why are true spiders so...

johns

Arachnoknight
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Jul 19, 2002
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290
expensive?

no offense to anyone who sells these beauties, such as getazi, salei, ancylometes, but i checked with todd gearheart , francesco tomaniselli about a year ago, and todd indicated that i could expect:


$5 for cb holconia immanis spiderlings, $10 for immature cb h. immanis juveniles, and and $25 for adult sp.




and i contacted francesco about the same time... and he replied that he'd sell me a whole coccoon of of h. immanis for under a buck per spiderling!







and even with the import/export liscence ( it varies from state to state, but in general it costs about $45), so i'd expect much less :?
 
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Elizabeth

Arachnobaron
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That might not be the price of the spiders so much as it is the cost of people's time and effort required to provide those spiders in those various stages of life. Do you realize how little effort it is to send an eggsac on compared to raising the spiders at any other stage of their lives?

You could develop a fascination for your local true spiders and save yourself all the money, by the way. I don't mean that sarcastically, either. Look around you for beauty if you don't have the cash for the ones from other areas.
 

johns

Arachnoknight
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Elizabeth said:
That might not be the price of the spiders so much as it is the cost of people's time and effort required to provide those spiders in those various stages of life. Do you realize how little effort it is to send an eggsac on compared to raising the spiders at any other stage of their lives?

kelly swift once sold malaysian fuzzy orange huntsmen for the low, low, price of $2.50 apiece, and i believe they were imported*i think*



didn't think that your response was sarcastic, just trying to stir the pot, as it were, and find out why ts were costing very much. ;)
 

xenesthis

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Prices

This subject is often very, very misunderstood.

If some breeder breeds some huntsman spider and lives in Italy, of course he/she will sell the babies for cheap as they don't have much time/food invested in the babies yet and true spider slings are not as hardy as many tarantula slings. Just because (for example), he/she sells the babies for $1 each, HEY, you've got to import them first. Now, there is where the misinformation comes in. To import them legally, now we are talking import license cost $60, import overhead (gas, food, etc.) to an airport within 2-5 hrs. drive maybe $150, then we got air cargo costs of $280-$450, and we probably have to pay the exporter a fee for his/her time/gas/meals in their travel to their airport to ship in the form of an export fee - now, gentleman and ladies, those slings are not actually a $1 each now are they?

Oh, some will say, nah, don't do all that, just have them shipped through the mail for cheap. First of all, that is illegal. U.S. customs and USFWS need to know about your animals being imported and you have to pay them inspection fees and get their approval. If you don't and get caught, it's called smuggling. With the internet allowing hobbyists and breeders to make contact like never before, some have been engaging in this illegal activity. Be warned! Don't get caught! It's not worth the confiscated animals, stiff fines and possible jail tiime. Now, secondly, the people that have been going this don't realize this postal shipping method is'nt good on the spiders at all. Most of the time, it isn't as fast as air cargo, so yeah, you get your $1 slings for cheap in the mail, but find them dead and/or injured badly, but possibly, you get a phone call and visit from USFWS and U.S. customs.

NOT WORTH IT FOLKS. So, $1 each, no. Not legally.

Then, in the U.S. we have an importer that gets in some true spiders. He sells them wholesale for $5 each to one of this wholesale customers, which might be a U.S. dealer of inverts, who marks up the spider to a retail price. Now, that mark up might be 100% or 300% depending on their business. Often, net/mail order businesses mark up 100-250%, but pet stores do more often 300%-400% because they have more overhead. So, now your $5 spider ends up on the net for $12 and at your pet store for $25.

Another situation arises, when a U.S. dealer buys the $5 spider from the U.S. importer and gets lucky with a gravid female. He gets a sac and blows out the tiny and numerous babies for $2.50 ea. Hell, he can do that. He hasn't much invested in the species and doesn't want to invest much time and feeding in all those babies. Now, a different U.S. dealer who bought some of the adults for the same price and from the same importer, has to feed and maintain sub-adult males and adult females for six months to a year until a male matures. He invests more time getting the adult pair to breed and finally he gets a CB sac (not from a lucky, gravid, WC female like in the prior example), so with the time and resources invested, he sells the babies for $9 ea. His price is higher, but can't you see why it needs to be?

These are the facts as to how things work economically in our trade. Be careful of extremely low prices out their on the net. Too good to be true, then it isn't! Remember when dealing with international breeders, you've got to incorporate import costs and think about how things need to be legally.

I hope this helps.

Todd
 
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Lopez

Arachnoking
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Feb 18, 2003
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It's nice to see a post from a dealer that actually goes into a detailed explanation like that.
Nicely put :)
 

johns

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Messages
290
xenesthis said:
This subject is often very, very misunderstood.

If some breeder breeds some huntsman spider and lives in Italy, of course he/she will sell the babies for cheap as they don't have much time/food invested in the babies yet and true spider slings are not as hardy as many tarantula slings. Just because (for example), he/she sells the babies for $1 each, HEY, you've got to import them first. Now, there is where the misinformation comes in. To import them legally, now we are talking import license cost $60, import overhead (gas, food, etc.) to an airport within 2-5 hrs. drive maybe $150, then we got air cargo costs of $280-$450, and we probably have to pay the exporter a fee for his/her time/gas/meals in their travel to their airport to ship in the form of an export fee - now, gentleman and ladies, those slings are not actually a $1 each now are they?

Oh, some will say, nah, don't do all that, just have them shipped through the mail for cheap. First of all, that is illegal. U.S. customs and USFWS need to know about your animals being imported and you have to pay them inspection fees and get their approval. If you don't and get caught, it's called smuggling. With the internet allowing hobbyists and breeders to make contact like never before, some have been engaging in this illegal activity. Be warned! Don't get caught! It's not worth the confiscated animals, stiff fines and possible jail tiime. Now, secondly, the people that have been going this don't realize this postal shipping method is'nt good on the spiders at all. Most of the time, it isn't as fast as air cargo, so yeah, you get your $1 slings for cheap in the mail, but find them dead and/or injured badly, but possibly, you get a phone call and visit from USFWS and U.S. customs.

NOT WORTH IT FOLKS. So, $1 each, no. Not legally.

Then, in the U.S. we have an importer that gets in some true spiders. He sells them wholesale for $5 each to one of this wholesale customers, which might be a U.S. dealer of inverts, who marks up the spider to a retail price. Now, that mark up might be 100% or 300% depending on their business. Often, net/mail order businesses mark up 100-250%, but pet stores do more often 300%-400% because they have more overhead. So, now your $5 spider ends up on the net for $12 and at your pet store for $25.

Another situation arises, when a U.S. dealer buys the $5 spider from the U.S. importer and gets lucky with a gravid female. He gets a sac and blows out the tiny and numerous babies for $2.50 ea. Hell, he can do that. He hasn't much invested in the species and doesn't want to invest much time and feeding in all those babies. Now, a different U.S. dealer who bought some of the adults for the same price and from the same importer, has to feed and maintain sub-adult males and adult females for six months to a year until a male matures. He invests more time getting the adult pair to breed and finally he gets a CB sac (not from a lucky, gravid, WC female like in the prior example), so with the time and resources invested, he sells the babies for $9 ea. His price is higher, but can't you see why it needs to be?

These are the facts as to how things work economically in our trade. Be careful of extremely low prices out their on the net. Too good to be true, then it isn't! Remember when dealing with international breeders, you've got to incorporate import costs and think about how things need to be legally.

I hope this helps.

Todd

thanks, very much todd.


thgis helps greatly, now that i can reread it over, and mull it over.
 

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