A breeder to breeder market can only last so long before it starts to look like a pyramid scheme...

Eventually you need some end consumers, customers that buy the product for what it is without the prospect of any "investment" quality returns.

If you paid 5 figures for snakes that the other 99% of people who like them would only be willing to pay $300 for, then YOU were the one that didn't do your research. Rather than talking to the breeders you "trusted," you should have been talking to potential customers, guaged how much those animals were worth to YOU, and made an offer.

The future of the ball python market is in producing a quantity of great looking animals that are affordable for the average reptile hobbyist. We're certainly on that track. Pastels are flying off the shelves at pet stores when listed at $100. Not everyone is willing to have a room full of FB racks and a rodent colony in their garage...the number of people willing to operate at that scale has not been enough to sustain the high prices that got a lot of people interested in ball pythons to begin with.

I'm not trying to make this into a "ball pythons are too expensive" hater post, I'm just saying that the price drops are proof that there aren't enough willing buyers at those price points...

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