Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just saw the ad for a $4000 sunglow by Frantz Herp and the boa looked pretty good to me. Is this going to be the new price for sunglows?

Whats the deal with the big price drop? Can we hear from some sunglow breeders out there on how long they usually hold on to their sunglows before they sell? Any other morph breeders for that matter.

Sam

Unfortunately sunglows will probably drop fast, lets face it they are easy to produce, you will have a few lines(like Tom Burkes) that will command a high price for years, but lets face it, when you can buy a male dh for around $1000 and breed him to two albinos in two years and make a ton of them, the price cannot stay at $7000 for very long. As an example look at spider balls, last year at this time you were lucky to get your hands on one for 10g, now you can buy them for $4500 and the price will drop more this year. A male sunglow escpecialy a potentially dominant is worth a fair amout of money now, just because of the fact that in 2 years you can make a pile of sunglows, even if they are only $2000 in two years you will still clean up. Co-doms drop fast in price because they are easy to produce. Of course this is just my opinion, and other people WILL disagree and some may even believe they will hold at 4 grand plus for years, but I doubt it very much. Watch the price of bumble bee spider balls this year, I think they are one of the best ball morphs out there, but right now they are around $40k. watch in 6 months. Hope this does not offend anyone. Craig Kade

So true... I know some of these guys buy their morphs at "wholesale" pricing from smaller breeders and resell them but reselling them at $4000 each? I wonder how much they bought them for.

A good friend of mine who lived in Florida almost all his life said he can get yearling albino boas for $300 each. I just couldn't believe it.

Well if a guy barely making it popped out 2 litters from dh sunglow to albinos, and ended up with 15 sunglows(could happen easily) You offer him 30k cash, and he might jump on it. Another thing, many people do not like dealing with the public, and for that reason sell animals lower then "market price" to avoid dealing with lookers. Craig

My thoughts on this is not many people are not slugging out with them. As long as clutches are consitently being produced the price will drop. I want to say 3 years ago i saw albino babies for sell for 800 all day long. That next breeding season alot of the hobby or little breeders ( not meant to be an insult or anything negative just to clarify now ) were slugging out or haveing premies. It was all over the forum with pics and all. then the price went up to 1200 per albino. Now its stabalized to 1000-1400. Also the market dictakes the price of animals too. You also got to look at how many animals a person can sell and if there sharp or kahl strain. Since there not compatable and the kahl strain has been the dominent strain produced that also plays a factor of price ( in my opinion sharp strain produces nicer animals but theres not as big a mrket for them). I'm going to use my self for this example. I sell my babies local and there just normal no high dollor morphs. Now lets say i got a sunglow male and 3 hypo het females and got 3 litters of 30 babies each. That would be by averages on the low side at 20 sunglows ( just say females were all supers for ease). Can i sell 20 sunglows here no i can't i'm about 300 yard away from Rich Ihles place. So therefor i would advertise on here and since i'm not a known breeder here i need to drop prices to sell my hets whitch therefore drops the price on sunglows. Then people take notice and drop there prices to compete or they continue to feed all there babies. Just for the fun of it how much were piebald balls 2 years ago and now there 8500 thats a huge drop that would woory the hell out of me if i purchased then at last years prices. Sorry its so long but it throws some ideas out there. Paul

LOL. I agree you can not compare the ball and boa markets to be the same thing, I also agree $300 albinos are not likely to be the norm. I was merely giving an example of how prices can drop, honestly do you think $7500 is a sustainable price for something you can get the ingredients for under $2000?? To give another example, I just acquired the only male baby of what I believe to be a new co-dom morph. In two years if he breeds I do expect to sell the babies in the $20k range, however I do not expect to get 20k after 2 years, in fact the price could easily drop to less than half that. I truly was just trying to give an answer to the question, and I know your harsh comments were not directly aimed at me. I think alot of people are truly surprised when they find out the asking prices and the getting prices are often thousands of dollars different in this business. As for someone stating they heard somewhere about $300 albinos, I doubt it actually happened, but I do not feel it is wrong for them to post it. Do you really think it is going to destroy the market?? Again, just my feeble thoughts and opinions. Craig Kade

Hey Craig, I don't think anyone was letting yearling albinos go at $300 each...they were most likly albino burms. Anyway, given the fact that boas are harder to produce, I think prices are more subject to cyclic trends. You will always have those who get in to it to make the fast buck...find out how hard it is and quit. Then you see cheap prices. But if the market says everyone should be making snows, and everyones focus turns to high dollar snows...then who is producing sunglows? I don't think everyone is capable of producing everything in a single year. Even with the new tripple hets coming strong, or Quads.. the numbers of each produced will be limited.

