... for a few days anyways, or until all of the spiders that I may be buying this weekend are all gone.
If all goes well tomorrow I am possibly buying up several hundred or more tarantulas to process Sunday then turn around and ship out starting Monday to other collector friends. (Ive been keeping arachnids (tarantulas, scorpions, etc), reptiles (lizards, snakes) and some cool invertibrates, or bugs, ever since I was a kid. I have a pretty decent but small collection compared to friends who are dealers or really serious collectors with larger collections. I keep mine in a secure humidity/temperature controlled critter room off of my garage/shop area completely away from the rest of the house. You wouldnt even know they were there if you didnt know. I have tanks of tarantulas, scorpions, feeder breeding colonies (Dubia cockroaches, crickets, superworms), and a couple of reptiles Ive had for quite awhile- a lizard and 2 snakes).
The problem that has erupted is a large breeder/collector friend not too far away in Missouri has found himself in the position of being in trouble and apparently went right off to prison Thursday afternoon when he thought he was going to be able to stay out on bond while appealing. Now his live-in girlfriend is freaking out over him leaving his business behind: the bulk of which is over 3000+ tarantulas (singles, breeding adults, thousands of young spiderlings, and eggs ready to hatch), other types of arachnids, and then his massive feeder colonies- meaning thousands of bugs you have to breed on a constant basis to keep as future food to feed to such a large number of animals. They are not being attended to properly and time will be ticking soon concerning the collections survival. He has a really nice one of a kind personal collection besides his commercial stuff that is very valuable and he is willing to part with all of his stuff for way lease than its worth. Plus there is the girlfriend there now that is all alone with them and she is scared shitless of them because he always took care of them. She wants them gone. Like my wife would be if something happened to me, except this guys collection is on a much more massive scale than mine is. With cold weather looming we have to hurry up- and some are considered old world species that could be very expensive and highly collectible.
So now me and a couple of my idiot friends who care for these creepy but cool little beings are going in each on about 1/3rds of the dudes entire business and collection. The tricky part is not transporting them back or warehousing them while we identify and label them, it will be how quickly I can hurry and ship them off to other friends who are waiting to buy them from us. They need to be sorted by healthy vs ill first tho. Most of his stuff is already labeled by species so it shouldnt take too long to identify them and sort them by who is buying what species.
In all Im hoping to get at least about 500 or more of the tarantulas mixed between adults and spiderlings or slings along with several feeder colonies, and maybe even some of the large roaches.
Wife says she is going to a hotel if I come back with them all- she can barely deal with the hundred or so that I currently have. And she is taking my card. And not coming back until the majority I bought are gone. And I better make a good profit to offset the shopping she says she is going to do.
I am actually decided now at the last minute to go get them tomorrow afternoon but gonna take them up to my shop in Des Moines where there is more room and it will be alot easier to do the shipping Monday.
If all goes well tomorrow I am possibly buying up several hundred or more tarantulas to process Sunday then turn around and ship out starting Monday to other collector friends. (Ive been keeping arachnids (tarantulas, scorpions, etc), reptiles (lizards, snakes) and some cool invertibrates, or bugs, ever since I was a kid. I have a pretty decent but small collection compared to friends who are dealers or really serious collectors with larger collections. I keep mine in a secure humidity/temperature controlled critter room off of my garage/shop area completely away from the rest of the house. You wouldnt even know they were there if you didnt know. I have tanks of tarantulas, scorpions, feeder breeding colonies (Dubia cockroaches, crickets, superworms), and a couple of reptiles Ive had for quite awhile- a lizard and 2 snakes).
The problem that has erupted is a large breeder/collector friend not too far away in Missouri has found himself in the position of being in trouble and apparently went right off to prison Thursday afternoon when he thought he was going to be able to stay out on bond while appealing. Now his live-in girlfriend is freaking out over him leaving his business behind: the bulk of which is over 3000+ tarantulas (singles, breeding adults, thousands of young spiderlings, and eggs ready to hatch), other types of arachnids, and then his massive feeder colonies- meaning thousands of bugs you have to breed on a constant basis to keep as future food to feed to such a large number of animals. They are not being attended to properly and time will be ticking soon concerning the collections survival. He has a really nice one of a kind personal collection besides his commercial stuff that is very valuable and he is willing to part with all of his stuff for way lease than its worth. Plus there is the girlfriend there now that is all alone with them and she is scared shitless of them because he always took care of them. She wants them gone. Like my wife would be if something happened to me, except this guys collection is on a much more massive scale than mine is. With cold weather looming we have to hurry up- and some are considered old world species that could be very expensive and highly collectible.
So now me and a couple of my idiot friends who care for these creepy but cool little beings are going in each on about 1/3rds of the dudes entire business and collection. The tricky part is not transporting them back or warehousing them while we identify and label them, it will be how quickly I can hurry and ship them off to other friends who are waiting to buy them from us. They need to be sorted by healthy vs ill first tho. Most of his stuff is already labeled by species so it shouldnt take too long to identify them and sort them by who is buying what species.
In all Im hoping to get at least about 500 or more of the tarantulas mixed between adults and spiderlings or slings along with several feeder colonies, and maybe even some of the large roaches.
Wife says she is going to a hotel if I come back with them all- she can barely deal with the hundred or so that I currently have. And she is taking my card. And not coming back until the majority I bought are gone. And I better make a good profit to offset the shopping she says she is going to do.
I am actually decided now at the last minute to go get them tomorrow afternoon but gonna take them up to my shop in Des Moines where there is more room and it will be alot easier to do the shipping Monday.
