Trust buying female tarantulas?

[GrammastolaGuy]

Hi all, this is my first post on arachnoboards. My question is in people’s experience can you trust a tarantula you are buying online from a reputable breeder is actually female? You wouldn’t really know until you sexed the next molt and by then you can’t really get your money back. My G. pulchra sling turned out to be a male, and since it is my favorite species I need a female. I’ve seen them listed online for $400 , and I don’t necessarily mind paying a premium as long as it’s actually female. What do you think?

 

[Gevo]

Others with more experience will have more to say, I’m sure, but the odds of this happening with younger tarantulas is higher, so I’d trust someone less with a tarantula that’s not at least a juvenile or subadult. You’d also want to find out if it’s been sexed by a molt or by ventral sexing. A molt is the only way to know for sure. I’d check out reviews to see if a seller has a history of selling wrongly sexed tarantulas or if they have good return policies or ways of managing cases where someone has paid a premium and they got it wrong.

 

[viper69]

Hi all, this is my first post on arachnoboards. My question is in people’s experience can you trust a tarantula you are buying online from a reputable breeder is actually female? You wouldn’t really know until you sexed the next molt and by then you can’t really get your money back. My G. pulchra sling turned out to be a male, and since it is my favorite species I need a female. . What do you think?

Depends on the breeder. There are some "well known" breeders who made "mistakes", and people had the wrong sex. I have bought females from people, with no issues.

You can indeed get your money back if you pay by credit card. You have to contact the fraud division of the issuer. I've done it. I wouldn't pay more than 250$, 400 is a ridiculous price.

Animals are a product- case closed. You bought X, and you received Y. Your bank SHOULD back you.

 

[Arachnophobphile]

Hi all, this is my first post on arachnoboards. My question is in people’s experience can you trust a tarantula you are buying online from a reputable breeder is actually female? You wouldn’t really know until you sexed the next molt and by then you can’t really get your money back. My G. pulchra sling turned out to be a male, and since it is my favorite species I need a female. I’ve seen them listed online for $400, and I don’t necessarily mind paying a premium as long as it’s actually female. What do you think?

I recently purchased a confirmed, (molt was sexed) female from a reputable breeder. What @viper69 stated is the best info on this topic. If mine turns out male I will contact the breeder or probably not. Unfortunately that will be measured in years as it's a 2.5 inch Aphonopelma.

Anything under 2 inches and above 1 inch needs to be sexed via microscope for many if not all tarantulas. Even then I'm still skeptical.

 

[Mike41793]

Depends on the breeder. There are some "well known" breeders who made "mistakes", and people had the wrong sex. I have bought females from people, with no issues.

You can indeed get your money back if you pay by credit card. You have to contact the fraud division of the issuer. I've done it. I wouldn't pay more than 250$, 400 is a ridiculous price.

Animals are a product- case closed. You bought X, and you received Y. Your bank SHOULD back you.

Agreed completely, only thing I would add is there is a window for charge backs with cards. Not sure if it's 90 days, 180days etc. Unless you have a trick to convince the spider to molt on command, could get into trouble if it molts out male past the time frame for chargebacks.

 

[Wolfram1]

size also matters, i wouldn't expect them to sex a tiny sling right

you can get a general sense for their sexing practice and knowlege if you compare the sizes of sexed and unsexed individuals they offer as well as the ratio of sexed males and females

i personally look at those points to make sure i buy truly unsexed slings, but it could be used for your purposes too

it doesn't happen often but a few shady dealers may only lable females as sexed and sell the males as unsexed, that way they maximize proftit until people catch on and they are shunned

if someone has a good reputation and has been around for a while they are very unlikely to do that because it would kill their buisness quick, doesn't mean they can't make mistakes, but it would be in their best interest to keep you happy, reputation matters in this field

in any case, i bet most will simply offer to send a replacement rather than pay back the cash

 

[Olan]

Never bought a sexed female that turned out male. Mostly from breeders but also one or two arachnoboard users.
But yes, “unsexed” juvie or large slings have turned out to be male more than 50% of the time…

 

[Matt Man]

with the people which with I work, if they say "female" it has been confirmed via a molt sexing. I don't think any of them have ever had a return. Better safe than sorry. I have seen many folks get sold "female" A chalcodes from dealers and had them molt out male because they ventrally sexed it and were wrong. So it depends on the dealer. I think in my entire time keeping them I have purchased 2 sexed Ts. My daughter's second T was a confirmed female GBB young adult and I purchased a sexed H pulchripes because I kept picking male slings and am raising it for someone else.
But yes @viper69 is correct. It is a basic transaction where seller didn't deliver the exact product they advertised. I would think the seller would just refund it, or send a couple slings of the same species to guarantee a female. Wouldn't purchase from them again if I needed to go to my bank, credit union to address.
Was just having a conversation about the subject and someone was shocked by my high volume of females. Some claim it is my daughter's "spider whisperer" skills as she is uncanny at picking females, but to be honest, it is just time. When you've been doing this for as long as I, and many others have, most of your males have already hooked out and are off to breeding programs. I have 2 MMs right now, 1 I am breeding with my MF (G. pulcripes) and 1 I am giving to another breeder who has a MF (A. bicoloratum)