I disagree. I feel that the issue is that we're selling a luxury item (not a requirement for day to day life such as housing or toilet paper). This previous year was an election year and they are known to drive the flow of the economy down as people feel wary (financially) until that has passed. After this last election there was not a flood of "good" economic news but rather more reports of increased unemployment, rising fuel costs and instability. A person, unsure of their future employment status, is not going to increase their collection size but rather maintain it's status quo until they are sure of the future.

The sales trend that I have seen for the last 9 months has been increased sales of maintenance items (substrates, lights, etc) and a decrease in new animal purchase (new set ups etc).

I think there is an increase in potential demand due as reptiles become more and more mainstream. The prolific nature of the information on the internet has been a large portion of this growth. Once the economic situation moves to a point that people can focus on luxury item purchases again you will see in an increase in sales.

What we will hopefully see due to this "drought" is a smartening of business practices by breeders and importers. With it's easy entry (low experience in business and low start up costs) this industry tends to attract those that have little understanding of business practices.
Scales - Premium Exotic Reptiles

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• The " MARKET "................more - madisonrecords, Sun Jan 9 23:26:49 2005
• RE: The " MARKET "................more - bthacker, Sun Jan 9 23:53:57 2005
• RE: The " MARKET "................more - PBM, Mon Jan 10 00:22:49 2005
• Well.... - bthacker, Mon Jan 10 00:51:57 2005
• RE: Well.... - PBM, Mon Jan 10 07:45:54 2005
• RE: The " MARKET "................more - dwedeking, Mon Jan 10 09:06:45 2005
• Clear cut logical explanation...(straight from my economic - robertmcphee, Mon Jan 10 21:17:52 2005
• Not sure how that smiley got in there....but oh well np - robertmcphee, Mon Jan 10 21:19:05 2005
• John! I very strongly.............................................................. - RioBravoReptiles, Mon Jan 10 09:41:14 2005
• RE: John! I very strongly.............................................................. - sslonestar, Mon Jan 10 11:24:19 2005
• RE: John! I very strongly.............................................................. - madisonrecords, Mon Jan 10 12:25:27 2005
• Ooops!........ - madisonrecords, Mon Jan 10 12:32:56 2005
• RE: Question..... - ajfreptiles, Mon Jan 10 13:01:18 2005
• RE: My opinion...... - ajfreptiles, Mon Jan 10 13:04:16 2005
• RE: My opinion...... - Phi, Mon Jan 10 13:47:40 2005
• RE: The " MARKET "................more - tcdrover, Mon Jan 10 10:12:03 2005
• Gus...please share your thoughts - bthacker, Mon Jan 10 10:37:13 2005
• RE: The " MARKET "................more - ajfreptiles, Mon Jan 10 14:11:20 2005
• The issue is.... - bigdnutz, Mon Jan 10 14:14:07 2005
• I know I don't want that boa morph...... - PBM, Mon Jan 10 14:26:22 2005
• The picture is OT... - bigdnutz, Mon Jan 10 14:42:03 2005
• The market for boas will always be stronger than most snakes.. - dmac, Mon Jan 10 18:37:38 2005
• Look at the dark side....30 years from now....Long and rambling - LordDreyfus, Tue Jan 11 10:52:40 2005
• you are so wrong it is not funny - M n R-Reptile, Tue Jan 11 11:57:22 2005