Another Daytona Expo is behind us.  This year was one of the most challenging we have had to get ready for.  Overall it went off without a hitch.  Both of our pre-sold cage customers where waiting on us just as planned!  Almost unheard of!

Wayne Hill did a great job with this show.  The new facility at the Ocean Center is great!  Loading and unloading was a MUCH smoother experience.  Instead of a stressful, rushed situation with crappy parking and over zealous parking “officials” looking to write parking tickets this was well organized with adequate parking.  I really did not think this was possible there. I did not have my annual run in with some guy on a John Deer utility cart giving me a bunch of static about how I can not walk across his parking lot.  Kind of disappointing I did not get to give him heartburn this year.

Inside, the new facility swallowed up the tables and customers quite a bit better than in the past.  I would guess this show has hit its theoretical maximum as far as vendors go at this point.  Everyone is in the main room which is great.  No more tables in the halls, bathrooms, lobbies, etc.  Aisles were very wide and easy to navigate.  This is a real help in selling.  No river of people sweeping people right past you.

While I am sure some will be unhappy with this show for one reason or another- In my opinion it is the best one we have attended.  Our sales were better than ever, we were much more relaxed, we got to talk to more people.  About as good as it gets!

Looking ahead- I will be set up with Frank in Raleigh next weekend and White Plains the week after that.  We are absolutely swamped with cage orders for the next couple of weeks (??) so it looks like we will be going to WP NY pretty light.  Not sure if I can get enough together to warrant dragging the trailer up there.  I will make the call on that middle of next week when I see where we are at.  If you are needing a rack/cage for that show better speak up real soon.

I am planning an update on the website sometime before the year is out.  I have some new shopping cart software I like pretty good.  Not cheap but pretty nice.  Seems they all have their pros and cons but I think this is a step up.  The real challenge is moving the database with all order data/history over.  Of course one shopping cart does not know how to talk to the other.  Why should there be any type of standard database structure??  Looks like there is a solution for that I will need to test out but if that works then it should not be too bad.  Famous last words………………

Been awhile since I have been on here.  I have been very fortunate and stayed quite busy this season.  Hatched out a pretty nice pile of colubrids- some killer Cal Kings and my first season on Sonoran Gopher morphs and Hypo Stillwater Bulls.  Super cute little babies!  Colubrids may not be the most stylish animals to work with but I tell you what- There is something to be said for a 3 month vacation in the winter and the quick, easy sell!!  A freezer full of frozen mice is a no brainer as well.

Unlike the internet, shows have been predictably slower during the  summer.  I don’t think it is so much economy related as summer related.  Happens every season.  Frank had a very mediocre show in Hamburg- August is always the slowest there- and I have not heard from Stu about Atlanta as of this morning so I don’t know about that one. Likely find out later today.  Someone told me via email yesterday it was quite a bit improved over previous shows though.  Hopefully so.

I am in the very good position of being pretty well sold out on racks and cages for Daytona already.  I might be able to squeeze in a couple of odds and ends.  I won’t know for sure until I pack the trailer the rest of the way but I am pretty full!  That being the case it looks like I have had a pretty good show already and I haven’t even left yet??  So- since I do not have to chase around a bunch of racks and the show bills are already pretty well paid I will be offering up some pretty nice sale prices on dry goods at the show.  I have not nailed down specifically what or how much yet but will in the coming week or so- I want some No Haggle pricing!!  I will send out a newsletter with details and numbers about a week before the show. Looks like we are at tables 318-320 and all of the usual suspects will be along- Frank, Bobby, Dr Lew.  Looks like my wife will be along for the ride this year as well so I can put her to work as well!  Bet she decides to go visit family in Apopka instead of working though

With the new show layout we lose Scott Seavey and Neil Golli though.  We are scattered all over the place now.  Bummer.  It was a lot of fun watching Neil run around like a lunatic the whole time.  He seems to do more business away from the table than at it?

It occurred to me that many of you fly in for this one and can’t really take home a pile of supplies with you but may want to take advantage of the sales- So I talked to Chad at ShipYourReptiles.com about setting up UPS ground shipping at the show as well as the animal overnight.  Done deal!  Now you will be able to buy your animals AND your supplies and put it all in a box and see it when you get home, how cool is that?  Someone should have thought of this years ago…………

Other than that not much going on out of the ordinary.  I will be in Raleigh this time (Sept. 5&6) followed up by White Plains (Sept. 13) .  Get your orders for racks/cages in for them any time now.  We will be pretty busy keeping up with all of this and have limited time to get it all done!

I may take the ride up to Tinley again, not sure if I will go to set up or not, they may already be sold out.  Either way, I may be able to fill some requests for delivery there if you want it as well.