Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi All,
Just wanted to run something by you :
As I raise my prices yearly on baby Eastern Indigos, I sometimes feel like I'm gouging people who I would probably like very much as friends, if I knew them better. Then when I see the glut of $5000 ball morphs, I realize how ridiculously low we sell Indigos for. I could have sold 20 more babies than I had this year. Next year I'm going to ask $800 for blacks and $1000 for reds and I already have 2 blacks reserved.
Don't get me wrong, I love ball morphs and boa morphs, excepting hybrids, but geez, an Indigo for a grand but some ball morphs cost 100 grand! Even, let's say, a spider ball. Plenty of them around and $5000 each or whatever. You can't buy Eastern Indigos most of the year at any price!
I know Indigos are messier and larger, but that can't acount for the incredible disparity in prices. I just really think Indigos will rise in price every year for many years to come. The consumer doesn't get sticker shock any more; he's numb! lol
Love to hear your thoughts,
My Best,
Steve

I think you could have asked $1000 each this year and found enough buyers to sell off your stock.

We'll see what the short term effects of the Disaster in the Gulf states are in how they affect fuel prices, and indirectly the personal dispensable income that is the life blood of our hobby.

In the past 10 years, Eastern Indigo prices have remained relatively level. If inflation is added to the equation, they have actually slowly dropped in value for the past 10 years. I think next year is going to be a year of correction with average prices probably doubling the price of the "low-end" breeder prices. $800-$1000 is the number I expect to see.

The number of breeders is not increasing it seems, while demand is definately increasing.

I also think that the few offspring produced of the other drymarchon species will keep their prices up for some years to come.

The species that are legally imported will drop in price much more quickly while sub's whose stock is artificially limited by exportation bans will show the longest stability.

Personally, I won't have any indigo babies next year to sell, so the business side of my hobby will take a short term hit.

MOST IMPORTANTLY: Those who work with all drymarchon will have 5 times the enjoyment than those working with oddball BP morphs at just 1/5 the price.

This concludes the statement.

Doug T

First, HELLO STEVE, great to see hear from you. I find myself in agreement with both of you. There was a time when I felt guilty about selling an indigo to a friend for $350!....but as Steve mentioned, compared to ball pythons, how can we sell indigos, the ultimate snake and only sporadically available, to be sold so inexpensively. Even $1k seems like a steal to work with such an amazing animal. Working with cobras, indigos are right there in their level of "intelligence" (I know, I need to be careful in how I use that term); I can't imagine ever not being seriously involved in their conservation, husbandry and breeding; they bring an incredible amount of satisfaction to me.

My prices are GOING WAY UP next year (of course, if I get babies; Lord willing)....at least to $750 for blacks and perhaps a bit more for reds. I typically only breed one or two females each year in order to keep the rest of my females in tip, top shape. Most of my hatchlings are donated to zoos/museums/nature centers so I need to charge a price for the private sector that will help me cover my HIGH costs of maintaining them (I still lose money in the end). If someone truly wants one, they'll spend a little extra. If they have a problem with that, they can buy a black milk, a black king, a black racer or a black something or other. Indigos deserve the same level of care, respect and dedication as a dog, they live far longer than a dog, and will bring just as much enjoyment as a dog but for many years longer.

Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center
Lake Forest, IL

>>I think you could have asked $1000 each this year and found enough buyers to sell off your stock.
>>
>>We'll see what the short term effects of the Disaster in the Gulf states are in how they affect fuel prices, and indirectly the personal dispensable income that is the life blood of our hobby.
>>
>>In the past 10 years, Eastern Indigo prices have remained relatively level. If inflation is added to the equation, they have actually slowly dropped in value for the past 10 years. I think next year is going to be a year of correction with average prices probably doubling the price of the "low-end" breeder prices. $800-$1000 is the number I expect to see.
>>
>>The number of breeders is not increasing it seems, while demand is definately increasing.
>>
>>I also think that the few offspring produced of the other drymarchon species will keep their prices up for some years to come.
>>
>>The species that are legally imported will drop in price much more quickly while sub's whose stock is artificially limited by exportation bans will show the longest stability.
>>
>>Personally, I won't have any indigo babies next year to sell, so the business side of my hobby will take a short term hit.
>>
>>MOST IMPORTANTLY: Those who work with all drymarchon will have 5 times the enjoyment than those working with oddball BP morphs at just 1/5 the price.
>>
>>This concludes the statement.
>>
>>Doug T
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Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm
Lake Forest, IL

