" Another thought would be to possibly assemble a panel of honduran experts/top breeders/etc. of 10 or so and have them all agree on a baseline market price. People chosen should be voted upon by knowledge, experience, quality, economic knowledge, etc. This should be what is made available to the public with little deviation on the classifieds--although, yes, I realize everyone has the right to sell what they want for as much as they want. This may help those unfamiliar with economics acquire selling tips. "



I don't think having a panel assembled to control or dictate what the base prices are for each type of hondo is a good solution at all. For starters, we do not live in a communist country that a handful of people should be dictating how much a snake should be. As a democratic nation, we chose the "laissez-faire" or free markets to run the economy and it has been proven time and time again that the market will correct itself. Just look at Wall Street, or the commodities futures, and such. The law of supply and demand will play a big role on this. If one breeder has an uneventful/unprofitable year because of producing so many hondos of just one type, or not producing enough of another type, or not being able to analyze the demand first before producing, then that breeder will undoubtedly make some necessary adjustments on his or her breeding projects for next year. It's a tug-o-war between supply and demand or in this case, between breeders and buyers. What we have seen here this season is not catastrophic. As Jim Lambert pointed out, he sold albino tangerines at high prices even though it the snows did not do well. Look at it this way, each type of hondo is a product in itself. And we all know in our economics and business classes that a product always has a product life cycle. Last year, the snows are the hottest. This year, it's the year of the hypo extremes. But it does not mean that the snows are gonna be a thing of the past. My point here really is that whether we like it or not, the law of supply and demand will prevail. How the supply will shape up next year will depend on how breeders of this year will learn from what happened this year. How the demand will shape up will depend on how popular hondos will be next year. The public love for snakes is not going down or disappear overnight. On the contrary, it will continue to increase in interest as more and more people get educated by other people such as us.



So guys, really, let's not try to blame as to who did who that hurts pricing and profitability. Most of us, if not all of us, have full time jobs and raising hondos is a fun hobby ( and I would assume that if you make money, it is icing on the cake and not a necessity to pay your rent or cover your house mortgage ). Let the market correct itself and let's just all go our merry ways. Life is short and just enjoy the privilege of having the capacity and capability to care for these wonderful animals.
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RAY

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