Tarantula Auctions and the Hobby: Thoughts From a (Reluctant) Bidder

Last updated: December 6, 2025

TL;DR: I recently participated in a Palmstreet auction and got a spider I've been wanting for a good price. Despite that, the experience left me feeling, for lack of a better term, icky. These auctions are designed to get people to make decisions impulsively, and even though it's possible to get a good deal, it might not be worth it.

Why I’m Writing This

Last night, I was watching a Palmstreet auction just to check prices. Because I run a site that aggregates tarantula prices, I like to be in tune with not just what species are listed for, but also what they are selling for. Palmstreet auctions are useful for market research.

I ended up seeing a species I've been wanting for a while being offered. I had no intention of buying anything, but I ended up being the winning bidder less than two minutes after seeing that the spider was available. If I wasn't such an overthinker, the story might end here, but if you've looked ahead at all you'll see it doesn't end here.

At the end of the day, I got a species I wanted at a price better than I expected, but for a brief moment I felt like I wasn't driving my own decisions and the carefully designed impulse manipulation machine was working on me. I'm not writing this to be alarmist, and I also fully recognize that live auctions are a perfectly reasonable way to shop for some people. I am, instead, writing this to help people better equip themselves to decide if they want to participate in auctions or not.

Despite this working out well for me on paper, the experience didn't sit well with me, and I hope sharing my unease with the process can help others to avoid the same feeling.

How I Normally Buy Tarantulas

Usually a tarantula purchase is something I carefully plan, shop around, build an order, and purchase. I take some time looking at my current tarantula shelf, considering what size enclosures the new spiders will need both now and as adults, how that will all fit in, what additional supplies I might need, etc. This takes time, as taking on responsibility for the care of living things isn't something I take lightly. If you'd like, you can read more about the nuts and bolts of buying and unpacking in my How I Order Tarantulas Online Using Tarantula List guide.

The Auction: What Happened With Homoeomma chilense

Now comes the actual auction. Again, I was not planning to purchase anything, but just to keep my finger on the pulse of what prices different species are actually selling for.

Things were going well, I was seeing some species go over average list, and some going under. Then the next tarantula for auction was a 1/2" Homoeomma chilense (click here for current prices). If you know the species, you know how slow-growing they are, and a 1/2" specimen is quite well started, probably around a year old. At the time of this writing, list prices go from $125 at the low end to $200 at the higher end.

This is a species I have had an eye on for a while, so when I saw it put up for auction and quickly checked current list prices, I was interested. I saw the current bid around $60 and quickly put in a bid. I was outbid, and didn't even think to put in an additional bid up to $97.

So I won the auction, and I got the spider I wanted for a very good price. This was an auction put on by a reputable vendor I have ordered from before. I am confident in their husbandry and packing. On paper, everything seems great, but it didn't sit well with me.

Why the Auction Didn’t Feel Great (Even Though the Outcome Was Good)

I won, and at a price I'm happy to pay, but I felt like I wasn't making my own decisions. Some of us are more susceptible to the dopamine machine than others, and I just hit that bid button for the potential reward of "winning" without thinking it through. I even went into the auction equipped with Tarantula List to know fair market prices on anything that came up.

I couldn't help but think about the other bidders. I can't know anyone's specific situation, but I can say I saw things going for higher than list prices for many species. I have to assume at least some people were caught in the moment and bidding out of impulse like I had done, not out of careful thought. There is a short timer after someone bids; you don't have much time to think. If you want it, you have to get it now.

It's the year 2025, I'm not ignorant to the world. Impulse manipulation machines are all around us, social media, YouTube algorithms, restaurant menu designs, grocery store layouts, and yes, Palmstreet auctions. The goal is to remove friction to make you do the thing without thinking about it. If you're given time to think, sometimes you'll decide you still want to do the thing (as I would have if I saw H. chilense listed for $97), but sometimes you don't.

I don't think Palmstreet auctions are a unique problem today, but just another example of a familiar problem. Going forward, I am going to intentionally add some friction to my buying habits and abstain from bidding in auctions. I suspect you, patient reader who has made it this far, might also be reconsidering how you want to engage with auctions. Even though I was able to get the spider for $28 cheaper by buying it at auction, I think I'd gladly pay an extra $28 to have the time to really consider the order and feel in charge of my own decisions.

How Auctions Can Hurt Decision-Making in the Hobby

As I've already teased earlier, I believe auctions can hurt people's decision-making abilities.