Doug,
Whenever you come down from that hill in Tibet, you always leave us with more wisdom than we had before.
Clasping my hands, I bow.
In seriousness, I always hope that you and Rob respond when I want to bounce a thought around.
There isn't anyone whose opinion I respect more than you two guys.
Thanks,
Steve

When I started out breeding Easterns I charged a failry low price for them. The first year I bred them (Many years ago) I had a marginal degree of success, and charged a fairly low price. Consequently, subsequent clutches proved MUCH more challenging to get to full term and feeding. And several years I produced absolutely nothing.

My prices increased.

I would often tell people that my prices WERE NOT the lowest. That the same snake could be had from competitors for a bit less and from people that had bred their first clutch for much less. During Grey Davis reign as our governor, electricity bills hit me so hard,and were so large that there is NO WAY that I could weather them without my prices going up, it was insane.

Frankly, I think that charging anything under 1k nowadays is unreasonable.I think that a certain amount of these snakes produced in captivity should go to reintroduction projects and some of them given away to people that have always wanted them but cant afford them(I have done this in the past when I could) I know this sounds contradictory , but it keeps this a "hobby" and less of a business. Businessmen dont give away snakes that they can get $1k for, generally speaking. Hobbiest do.

Prices have increased over the last several years, the recent weather conditions in the gulf may have destroyed even more habitat and the seasons not over yet, not at all....

I would like to say that everyone should be able to afford an Indigo, but thats not realistic. I paid DEARLY for the first ones that I bought and in retrospect lost more money than I made. Once you factor in things like food, cages, electicity, vets visits, medicine.....it costs. Cheaper snakes are avialble, and I have OFTEN had to settle for them instead of what I wanted. such is life. Being cheap doesnt make them anyless magicaL.

The ball python people tend to put very high values on their snakes, I am not fit to judge what they do as I dont keep and breed ball pythons, but they charge a pretty penny for the many morphs they create. Useing this rationale in reverse, I beleive that breeders of Eastern Indigos ought to be able to charge more BECAUSE their snakes are not cross bred with other drymarchon types.

Eastern Indigos are hard to produce on a consistant basis, large , messy and have big appetitites. All of which makes them harder to get ahold of. As more and more people crowd this place we call the U.S., and wild land is cutback and exploited to make way for mini malls and themeparks and housing...animals like this will increase in price because of sheer rarity.

But in all honesty.....the snakes value lies in its HABITAT.

Heres a simple equation: Value: Habitat 80% Animal 20%

Without its habitat, the snake has little to no value, is not part of a larger equation, and is just an isolated curiosity to gape at and admire. HABITAT is where the value of these animals lies, without it, they have little to no value except as display items.

Just my opinion, if you dont share it I understand, no hard feelings. So..having said all this, lets do what we can to preserve their native habitat. And understand that the price is going to be high, and so is the level of effort in order to consistantly produce these awesome snakes.

Sincerely,

Fred Albury

But you blame Grey Davis for energy prices in California and not Enron, FERC, et al?

What flavor IS that Kool-Aid?

Grey Davis:

If Grey Davis was a reptile hed be a slug eating snake.
Yes,I blame is worthless but for our electricity crisis, and proudly petitioned to get his butt out of office I may add...

Thats the good part...

The BAD part is that he was replaced by Schwarznegger,who in my opinion is as bad or WORSE than him. Ask teachers unions,law enforcement, firefighters, and union members. Arnold is big businesses best buddy...yahhh...

And I do blame a host of other things for the energy crisis, incl Enron. but Grey Davis was such a putz it was easy to dislike him. It is even easier to dislike Arnold.

