Thanks to Mark at Royal Reptilia looks like I will have a couple of feet of table space at Tinley so…..

Anyone wanting delivery of racks/cages or other dry goods please let me know.  Space in the truck is very limited this time since I will not be dragging the trailer up there-unless of course I need to.  The plan is to bring misting, heat panels, thermostats, dosing needles, hide boxes and a couple of other odds and ends.  First time I have been to this show, I hear a lot of great feedback on it, and I look forward to attending.  Especially as a spectator and not a vendor!  I have forgotten what a reptile show is when you are not tied to a table the whole time.  Anyhow, would love to meet some of my Great Lakes area customers so stop by Marks table and say hi.  By the way, the link to his site is www.royalreptilia.com and I think he is playing the role of auctioneer at the show??  Strange dude, should be fun!

Not much new going on, just the usual day to day work.  Busy trying to keep up with orders.  Certainly a good problem to have but like anything it can get old.  UPS was kind enough to destroy a couple of racks this week as well.  When I do the math the percentage of damages is really very low but it is about the most discouraging part of this line of work.  I look at this one a partially my fault though.  It was a good size order (10 racks) and I have noticed that when a bunch, say more than 4, of racks goes to one location it seems like the damages increase.  Makes sense really, someone gets tired of moving big boxes and subsequently throws/drops/kicks/shoves/launches boxes.  I was going to break this shipment up into two or three “chunks” but for reasons unknown I did not.  Lesson learned for the last time.

Something kind of funny-I managed to dump a tub full of rats on the floor in the snake room today.  Yes, they were live and now they are everywhere.  Got most of them but I think there are about 5 or six still running around.  This time of year my BP’s start to hammer the food like crazy and I like to encourage this because they put on half of their weight for the year in a 3 month period.  You know-more eggs in the spring.  Brilliant me sits the tub of feeders on the very large, stable Rubbermaid trash can.  Not good at all.  You would think I would learn?

Been looking at a new gadget and it is about all I can do to resist it.  A laser engraver/cutter.  Damn, thats sweet.  Spent the last couple of days trying to figure out where I could put it and what I would make with it to pay for it??  Kind of a neat toy but at the cost of a decent new car it needs a purpose doesn’t it?  Excellent for acrylic work so maybe I will think of something…….

Yet another White Plains NY show is behind us.  Another great one.  I have been at this for quite a good number of years and have not seen a show as consistently good as that one.  In almost three years we have not had a bad one yet.  I applaude Bruce, the promoter.  Right place, right times, right size, right venue, right advertising.  A hard balance to maintain.  Now if we can just get the “security/parking” crew to get with the program!  Park here, no park there, unload here, you can’t unload here.  Seems universal at shows.  In Daytona I have an older gentleman who seems to like to hassle me.  Accosted me for walking across the parking lot to the other side of the building.  Couldn’t tell me how I was supposed to get there with all of the construction, just not this way.  He referred to a sign that said “No Unauthorized Parking”.  I was walking?  He didn’t like that much.  Had some words with him in 2007 as well.  I look forward to giving him a hard time next year, hope he is there.  Such consistent stupidity and abuse of non-existent power needs to be rewarded.  I do believe I will be getting a parking ticket and it will be the best $30 I will have spent all weekend.

No more shows for me until the end of November.  Frank is setting up at the MARS show in MD this weekend with a few things for me but now it is time to get caught up on orders.  We should be back to normal by next week by the look of things today.  We will take this opportunity to expand our shelving a bit-added more new items than I have space for.  Got to get the animals all bulked up as well.  Another breeding season is just around the corner.  I had quite a few late clutches with the BP’s this season so I am curious how that will affect the coming season?

Sure as taxes, I say the cnc router is working great again and all is well-the computer craps out the next day.  How do you like that.  Jiggled wires, checked plugs, kicked it.  Nothing.  This time I was smart!  Have a backup computer tower waiting in the other room for just such an event (this has happened before!).  10 minutes and we have been great since.  The last of the White Plains orders are being cut today and loaded in the trailer.  Seems like we always make it somehow but we sure like to keep it interesting.  I am looking forward to a month or two off from shows.  This is like work.

I thought we were out of the woods after this show but the orders have piled up quick again.  Several larger ones so I guess the baby season has been good to many.  We will work as fast as we can.  I remember the good ‘ol days when we could keep up!  Stu and I used to be able to do other things besides make racks all day every day.  Now I wonder how??

Did some tinkering on the website over the last couple of days.  I bet it is interesting to anyone knocking around in there while I am in progress!  Categories list changing every time they change pages .  Working on breaking up the longer categories into smaller subcategories to make things a bit easier to dig through.  Came up with this nifty script to get the Categories list looking a bit prettier and let you mouse over to see the sub cats. 

Now for the bad news-

Quantity prices on all racks have been discontinued.  You know the story, Petroleum.  PVC has gone up about $10/sheet since January, Acrylic about the same and Sept. 1 Iris is up 17% (yes-17%) on the tubs.  Then there is that brown truck that comes every day………I am hoping that removing the quantity breaks will affect the fewest customers for the time being.  Oddly I really hate going up on prices as I am a creature of habit but it is what it is.  I will crunch the numbers after a month or so and see how we come out with the quantity discounts gone and hopefully will not have to do anything more-for now.  I bet a few other “old timers” like myself remember the .88 cent Rubbermaid shoeboxes!  Now the Iris tub costs me almost $2 wholesale with freight.   Can’t forget Roadway!