Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My friend just told me about some Pricey snakes. I was just wondering how can a SNAKE be worth $38,000. I am not new to snakes but I just don't understand. It seems to be a Giant pyramid sceam. Am I wrong? I can understand spending some money on a snake that is rare but give me a break. Are their any people out there that buy these sort of snakes for there beauty or just because they think they can make a few bucks of them. Not trying to be judgemental just wondering. Thanks

The $38,000.00 snakes are rare snakes, I would by a $38,000.00 snake if I had cash. and most breeders and non-breeders but them for there beauty. my whole family says "who would by a snake for that much money" and I said lots of breeders do by snakes for that price. Thanks Scott Glover

Why would you buy it? To make money off of or just to have. Thanks

I would buy it because it has very nice colors and to breed. Thanks Scott Glover

$38,000 is actually fairly cheap for some of the rare balls. Mostly the people that buy these are collectors or breeders that truely love the animals. And a lot of times the price is paid mostly in trades. On top of the thrill of having a rare new morph snake, you also get the thrill and excitement of seeing what (breeding wise) can be done with it.

Of course there are some people that are content with a honda and some that aspire to rolls royce.
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Tosha

8.13.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and currently un-named)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Dessert Tortoise (Pope)
7.9.5 Fish (1,2,3,4...)
0.0.1 Frog rescued from pool skimmer
0.0.2 Lizards rescued from pool skimmer

The 38,000 is for the bumble bee spider I think, But that is NOTHING compared to some of the following morphs::

Platinum ball python..... 50,000
Lesser Platinum ball python....?????
Blue Eyed lucy...... 100,000 if you can find one for sale
Black eyed lucy..... 100,000 /- if you can get one
Ivory Ball pythons.... 75,000-100,000

These are just a few of the higher ones....

If I am not mistaken Ralph Davis stated in his journal he paid 70,000 for one IVORY ball in 2003. So yes people/ breeders do pay big bucks for snakes.
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1.0 Pied(04)(RDR)
1.0 Albino(04)(RDR)
0.1 Spider(04)(RDR)
3.2 Pastels(03's)(04's)(ASF,Graziani,Bell lines)
0.1 Yellow belly(unproven)(04)
1.3 Yellow belly(unproven)(02,03,04's)
2.0 100% HET CLOWN(04's)(MHMR)
3.3 100% het albinos(03's)(high contrast bell line)
0.1 poss Het Albino(03's)
2.0 100% het pieds(03's)(Vin Russo,CRE)
0.2 100% het pieds(03's)(04's)(RDR,TWL)
1.2 Poss het pieds(03's)(PETE KAHL)
2.1 Poss het pieds(00's)(01's) hoping to get PIEDS this year(Vin Russo, Pete Kahl)
25 Normal adult females
60 04 females
15 normal mixed 03's
20 Assorted weird ball pythons 04's

The lesser platinums are $35,000.00-$40,000.00
and the black eyed leucistics are $250,000.00. Thanks Scott Glover

Wow the amount of QUICK responce's to this topic is amazing to me! I am not trying to argue with anybody. I'm just trying to figure out how a CAPTIVE!!!! Bread color can be anywhere near as valuable as a rare naturale animal. It still seems to me that the only people who buy these animals are the ones who want bread them to sell them to other people to MAKE MONEY and vise versa. Are their any people who buy these animals just to have them? It seems the market could fall out underneath these people in a moment. Is it just market value? Are there that many people out there that are willing to pay $38,000 that it makes sence to offer them for that much money. I would love to here from some people who actualy paid that much money for a snake, besides profesional breaders(by profesional I mean those that make there money only or mostly form reptiles). Actualy I would like to here form any body who has paid that much for a reptile.

Well alot of people start off with one morph and take their profits from that morph and invest in a more expensive morph. Then a few years down the rode the are producing a couple of morphs which means more profit to invest in the higher end morphs. So basically they are just reinvesting of an inital investment. Bottom line if we(BP breeders) want to pay that much for a snake it is a choice we are free to make.

These are investment animals,people buy them to reproduce and make a return on their money.Not many buy the most expensive morphs for just a pet.When albino Burmese pythons hit this country the buyer paid $27000. for three of them and had to borrow against his house to pull this off.Several bought in on them and made huge profits.This happened 20 years ago and this is stilll going on.The stock market is unstable and banks pay little interest.If you can breed snakes now is a good time to be in them.I would prefer not to say just how much I have invested,but the pic will give you an idea.Terry

Just a few years ago leucistic ball pythons where just a rumor. There where no public pictures of a living leucistic ball python. There was a rumor that a young male was imported and quickly sold to a collector in Japan. It was a very upsetting rumor because not only did the supposed collector not want any pictures of the snake released he (per the rumor) had no intention of breeding the snake. Supposedly he wanted the ONLY white ball python. I don't know if this rumor was even true but fortunately more sources of the leucistic gene where found.