California...we produce some winners eh?

lol in the sun

Fred Albury

Okay, I don't breed indigos or cribos (at least not for a few more years), so I can't really speak to the difficulty in breeding them or really even the level of cost and time involved in keeping a quantity of adults, but here's my thoughts. Personally, I think the people in the ball python market are completely off their rockers in the amount of money they charge or pay for a snake. After all, at the end of the day, a 100K ball python is just that, a snake, and a ball python at that(no offense to anyone out there that loves ball pythons, I have one myself). However, I don't think what the high end morph market is doing should be the yardstick for how to measure increases in Dry prices, and here's why. It seems to me that the appeal in having incredibly expensive snakes (at least for a lot of people) is greatly economic, and I don't know that that is really the direction that the reptile hobby in general should go. In my experience, people approach "investment" animals differently than they do an animal that they own simply because they enjoy it. And the higher the prices on indigos rise, the more people will tend to approach them that way. I'm not saying that people shouldn't aim to breed them and sell them, or that high prices on indigos are not justified by their coolness factor. However, as prices rise, your consumer base is going to change considerably, and that's something you should keep in mind. Inflation of indigo prices combined with the rising prices of interstate commerce permits is going to put them out of reach of some people who might truly love them. Again, I'm not an expert, and I can't say what a "fair" price for an indigo is, but these are just thoughts to keep in mind when contemplating future price trends.
Robert

I agree that indigo's could certainly be sold for a much higher price than they are & don't have a problem with people charging more for them. However, as mentioned in the previous post, I don't believe we should base our prices on what someone is willing to pay for ball python or boa morphs for that matter. Those who are paying 10-100K for snakes are doing so as an investment, not as a pet. In some cases they guys doing so don't even like snakes.

I respect you guys & I apologize if i'm stepping on some toes, but I think it's a bit hypocritical to on one hand say things like: I breed indigo's because I love them not because I want to make money at it; while on the other hand contemplating raising prices just to keep up with the Joneses.

Eric
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If Jesus is your co-pilot, you'd better change seats!

It is quite possible that raising the prices too high will have a negative impact on the hobby.
Ok, I know what your thinking, Eric's lost it... Well i'm here to tell you, I never had it!

In the past, i've heard you guys say that the cost of indigo's weeds out the beginners & the undesirables who wouldn't or couldn't properly care for the animal.
Well, it's quite possible that raising the price too much may be taken as an indicator to the investment types that indigos are a good way to make money, allowing them to fall into the hands of unscrupulous types only out for a buck.

Eric
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If Jesus is your co-pilot, you'd better change seats!

np

Please elaborate, I'm not clear on what you imply. Robert Bruce is a passionate, conscientious, and successfull indigo keeper. His current prices are no higher than prices I found two years ago in socal from another source. And he has healthy, well cared for animals. I am buying a pair from him this year, and he has been very helpfull and his prices are on point with everyone elses.

The fact that interstate commerce of Couperi is controlled limits their value as an investment, so does the diffuculty of breeding them. so I dont believe profit is an idigo keepers motive. I think the motive is how awesome and unusual they are.

I looked out of state this year, and found prices that were $50 to $100 less than Roberts. I will pay $100 dollars more for a snake in state rather than hope a waiting list works out, and save the $100 on the IC permit and shipping costs and stress. In the future, I will probably try to find another breeder out of state, hoping that we have some genetic diversity within the CB animals.

I love them because they are magnificent, I want to breed them, and would like to sell the offspring in the future, not to make money, but because the reward of keeping snakes to me, is breeding them.

I agree that raising the price for indigos relative to other "designer" morphs may encourage persons who treat these wonderful animals more as a costly trinkit in their garage, waiting for a cash in date when the "investment" has an adequate return to cash in. I do not own any indigos but wish to do so out of my love for the species, a true believer as it were, and would be priced out of the market if only money drove the present breeders. It seems to me more than any other North American snake the Indigos need to be sold to persons genuinely enthused by this lovely creature rather than your average herper who collects to cash in later.

I am interesated inthese snakes very much and would be honored to have a pair in my possession, not for profit but because they need champions.

I'm sorry...I gotta sound off on this one:

Do indigo breeders really want to be compared to bp breeders?!

I HOPE NOT!

Designer bp's are purely INVESTMENT snakes. There are maybe 1-3% of all the people who own them that do it purely out of love who had 1000 bp's before there were ever any morphs. THAT'S IT!

All the new people keeping these are doing so with dollar signs in their eyes! I have many friends who sold all of their awesome hognose, king, and pine collections to get into...gulp...DESIGNER BALL PYTHONS! Well I have one word for these people...SELLOUT! One way to lose me as a friend is to tell me that you've sold half of your collection to make room for your pastel and clown bp's! lol

I know I am not the only one here who feels this way as this is a commonly held perception by colubrid people.

PLEASE...NEVER EVER EVER compare indies to bp's! ever!

