Reptile & Amphibian Forums

impossible to make money?? i purchased some pricey morphs two years ago and have yet to breed them. im waiting one more year so i have some nice plumpy females. but just looking at where prices have gone its so depressing! what ever i bought is now 50-65% less! plus the fact of all the hard work and rat breeding to feed the collection lets not forget the smell of the rats too! i know im gonna get bashed but its just the truth! than once you get these babies it seems so hard to market them when your just another joe smoe! all im saying is this isnt a easy thing to get into even to make a few $$$ for some extra $$$. ok everyone let me have it!!

look at it as a hobby, not a bisiness and your outlook wont be so grim!
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Thanks
Chad Ramsey
onetonyj@yahoo.com

very important part i forgot to put in there. this is a hobby for me but it would be nice to make some cah at the same time and that my point that is seems very very difficult to make money with bps! tthanks for your post!

bps live for sometimes 40 years in captivity... you dont think you will make your money back in that time frame? quit trying to get rich quick.

Exactly what Chad said. Many of us on this forum do what we do because we love it as the main reason and not because we want to make a bazillion dollars in a few years.
I'm sure we've all pissed and moaned on occasion about prices but the serious hobbyists adn lovers of what they do are not going to leave the HOBBY/business because the prices drop out.
If you love what you do, money is your driving force.
loads of people who got into this thinking they could retire after some years of breeding and selling are now realizing that they're not going to make a mil doing this, so they pack it in. Good riddance. I enjoy seeing entire collections for sale by these people. Time to move on to the next so-called "get rich quick" plan....
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www.strictlyballs.ca

Couldn't disagree anymore with you

We are still in embryonic times when it comes to ball python projects. There is just so many potential crosses that have yet to be seen!

If you are strickly basing yourself on the american market, you are shooting yourself in the foot, granted, base morphs are getting more and more affortable to every average Joe, the double, triple and quad projects we've not even begun seeing will always be in demand BUT in short supply.

Let me tell you that the overseas ball python market is were its at, international customers are buying those $150 Pastels by the truck load, those whom are narrow minded and refuse to export are fighting every other little average joe trying to unload their Pastels in America.

Slowly make a name for yourself, offer customer service equal to none and work with quality animals instead of quantity!

I guarantee your investment will go a long way for the next 25 years when we begin seeing the Super Cinny Dreamsicle quadruple het for Ghost, Clown and Genetic Stripe

Mostly have fun and enjoy these great creatures!

BA

thanks for that informative post! the best one i recived yet.

Is it really the best reply you received, or, did the poster paint the rosy picture you were looking for in the first place??

BB
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"Have you hugged your drummer today?" --- Me

whats up with that? meat beater??

If you bought those snakes as an "investment", then you made a major mistake. Any snake, even the mighty BP, is miserable as far as investments go. Can you make money? Absolutely. Is it "easy money"? Nope. You have to feed, clean cages, produce, market, and generally work your tail off. Even if you make money, compare the amount of profit to the hours you put into it, and you'll see that delivering pizzas would have been a better use of you time. If you wanted an investment, I'd reccomend a diversified portfolio of mutual funds.

I'm a small "Joe Schmo" (as I think you put it) myself. I work really hard to maintain my collection in addition to my family and work responsibilities. I've been producing BPs for several years, and I've sold every baby I ever wanted to sell. They sell. People will buy from you...they've bought from me. I've now sent snakes to people all over America (Illinos, Texas X3, California X3, Michagin X2, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Florida X2, North Carolina, Kansas, all over my home state of Virginia, a few places I can't remember at the moment) and even to Puerto Rico. Many of my babies I simply wholesale to local pet stores. This year I probably sold about $2500 bucks worth of snakes. I probably spent close to $2500 bucks in rats, electricity, papertowels, facility upgrades, trashbags, advertizing, shipping costs, etc., etc. If produced higher end stuff, I'm sure I could turn a handsome profit, but it would still be small when looked at from a dollars per hour standpoint.

I enjoy my hobby, so I feel like I came out ahead. I'm investing in my home, and I work hard at my job to earn a buck...

