Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I would like to get into raising ball pythons as a hobby. But, I would like to hear from people on where they think ball pythons will be in 1yr, 3yrs, etc... and what morphs are looking promising. I'm looking at starting with 1.0 piedball, 0.2 100 % het piedball and maybe 1.1 albino. Is the ball python market strong enough for me to recoup my investment? Any information / comments would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Russ

If it is something you enjoy you will be good with it....piebalds are a good investment at this point....the prices are finally starting to get to the hobbyist level....so more people are able to afford them....and piebalds are high up on peoples wish lists too. You can't go wrong with pieds and you will definitly recoup your money in the first year if you produce any visuals. Albinos are also a solid morph and I doubt they will drop much in the next few years...they're staying pretty steady at this point.
Good luck and have fun in whatever you do...wish I had the money to get what you plan on getting....lol
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Luke Martin
Bronze Serpent Reptiles

The futures so bright, I gotta wear shades.....

Like Luke said. The prices are just now FINALLY dropping to 'Hobbyist' levels..... The *mainstream* doesn't even know about ball python morphs..... All sales so far have been going to other breeders, once the *mainstream* finds out how cool these animals are, it'll be difficult to keep them in stock...

I'd say the future of balls if very good.......

VOT

Why do whales beach themselves? What rhymes with orange?

Impossible questions. But you can be sure of this. The market is not going to collapse in the 2.5 years it would take for you to breed your animals and make 20x what you put in. LOL! I wouldn't even sweat it.

Yeah I know that question has probably been asked a few times, but I have been saving for a while to do this thing right. I wanted to make sure that I was not putting all of this money into a bottomless pit. I could go to Vegas and do that. LOL...
Thanks Again
Russ

as it realates to ball pythons (or any other reptile).

I bred and raised parrots for 15 years. Starting with the cockatiels, lovebirds and budgies and slowly working my way up to cockatoos, macaws and African Grays (My favorite).

Back in the '80s, the bird market was so popular that everyone started getting into it. Most were breeding the more affordable birds. And just like Ball Python morphs,
people asked the same question. "Is it safe to invest in the high dollar birds?" Back then, you could buy a mature breeding African Gray for about $500 (wild caught).
So a pair would run around $1,000, give or take. Hand fed baby African Grays sold for around $1000-1,200.

Here's what happened. Everyone started breeding them. Then the prices dropped to around $500 for a baby.
Cockatiels went from $125 down to an embarrassing $45-$75. And that's a hand fed baby.

This got everyone I know, discouraged. They started to worry about investing any more money.
And started selling of their "proven pairs". They felt it just wasn't worth the risk. Well...we were ALL wrong.

Those that stayed with it, are now some of the few breeders of these same birds.
And babies are hard to come by. The market is still very strong, if not even stronger
because the prices dropped to a hobbyist level. And the breeders can't keep up.
Nobody I know of every lost money in birds. I know of a lot of people that made tons of it.
And even recouped their original investment many times over when they got out.
And now wish they had not panicked when the prices dipped a little.

There's a saying that I love that goes like this...

"Sell to the classes, and live with the masses,
sell to the masses, and live with the classes."

If it's not obvious, that means that if you are selling only a few high dollar items to a few people, you'll continue to be the little guy. But when you start to sell LOTS of an item to massive amounts of people, you become the big guy.

As Luke said, IF the prices drop at all, the worse thing that would happen is that you sell to a larger market of people and you yourself can afford more breeders to try and keep up.

That's my take on it anyway.

Troy Dozier
Reptilian Projects

I would expect prices to continue to fall until the point where the profit margin no longer attracts huge numbers of new investors. At some point the actual work, investment, and time involved weighed against the enticement of lower profit will be such that it weeds out the people who don't have the skills or work ethic to continue producing. Once large numbers of new breeders stop jumping in the prices will stabilize. Because ball pythons aren't very prolific and take a long time to mature I'm not sure how long it will take to reach these stabilization prices. Given the same low reproductive rate and the high demand I also bet these stabilization prices will be fairly high (at least compared to imported normal hatchlings).

wholesale......I sell almost everything at a wholesale price...I don't get half of what i should in a year from mice or snakes.........and i make money enough.......

.......I am into corns alot...and they don't sell for duddly unless you set on them forever .......or ""ARE"" someone who people pay too much from...(same as balls).....

I usually sell corns so low that anyone can get them and resell at double thier money and still makeout.......yet this is the same price I ask for them at shows.........people are stupid....and I usually sell to dealers......who then sell to the same people that could have just gotten them from me...(at times)........

DUH?

.......quantity.............!!!

.......balls....live 30 years let's say....and have enough babies to make you enough money at $50 each to still make it profitable.........

.....and albino and all other morphs will never become $50.......

........have fun....spend some money.........

Jeffrey Yohe
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.....wow....you people....really.....you are exactly like I thought.........

............right?

......................................................

...in you're case on the albinos, for roughly the same price as a female albino you can buy 3 100% het females and produce 1.5x the number of albino progeny, plus not rely on the ONE female albino to produce. Furthermore, you'll likely have half-sib pairs to sell, which is a draw to sales.

The BP market will remain strong for many years; if not it's doom to the whole reptile market. The only other herp market that is remotely comparable are the small tortoise species and that remains very strong.

Price reductions on the morphs is a great thing, now you and I can afford them! When we breed them, people buy from us.

Welcome to the market!

Scott J. Michaels DVM
Serpent City