I think our prices a couple years ago were fine! $300 for erebennus...$500 for black easterns, $600 for reds.
I would have no problem discounting anything for a friend, and if I ever have something posted that a forum member likes, shoot me an e-mail, identify yourself, and I'll make it happen (as is common practice for me).

Eric, you made some great points in your post.

I DO KNOW what you guys are saying who posted the top few threads, and I'm not bashing you at all. I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE SAYING, it just comes off badly. As he said, its a contradiction to say "I only breed indies for the pure enjoyment of working with such an intelligent spp" and in the next sentence say "my prices are going way up because demand is so high."

People who work with indigos are a fraternity in my mind. People who didn't mind shelling out a month's pay for an indigo, probably not even being able to afford a pair. For me, it was a female from Dean in '02 when I was making $5.65 an hour in my college lab in which I was only able to get 10-12 hours a week!

Again, Drymarchon keepers are a brotherhood, one that sticks together and does not get into all these spats (isn't that why many of us came to this forum???). Well, in a fraternity, brothers don't take advantage of other brothers.

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Anthony Chodan

www.gradeareptiles.com

Go over to the Ball Python Forum. Now when you're over there, look for pictures, topics, discussion, or anything for that matter, about NORMAL, CAPTIVE BRED & BORN Ball Pythons. You'll be hard pressed to find anything. The Ball Python market has got to the point where there is no love anymore for the normal types. Most of the time if you find normals for sell, they are captive hatched or wild caught. Every topic is yellow bellie, het for this, is my ball a clown? etc. etc. I guess I'm a big lover of natural animals, and always will be.

Steve

I think the whole Ball Python thing is out of control. I don't want to be anywhere near it. I do have my own morph. He is a scarred rescue, fortunately his demand is very low and I don't have a female to put with him. I also don't thihk his scarring is genetic .

I think when you start putting price tags that equal half or exceed your annual income then you don't see the animal anymore, you just see dollar signs. It doesn't just happen in the Ball trade though, it happens everywhere in this hobby.

If the price of indigos rises much higher the rate of poaching wild animals may go up. Not a problem with 3 legged ball pythons het for hair. But our natural beauties are at risk.

My solution: Everyone have great success breeding them from now on and lets stabilize prices so everyone who wants to work with indigos for the sheer love of them can do so.

Too bad it isn't that easy, huh?

The really ironic thing is asthetically speaking, IMHO I think the normal BPs are the prettiest, with their delicate black, brown and cream markings. And then they have those adorable little faces... It's cool that there are many morphs to choose from, some of those morphs look pretty nice and I can understand the desire to breed them for profit. If people do it for the love of the animal, more power to them!

But people just looking for a nice monetary investment would probably do well to buy something that does not require feeding and can't keel over. Like gems or art or something. Especially given how many people are into the designer balls craze, how slowly they grow and breed, and how swift the depreciation is. They're an animal that can live over 40 years, and in 15 years, I suspect even leucistics will cost less than $500.
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0.1 chickens (Condor)
0.2 dog mutts (half ownership, only mine when they misbehave, Lucy & Amy)
0.1 Halflinger horse (Crissy)
0.1 Normal phase California Kingsnake (Sophia)
1.1 parents
Still searching for 1.0 WC human

aNTHONY,

Great post. I do think however that people get into Easterns to make money sometimes. I have had two or three people approach me and ask me how much I think THEY could make if they dumped alot of their snakes on the markey and bred Easterns. Dont laugh, they are looking to make a buck. And they know what easterns sell for.

So, greed is everywhere

Fred Albury

Everyone has valid points. Myself, I am currently "0 for 3 years" and have lost 2 females to dystocia. I am down to 1 pair of Easterns due my extensive traveling. I sold a pair to Tony, (the female never bred) and she lays him a nice batch of fertile eggs the first try! Great for Tony, don't misunderstand me. I'm just trying to point out how hard it is for most of us to get a good batch of eggs even every so often! Robert "the Bruce", while a good guy, openly told me he breeds and keeps Indigos strictly to allow him to breed his other nice species and projects. The indies pay the freight is the way he put it. He keeps them in those damn plastic boxes and shelves! He has a huge breeding colony and always gets a good clutches every year, but even for him, sometimes not enough!
IMO, we sell them way too cheaply. I think RB's prices should be the baseline and they should go up. How much, I don't know(see DT's post)I think TXN's should be every bit as costly as Couperi, too..
AC, I agree with most everything you said. I'm not above giving a price break to the regulars. Does that mean I should gouge a newcomer? Probably not, but I should get a fair return on my upkeep,etc. I bet we have some of the highest feeding bills of any herpers!
I don't know about you guys, but I worry every time I sell a Dry to a newcomer(hasn't happened in a while obviously!) Are they going to take care of them like me, are they getting in over their heads, etc. Maybe $1500 per animal would weed out those who just want one because they are the greatest snakes extent..It's just like selling one of my pointing Lab pups. I want to know they are going to a good home!
I've gone on long enuff..I'm in Whacko, TX working so I've got too much time on my hands..Ya'll take care..
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Carl W Gossett
Garage Door Herps
Monument,Colorado...northern territory of the Great Republic of Texas