First off Ballfreak nobody should bash you for you opinion or your concerns. Of course when you put money into a hobby and you think that you can make it back and then you see the market getting beat up you’re probably going to lose some sleep, we all do even if we don’t admit it. The truth of the matter is that if you can keep and breed Ball Pythons you’ll make your money back and make a good profit, know matter how bad things might look to you. I have been in the hobby for twenty years, and as long as the animals in a project live and breed I have never lost money. The worst investment I ever made was a pair of dbl het Albino Granite Burmese for $25,000 a pair. By time I bred them Albino Granite’s were selling for $250 each (ouch). I stuck with the project and in time I was in the black. So as long as you enjoy the animals and be patient, you’ll always come out on top. I personally can’t think of any investment out there over a ten year period that can be better then breeding Ball Pythons, or any snake for that matter. Sure there are the occasional stocks or realestate investments that go through the roof, but at the same time there are a hundred to one horror stories of people losing their shirts on those deals. I don’t know about you but I’ve never enjoyed buying a stock or a peace of land, not that much fun
Lastly, I always tell everyone I talk to that it doesn’t matter who you are you can sell your offspring if you just market yourself properly. Don’t sell yourself short, everyone has something to offer their clients. What do the small breeders have over the big breeders? Well, for one thing the time to donate to every client, the time to spend marketing their selves on the forums, and on and on. As a big collection we don’t have nearly the time that we once had, so take advantage of our weaknesses.
Remember keep your head up, this is still a great market even if you won’t retire ten years earlier then you want. Enjoy the animals and you’ll be profitable both monetarily and with your experiences. Brian (BHB)

www.myspace.com/bhbreptiles

Edited on December 7, 2007 at 18:58:22 by PHGinger.

thanks for your post coming from the biggest name in the game! i will hang in there and give it a shot! ive invested 10,000 so i must see if i can make something out of it. i really got into it for the hobby and not just the money. again thanks for your thoughts and happy holidays!! p.s im still waiting to see that website of yours! lol!

Well I wont lie I originally got into this for the dream of getting rich quick about 6 years ago as most others did when the days of the $100,000 white snake was the pinacle of the ball python world. I purchased my first bp morph a mojave male 6500.00 (I know thats a drop in the bucket compared to what others have spent) and he didnt produce until he was 3 by then mojaves were down to about 1000.00 but not once have I complained on any forum about it. Dont get me wrong though I have always loved herps even as a child I used to catch garter snakes and racers and try to keep them in my room without my mother finding out. Brian knows me personally and has seen my collection and my room (I use the term loosley) Im about 6-7" and 350lbs and I have a walk in closet PACKED with snakes and I just squeeze my big self in there and sit for hours on end sometimes just to sit there and enjoy what I have produced and think of what I will produce. But the days of wishing to retire early are long gone and you know what it doesnt bother ma anymore.
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Damian Macioce
www.strongholdreptiles.com

try making a living breeding and selling corn snakes! I have been paying the rent with corns for over a decade. I don't make nearly as much as I might in some other line of work, but it has been interesting and fun!

When I start breeding my small BP colony (they are trying as I type), I don't expect to make a killing. But I expect them to be at least as profitable as corns.

Being more of a corn than BP person, I got the morphs that i like myself (piebald, albino, pastel for bumblebees eventually). And once the price of all of those is a level for other non-specialist BPs keepers to buy them, I think they will like the same ones that I do, and I think they will be popular at whatever the going price is at the time. If they become too plentiful, and too cheap, then a lot of people will abandon them for other morphs, the supply will tighten and the price will find some sort of stability - eventually. Supply and demand is how it works for corns, mice, parakeets, and everything else.

You can actually make a business (or profitable hobby) of almost anything in demand - even mice and rats. You just have to decide what you can offer better than your competition. It could be price, quality, reputation, customer service, or some creative benefit you come up with. Or a combination. The business side is just as important as the production side, and is where most breeder / keeper oriented people fall down. Animal production and business skills require some very different abilities, and not everyone will be able to perform both equally well.