Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I promise I'm not going to get involved in breeding...I'm just the owner of a simple (but beautiful!) normal who is curious about all things Ball Python...

How big is the market among collectors for these morphs? I mean, when we're talking about snakes that cost 5-20k, and probably more than that that i'm not aware of, are there people out there who are buying these snakes for collections, rather than to breed and sell the offspring? What is the base of this snake economy? From what I've heard it sounds like a lot of breeders are selling there snakes to other breeders...which is kinda a pyramid type market. I don't mean ANY offense by that...am I wrong?

-Bob

0.0.1 Ball Python Normal "Samson"

When enough are produced the morphs will eventually reach the pet trade. However, it will take a lot of work over a lot of years to produce morph ball pythons on the scale needed to meet demand. For now, price is rationing the current supply of morphs into breeder hands, which is needed to produce more. It's a lot of work to produce thousands and thousands of ball pythons when they take a long time to grow up, some don't eat well, and if all goes right you get a relatively small clutch. High prices now fuel the work needed to get this job done so they can be pets someday.