Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have recently gotten into ball pythons and have 6 young females and 1.1 pastels. i am wanting to get into the investment side and what would you recomend me get into ?
spiders,pinstrips,albinos ??? thanks

Out of what you listed I would say the Pinstripe would be the most solid. They haven't been around that long at there are a lot of possibilities using them to create designer morphs. Cinnamon pastels seem to be solid, as do clowns. I think there are a lot of possibilities with the clowns even though they aren't talked about as much as many of the other morphs.

George Knaack
GLK HERP

If you had $25,000.00 go with several albinos. 3.10. [3 males and 10 females] Why you ask? A pinstripe is high 25k. How many are out there now? How soon will they become down in pricing like the spider market. If you like albinos and want to make a good steady income buy them. Wait till other morphs drop in price and then decide what to do next. 10 albino girls that can give you average 5 eggs each will give you 50 albinos and even if price drops to $1,000.00 that is $50,000.00 on your first year of breeding. Good income?
Like the gentleman who worked in the casinos rest room told me and my friend. "Boys just try and take some of it don't try and take all of it!" Good advice.
Another note I paid $12,500.00 for 2 male het pieds you can get them now for $350.00 each.........just think of the money I would have saved. Oh I bought them in 1997. Pied males were $25,000.00 and females $15,000.00. $40,00.00 a pair. I bet you you can get a trio for $15,000.00 now.
All morphs drop.....supply and demand......
Hey I am looking for a male clown.......I am going to try cosses.... Enjoy!!!!! These are my opinions only. My advice only. Listen to what others say and you decide. It is your money.
You might want to buy several het pied girls too!
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RicK @ BbI

Ball Boutique,Inc.
The home of the singing snakes!

would have to be Genetic Stripes....They are still relatively new, not too much out there, and they are RECESSIVE!! And you can get one for right around $20k....The crosses with them in the future are going to be insane...If you only have around $14k to spend I would say get a Cinnamon or a Spider...I know the spider has dropped drastically this summer, but so what....Once males get to the $5-6k range they are gonna sell like hot cakes and you won't be able to produce enough...Like Ralph says....Even if a morph only sells for $500, who cares....If you can produce enough of them then you'll make money....Look at Pete Kahl and all his Piebalds...
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www.bustyballpythons.com

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sig file edited for tos violation. [phw 8/12/04]

Always cheaper...and you could get stripes the first year breeding them without paying the stripe price.....
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Luke Martin
Bronze Serpent Reptiles

I asked the same question now let me pose another?

which morph do YOU LOVE with all of your collective reptile heart?

for me pieds are number one with pastels and hypos right in the wings!!!!

which one will you have more fun with? remember you won't make money unless you yourself really love the animals for what they are!!! NOT WHAT THIER WORTH.

with that said when you buy your albino/pied/hypo/pastel/spider/ect ect you can say man these are awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would have to agree with GLK... I believe (and it might not be much) that the albinos are going to stay around the 2k mark for a while... I would go with mass albinos... or even 4 albino males and a army of 50% het females... like 30 of them... they might be cheap, also the ratio (key word ratio) would be, 15 hets and 15 normals... your 15 hets would produce on average of 2.5 albinos per clutch... 15 x 2.5=30... that would be 30 albinos you could sell keep... you would also make alot of 100% het albinos that you could sell to people who didnt have quite enough money to purchase a albino... either way numbers is the way to go... especially if you cant get on ground floor...
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Joe Nimeskern Jr
GGexotics(@hotmail.com)

That was actually Ball Boutique that recommended the Albino project, I had recommended Pinstripes, Cinnamon Pastels, and Clowns. Although the Albino project he mentioned would also be a great investment. I don't think anyone is going to get tired of Albinos... In my original post I was thinking more along the line of a single snake or a pair.

George

Thanks.....I think when he produces all those albinos he will be able to get other morphs cheaper. Sorry les expensive.
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RicK @ BbI

Ball Boutique,Inc.
The home of the singing snakes!

Sorry Rich about the misunderstanding... I ment I agree with Rich from BB... just a little to late to be typing... my brain dies as soon as I enter my front door...
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Joe Nimeskern Jr
GGexotics(@hotmail.com)

Sounds like you already have a pretty good investment. I'd concentrate on growing the pastel pair and the young females and keep your eye out for any bigger females. Check out pet stores for FEEDING females. Sometimes people trade in their adult pets. You will have to quarantine them well even if you are careful to avoid wild caught. However, a big female will allow you to start producing pastels sooner. Once you have a little experience with that you might use the proceeds to fund a spider or pastel male (both of which should be cheaper by then, why buy them now for more when you don't have any females close to breeding size). When you get all those females grown up you might consider other “some type of dominant” mutations such as a mojave male too.

I’d also agree on albino being a good investment. Pied has also fallen enough that there isn’t a ton of downside left.