a good one that most all of us are concerned about but I worry that your proposed soutions may have some problems. To just cut off all of the supply would obviously raise the prices but how would you regulate this? Soon you would have a type of reptile black marcket that sold snakes "illegally". Asside from the fact that it would be "illegal" the snakes would likely be mistreated because it would create a market for people who only care about making a buck instead of propogating the hobby. Also, especially for breeders/retailers who do this full time and have no other souce of income are they just to vacation for the next few years? That's just not possible.
The best solution IMO is to try and increase the standards and goals of the individuals that sell these animals. This would affect the breeders and importers. If there is a standard of quality that is generally accepted and encourages only selling the best snakes this will help the hobby as a whole. If the goal of breeders/importers is to contribute to the hobby, then they should be concerned with this. Most of us are concerned with this but there will always be those who look at this as a sexy investment or a way to make some easy money. Most of have friends or know someone who thinks this way so we can all relate. Unfortunately, if you ask anyone who has been in the hobby for an extended period of time, this is not typically the case. I have found that this hooby requires a lot of my attention and a lot of work and patience. It is true that there may be a few lucky people who find the next morph and score big but really, what are the odds? Not very good.
The goal should be, like you mentioned, to weed out the people who are doing it for the money. No breeder can deny that the money is an important factor but if we stay grounded in the hobby and what the hobby is all about then we should do just fine. The market will fluctuate nobody can stop that.

[ Hide Replies ]

• 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