January 25, 2016

Get your "botanical swatches" here...

It seems like everyone we talk to is pretty stoked on the idea of aquatic botanicals...and to many aquarists, Tannin is the first exposure they've had to many of these items. It's a lot of fun to create beautiful underwater biotopes with these unique materials, once you have some familiarity with them.

Of course, a picture only goes so far, and you'd love to be able to see feel, smell and otherwise handle these unique botanicals in the flesh, right? So, we've made it pretty easy for you. We offer free samples.

What? Really? FREE SAMPLES?

As usual, many of my friends think I'm nuts for doing this, because they fear that aquarists will "take advantage" of this...Really? I don't think so. I mean, for one thing, if someone want's to aquascape their tank one "Capsula Pod" at a time, than we have more issues going on here...I've learned over the years that most- most-aquarium hobbyists are honest, forthright people, who don't take advantage of vendor policies that work in their favor.

I heard a similar warning when we started Unique Corals. We created a 21 day unconditional guarantee for coral frags from day one. Fellow vendors told me that we were crazy. And, guess what? Over 3 years and thousands of orders later, you know how many customers ended up abusing this policy?

Two. Yeah, two people (I would prefer not to label them as "hobbyists") who figured they'd be able to score some freebies by taking advantage of our policy. And they did. For a while. Until we cut them off and banned them from purchasing.

So in the end, I see absolutely no problem sending you- a serious hobbyist, potential customer, and hopefully, a friend- some samples of some of our botanicals. It's not that big a deal. Kinda like the spoon of ice cream they give you at Haagen Daz or the fabric sample you get at the furniture store, or the paint chips you get at Dunn Edwards. Common in most industries, but kind of unusual in the fish world.

Yeah, we're a different kind of vendor with a different kind of product, aesthetic, market position, and attitude towards our consumers. It makes sense for you to be able to see something we offer before you purchase a quantity of them. I'm not sure what other vendors don't do this sort of thing. In fact, I challenge ANY other vendor out there seeing this kind of stuff to offer free samples...

Chirp, chirp.

So here's the deal: We’re happy to send you FREE samples of up to 3 (three) varieties at a time of eligible specimens of pretty much every botanical we offer, with some notable exceptions-mainly our larger botanicals. (Savu Pods, Jungle Pods, Rio Fruta, Sino XIcara, Tapete Pods, Ra Cama Pods, Monkey Pods, Cholla Wood, Palma Abrigo Pods, and Magnolia Seed Pods...We reserve the right to add more to this list in the future, of course).

Hopefully, you'll be stoked enough seeing after one of something that you'll be compelled to order more!

Stay inspired.

Stay wet.

Scott Fellman

Tannin Aquatics