Are you curious to know more about our alpacas?
Wondering what to expect? How does buying an alpaca from Delphi work anyway?
While we frequently have farm visitors and on farm sales, most of our sales are by email and phone.
Here’s a typical scenario - of our alpaca sales.
Maybe you zip an email off, or call us to ask questions like:
Are you firm on the price for Sparkles?
Can you tell me her positive and the negative traits?
Can you board her till she gets pregnant?
Do you offer cash discounts?
Or if you aren’t sure where to start – your questions might be more like:
Why do we price our alpacas the way we do? If you were me – who would you buy? And why?
I might need to ask you some questions first:
What are you hoping to get from your alpaca business? What are your goals? Are you serious about breeding for the best show pacas? Or maybe you just want to get your toes wet with some good alpacas that have sweet personalities – and just see how things develop from there. Maybe you love fiber – and fiber pacas are the place to start. Maybe all of the above!
If we don't have an alpaca on our farm that matches your needs well, we have many contacts with friends that raise alpacas, that are sure to have the right alpaca in the right price range for you.
Once we know which alpaca(s) you are interested in, we will send you an email, with detailed information on that alpaca.
You will also receive fleece samples on the alpaca.
Over the past 15 years, we have shipped many alpacas to new owners who never actually met their alpacas until they stepped off of the trailer as they arrived at their new home. These new owners base their purchase decision upon a thorough introduction and alpaca evaluation, that we provide by email, phone, and snail mail.
No alpacas are perfect. We include their personality, halter training issues, fleece analysis, conformation, reproductive history – the list is long. We try to present a balanced, accurate description of the alpaca.
The goal is to be sure that you are pleased when you meet your new alpaca, because then we are guaranteed a happy customer, and the alpaca has a loving home. It is important both for you and the alpaca, that you make a good match.
Most of our sales are either repeat sales or referrals from other customers.
After reviewing the information provided, If you feel like we are heading in the right direction –
I will email or snail mail a contract for you to look over.
In a perfect world, perhaps contracts should not be so heavily relied upon. But years of selling pacas have lead me to realize that they have their good points.
A contract is a tool to make sure we understand each other, and agree on the important points involved in a sale.
Mostly, they remind us to bring up all of those "what if" possibilities, now - rather than later.
Because those "what ifs" do happen, though very rarely.
Speaking of what if's, if an alpaca is in the process of being purchased – the rule is the alpaca must be insured - if only for that short time period. What we are insuring, in fact, is our relationship. This rule applies to me, too, if I have a valuable female visiting a friend's farm for breeding. These are the times that insurance can save a friendship. Once you have told us that you want to buy that alpaca, and have signed the contract, you are the alpaca’s new owner. As detailed in the contract, you are then responsible for obtaining insurance. We will assist you in arranging this, and provide information needed by the insurance company.
We include short term boarding (90 days) at no charge with every sale, and additional boarding time if the alpaca is newly pregnant or needs to wean or mature before heading to a new home. When the alpaca is ready, we arrange for transportation with one of several wonderful alpaca transporters we use frequently. The alpaca is usually happier traveling with them, than in a van or small trailer with one or two companions . The transporters have large trailers, often with many alpaca friends for the trip. Alpacas are much happier in a herd! We will provide you with a quote from the transporter – and ask for your approval. Transportation charges are generally the responsibility of the buyer.
We do not provide routine, long term boarding. Once the need for your alpaca to remain here (for breeding, settling a pregnancy, weaning, etc.) has ended, we request that you arrange for boarding your alpacas close to your own location, if you do not keep your alpacas on your own property. We do not have space available for routine boarding. We can assist you in finding a facility that provides boarding near you.
Once we have scheduled transport, we have our wonderful vet, Leslie Harrison, prepare a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (CVI) for travel, and perform any testing required by your state, at our expense.
We refresh their halter training, trim their toe nails, and provide you with a halter and lead for each alpaca, that will come with them on the trip. We also include their fleece samples or entire fleeces, as we understand it is important to have those for your records as well as marketing.
We stay in contact with you and address any questions you have as you enjoy getting to know your new pacas. We provide you with their health history, and advise you on anything special they might need. If you have any worries about them at any time – we expect you to contact us and ask for help – be it 3:00 AM – we are here. We have a whole lot of experience with alpacas – and have walked clients through a delivery or two over the phone. Besides, we love our pacas and we want to hear all about them!
