Spiderpatch (www.spiderpatch.com)

[Immortal_Sin]

Spiderpatch

Positive

I have bought a few tarantulas from the Spiderpatch, and they are all beautiful captive bred specimens. Darwin's packing is great, and each T comes with a birth certificate, so you know when the eggsac was made, when the lings emerged, and when they started eating solid food.
They even offer a $5 priority shipping, which took 5 days to get to my house, but the weather was perfect, and the packing was superb, so the ling arrived in great condition.
I would definately buy from the Spiderpatch again

 

[petitegreeneyes]

Positive

I have gotten quite a few of my T's from Darwin and I have always been happy with what he has sent me. I too like the enclosed birth certs.

 

[Jason]

Positive

I have got alot of spiders from Darwin ! I even had one DOA so I called him he said Ill have you one overnighted free and he dident even wanna see the dead one ! his prices are good and hes good to deal with so I give him a 100%

 

[Vayu Son]

Spiderpatch

Positive

I ordered a P.subfusca and C.thorelli sling from darwin on a friday, and was told they would ship monday, which they did. On monday morning, I was called and told that at a show that weekend he had forgotten to save me a subfusca sling, and that if i wanted I could pick from any of his remaining pokeys(rufilata,striata, or pedersini) at no additional charge.

I recieved them on tuesday. The P.striata was a little above size and the C.thorelli a little below. Also on the birth certificate he had misprinted Ephebopus cyanognathus instead of Cyriopagus thorelli, But it was indeed what i had ordered(looks just like a little thorelli sling, black with longer auburn hairs). And since most dealers dont even supply a certificate, that isnt a big deal.

Speaking of the certificates, they are pretty nifty to have. They list the date the sac was laid, first names of parents(didnt know if it was spiders names or breeders names), The day its particular egg hatched, and the date it began eating solid food. This is nice because it is easy to track growth rate with the date it was born, and you know its not WC.

The packing was excellent, and reminded me alot of kelly swifts.


Overall I would purchase from Darwin again. He is very helpful on the phone, is easy to contact, calls you back on time, and offers more than fair solutions (a $99 P.striata vs $45 subfusca on his pricelists.) Speaking of pricelists, when the subfusca was ordered, The other big dealers had it listed as $90+, and darwins was drastically lower. He doesnt have alot of real cheap deals like swift does, but offers some of the more pricey species for a little lower. Big thing is timely replies, and customer service.

I would order from spiderpatch again if I was looking for something in particular.



-V

 

[WolfMemnoch]

I ordered from SpiderPatch sometime last year and have nothing but good things to say. Darwin is a sweetheart and replies quickly on any question you could possibly come up with. He can even sex the individual as long as you buy the larger of the species. I like that. No guessing games with genders and very healthy/happy individuals at that.

Unfortunately, because I had to work late one day, I couldn't be home for the arrival of my sweetie and had to wait 2 days to pick her up due to a holiday. I damn near had a heart attack when the Postal worker thumped the box down on the counter, but he packed her so beautifully that she popped out of the whole ordeal a-o.k.

I also like the fact that he has so many t's to offer. Most of the time when I look at the list of a dealer, it's iffy as to what I'm getting (as far as gender), or there might be only one or two spiders I have an interest in or there's some kind of minimum order price. Not the case with SpiderPatch. I always see the spiders I'd like to have on there and there's no minimum to buy.

I plan on buying from him again in the future as soon as I can convince the 'others' in the household to let me have a couple more. If not, then I'm going to be smuggling them into the house. Well, tis the nature of this hobby...

 

[belewfripp]

POSITIVE


I generally like to consolidate my once-a-year tarantula spend-a-thon into as few of orders as possible, but then I discovered neither of my other two chosen vendors had Ephebopus cyanognathus, a T I'd had targeted for purchase for quite some time. So my wife and I checked out Spiderpatch and lo and behold, cyanognathus for sale. On top of that my wife wanted a Grammostola actaeon just to see what it was like (and I have come to be glad that she asked me to order it) and I also saw bicoloratums for sale, so I filled out Darwin's form on his webpage, which was easy to use, with our order.


Darwin was very quick to reply, and must be a late night owl like myself, and bore the unfortunate news that there were no more bicoloratums. He was very nice about it and offered to lower the price on his boehmei slings and offered it as a replacement but since I didn't need another boehmei I suggested the 25.00 G. pulchra 'lings he had listed. He accepted that with no problem and the order was set. And also like Golden Phoenix and Swift's Inverts, Darwin was very nice about holding off on shipping for a couple of days so that we would be sure to be home for the package.


The spiders were packed well, no deaths, and were in great shape. To boot, the pulchra was a little larger than the 25.00 ones were advertised as being, which was very kind. He had two sizes listed and I think he sent one of the larger (and more expensive) ones as the replacement for the bicoloratum at the same price.

