I just shipped from the Detroit (right on the US/Canadian border) to Canada and at $35 shipping rate it took 7 days for the fish to get there. To get it there inside of a week would cost just as much as them getting a Thai betta :(
Bettas are much more popular in Thailand, so there is more people breeding over there, and they've been doing it for right around a thousand years give or take. Where here on North america the most popular pets are cats and dogs, there it's Bettas.
Mostly i got into breeding because there's not much to choose from around here, but i won't even make a dent in the gap. And you run into the question of how many people want to buy one of the three color variations i have to offer? Even if i am selling equal quality fish for a fraction of the cost?
Honestly i don't know why some of these overseas betta farms don't just work out a deal with someone in the states, and ship hundreds of fish at a time over, and have their stateside partner put them on ebay or ab from here, spreading the cost so they're selling at $20-30 total, instead of paying close to $50 to ship a $10 fish. In the end, i bet they would sell more fish and probably even make more money per fish.
Cat, I think you ought to cut/paste your post (complete with my lament) over to the Breeder section of the fourm. If you'd rather not, give me permission and I will.
Sounds like a great idea to me, VOG (but what do I know?). Perhaps it might be a good business opportunity for someone with import/export experience and contacts.
I found it difficult to find bettas not on aquabid when I first started out. The first 6 sites I went to all said they were currently not breeding and had no immediate plans to. I found this forum and still had trouble finding bettas at that time. The classifieds here are like a running commentary and they start at beginning of thread which in many cases is over 1 yr old...then you have to dig through 20pages of "i love your fish. What a pretty boy" etc to even find updated recent area...so not user friendly!
I of course, then found aquabid thread and that's all she wrote! I've bought 12 bettas through 5 breeders from Thailand. They are all courteous, helpful, prompt in returning emails, and honest!
All the fish came healthy, with fins intact, and all were the fish from the pics.
The transhipper I work with, Linda Olson, is prompt, professional, and caring.
Even if you're a newbie, most breeders will email you the first time w/ complete price to pay them, how transhipper works, and when the next delivery dates are. One of the breeders I bought from even figured where I was and listed next delivery dates for all transhippers near my state.
In comparison, I am still waiting on pm from breeder on this forum...it has been almost 2 mos!
I found it difficult to find bettas not on aquabid when I first started out. The first 6 sites I went to all said they were currently not breeding and had no immediate plans to. I found this forum and still had trouble finding bettas at that time. The classifieds here are like a running commentary and they start at beginning of thread which in many cases is over 1 yr old...then you have to dig through 20pages of "i love your fish. What a pretty boy" etc to even find updated recent area...so not user friendly!
I of course, then found aquabid thread and that's all she wrote! I've bought 12 bettas through 5 breeders from Thailand. They are all courteous, helpful, prompt in returning emails, and honest!
All the fish came healthy, with fins intact, and all were the fish from the pics.
The transhipper I work with, Linda Olson, is prompt, professional, and caring.
Even if you're a newbie, most breeders will email you the first time w/ complete price to pay them, how transhipper works, and when the next delivery dates are. One of the breeders I bought from even figured where I was and listed next delivery dates for all transhippers near my state.
In comparison, I am still waiting on pm from breeder on this forum...it has been almost 2 mos!
I'm glad you had a good experience with Aquabid. The jury is still out on my first purchase there. I had to initiate contact with the breeder and ask him the total purchase price. He responded promptly, but then I had to ask him if he even ships to Canada (my dumb, I should have asked before bidding) as he had no transhippers listed in his ad. Then I had to ask him who my transhipper is and he just said "Hung".
I had to look up "Hung" in other breeders' ads, then confirm with "Hung" that he'd be shipping my fish. I got no price estimate when I asked. Apparently he wants me to meet him in person to pick up my fish. This should make the transaction cheaper instead of shipping the fish to me - but since I don't know the going rate for transhippers I'm likely to get ripped off. I guess I will find out at the end of the month, which is apparently Hung's next shipping date.
If I had to choose between Aquabid and a breeder, I'd take a breeder any day.
Cat, I think you ought to cut/paste your post (complete with my lament) over to the Breeder section of the fourm. If you'd rather not, give me permission and I will.
Sounds like a great idea to me, VOG (but what do I know?). Perhaps it might be a good business opportunity for someone with import/export experience and contacts.
Done, new thread called "Buying Bettas: Breeder vs. Aquabid".
I really think this forum could benefit from a buy and sell section with the sticky threads I listed. My favourite tarantula and watch collecting forums have similar info and it's a godsend to the newbies out there. They also have strict guidelines for posts in the sellers section to prevent the clutter of "ooh it's beautiful" posts.
Thank you guys so much for the information. I've thought about local breeders from the forums but every time I've tried something, I always tend to see that they have their fish on aquabid.com. Plus it's hard to find certain breeders that are breeding the kind of fish that I'm looking for. I love the look of halfmoons and crowntails and that's what a lot of people appear to be selling, but they aren't the kind of fish I'm looking for either. I'm currently more interested in plakats, halfmoon plakats, and giants.
I will check out the Breeder section though and try my luck their. You guys have been extremely helpful and I'm glad you guys got something from this yourselves in order to benefit other people. :)
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