The high initial price of new morphs tends to insure that they get in the hands of the most experienced breeders with the resources to reproduce them as fast as possible rather than ending up as collector items or worse, dead like many of the cheap imported normals bought by kids as their first reptile.

It takes a lot of work to start with a single attractive new imported morph ball python and reproduce it enough to make it generally available even to breeders much less pet keepers. The capitalistic system is very efficient at meeting demand. The high initial price is the fuel that runs the ball python industry machine to do the decades of work needed to produce enough morph babies to get them down to pet store prices. If no one would have paid more than $500 for the first albino ball pythons then it's very unlikely that the many breeders who have worked hard for years thinking of better ways to increase their albino project production would have bothered. The only reason there are as many albino ball pythons around as there are now is because of the high initial price and it will still take years of work to produce enough to go around at an even more affordable price.

Just the chicken and veal! I know being a smart @$$ but it is a huge pet peeve for me! LOL

Bread = coating meat with bread crumbs or tasty treat with PB and Jam.

Bred = to have copulated/mated.
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Nita Hamilton
4.13 Normal BP's, 1.0 Het Orange Ghost BP, 1.0 Het Pied 1.0 50% poss Het Orange Ghost BP's

Why pay a lot for a snake?
Because the babies are worth more.
These are investments.
Pirimid or not, there is a market and it is making a lot of people money.
Should stay strong for at least another ten years.
You will always make your $38,000 back.
In the end, you have to love what you do.
Happiness is succe$$.

That is a great answer if they are a good value for 10 or more years than more power to you. I agree you have to love what you do. I happen to be a venomous keeper. Have you bought one of the $38,000 snakes? Or any snakes approaching this value? How often does one sell such an expensive snake? Just curios that’s all. Thanks fore the FRIENDLY responses so far!

My family hate snakes! They also hate paintball just happen to be my 2 pasions aside from spending time with my wife and children! (2.3) 11,7,5,3,3weeks

all I can say is if I had I would buy it...who knows maybe someday!

To each his/her own!

Paul and Jason
HTDesigns

.

I just went yesterday at Camp Pendelton in California. Paintball is one bad ass sport and besides getting barreled (surfing), their is not much that beats it! What guns are you guys shooting? I use an E-Orracle with an Orracle backup.
Tom Baker

freeflow cocker and i have a old 99 shocker 4x4 we play every sunday I just got home what a day!

Paul

I am shooting a tippmann A-5 with an electronic grip and flatline barrel. I play mostly wood games but try and get a few speedball games a year. I am looking at buying my brothers old angel and fixing it up just for speedball. I think we picked two expensive hobbies LOL

LOL

Paintball and snakes are expensive hobbies, but as long as you enjoy them. . .the "extra" money has to go somewhere.

peace,
Ian Daviss

I can't believe I'm meeting fellow paintballers here! I wouldn't have really given much thought about the cross interest of paintball and snakes...lol

I'll play an occasional game of speedball but scenario is my game. I've got a pretty good scenario team together and we'ver taken our share of awards. I primarily shoot an A5 with RT and Flatline barrel. It's also dressed up with a Special Ops A5A2 kit and some other additions. I also have a back-up 98, a Core ZX pistol and a Palmer Customs PUG. I'm looking at picking up a Palmer Blazer soon.

they shoot so dam far and straight you can see the ball as it smacks you in the head!!!!!!

my freeflow is fast and very accurate but still doesn't shoot that far so i stick to speed ball and play back(due to my lack of speed!)

know I need my wife to uderstand that it's not about the money it's my happieness!

LOL

paul
HTDesigns

Yeah they are pretty accurate. They actually make pretty good guns for back players because thats what I play when I play speedball. With the electronic trigger you can put out around 14 balls a second with nice precision. Great for holding down those pesky mid and front players on the opposite team. LOL

...others are endangered due to habitat destruction...captive propigation is their last hope...sjm

Are you talking about balls or other snakes? I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination but are their endangered subspecies of balls that need protection or are you talking about another snake.

Ops. Thought you were talking about Balls, Not venomous, it's amazing what you can read if you actually slow down and READ what the message is!