In the end I'm glad I ordered from Spiderpatch, initially I hadn't set my sights on doing so, but in the end, though one of the Ts I wanted was out of stock, I ended up with two that I really had been wanting for awhile and another (the actaeon) that I hadn't really had picked out as one to get but that I'm now very glad I did order. I would certainly do business with Spiderpatch in the future.


Adrian


Additional comment: Darwin sent me an email a couple of days ago letting me know they were getting bicoloratums back in. I felt that that was great customer service as he could have just as easily left it to me to notice when they were added to the stocklist at his website.

 

[Code Monkey]

Neutral

I've never had a good feel for Darwin and his Spiderpatch business. Although he has one of the widest stocklists of captive bred Ts, he doesn't maintain any sort of online presence that I've seen beyond his website. But, based on good reviews by other hobbyists I respect I figured he was worth a try.

I ordered 11 slings from Darwin. Reply by email confirming the order was swift and he even let me add on the two that I had forgotten when I first submitted the order. They shipped out the next day and USPS "tracking" information was provided. The next day I spent over an hour playing post office tag to get the package so it didn't sit over the long July 4th weekend. Everyone was alive, packing was adequate although not as impressive as some I've seen (the boxing was nice, though), and sizes were mostly as advertised.

The highs:
One of the widest selection of species out there, he has over 70 species listed right now. The prices are competitive considering the selection and focus on captive breeding. Email replies were timely and pleasant. Packaging was good and discrete. Specimens appear healthy.


The lows:
Lousy choice of shipper. Why, oh why does anyone use USPS to ship Ts? The tracking information is abyssmal (it's only guaranteed to be updated once per day which does you no good when trying to intercept overnight packages). This was my second order with a vendor using USPS, it will be my last; I'll pay the $5 more for FedEx or UPS to avoid having to spend valuable time on the phone, driving around town, standing in line, and needlessly filling out paperwork just to get my overnight packages overnight, not to mention actually being able to tell precisely when the package should be delivered in the first place. Another minor point about the shipping is that he raised the prices on it last year in response to USPS rate increases but he still hasn't updated the order page.

The business isn't all it's cracked up to be. The Spiderpatch creates the impression that all these Ts were generated there and claims that all the Ts are captive bred unless othewise noted. Well, while I don't have conclusive proof, I wouldn't bet a quarter that either of those claims is true. The birth certificates that you read so much praise for in the above reviews are obvious fakes, at least for some of the Ts I ordered.
Example 1: Right now it seems that almost every dealer out there has 1/4" newly emerged B. smithi, B. smithi that I'm sure most would be willing to admit were just imported large scale from Germany. Yet, somehow the Spiderpatch produced these over 6 months ago but just started selling them recently.
Example 2: It's been ages since A. minatrix was available as slings. They showed up on a few lists in the past two months imported from a single source. Amazingly, the Spiderpatch also happened to produce them at the same time other dealers were buying theirs from a wholesaler.
Example 3: In an amazing case of serendipity, the N. carapoensis I ordered were laid, hatched, and began eating solid food on exactly the same days as the B. smithi (gotta watch the copy and pasting on the word processor ) and as best I can tell weren't even sac mates (the one is about a 3rd instar baldy, the other is a large, fully haired sling). When I called Darwin on this in an email saying that either it was midID'd or the birth certificates were wrong, he gave me a BS reply that the small one was the 'runt of the litter' and just needed to get some size on it. He further said that the reason I got it was it was the last of the batch - well, it's not just a runt and since he still has them on his pricelist which was updated after my order, I'm not buying any of it.
The birth certificates are a cute gimmick, but no one should be putting any more stock in them than in the ones that came with the Cabbage Patch dolls.

As for the all captive bred unless otherwise noted, he's got a lot of American Aphonopelma species on the list at sizes that there's almost no chance they were captive bred (A. anax at 2" & CB, I don't think so).

The website is the worst out there in terms of established dealers. Difficult to find a lot of the info, no secure online ordering, lots of things go non-updated, etc. No need to comment further on it, just go look at it.


Conclusion:
If you want a dealer who seems to mean well and is friendly, has a huge selection, decent prices, decent packaging, and don't mind dealing with the USPS for the shipper, there's nothing overtly wrong with the Spiderpatch. On the other hand, if strict standards of integrity matter, I'd look elsewhere because, in spite of the impression Darwin tries to create, he's not doing anything different than Swift, Hoke, Vernier, or Cerda: captive breeding as much as possible but still getting a significant chunk of the stock from other breeders and wholesalers. The difference is that none of those dealers try to imply otherwise.

