Okay, I know squat about economics, so feel free to tear this apart and educate me.
I'm a little surprised when you make a statement like the one above and then become sarcastic when people do as you asked. Admittedly, I didn't agree with the tone of all of the responses, but you asked for vigorous discussion. In many ways, you simply got the response that you requested.
In response to your original post, I think you put too much emphasis on "the market." Maybe I'm misinterpreting you, but I sense that you see the market as "The Market," some all-powerful force that dictates our lives and decisions. If "The Market" says that we must act a certain way or make a certain decision, then we must act that way or make that decision.
I see the market differently. The market is not something that tells me what I must do. The market is just a measurement of the individual decisions that individuals make by their free choices. If I decide that a certain item is worth a certain price to me and someone who has that item decides that having my money is worth not having that item, we trade. If others make similar trades, then the "market" price for the item is near what I paid and he received. If others choose to buy or sell at different prices, then the "market" price will be different. Sometimes the choices of those around us are favorable to us, and sometimes those choices are not favorable to us. We should demand a certain level of honesty in the process, but otherwise, people should be free to do as they please.
I'm not surprised that ball python prices drop at certain times of the year. March/April is a time when many people need cash to pay taxes, to begin paying those "90 day same as cash" credit terms that they used at Christmas, and to pay for those new cars that look so tempting now that the snow is melting and the sun is shining. Each seller and each buyer are making individual choices based on their needs and values at the time. If someone who has nice morphs doesn't need the cash immediately and doesn't want to sell at those prices, then he or she can wait until the prices rebound.
The only things that can really change the price of ball python morphs are long term changes in either supply or demand. If every individual who owned a pied ball python suddenly needed cash and decided to sell their animals at $200 each, a bunch of snakes would change hands. However, six months later when whatever caused this situation had changed, the demand for these snakes would be the same and the price would rise to current levels. If you were the one pied owner who kept his pied, the value of your animal would return to its previous level.
Your scenario assumes that dropping prices must remain low. I disagree with this assumption. The long term price will depend on the long term demand. If one dealer dropping his price causes the others to follow suit and the prices remain low, then the supply and demand had simply reached a point where these animals were overpriced. Who drops prices first, who follows, and when they follow are irrelevant. The issue is what price individual buyers choose to give for these snakes and what price individual sellers are willing to take for them.
As a final example, let's consider the opposite scenario. What if Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie make a movie where the lead character carried a pied ball python everywhere he (or she) goes? Suddenly, thousands of people would see the beauty of these animals. While some would still recoil from snakes, others would make pieds the latest status symbol. We'd see celebrities buying up pieds everywhere they could find them. They'd appear on the "red carpet" carrying these poor snakes. The price would go through the roof.
Would the price stay up forever?
Personally, I don't think it would. Within a year, the "herd" would have moved on to other status symbols. A few people who bought these snakes when they were a fad would be won over to their beauty and would continue keeping and possibly breeding them. Most celebrities and rich people who bought them at $50,000 a piece would be selling them somewhere at prices not much higher than they are today. The price would stay high for a little while, but the long-term price might drop slightly because there would be a flurry of production. I'm not sure that the drop would be that much different from what it will be anyway.
It's not some magical manipulation. It's just a reflection of the individual decisions of individuals who decide what value they place on owning something that they don't have or selling something that they do have.
Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.