I spent 16,000 last year.....YES, I plan on making a return on my investment... BUT I also love the morphs colors and what I can produce by putting some of the other types of ball pythons together. Say for instance buying a Spider ball male(7,000) and a pastel female(2,500) Your looking at a 9,500 dollar investment that can produce a Bumble bee spider(38,000) that is one reason we do this and have you seen a bumble bee spider..TOTALLY AWESOME...it's not just for the cash all the time, Just like any gamble YOU could LOSE but with snakes you still have the next season. Anything can happen. Thanks David
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1.0 Pied(04)(RDR)
1.0 Albino(04)(RDR)
0.1 Spider(04)(RDR)
3.2 Pastels(03's)(04's)(ASF,Graziani,Bell lines)
0.1 Yellow belly(unproven)(04)
1.3 Yellow belly(unproven)(02,03,04's)
2.0 100% HET CLOWN(04's)(MHMR)
3.3 100% het albinos(03's)(high contrast bell line)
0.1 poss Het Albino(03's)
2.0 100% het pieds(03's)(Vin Russo,CRE)
0.2 100% het pieds(03's)(04's)(RDR,TWL)
1.2 Poss het pieds(03's)(PETE KAHL)
2.1 Poss het pieds(00's)(01's) hoping to get PIEDS this year(Vin Russo, Pete Kahl)
25 Normal adult females
60 04 females
15 normal mixed 03's
20 Assorted weird ball pythons 04's

#1.. a snake is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it
#2.. those that do pay are definately in it for money they can make off it. JMHO... Ron
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The Crawl Space

Correct me if I'm wrong but Isn't the SUPER bumble bee form seling for 38k on NERD's site? Wouldn't a standard spider and pastel make a normal bumble bee?

patel spider - bumblebee 38,000 on his site

super pastel spider - killer bee not in his for sale section
(unless I missed it)

TomChambers

the bumble bee spider is a pastel spider- $38,000.00

and a killer bee spider is a super pastel spider- $100,000.00

Thanks Scott Glover

Im just curious. Is there something wrong with making a living off of your hobby and what you want to do and love? Millions of people across the country dream of this! It doesnt matter what it is. Who cares if someone buys a ball python for 50gs to make money? Im sure the snake would get top notch care. I personally dont mind paying that much for "investment" snakes. However there is some gamble in it. I think, and this is my opinion only. When looking for "investement" reptiles and lets say paying 50 grand on a pair of snakes, I personally look at what qualities the snake will have that will appeal to the mass public, so when the snakes reach say 2-5 thousand people will want them. So yes colors and patterns always come in to play.... what looks the best?... What qualities will make better looking snakes in the future, what will make better morphs when bred to others? Generally as for investment stuff you know your probably not going to sell your hatchlings for what you paid for the parents, however your looking long term down the road to when the mass public can afford them and when your producing 20 or 100 of them a year. What do they want? Thats for us to try to figure out and then get in early on the projects to build the supply even if it means paying tons of money up front. In the long run it pays off. As for patterns and such I love all snakes! I love all reptiles. I talk to so many people who say I dont like that or this, to be honest I find them all fascinating and beautiful so why not have some that make me money at the same time Im enjoying them, nothing wrong with that I would say! And on a side note. I also think the price of ball pythons has to do with the barter system. The trade demand if you would say. I think most of the high prices are due to alot of trading going on right now not necessarily people actually purchasing them, Of course they do occasionally, but the barter system is in full effect! Cash price=20 grand, trade price=35 grand, need I say more?

It is all supply and demand. There currently happens to be a
strong demand for unique and rare mutations of ball pythons.
That's good for us breeders. Will most people ever sell a
$38,000 snake?? No they will not. But the nice thing is that
you don't need to sell babies for very much to make this a nice
business (...or to support your hobby). If you could sell babies
of a particular more common morph for say $500 apiece, you'd be
making probably $1500-3000 per clutch. Assume that you spend
$200 per year caring for each snake you have...that's a very
nice return (every year or two), especially if you've got 5, 10,
20, or more of them...

Generally, a breeder can break even on just about any mutation
after 1-4 clutches, and that is assuming they sell the babies
for significantly less than the breeder animal they originally
purchased. If it was a male they bought, that male could produce
between 0-5 or more clutches in the first year it is bred!
It can then go on to breed the next 5-25 years, so you can see
that it doesn't take much to make your money back and then some.

As long as you can keep your animals healthy and breed them,
you will make money. Everyone has different reasons for being
involved with ball pythons (or animals in general), but I believe
that the majority of people truly enjoy the animals.

In my opinion, anyone that buys a ball python for more then a
couple thousand dollars is buying it because a)they believe they
can make a nice monetary return on their purchase (and there is
absolutely NOTHING wrong with that), and b)usually because they
find that mutation appealing. Sure, there could be people with
more money than they know what to do with, that like to collect
expensive and rare things, and they may buy a $100,000 ball
python, but don't expect to see any posts from them here on KS...

Regards,
Chris Simone
www.SimoneReptiles.com

Wow by the number of responses it seems that there is ALOT more interest in these expensive snakes than I thought. There have been some great responses to this. While I'm not ready to mortgage the house just yet. I can see more why people spend the money on them, and no there is nothing wrong with making money off of something you love. Thanks for all the info.