 

[Scylla]

Spiderpatch

I've had several transactions with Darwin and the Spiderpatch, and unless he doesn't have what I want, I think I'll stick with him. His prices are the best around. I had a list of slings I wanted and did some comparison shopping against all of the other big name dealers. He not only had every sling I wanted, but the total cost was $20 to $30 less than anyone else. I also conducted a trade with him, and he was very generous and tossed in an extra sling I'd been considering. He is very pleasant to deal with, and responds very quickly to emails. The only thing I can possibly fault is that he does use USPS and they are notoriously unreliable. Fortunately, there were no problems with my shipments. My spiders arrived healthy and well packaged, secured inside a cooler with a heat pack. I highly and unhesitatingly recommend him and will buy from him again.

 

[reptilicus81]

Unorganized

I bought a beautiful female b.smithi about 4 years ago from spiderpatch, and I was more than happy with the service I received. However, just last year I placed an order via phone for a P. ornata for my boyfriends birthday. Later that same day I called up and talked to a woman and told her about my previous order and that I wanted to add a P.rufilata to the list as well. She said that would be no problem. When the package came I only had the ornata. I called up and talked to someone, and they told me that the order was never recorded and they could send out the second spider another time. Also, we did get a birth certificate for my ornata, but the hatch date placed a 1/4 inch sling at 2 years old! Probably not very accurate!
Overall, spiderpatch is a good company who would be excellent if they would organize a bit better!
Amy

 

[Tarantulasse]

Positive

Postive

I've gotten a few spiders from spider patch. I've actually never had to order them through the mail from him, because I live 15 minutes from him. I've been by twice to pick up tarantulas and was very happy with my purchase. The deals were very quick and easy, and I always got what I wanted. He has a great selection, and I think the prices are reasonable. I would probably stop by and get tarantulas more if i didn't feel like it was imposing, and if I had more cash Oh, and as for the birth certificates, well they are kinda neat, but I noticed one that my boyfriend had the scientific name was spelt wrong, and I think the birth date must clearly be wrong, cause the spider can't be as old as it reports. However, it is the right spider, just the certificate is useless. Oh well though, it's not like you get certificates anyways.

 

[Rott13FLGuy]

Kudos for Spiderpatch (www.spiderpatch.com)

I recently purchased and Arizona Blonde and a Superstition Mountain Tarantula from Darwin at spiderpatch.com.

I called Darwin to discuss the tarantulas that I wanted and to request females, if at all possible.

Darwin had advised me that he certainly had a female Arizona Blonde and that he also had a female Superstition Mountain, but he was wanting to keep this for his personal collection. After a little encouragement (actually begging), he agreed to sell me the female Superstition Mountain too.

Though I am relatively new to the tarantuala hobby, I was impressed with Darwin's knowledge and apparent concern that the tarantulas I was ordering were a good fit for me.

Yesterday, the shipping parcel arrived. The tarantulas were extremely well packed. The paper toweling that they were wrapped in when placed into the deli cups was still moist.

While coaxing the tarantulas out of the deli cups, I got my first glimpse of them. They are well developed and much bigger than advertised on his website. And I am very certain they are femalles too.

Overall, I highly recommend my fellow arachnoboard members consider spiderpatch.com for their tarantula needs. I consider Darwin to be an ethical and knowledgeable seller.
-John-:clap:

 

[TalonAWD]

Great Guy. EXCELLENT

I have been dealing with Darwin for about 2 years now. He worked with me under some strange circumstances. I went to him for tarantulas that I really needed... and wanted but due to my strange circumstances I mostly needed specific tarantulas and sizes or sex. When I needed to get to him on short notice there wasn't a problem. He is very understanding and looks to genuinely care for ones needs when it comes to Tarantulas.
My most recent experience...
A couple months ago I bought a B. boehmei from him and I explained to him that I wanted a female. They were too small to sex so we both took a guess. It molted and gave me a sexable molt. I sexed it a male. I called Darwin up and he said sure to a trade for a second chance at a female. Again short notice I stopped by and traded. A week later the new one molted. I sexed it as male again. Well again I went to him but not for another try (though he was willing to do it again!!!) but to get my original Male back cause I was a bit attached to it. I called him an hour before I was able to go and he said sure.
I just have had an overall excellent experience with his services. Always easy to get a hold of and his tarantulas are very healthy and well fed. This is for the last 2 years. I will always chose his services first from my experience with him when it comes to the tarantulas I may want and that he has.

 

[Hucklesberries]

A solid transaction

Picked up two Avicularia versicolors from darwin.

They arrived in great shape as promised.

Thanks!

 

[49ers]

Great Deal!

I just recent picked up 2 p. regaliss, 4 obts, and B.smith for a ridiculously good price. All the Ts were healthy, very happy about my purchase. :worship: