Let me share with you a short convo I had with someone the other day:
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Them: How much total for Duke?
Me: His adoption fee is $100.
Them: Possible to be any lower? $50. I'm coming way from Waukegan
Me: Sorry no
Them: I could pick up today if $50 but ok
Me: That makes absolutely no difference. This is a chinchilla rescue not a flea market. I'm not dying to sell them as quickly as possible to the lowest bidder, sorry
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Let me make it very clear. I don't freaking care if you can pick up in 5 minutes. My prices are my prices. ESPECIALLY on the cheaper chins. If I have one for $600 and you offer me $550, we may discuss it. You offer me HALF on a $100 chinchilla? Oh hell no. I don't care if you can teleport to my house right now to get it. Nope, no how, no way.
Do these people go to Walmart and haggle? Hell no!!! So why do they do it here? Oh it's a small business. Guess it's ok for Walmart to make money, but not for the small business, that, you know, actually cares about it's customers? Oh heavens no. Pardon the small business from making any money, but the billioniare corporation, oh we can't question their prices!!!
People like this, I honestly want to tell them where they can shove their money.
It gets old, really old, when people constantly question how cheap they can get everything. Since I have a lot of chins, I should just hand them out like Halloween candy, eh? I think not.
Now, I'm sure some of you out there are like, hey, how do you know these people aren't good homes and just want to save a few bucks? They may very well be. However, I have sales, they can wait for them. And... wait for it... these are LIVE ANIMALS. We're not talking about a tchotchke that they can haggle down from $1 at a garage sale. You can't then haggle down pet food. Or vet care. So if someone is going to try to haggle down the price of the chinchilla (and mind you, not by simply asking, hey, are there any discounts...that's fine... but by the way they ask about it and the way they try to convince that I should take their lower price)... I don't want them adopting anyway. They can be a good home to another chin somewhere else.
By the way, these tend to be the same people who point out to me that there's chin on craigslist for $100 with cage and all accessories. How come mine is $100 for just the chin? Oh, well, it has a health guarantee, will replace if it dies within the first week, you have a lifetime of support, yadda yadda. But, oh, I can't throw in a cage and everything with it, for the price of the chin? No, sorry. And guess what? If I tell them, well, if it's such a great deal, why don't you go get the craigslist chin? The answer never fails to be some variation of -- well, yours looks healthier / better cared for / etc etc. Amazing -- you get what you pay for! Imagine that.
I'm never going to get rich off these furballs and selling supplies. Some people are like hey you sold that one chin for $200!! Yes, but each parent likely cost at least that, so they need to have a handful of babies just to recoup costs of parents (and some of those babies will hopefully be held back for show and to put back into the herd), and then of course... maintenance costs. My new basement AC this year was almost $700. My AC bills have ranged between $300-450 per month all summer. Sure, some of the chins sell for a lot, but the bills and expenses are also a lot, and eat up a lot of the money brought in. The reason I mention this -- I'm clearly never going to become a millionaire selling chinchillas... and that's fine. But the place has to stay running in order to keep rescuing and keep providing people with safe chinchilla supplies. To do that requires money, and requires not accepting the lowest bidder on everything. So, sorry not sorry, but lowball offers are insulting and I will not entertain them.
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