iHerp at LARGE.
James Bindoff - all about
interest!
James Bindoff has managed to establish something of a
profile for himself over the last few years. He has
featured prominently in many NSW expos, selling
animals and equipment, and has a significant presence
online, including YouTube. Recently he moved to
Townsville, where he is just about to open a retail outlet,
and has also set up a snake removal and relocation
service. Plus he has taken on organising the Wollongong
Expo. All this together with a full-time career in the
Australian Defence Force. iHerp Australia caught up
with James on his day off - after just dealing with five
snake call-outs!
iHerp Australia: So how did all of this kick off for you
James?
James Bindoff: Well, I’ve had reptiles for most of my
life. I started breeding Centralian Carpet Pythons, blue-
tongues and beardies about ten years ago. I had about 60
animals and was buying all my supplies from the local
pet shop. I was spending hundreds of dollars buying food
every fortnight and just thought there had to be a better
way. We found by setting up an online shop, we could
purchase the minimum quantities from wholesalers and
then sell any excess we didn’t need. It just started from
there.
Then in 2013 I saw an advert for the Illawarra Reptile
Society Expo. We had a small stall and got absolutely
hammered selling stuff for a decent price; heating, UV
lights, tweezers - all the basics! That was kind of a
tipping point for us and gave us the confidence to take
the business to the next stage. We evolved to having 6 x
12m. stalls at the expos – the last one was 6 x 15m.
iH: You still breed and sell reptiles, but have also
become known for invertebrates.
JB: We have over 200 reptiles, including a few projects
like Moonglows, some freaky stuff like axanthics and
two Paradox animals – one a Ghost and the other het for
Snow. We also produced a few Platinums this year and
we still sell reptiles, but the difference is that a single
tarantula can have up to 412 babies. I have sold nearly
10,000 spiders in the last 12 months.