The snake market.........is a funny and sometimes crazy thing
As the breeder the posters are talking about (I think) I feel the need to respond.
There are many forces that drive prices......imports (both wild and overseas), how many others are playing in the same market, the breeders ability to produce, and the economic health of the market as well as the country, etc.
We always try to be fair to all in our pricing. Fair to guy who bought two years ago, fair to the guy who bought last year as well as the guy who bought last week. Believe me, we would LOVE to keep prices high, but the factors I listed above seem to force the prices lower sooner than I would like.
In the case of Laticinctus, there have been a decent number of wild imports coming in over the last few years. The importers know wild asian ratsnakes don't do well, so they price them well below market to sell them quickly before something happens to the snakes. That in turn "resets" the expected pricing on those snakes. We can try to be firm but now that everyone can see that low price, that is what sticks in their minds. We are forced to compete with snakes that aren't of the same quality based on price. And that sucks! As anyone who has worked with wild caught asian rats knows, there is a huge difference between true US captive bred and wild caughts.
The pricing on the Coxi is a different deal in that there hasn't been the wild imports to deal with. But there are breeders in Europe who have had good breeding success who have no problem selling below market to large reptile companies. Those companies need to sell that product so they too go below market pricing.
On the other hand, lower pricing does "open" the market up for more folks. At $450 a pair rather $900 a pair, there are more folks willing to pay $450. Which I think is a good thing. More folks get to enjoy these awesome snakes. More folks get to experience them hands on. And I like that too......

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