• Time pressure: In an auction, you have seconds to decide rather than days (or even hours if you are shopping at an expo).
• FOMO and hype: The auction environment makes you feel like you are missing out on these tarantulas, and you don't want to be the only one not getting something.
• Competitive framing: The focus can too easily drift to "winning" the auction, rather than what I believe the hobby is really about caring for and enjoying the tarantulas.

All of the above can sometimes push people into doing things that aren't in their best interests, such as:

• Buying a species they aren't ready for because the price is too good to pass up
• Ignoring the adult size of the species and not considering space constraints.
• Treating living animals strictly as a collectible rather than a long-lived care commitment.

Again, I'm not saying everyone who buys from auctions is falling into these traps, and I'm also not saying everyone who sells in an auction format is trying to encourage these things. I just think it's important to really know yourself and how you might react to this environment before deciding to participate.

What I’m Going To Do Differently

This section will be the shortest; I'm not going to participate in auctions anymore. For all of the reasons above, they are not a good fit for me.

Suggestions for Keepers Who Still Want To Use Auctions

I understand that many people will still participate in auctions. They are very popular for a reason. I'd recommend setting some hard rules and practices for yourself before participating to reduce the risk of making a bid you might regret.

• Make a list before the auction even starts of what species you are interested in right now. If a species isn't on your list, don't bid on it (even if it's a great deal).
• Research the care requirements of each species thoroughly before the auction.
• Check the average list prices of all species you are interested in before bidding. You can always use the free tool at our homepage to price check.
• Avoid auctions as a way of getting a "first" something. First old world, first arboreal, first tarantula, etc.
• If you find yourself breaking the rules you've set for yourself, it might be wise to take a step back from an auction.
• Remind yourself that "missing a deal" isn't so bad compared to "regretting a purchase." If you miss a deal on an auction and days/weeks later you still really want that species, it's ok to pay a little more to buy it knowing it is a species you want.

Conclusion

With Tarantula List, I've tried to build a tool that helps people to make deliberate, planned orders by allowing for easy comparison shopping and consolidation of shipping to a single vendor. I initially built this tool for myself because I like to take my time and make sure I'm making good decisions for my situation. The auction model has a huge emphasis on urgency, which is at odds with how I like to do things. I hope that the comparison tool I've made, as well as the guides I've written, will help encourage sustainable tarantula keeping.

There's nothing wrong with having and building a collection. I believe a reasonable person can have hundreds of tarantulas. It's just important to be thoughtful in how you build your collection rather than impulsively acquiring new spiders. I'm not going to act like I've never bought something on an impulse, but when it happens I feel like I'm taking a step back as a keeper.

If you've stuck with me this far, thank you so much for reading my ramblings. I hope that this article can gently nudge the hobby toward slower, more intentional decision-making.

FAQs

Are all auctions bad?

I don't think auctions are inherently bad, but they can lead to people making sub-optimal decisions. In situations with real scarcity, such as a single specimen of a rare species being available, an auction makes a lot of sense. In many cases, when sellers have large cohorts of a species and decide to auction one off, the value proposition seems off to me.

Did you regret buying your Homoeomma chilense?

As it is the dead of winter here, I do not yet have this spider at the time of this writing. I will say, I don't regret ordering the spider, and I am excited to keep one and watch it grow over the coming years. I do, however, regret the method of purchase. It would sit better with me if I had paid more to order it on my own timescale as part of a planned and thoughtful order.

Should newer keepers avoid auctions entirely?

If you've read any of my other articles, you know I really don't like to give blanket advice. On the whole, I think the potential savings for the average new keeper buying from an auction are not worth the potential downside of regretting a purchase or getting a species you are not comfortable with. If you have much better impulse control than I have, maybe it's ok. I'm glad auctions weren't common when I got my first tarantula in 2006.

How can I tell if an auction is “real scarcity” vs “artificial scarcity”?

This one is easy, simply head to Tarantula List and start typing in the scientific name of the species. You can quickly see who has the species in stock and for what price. If nobody has it, there is a good chance the scarcity is real.

Disclosures

I have intentionally left the name of the vendor I purchased the spider from out of the article. I like the vendor, their husbandry practices, and their shipping practices. This article was (pretty obviously) not sponsored.

If you do choose to use the tool on the Tarantula List homepage, I may receive a small commission if you choose to use a vendor that supports us via a coupon code.