Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Do you think someone is better off buying an Ivory this year, or waiting?

My thoughts are this:

Because the price of het Ivories (yellow bellies) experienced their dramatic price correction to below $150 about two seasons ago, it is possible that, due to the lower prices, many more female het Ivories would have been bought starting about two years ago, and these snakes should start becoming of age to breed starting next year and beyond. If you were to then extrapolate this out, this should result in a dramatic influx of Ivories starting next year at this time, thereby affecting their overall price in favor of the buyer.

I am still going over this in my mind and I could be totally wrong abot this - any thoughts?

I think that the price on the yb would not have the effect you mention because production was what it was these last couple of years. Meaning regardless of if they sold (for low price) or not these yb's will be breeding soon for the original person that hatched them (breeder) or whomever bought them. Plus some if not alot of them will be used for combo morphs. Since male morphs are cheaper they will use the cheaper female (yellow belly) to make their combos. Just my thoughts,
Casey

I thought of that, however, if the original owner had kept them, this person would have had many yellow bellies and would have used them for many purposes - including combos. Because of the lower prices made them more affordable to more people, my belief is that someone who owns one pair is think only one thing - IVORY. They do not have the luxury to think combo.

True. Can't argue that point.

The price on ivories will no doubt be lower this year than last but keep in mind, now that people have proved that you can influence the ivory with other morphs and get a visible ivory combo like pastel or hypo, many breeders will hold onto female ivories especially due to their usefullness as a visual super. You can compare it to super pastels. They are great to have female breeders of when you have a visual super that you can breed other combo morphs to. The spider, pinstripe and others with no visible super are then desirable to hold back.

Can anyone speculate on the general price range of a male ivory this season?

( I know I know, the dreaded price Q)

If you have cash to spend right now you can get one for $2000. I think I would guess they will start the season at about $1500 this summer and work their way down to about $1000-1200 by fall. That is only a guess though.