I have a very nice NORMAL BP to go, if anybody is interested!!
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Carl W Gossett
Garage Door Herps
Monument,Colorado...northern territory of the Great Republic of Texas

The higher indigo prices are, the tougher a sell it is to convince the wife that you really, really need a couple more, plus cages and all that good stuff. Its been mentioned that demand is rising while the number of new breeders doesn't seem to be keeping pace. Its a lot easier to convince the wife that you need a couple pairs of $500 snakes than a couple pairs of $1000 snakes, thus making it that much harder to establish a colony as prices continue to rise. Not that prices shouldn't necessarily rise. Breeders can really ask whatever they want for their offspring and be justified in doing so. Its just sort of a catch-22 in some respects. higher prices=tougher sell=less indigos per married dude=potentially less breeding success=less new breeders=lower potential # of indigos in circulation=higher prices, etc.

that they will produce snakes that cost that much.....alot of them. I tell her it's an investment. She's been asking where's the return.....I tell her that they need to grow. By the time they grow up she has already forgotten how much I have spent. I also tell her the snakes I buy do not depreciate like other snakes....LOL I could care less if they produce or not but these guys having babies allows me to get more snakes, even though I haven't produced one and more snakes keep coming through the door.

That my friends is how I get around high priceed animals with the lady...

Get your wife involved with an equally or even more expensive hobby!
My wife works with Andalusian horses and competes in huntseat equitation and show jumping. It's difficult for her to complain that I have spent 1000.00 plus for a snake, when she has spent well over 20 x's that amount on some of her horses, not to mention, the cost associated with keeping equines greatly surpasses the costs associated with keeping herps.
Fortunately, I was lucky enough to have found a woman who enjoys Drymarchon almost as much as I do and even has a few of her own, which means she gets to assist with enclosure maintenance!

Regards,

Jeff
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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947

Wow..now THAT is pure genuis..involve the wife in a hobby that is even MORE time consuming and expensive than the keeping of expensive snakes. Thereby substantiating rights to do the same yourself. But with snakes. Money wise. Genuis...

Jeff, you are nothing short of a genuis. Wish I had this info years ago(Divorced now) Still, the brilliant minds of the Dry Guys never cease to amaze me, keep up the good work!

Happily,

Fred Albury

i am in the market for indigos doing my homework and all. i have a few comments, directed at no one in particular and without anger! just a few things apparent to me as a potential customer...

-i agree what eric east said below. people have suggested doing the same with louisiana pinesnakes, jacking the price to keep unscrupulous people away. i have been successful breeding P. ruthveni for several years and at all price levels you encounter questionable individuals. more money does not make me feel better or keep others from hybridizing or whatever treachery i supposed to prevent.

-someone justified higher prices based upon reduced fertility. well, if it were a natural phenomenon for indigos to have small fertile clutch sizes, not larger clutches of infertile eggs I could undertstand. Reproductive problems are a symptom of captivity or an indication that the captive population is suffering some serious problems. There is no mechanism i am familiar with in nature where large vertebrates benefit from poor reproductive output.

-electricity and food and caging... hmmm. from what i have gathered, indigos are fossorial and prefer temps in the mid 70's to low 80's max. how is that temperature gradient more of a strain on the electric budget than someone breeding boas?
food... indogs "seem" to have a higher metabolism. Someone please take a fasting adult indigo and place it in a metabolic chamber for 24 hours to determine their true metabolic rate.
caging... if planned out as all indigo breeders have done before acquiring their charges, a good cage for an adult is a one time expense. if you have an indigo for a pet it is like fencing your yard in for your dog, part of the responsibility. if you are a breeder, you will get your money back with the first clutch of eggs you successfully hatch out. unless someone is renting cages (dumb) costs can't be justified for longer than it can be amortized on your tax return.

