The Tarantula Market For Up-Coming Tarantula Businesses

Liquifin

Arachnoking
Active Member
Joined
May 30, 2017
Messages
2,110
I want to make a thread on some slight things on the market. I would like it if there wasn't so many questions being asked to me on my email. But whatever. I'm going to make it short because an in-depth explanation will take forever. As I've always said, "You don't have to agree with me. But there is some validity to what I'm going to say".

This goes out to people who are interested in pursuing this career. So to all future and up-coming tarantula businesses, breeders, and vendors. It might be relevant in the future. So bookmark this if you are coming into the the market or if you are interested in doing so.

1. Is it too late to start?

-Yes and no. It's never too late to start, but you need to understand that the market at this point is so saturated, you will need to stand out from everybody else. It is becoming harder for new breeders/businesses to enter this market because they are coming in a time now where it's too saturated and the competition is already fierce as it is now. While there is a lot of skill involved, it is also shifting towards luck now as you need to hope that people will buy from you and not from your competition. This market is starting to become saturated in a way that makes you very hard to be discovered. So find ways to make yourself stick out and be different.

2. How to advertise?

- A lot of people in the tarantula market are most likely relying on their logo which isn't really helping anymore. EVERYONE NEEDS TO UNDERSTAND, that while a spider logo will tell your customer what you specialize in. It also makes it harder to distinguish yourself as "99%" of all spider businesses have a "spider" logo. I've seen so many tarantula businesses come and go because they're using the same methods from 10+ years ago. Times have changed and so should your methods. Doing the same style of advertising from years ago isn't helping anymore because since everyone is doing it as well. It will cause everyone to be place in the same position and it will make it harder for your business to be recognized.

- Advertise on other platforms and I highly suggest doing Youtube as it will show your customers your stock, quality, and uniqueness from the majority of people that don't. A lot people are not going this route because they're too afraid. But if you're doing what 99% of other tarantulas retailers are doing. How will you stick out?

- Try to sponsor other Tarantula Youtubers. This method is a proven. Tarantula Kat, Tarantula Collective, The Dark Den, etc. are great examples of pushing tarantula businesses. If a tarantula Youtuber acknowledges your business, it will help with recognition and it will help out a lot.

- There is more stuff like "diverse selection" etc. But those are already a no-brainer to common folk. So I'm going to leave those out since it's common knowledge.

3. What Species to Start Breeding?

This is very hard to answer, but the problem you need to understand is that the tarantula market is one of the easiest markets to saturate. While there are species that produce low numbers or are difficult to breed. There are also species that being bred so frequently and are produced in large numbers that it will become a hard sell later on down the road. I'm not too certain myself on what I would recommend for a beginner tarantula breeder that wants to enter the market. It is entirely dependent on the times, as some species might become more rare or some species might be no longer be exported. Causing prices to vary. So it really is dependent on your current time in the hobby as it's usually fluctuating.


4. How Long Does it Take to be Successful?

- Honestly, it will take some years to know if it is worth your time and effort. Because in the exotic pet trade, it takes years for profit to be stable as your are working with animals that are niche and are only for unique individuals. I'd recommend trying for a year or two and then decide on whether it is worth the pursuit or not. I'd always say 5 years as a calling card to be certain, but it might vary to the individual. People who think they're the next big retailer are usually the ones to not last long as their expectations will not be what reality has in store for them. One thing everyone needs to embrace when pursuing this is that you might not ever make it. No matter how hard you work or want it, not everyone will achieve success in this niche and highly competitive market.

5. Tips for Reaching Out?


- Reach out to local breeders and to actual breeders. Don't reach out to someone who has only bred one or two tarantulas. You want to find someone who is the real deal and has actual evidence to show their work. There is A lot of wannabe tarantula breeders are out there nowadays trying to flex on breeding just one or two species. Once you find someone who is reputable and local, slowly start to branch and reach out from there.

- In terms of online, once you find someone. Ask them for solid proof as the internet is an easy place to lie to a person. I find that finding actual tarantula breeders online is harder as many of them are not true at their craft and have only produce a small handful of common staples and nothing of advance or unique species. So be cautious of who you reach out too.

- Reaching out to other hobbyists is great too, but that is easy in itself.

