Attention Spider Fanatics

[RazorRipley]

I guess I never really intoduced myself to the tarantula hobbyist ring here.... Im Chris (Razor) Ripley, and Ive been keeping tarantulas since January of this year, Ive been a life long spider fanatic, and now Im doing something about it.... Ive bought several spiders this year, mainly from the Spider Shoppe owned by Micheal Jacobi, Micheal has an excellent reputation and knowledge of our hairy friends, and has a collection for sale which i dont think could possibly be matched. However, after all the hype I have received about posting a picture of what i thought was a poecilotheria miranda, Ive come to understand that people are willing to take advantage of fellow hobbysists in a bad way.... Im a full time college student, and make money where i can, after being introduced to a young mans wholesale list and meeting his approval i thought it would be wise to make some cash utilizing my favorite hobby, but..... if this person just made hundreds of dollars disgusing a fairly common species as something extremely scarce, than I think my mind has been made to not make money doing the same..... SO NO, I DONT SELL TARANTULAS, AND YES... YOU PEOPLE NEED TO BE CAREFUL!!!

 

[Telson]

15 years and I know very little!!

My first T was a rosie, but the pet store sold it to me as a "skeleton tarantula" for about $45. That was over 15 years ago...

Since then I've come to own, and sell off several species and I've had anywhere from 1 to 30+ T's in my collection at any given time. I've learned to come to sites like this, find out by majority vote who is the most reputable and trustworthy dealers on the net, and buy from them once I know exactly what it is that I am getting and that the price is comparable to other dealers. When I buy from a local pet store I almost expect to get the short end of the deal and rarely spend more than $40 for a juvi with the exception of one a little over a year ago that was supposed to me a sexed fem and turned out to be an $85 pre-final molt male Mexican fireleg. On the bright side, at least it was the species they labelled it as!=D

Anyhow, just be careful in the future, do your homework on potential purchases, and make sure of what you have before announcing it to be what the dealer claimed and you'll enjoy the hobby immensly!