esshup,
Thanks for correcting my misinformation!
Thanks even more for posting the best way to source and sustain the fish for a situation like Tyler's. (In this case, Hybrid Crappie.)
Seeing the big picture certainly helps pond rookies like me.
I am not sure Steve will have Hybrid Crappie. Other than us I don't know who else has them up here. There is only one fish supplier that I know of in Arkansas that has them, that's why they are so hard to source. We constantly get requests to ship fish. It's a money looser for us actually. We have to drive 25 minutes one way to a UPS pick up point, and we have to get there late in the afternoon to not have the fish sit in the box for half the day. Then ship them next day air, and the cardboard box/plastic bags/O2/cold packs/insulated shipping cooler makes the shipping costs pretty high. We could figure out the price of all the overhead and shipping, but would a person pay $100-$200 for a few fish that cost at the most a couple bucks each?
We've had people order 1 rainbow trout and expect us to ship it to them in Florida in August. People can't read or won't read. Even though we put on the website that Trout are only available mid to late Oct thru mid November, it doesn't matter. We finally had to put a notice that we'd have to charge an administrative fee if they don't call or email before placing an order if they are not within "X" miles. It costs us a 3.5% credit card fee to take an order, and to refund the order it costs us another 3.5%. The online shipping program will not let us refund via credit card anything less than the full purchase price, so we'd have to write a check and mail it. When a person orders 1 Hybrid Crappie the overhead costs refunding the order is more than the purchase price of the fish.