*Don't constantly ask me for a business connection or ask me as a business partner as I get asked this too many times. So please don't ask.

6. Understanding the Market?

- THIS IS SOMETHING THAT ONLY A TRUE TARANTULA BREEDER WILL UNDERSTAND. Once you truly understand this market, you're going to be paying less for species you want than the common/average hobbyists. I can pay very little for certain species of females because I'm more well-versed in some areas in the market than in other places. I will not teach you, but hopefully someone will. This is something that can be pretty much be achieved only when you hit the furthest mark of your tarantula market career. It's harder if you're self-taught. But this is becomes easier if under mentorship for sure.


7. Do You Make a Lot of Money?

- No, plain and simple is no. The majority of tarantula breeders, vendors, and retailers do not make a lot of income. Usually it's a side or secondary business for some extra change. If you're making a stable income selling tarantulas, then you are at the top 1% of all time-best tarantula retailers in the country. Don't come in with the wealth mentality as their isn't much wealth to be made in this hobby/market.



MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION

8. Who Will Succeed and Will YOU Succeed?


- This part is the harshest reality that everyone who enters the market needs to accept. The majority of you will not make it long-term, plain and simple. It's becoming so competitive, that the people who started earlier will have the advantage, connections, and right contacts. So you, who have entered later or recent will either have to out-work them or pray that something happens that will give you an advantage.

- If you're new to the businesses and are doing what the 99% of other tarantula businesses are doing, then you are most likely never going to make it. Because the methods and things they did worked in their time because the market wasn't as big or as competitive as it is now. The best way to put it is this: Someone won the lottery and claimed the money and then gave you their winning lottery. But it's useless now, because the reward is already claimed.

- Starting sooner will give you an advantage over people who start later.

- "The people who are going to succeed in this are the ones who are more dedicated, more passionate, and more hard-working than anyone else in the entire hobby and are willing to risk years of their lives doing so."

A Personal Question
Will I Sell and Do Tarantulas Forever?


- No, I will not do tarantulas for the rest of my life. As of now, I'm doing all I can to give back to the hobby. But realistically it's something I can't do forever. While I will always be part of community, I can't do it forever since my life goes on as well. There will be day when I will stop, but hopefully I can find the one person to pass on the collection down too. But as of now, I have somethings to learn so it's too early for an apprentice or student.


There you go, so these are the most common questions people ask. So I hope this puts those questions to rest.

I hope this thread remains relevant for Up-Coming Tarantula Breeders who are thinking about entering the Market.
 

Jonathan6303

Arachnoangel
Joined
May 14, 2021
Messages
836
Your right about the competition. Although, I would say the true spider and other mygalomorphs market is very thin but is growing.
 

viper69

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 8, 2006
Messages
17,851
Im opening a Wally World of Ts, only the rarest of Ts, 1,000$ a sling. Free sponge for its water dish.

It’s a proven model.
 

AphonopelmaTX

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
May 7, 2004
Messages
1,816
It's never too late to start, but you need to understand that the market at this point is so saturated, you will need to stand out from everybody else. It is becoming harder for new breeders/businesses to enter this market because they are coming in a time now where it's too saturated and the competition is already fierce as it is now.
Really? How do you determine the tarantula market is saturated? I only know of maybe 5 or 6 American tarantula retail businesses with web sites and they all pretty much have the same stock list.
 

michaelves

Arachnopeon
Joined
Nov 1, 2021
Messages
3
Really? How do you determine the tarantula market is saturated? I only know of maybe 5 or 6 American tarantula retail businesses with web sites and they all pretty much have the same stock list.
There is not alot of them in EU either, so ye i have same feeling
 

Patherophis

Arachnobaron
Joined
May 24, 2017
Messages
407
From my outsider point of wiew, US market seems anything but saturated. Scaricity of many spp., and extremely inflated prices would also suggest so. It often seems to me that the whole US market is comparable, or even smalller than market in a single small EU country.
 

LucN

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 22, 2009
Messages
315
Having this brute honesty about low likelihood in being successful is appreciated in my case. I have no intention of breeding as a full-time occupation. All I would like to do is to make a contribution for the hobby. Just one successful breeding effort, so I can say that I've experienced that facet of the hobby that a great majority will never venture into. I'm definitely not expecting to make a profit off the adventure, more the contrary. I'd be happy selling Ts at rock-bottom prices, to get them out the door quicker.