A few years ago, I saw albinos selling at $800 each, and the following year I had planned to buy a couple. Then they were $1200 and $1500. This is cyclic, everyone kept saying not many produced. The only albinos I ever saw at $500 had only one eye. Who would want to breed those? I would not even want one as a pet. Andy

LOL. I agree you can not compare the ball and boa markets to be the same thing, I also agree $300 albinos are not likely to be the norm. I was merely giving an example of how prices can drop, honestly do you think $7500 is a sustainable price for something you can get the ingredients for under $2000?? To give another example, I just acquired the only male baby of what I believe to be a new co-dom morph. In two years if he breeds I do expect to sell the babies in the $20k range, however I do not expect to get 20k after 2 years, in fact the price could easily drop to less than half that. I truly was just trying to give an answer to the question, and I know your harsh comments were not directly aimed at me. I think alot of people are truly surprised when they find out the asking prices and the getting prices are often thousands of dollars different in this business. As for someone stating they heard somewhere about $300 albinos, I doubt it actually happened, but I do not feel it is wrong for them to post it. Do you really think it is going to destroy the market?? Again, just my feeble thoughts and opinions. Craig Kade

there is a finite amount, not infinite, number of people in this trade that are interested in specific animals. The fact that we are here means we're interested in boas and out of this group there are a limited amount of people that desire to or can afford to spend $5,000 for a sunglow. Look at the classifieds section and you will see a number of "left over" '04 babies and IMHO the prices are being adjusted accordingly. With '05 babies already arriving and sunglows being a codominant trait, there will be more and more of these animals being added to the market place. Unless prices drop so more people can afford to buy them how else are they going to move? Of course the nicest animals may still command top dollar compared to less desireable ones but let's be honest here folks. Like any other commercial item, boas follow the same rules of supply and demand. When the supply overwhelms the demand the prices HAVE TO BE ADJUSTED ACCORDINGLY! Anyone that tells you differently has their head in the sand or an agenda of their own.

It's all about supply and demand. It's kind of like car sales. Dealers get in the hot new 04' and if it is a particular model that just came out you will normally see an "add on" to the MSRP. After awhile the prices will drop down to MSRP, maybe not for another year or so but they do. Then you will see adds right before the 06' models come out with deals like 3K below invoice and what not. It is all about timing, supply and demand and what dealers call floor time(paying to have a car sit for any lenght of time) It will keep losing it's value. So you "blow' 'em out.

Hate to compare Boas with cars but they share very similar trends.
I am not really worried about the Boa market but my Martha Stewart Stock! LOL
And there really isn't any need for anyone to get hostile over a simple discussion over Boa economics. Nobody's statements here are going to "drive' the Boa prices up or down.

The person advertising at that low price probably doesn't have the reputation behind them to attain a higher price. Therefor, you see the typical "Bail Out". I guarantee you won't see anyone Big in the business following in their footsteps.

My one word of advice to anyone out there trying to make a quick buck in the Boa market. If you have to sell a snake to Eat tomorrow, you are in the wrong business.

It takes countless years, time, and effort to build a reputable company in this small community. Patience is a Virtue.

This forum was also not designed to discuss dollar amounts. It is here for the enjoyment of what we do and to be proud of.

When I said a friend told me he can get yearling albino BCI boas for $300 each I never said I believe him. Believe me if he actually came through and got perfectly healthy albinos for that price I would never advertise that was the price I got them for.

I was just so shocked when my friend told me this. My friend also told me I would never sell an albino boa for $1000. I told him to kiss my @$$ because I've already have.

I'm new to this game and my intentions were never to get filthy rich over breeding boa morphs. I mainly wanted to acquire a fine collection of boa morphs for my own viewing pleasure. If I made some money every now and then, fine. I would just mean more boas for me.

Sorry if I offended anyone when I said my friend could get them for $300 dollars but my intentions was not to drive the prices down. I would also like to say sorry for my rude reply to whoever it was that said I made a stupid comment. I can get hot headed too when it comes to these type of remarks when it was uncalled for.

All that said I hope everyone is enjoying their Easter weekend!!

Sam