2009 has been a challenging year for many businesses. Somehow though, the reptile industry remains as strong as ever! I want to thank everyone for their support this past year- I hope we have lived up to expectations as much as possible!
I have added quite a bit to the offerings in 2009. I have reworked a lot of the rodent watering equipment to make life a bit easier! Added water bowls right at the end of the year and much more. Also survived a major website overhaul. That is just not much fun! Been a busy year and I have a lot more coming in 2010. There are several pretty big projects that I had really hoped would hit in ‘09 that just did not make it. They about can not miss for ‘10!
On the subject of rodent watering- Seems like I have finally managed to strike at least a small truce with Edstrom and we will be offering some better price breaks on the valves in the next week or so. Have to wait for the new shipment to arrive. Following this shipment I will be offering bulk/wholesale pricing on the valves and several other related hardware again. Edstrom continues to have excessive waits on the valves which is not helping but they tell me that will improve in the coming months. Hasn’t yet. I apologize in advance for any back orders on the valves- I really work hard to keep good supplies of what I sell on hand so I can fill orders promptly but just can’t seem to with the valves no matter what I try.
The animal market this year has been a rough one for many. Some will blame it all on the economy, not so sure about that- supplies are selling same or better than ever. Others will blame it on market crashing sales from some larger breeders- seen that happen before over the years and it is generally a short term impact. My thinking is while that contributes, the largest factor is the explosive growth in this hobby in the past few years. Kind of a “reptile bubble” if you will. Many thousands of hobbyists have been getting in and getting a few animals and now they are successfully breeding them. Remember all those BP’s 3 years ago? They are breeding now. Like houses, you can’t keep building them endlessly forever and expect they will all sell for large sums. At some point things need to re balance. Prices need to hit an equilibrium in the market. This is not new to reptiles, just been a long time since it has happened and never to this scale. Again, we have never seen this kind of popularity in this hobby before! Have faith!
We will be in White Plains again January 24th. You can click on the link for the website and more info. Bruce continues to do an outstanding job with that show and it is really a pleasure to attend. Attendance is always good, good vendors, good facility, right size, and on and on. It has achieved Zen! If you need to reserve caging now is the time! it is only about 3 weeks out and coming fast! We have already started to build for that show. Hopefully the snow will manage to not trap us up there? Been lucky for years now- we will see? Seems like a year for snow so far.
It looks very likely we will hit the Tinley Park expo in mid February. We will likely not be bringing caging but can make pre-arranged deliveries if it is needed. Going to “go light”- supplies in large quantities but no trailer. Let me know if you have any requests on that show, I will be making the final decision in a few days.
We are also looking ahead to the Daytona Expo already. Got the invite in the mail a few days ago. Time to start thinking about that again………If you have not made it to FL. for that one I suggest you go, it is worth it!