My #1 pick would be G. porteri. While they are still available as slings, I'm not sure enough people are breeding them to keep the species present in the hobby. We need to remember that since Chile shut its doors to exportation, we no longer have stock coming from the country of origin, so we need to establish a healthy captive population to avoid losing the species forever in the long run. We've taken this species so much for granted when it was constantly and readily available.

#2 would be B. hamorii. I know they are well established, but I don't think it would hurt that much to have more around. This species really has it all : Beautiful colour and pattern, good appetite, relatively placid disposition and extremely long lifespan for females.

Last, but certainly not least, I would also consider T. albopilosus. Now hear me out, I know that they have the least market value and that they are everywhere, but I can't think of a better T to sell to someone new to the hobby or especially someone that has a phobia and wants to overcome it. They have such a fuzzy appearance that sometimes they're referred to as the "Teddy Bear" tarantula. That description is spot-on IMO. Generally laid-back, hearty eaters with lots of FLOOF. What's not to like ?

No matter which one I end up producing, my aim would be to pass the slings locally rather than selling the bulk to a T dealer. I'm not even close to that point. I have years, even decades to reach that goal. But it's something I would love to experience once in my life. Even if I'd sell at a loss, just knowing that I've made a contribution to the hobby would be payment enough for me.
 

Liquifin

Arachnoking
Active Member
Joined
May 30, 2017
Messages
2,110
Really? How do you determine the tarantula market is saturated? I only know of maybe 5 or 6 American tarantula retail businesses with web sites and they all pretty much have the same stock list.
If you put it in that term, then I'm speculating, which is fair. I'm not one to judge, but I'm convinced that some species are already too saturated. So you can say I'm a conspiracy theorists or I'm wrong, whatever. I'm not entirely right, but I'm also not entirely wrong either.

In terms if numbers, some people need to understand that some species of females can easily drop huge sac numbers. Let's use B. boehmei because that is the perfect example of saturation as of now. Let's say you bred 5 females and each one had a sac 300 to be fair. that's 1500 slings that you need to find a home for. The tarantula community is growing but doesn't mean it'll easily go off shelves. finding 1500 homes is very difficult even for a large scale online retailer. Tarantulas are and still is one of the smallest communities in the entire exotic pet trade and everyone needs to accept this.

Saturation to me will vary depending species, where you are, and how species get around. In terms of online retail, it may be less frequent to notice because let's be honest, it's harder to locate the origin of who produce them and where. Not to mention that the online retail space never mentions how many is in stock. The problem I have is that not all online tarantula vendors are not open about there sources of where they get their slings from. Not all online breeders produce 100% of their stock because that's just too much work. I cannot tell you how many times I produce species and only for it to never be credited by me, even on the local scale. If tarantula businesses were to be open about who produced what, it would make them seem less credible to an extent. Because no one wants to buy from someone who just gets their stock from someone unknown. Yes, you need to place reputation first on your business, even if it means being secretive where you get your stock from.

If we knew who produce what, we can have a general idea of how many females that breeder has bred, distribution of slings, and actual data to work with.

I don't know about you, but if you or someone can trace back where said slings where produce, it will help give a general idea or census of what or how many is out there.

Here in NC where I live, we have so many T. albo's, B. emilia, B. boehmei, N. incei, etc. that it really is just everywhere and for cheap for slings with the exception of some females. I kid-you-not that some vendors have juveniles of those species that haven't sold in 2 years.

This can be considered as speculation since I don't have all the answers, because no one has the answers as of now. Not even the big online retailers. But you can't say I'm right or wrong unless you or someone has the answer. I hope someone does in the future.
 

Arthroverts

Arachnoking
Joined
Jul 11, 2016
Messages
2,462
As @AphonopelmaTX and @Patherophis states, I don’t think the market is saturated in terms of sellers, if it is maybe saturated with some species. Considering how few big importers there are (6-8), and how really all of the “names” in the business get all their stock from the same few wholesalers (some of which engage in price fixing, which I think is a balloon waiting to be popped), I’d say there’s plenty of room to break out and stand apart. This is doubtless harder as a breeder due to a few inherent limitations, but definitely still possible, and if one has the money and time to pursue something like importing then the field is wide open.

