Wally Kern reminisces about his early experiences attending the NARBC Tinley show as a visitor, asking questions of experienced breeders and learning about geckos. Over the years, he began vending at the show himself and being very successful in sales. However, this most recent year was different - he only brought home 3 new animals by trading rather than purchasing, an unusually low number for him.

1. That's It? Really?
Thursday, October 25 2012 00:00 Wally Kern
I remember my first NARBC Tinley. I went as a visitor of course as I was only in my second or third year of
breeding and couldn't even image having a table at this impressive show! How times have changed :)
Anyways, that first show was spent walking and walking and asking questions and walking some more. I spent time
talking to Albey Scholl, Anthony Caponetto, Garrick Demeyer, and others. Five hours of the best gecko experience
one could ever hope for. Oh, and I spent about.... well, you don't want to know how much I spent, do you :)
So, for the next couple of years, I would look forward to the show and on game day, I mean show day, hit my
favorite breeders up with tons of questions and pick up more and more geckos.
Then, everything started changed. A few years ago, I started vending at Tinley. Every show, we've done very well.
Nice you might think, Well, that just meant that I had more money to spend. I got to the point that after walking
away from the Supreme Gecko table and being gone for more than 10 or 15 minutes, one of the boys would come
and get me to try to limit my spending.
This year was different. Not only did I limit the number of animals I brought back home to a only 3, I traded for
them. Can you believe that! What is this world coming to?!