The official unofficial hamm march 2008 show thread

Dexter · #1 (**permalink**) 13-12-2007, 03:22 PM

Hi

A few questions:

1) Is it confirmed the show was changed to the 15th of March 2008 ?
2) How many reliable coach companies are organising trips to Hamm and how can I contact them ?
3) Do people take poliboxes, plastic tubs, etc to collect the snakes, or this is provided by the seller ?
4) Do people take water bottles or other stuff in order to keep the animals warm on the way back ?
5) Just out of curiosity, do people take a certain amount in euros (say 3,000 euros, as thei limit and stick to it, or people take credit cards, etc ? Buy the way, sellers take only cash, or do they have other facilities ? Is there ATM machines at the show where you can cash money using english debit cards ?
6) How long does the trip take from London to Hamm by coach, and where do the bus cross the channel ?
7) Do people normally contact the sellers and book their animals, or people just see what's available and buy it ?
8 ) Is there much room for bargaining at the show, or seller stick to the prices they want and won't back down ? Reason I'm asking this is because bargaining may not be a common practice and sellers might get offended. Also, if you book you know how much you'll pay, but if bargaining is a common practice, maybe you could have paid less if you had waited and purchased the animal at the show

9) Is there a website one can go a month before the show where you can check a list of tables, what animals will be sold at those tables and website of the sellers in a way that you can contact them prior to arriving at the show. I know there are people in Europe with stunning snakes, but I only find out about them by chance when I'm surfing the net. One would presume that a very big show would have thought of promoting the sellers in a website, but I may be wrong

10) Do the coaches leave the show right after it's finished and head back to England ?

Please answer as many questions as you can, because I think this will help a few people prepare themselves

Faith · #2 (**permalink**) 13-12-2007, 03:31 PM

A few questions:

2) How many reliable coach companies are organising trips to Hamm and how can I contact them ?
only one that i know is reliable is Purejurassic and co

3) Do people take poliboxes, plastic tubs, etc to collect the snakes, or this is provided by the seller ?
all animals are in tubs from the seller some people take polly boxes and put them in the reptile sitter place in the show
5) Just out of curiosity, do people take a certain amount in euros (say 3,000 euros, as thei limit and stick to it, or people take credit cards, etc ? Buy the way, sellers take only cash, or do they have other facilities ? Is there ATM machines at the show where you can cash money using english debit cards ?
Take as mush as you want to spend lol
6) How long does the trip take from London to Hamm by coach, and where do the bus cross the channel ?
I know they cross near ashford to france
7) Do people normally contact the sellers and book their animals, or people just see what's available and buy it ?
both depends what you really want and dont want to miss
some sellers dont attend the shows but get friends to take stock over for collection
8 ) Is there much room for bargaining at the show, or seller stick to the prices they want and won't back down ? Reason I'm asking this is because bargaining may not be a common practice and sellers might get offended. Also, if you book you know how much you'll pay, but if bargaining is a common practice, maybe you could have paid less if you had waited and purchased the animal at the show

Some sellers will bargin the OH went last time and got a few good deals im sure there are some that wont though

9) Is there a website one can go a month before the show where you can check a list of tables, what animals will be sold at those tables and website of the sellers in a way that you can contact them prior to arriving at the show. I know there are people in Europe with stunning snakes, but I only find out about them by chance when I'm surfing the net. One would presume that a very big show would have thought of promoting the sellers in a website, but I may be wrong

We looked for a website like that this time and couldnt find anything the best thing to do is contact the sellers indivdually and ask them if they are going
Please answer as many questions as you can, because I think this will help a few people prepare themselves

Ok heres the thing i havent been to hamm but did most of the reasearch for when the OH went this year we spent days looking at breeders websites asking them if when they were going etc and trailing the hamm site with the classfieds on also helped
if im wrong with any of my answers then

lol

Athravan · #3 (**permalink**) 13-12-2007, 03:32 PM

Answering what I can....

2) How many reliable coach companies are organising trips to Hamm and how can I contact them ?

The only one I know that actually posts feedback and a good quantity of information here is purejurassic and he usually posts a thread on it.. but I'm sure he will answer your query here too.

3) Do people take poliboxes, plastic tubs, etc to collect the snakes, or this is provided by the seller ?

