St. Louis Reptile Show

On February 19th from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm Show Me Snakes had a reptile show that I, Elizabeth Smithey, went to with my mother. The reptile show is like a convention for mainly reptile breeders but there are people who sell other things, too. There are many different vendors at the show who sold a variety of things including artwork, jewelry, birds, cats, rodents, reptiles, and even pigs. My mother, Ashley Smithey, who is the Fredericktown High Achool art teacher, and I arrived at 7:00 a.m. to set up as one of the vendors. We sat in between Mike’s Skulls—which sells skulls, teeth, and bones that they find and clean themselves—and Bound in Art, which makes amazing things out of resin.

My mother, whose business is called Smashley’s Axolotls, sold 4-month-old axolotls at a starting price of 65 dollars. She also offered a deal of “buy two, get one-half off” and passed out information on how to properly care for them, cycle a tank and everything else you might need to know about this species. My mother had a paper with all of their genetic information, which many axolotl breeders do not relay. I sold polymer clay sculptures and earrings from a price range of 5 to 25 dollars.

Once all the vendors were set up, the VIPs were let in around 9:00 a.m. The general public was let in an hour or two later. Many of the vendors let everyone at the show hold some of the animals they are selling while they also told them facts about them and how to care for them. I held a baby alligator and a tegu, which is a giant lizard. That was a cool experience! Many of the vendors are kind and will answer any question you have about what they are selling and will let everyone at the show take a closer look at their products.

Once the steady flow of people slowed, I went over to Mike’s Skulls and bought a few things and returned to the table. After a while of selling sculptures midway through the day, I went to check out all of the different vendors and bought a dragon necklace that glows in the dark and picked up Halloween cockroaches for my mother. After I got done looking at everything, I went back to my stall to finish selling my sculptures. By the end of the show, I had sold half of my product and traded one of my sculptures for a skull made out of resin made by Bound in Art; at 3 p.m. the show ended and all of the vendors started cleaning up once the last person walked out the door. All vendors finished and got out of there around 5 p.m. and the show ended great. Overall, it is a fun experience and I highly recommend people to check it out for themselves.