Thanks,

Arthroverts
 

YungRasputin

Arachnobaron
Joined
May 25, 2021
Messages
403
my perspective as an admittedly demanding and exacting private collector is that i don’t think the market is saturated at all - here’s why:

1) i prefer to use dealers who are closest to me to minimize the length of time my specimen is in the post

2) i’ve yet to see 1 specific dealer have everything i need and, further, just because X dealer has the species i am trying to acquire doesn’t mean i will do business with them

3) price comparisons - i will go with the cheaper options if possible sure but i also will pay more if need be - depends on the circumstances

4) shipping - i prefer dealers which ship specimens in the manner that i think is best eg: insulated, multi-layered packaging, ample packing material around the specimen vial, temp appropriate accommodations (heat/cold packs), decent specimen vial, packed with sphagnum moss

5) individual business practices - if you have zero communication skills i will take my business elsewhere, and, to the same token, if you make things so complicated that i find the process itself irritating/annoying i’ll take my business elsewhere in this case as well

6) reputation - if you haven’t earned a good reputation within the hobby or if in my vetting process i feel everything isn’t above board I’ll take my business elsewhere

7) physical condition of the specimen - if i receive a sickly specimen in poor condition i won’t be doing business with that dealer further, I’ll do my best to get the animal back to good health, and I’m gonna make sure as many people in the hobby know about you

a lot of people say they can meet those standards but not everyone does - animal welfare is what should be most important but it’s really not - time will tell if X dealer is legit and solid and it’s for these reasons that i don’t think the market is saturated with top notch dealers (how many dealers can’t even give a LAG? how many can’t give a 7-day LAG? the standard should be 30 days and also, how many don’t think LAG means “healthy arrival”?)

my goal as an up-and-coming breeder is not to make money but to turn the American hobby on its head and combat climate change/extinction
 

viper69

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 8, 2006
Messages
17,851
If you put it in that term, then I'm speculating, which is fair. I'm not one to judge, but I'm convinced that some species are already too saturated. So you can say I'm a conspiracy theorists or I'm wrong, whatever. I'm not entirely right, but I'm also not entirely wrong either.

In terms if numbers, some people need to understand that some species of females can easily drop huge sac numbers. Let's use B. boehmei because that is the perfect example of saturation as of now. Let's say you bred 5 females and each one had a sac 300 to be fair. that's 1500 slings that you need to find a home for. The tarantula community is growing but doesn't mean it'll easily go off shelves. finding 1500 homes is very difficult even for a large scale online retailer. Tarantulas are and still is one of the smallest communities in the entire exotic pet trade and everyone needs to accept this.

Saturation to me will vary depending species, where you are, and how species get around. In terms of online retail, it may be less frequent to notice because let's be honest, it's harder to locate the origin of who produce them and where. Not to mention that the online retail space never mentions how many is in stock. The problem I have is that not all online tarantula vendors are not open about there sources of where they get their slings from. Not all online breeders produce 100% of their stock because that's just too much work. I cannot tell you how many times I produce species and only for it to never be credited by me, even on the local scale. If tarantula businesses were to be open about who produced what, it would make them seem less credible to an extent. Because no one wants to buy from someone who just gets their stock from someone unknown. Yes, you need to place reputation first on your business, even if it means being secretive where you get your stock from.

If we knew who produce what, we can have a general idea of how many females that breeder has bred, distribution of slings, and actual data to work with.

I don't know about you, but if you or someone can trace back where said slings where produce, it will help give a general idea or census of what or how many is out there.

Here in NC where I live, we have so many T. albo's, B. emilia, B. boehmei, N. incei, etc. that it really is just everywhere and for cheap for slings with the exception of some females. I kid-you-not that some vendors have juveniles of those species that haven't sold in 2 years.

This can be considered as speculation since I don't have all the answers, because no one has the answers as of now. Not even the big online retailers. But you can't say I'm right or wrong unless you or someone has the answer. I hope someone does in the future.
I have good friends who are leading breeders, some for eons. Everything you wrote is spot on.
 
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