Take your own polyboxes. I always take a few extra pillow cases and a few empty tubs too. You can usually get a small tub off the seller or they just hand it over in the plastic tub it's in but sometimes if there's say 5 snakes in one big tub and you only want one... then it's handy to have a pillowcase.

4) Do people take water bottles or other stuff in order to keep the animals warm on the way back ?

I take 24 hour heat packs myself but we drive not coach, I don't know how well the coach hold would be heated.

5) Just out of curiosity, do people take a certain amount in euros (say 3,000 euros...

I don't know if there is an ATM machine at hamm, there isn't one at Houten - but you can drive from Houten to a gas station about 10 minutes away where there is one.. I imagine if there is not one at the actual Hamm venue if you are driving you can drive and find one. I personally take a set amount of cash and stick to it. I've never seen a seller accepting credit/debit cards at the show.

7) Do people normally contact the sellers and book their animals, or people just see what's available and buy it ?

I don't book myself unless there was something super rare I was desperate for and didn't think I could find it otherwise. If you book in advance the advantage is you can pay by paypal usually and whack it on your credit card.

8 ) Is there much room for bargaining at the show, or seller stick to the prices they want and won't back down ?

Both really. I don't think anyone is offended by some haggling. Sometimes they don't really understand what you're asking if they don't speak english, but I always haggle. I have had a few sellers say sorry, this is rock bottom, but they haven't been offended.. and sellers are usually open to haggling if buying pairs or more also.

9) Is there a website one can go a month before the show where you can check a list of tables..

The official hamm website usually has a list of sellers and they have classifieds where people post what they'll be taking but rarely in english, the website is ..:: Terraristika Hamm ::.. - Home if you type that into google or yahoo you can usually click on a link for a translated version and get some of it in english.

tarantulabarn · #4 (**permalink**) 13-12-2007, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dexter

Hi

A few questions:

1) Is it confirmed the show was changed to the 15th of March 2008 ?

Yes
2) How many reliable coach companies are organising trips to Hamm and how can I contact them ?

We run coaches to most of the euro shows, these can be booked online at the end of december once we launch the new site, www.coachtotheshow.com, as for how reliable we are, see the hamm threads as i wouldnt want to seem biased
3) Do people take poliboxes, plastic tubs, etc to collect the snakes, or this is provided by the seller ?

all animals are sold in tubs and containers, you can take polyboxes with ou or buy them out there for about 5 euros

4) Do people take water bottles or other stuff in order to keep the animals warm on the way back ?
The coach has a heated hold but you will need heat pads on the way home from the coach, these can be bought for 1 euro

5) Just out of curiosity, do people take a certain amount in euros (say 3,000 euros, as thei limit and stick to it, or people take credit cards, etc ? Buy the way, sellers take only cash, or do they have other facilities ? Is there ATM machines at the show where you can cash money using english debit cards ?

Take only what you want to spend cos there will be loads to buy however there is an atm nearby

6) How long does the trip take from London to Hamm by coach, and where do the bus cross the channel ?

From london we will be meeting in ashford and leaving at about 8pm, stopping en route for duty frees we will arrive about 630am on the sat

7) Do people normally contact the sellers and book their animals, or people just see what's available and buy it ?

some do some go for the surprise

8 ) Is there much room for bargaining at the show, or seller stick to the prices they want and won't back down ? Reason I'm asking this is because bargaining may not be a common practice and sellers might get offended. Also, if you book you know how much you'll pay, but if bargaining is a common practice, maybe you could have paid less if you had waited and purchased the animal at the show

ALLWAYS BARGAIN NEVER PAY ASKING PRICE unless you think the price is ok

9) Is there a website one can go a month before the show where you can check a list of tables, what animals will be sold at those tables and website of the sellers in a way that you can contact them prior to arriving at the show. I know there are people in Europe with stunning snakes, but I only find out about them by chance when I'm surfing the net. One would presume that a very big show would have thought of promoting the sellers in a website, but I may be wrong

We will be listing all the sellers on the new site

10) Do the coaches leave the show right after it's finished and head back to England ?

Yes and we are back in ashford for about midnight on the saturday

Please answer as many questions as you can, because I think this will help a few people prepare themselves

Hope this helps, if yopu need to know anything else please email me

Steve