Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've noticed that on "Yellow Belly" ads in the classifieds, people will say "Pics speak for themselves." Do you think they're trying to say "We don't know if this is actually a Yellow Belly aka Het Ivory, but if you think it looks like that, pay me 7-15k and you it's yours!" IMHO, I think they just wanna rip some unexperienced breeder off, and then say it was the buyers fault. Thats just my opinion, can I hear yours?

Ryan

I see some that are not even close to being a YB & some that are YB's. Some of the sellers are just making butts out of themselves.
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Chad Bachman

I almost never post on this fourm but I saw this and could not leave it alone. It seems like every time I look on the classifieds there at least a few "normal" ball pythons being coined as the next million dollar morph in the making. Lets be serious if that were the case would you really be selling it here for "best offer over $(enter morgage payment here)" I guess those are just the kind of things that happen with the explosion of BP morphs and prices. Theres always someone out there looking to make a dishonest buck. It just means that amatures like myself have to be more careful than ever when buying any high dollar normal looking animals.

Why not try to prove them out? In the long run you would make much more $$ doing it that way, but as you kinda said, most people selling these so called next-new-morphs know they are nothing more than a normal animal (dishonest people).
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Chad Bachman

I use the term "pic speaks for itself" in alot of ads. There is no intention to trick anyone. The phrase means exactly what it says. Granted, when talking about Yellow Bellies, there is more controversy about them than almost any other morph. I have also used that phrase on my ads for my Sunglow boas.

All it means is "here is the actual animal being sold". I don't see any reason to try to convince the buyer that it is what it is. You can look at a Sunglow and know it is a sunglow. A pied is a pied (I have used that phrase on my pieds, too, by the way).

The only Yellow Belly ads that I see that make me wonder are the ones that go all out trying to explain why the animal IS a yellow belly.

This is the first time I have ever posted on this forum, so I hope it goes in the correct place.

That still doesn't justify selling a "yellowbelly" if it isn't really a yellowbelly. Seriously, why would you advertise it being a yellowbelly if it isn't? Of course you can always look at a pied and see that it's a pied. Can you always do that with a yellowbelly? It's like selling a normal but advertising as a 100% het.

Don't start jumping all over me about this, but it's how I feel.

I am not sure if you are directing this at me specifically (saying that I am passing of normals as something else) or if you are just making general statements. My yellow belly that I have posted for sale comes from one of the largest ball python importers in the country (same person that sold Amir and Ben Siegel alot of their yellow bellies, in fact). I have sold alot of very high end animals on Kingsnake and do not mess around with the typical "super blushing" "stripish" "spider like" "could be a XXX" type deals that you seem to be implying.

If you are not directing this directly at me, then I appologize for my assumption

I also wanted to add, just in case you WERE directing your comments about my ad, I have changed the wording on my ad. I am open to suggestion and constructive criticizm (sp?), but I do not appreciate anyone implying or outright saying that I am attempting to "rip off inexperienced new breeders".

Anyone that has a problem with me or one of my ads, feel free to click the "contact seller" button on the ad. You will find I am a fairly laid back and easy going guy and WILL listen to your concerns.

Using the phrase when trying to sell a Pied or a Sunglow is fine. Both morphs are highly recognizable. A piebald is generally priced by the level of white it displays and so pricing a high white piebald at $8-10,000 and stating "Pics speak for themselves" is fine because the potential buyer can easily see that the price is justifiable (at least to some degree).

With color morphs (pastels, yellow bellies, etc) the phrase shouldn't be used at all (in my opinion) unless the animal is very clearly a shining example of the morph. Why? I've seen far too many pics where the lighting was poorly setup that distort the true color of the animal. Sometimes this is intentional and we see ads for normal animals that someone is attempting to pass off as a pastel.

I still wonder if people who are selling their "next big thing" balls for $1299.95 (ACT FAST!) realize how transparent they are being. Obviously they bought the animal as an import or at a pet store for under $100. Apparently, according to their ads, these are "simply stunning" animals in person, but I guess I'll never know.
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Sometimes, things are exactly as they appear...sometimes.

No no no...I'm not directing this towards just you. I've seen it in MANY ads, be in yellowbelly or not. I just wanted to see if I wasn't the only person who felt this way about it.

I understand how you could assume I was directing it towards you. No hard feelings, if there ever was.

Ryan