-unless:
the animals are legitimately involved in university or zoological studies or a legitimate educational center...
the individuals are studying animals in the field or the habitat or are making serious contributions to such studies...
your animals are dead to nature and are part of the pet trade. hard to swallow but i feel it is true. Again, Louisiana pinesnakes - I have tried and will keep trying to make that connection but in reality these captive snakes, more rare than indigos do not contribute much to conservation efforts.

finally ( only since my son is waking up from his nap) whatever happend to the economy and free market competition? it may not be collusion to set prices, but it is a little disappointing and maybe dangerous(?)to be rallying around prices on a public forum?
i agree the indigo is a valuable snake and should get what the market should bear, but the justifications i have discussed don't bear weight with me the consumer.

Thanks all,
Dave B

For no one in particular:

Indigos are not easy to produce, therefore to buy them with the idea of "recouping" the money that you have invested in them is sheer lunacy. It is much to unpredictable. And random. And you TRY convincing your wife that you will make money on them....after laying out $4,000.00. If you can, call me, I want to hire you to sell real estate in the Florida Panhandle..lol

Secondly...Electricity costs ARE a factor, in locales where it is to cold and heat needs to be applied to cages to raise the temp to a nice basking temp, which is NOT 70degrees f.
Additionally, if you live in a HOT climate, as I do(So Cal.)
your electicity bills will RISE markedly dureing the summer months because Drymarchon do not like truly high temps, and do badly when kept at temps over 80 degrees. Very badly. So a/c must be used. Ditto for all your incubators in a hot environment, they MUST be kept cool enough to prevent temp spikes which can cause death in egg and spinal deformations.

Thirdly: When an animal has a high value, the person buying it is usually concerned that the snake is well taken care of, if only because they will lose "money". But I must add,I have seen people purchase lavender albino retics for thousands of dollars and then cram the thing in a truly inferior and undersized cage, and then look around to buy more exotic species to fill the void of getting something"new".

So...high prices are no guarantee that people will treat these snakes well. They may not be a disposable item, as cornsnakes and ball pythons have become, but they arent always taken the best care of, esp when the honeymoom period is over.

I think that the prices on ball python morphs reflect the issues of bragging rights and popularity. IT is STILL as ball python, a snake that has been imoprted by the tens of thousands yearly, much to its demise.

Enough rant for now

Fred Albury

so let me understand- indigos are a bad investment, not in the sense that i expect to gain monetary reward from them but the costs are so prohibitive to correctly maintain them the people that do breed them have to continuously increase the cost of offspring in order to offset these costs?

About fallacious arguments. Basically it is supply and demand. I've bought a number of indigos and have never sold one. I paid a lot of money, according to my wife.

I'm not complaining. If I produce offspring someday that someone wants to buy, I'll charge the going rate or a little less.

If you find any unsold indigos, they are overpriced. All of the ones that sold were priced just right, IMO. And most of them are sold into the next year.

Nothing sinister here, they aren't selling gasoline or heating fuel or something someone would DIE without.

Indigos are not the "Cash Cow" that many other snakes have become or are being used for. Their reproduction is at best unpredictable at worst disasterous. Neither bode well for someone that gets into this hobby to make money, i.e. some ball python morph breeders etc etc al. INCREASES in price reflect many things, such as what the market will bear, the costs of producing these snakes, the state of our economy, and the cost of essential goods, i.e. electricity. What I am trying to get as is just this:

Eastern Indigos are not easy to produce, they are expensive to feed and maintain properly and they are endangered in their native habitat. All of which add up to increased price. Generally speaking, people that have bred them repeatedly do not complain aboutthe pricing as they understand firsthand just how hard it is to produce them. They realize just how unpredictable the entire process is. Indigos that arent sold by the end of the season are not overpriced, they are just not advertised effectively, as their are more people that want them than can be satified in a given season. I know personally that at one point my reserve list was backed up by an entire YEAR. And my prices were NOT what I would call low.

Well, enough said. Anything of value is going to cost more. Some things GO DOWN in price as time goes on. Indigos ARENT one of them. Ball pythons seemingly ARE.

Sincerely,
Fred Albury