.

I then if I'm happy with what's been told to me, arrange to view the animal/s (either at their home or at location that's mutually accepted (some breeders have security concerns about strangers seeing where they live and what they have - which is fair enough).

If the animal looks healthy and it seems "friendly" and meets my expectations I show my licence details and exchange these with the breeder, I give them the money and they hand over the animal/s (usually in cricket tubs) .


All very easy and very straightforeward.

 

[RSPcrazy]

I was in that petshop again & thought I would get a photo of the $600 bearded dragon, which I now noticed, has a broken & stumpy tail.

I checked with the staff, it's $600 for the bearded dragon only, no tank setup covered in that price. They told me, they had already sold one for that price too.

 

[Cypher69]

If I owned a petshop & looked at the prospect of selling reptiles...I'd sell them on a package deal that would include the enclosure, heating, lighting & accessories. Maybe even a return policy on the enclosures that we'd trade them back for a bigger enclosure once the reptile out grew the original one.
If people insisted they already had a set-up, I'd ask for photo proof prior to selling.
Hell, if I lose sales then so be it at least I'll have a peace of mind at the end of the day.

 

[zulu]

I was in that petshop again & thought I would get a photo of the $600 bearded dragon, which I now noticed, has a broken & stumpy tail.

I checked with the staff, it's $600 for the bearded dragon only, no tank setup covered in that price. They told me, they had already sold one for that price too.

They go on credit cards, would be 1500 to 2000 with the lot.

 

[Lawra]

The pet shop near me had childrens or spotted pythons for $395. I can't remember which one as its been a while since I last went there but they were a total rip off.

Can anyone tell me how a normal reptile sale goes down with a private breeder? I've seen people on here say they don't want anyone coming to their house (and thats fair enough) but how do I view the parents and the conditions the animals are living in? (I want to know the person I buy off is keeping them in good conditions). If they send pictures of the parents how do I know they are actually the parents of the animal I am buying? And if they don't want to let me come pick the animal up will they bring it to my house or do we just meet in a carpark somewhere?

Sorry if this is off topic I'm just wondering how it all goes down.

I don't know about others but the breeder I bought my two from is fantastic and let me come over to 'play' when deciding what I wanted.

 

[caliherp]

I don't know about others but the breeder I bought my two from is fantastic and let me come over to 'play' when deciding what I wanted.

Don't take that for granted. Most will not. Can you blame them? I sure as hell won't. It's just asking for someone to rip them off. You would be surprised how much you can learn about a houses security flaws in a matter of a minute of being in that house. With all the reptile thefts that has been going on I wouldn't ever allow someone in my house to appease a sale.