Reptile & Amphibian Forums

as iam reading some peoples posts i see more and more about the market "going down?"
okay for me iam new to this business, and iam really really into these snakes and no matter what happens i want my d@mn albino and piebald!! lol. (one day)
but seriously someone please tell me whats up. whats all the talk about the market and the prices. is the ball python market going to slowly fade away anytime soon? dear god i hope not. that would suck.
give me the Down Low.
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Under a dead ohio sky,
Eleven has been and will be waiting,
Defending his light,
And wondering...
Where the hell have I been?
Sleeping, lost, and numb.
So glad that I have found you.
I am wide awake and heading home.
TOOL

will these threads ever end?

please refer to the 10 other threads that deal with this exact topic on the page.

the market is fine, the market is not going anywhere. whatever you do, do it for the love of the animal, not for money.
I think I covered everything!
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1.0 gorgeous spider ball python
2.2 het for axanthic
5.20 normals
www.blazingreptiles.com up & running!

Kinda like after Christmas & New Years.... Is it that there is so much hype the begining of the season, and so many exciting new morphs hatched ,Climaxing at Daytona. Now as the season wains are people crashing from the 'ball python high', with cranky negative attitudes ? ( like the kid that had way too much sugar and didn't get all he wanted under the tree?)
I'm new ...is this a yearly occurance?

Best regards,
A.
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"There is a fine line between a hobby and mental illness"
COLD BLOOD.........WARM HEART

LOL, might be withdrawl too

Quig

LOL
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"There is a fine line between a hobby and mental illness"
COLD BLOOD.........WARM HEART

>>>I'm new ...is this a yearly occurance?

Yep,it sure is.
At least,it has been so since y2k.(Thats the year i started lurking here.)...and every year prices stabilize once again.
Hell,pastels hadn't really dropped per market price in nearly 4 years now.They were about due.Actually,past due.
Every year there were new waves of buyers,and now those buyers are breeding higher priced males to their females now.So(finally)the market price changed on them(pastels).

btw i just got my male this last spring(before the drop)but i will still be buying a spider or maybe even a cinny male next spring(with pastel hatchlings money!)

...they all drop...but just look at how many newcomers there must have been,to have kept pastels at the dollar level they did!
Now think about how many people out there have been waiting to get a ball when they get under 1k!(It's a whole new market folks!)
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Charles Glaspie

Tanstaafl:
"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch".
An acronym created by my favorite author Robert A. Heinlein.

hmm look at it this way: with just less than 300 million people in the US and less than 1 percent of them are tollerant of reptiles (especailly snakes) and less than that are into ball pythons if you are really really lucky the ball python market consists or about 1-2 million people. When you consider that a vast majority of those cannot afford a high end morph and or would not pay more than a paycheck or two on a high end morph then you see your market severly depleted down to a couple hundred thousand. As it's been pointed out previously most of the ball python morph market consists mainly of breeders. When you consider that there are several big breeders pumping out thousands of snakes annually not to mention all of the mid and small size breeders and backyard breeders you can figure that the supply is soon going to be exceeding the demand - prices will continue to lower a lot of people will drop out because it no longer be as lucrative as it used to be. But most morph prices wont drop down to where the average ball enthusiast can afford them because the big breeders need to keep their prices high to offset the cost of their facilities - this theoretcally will sustain the market for the die hard breeder. Now that you are completely confused - remember this as long as they don't outlaw all snakes - there will be a market for balls. My guess is (knowing our goverment) they'll probably start banning the sale of mice and rats soon enough to put a damper on the market - LOL!

BTW - I know that there is a huge market outside the US but too few people want to deal with the paperwork to really work it so I left it out.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

7.33.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi - yeah I know but my kids love the book)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.2 frogs rescued from pool skimmer

Hey thats intersting, where do you think the market is outside the USA, I have been wondering if we even have one over here in Europe, were you thining if here.

I think its not big at all here and would hope that it picks up but we just don't have soo much money over here, some do but mostly not. I see peoples collections getting bigger and bigger but I wonder if they will sell much at all. I guess we need to travel alot throughout europe to make sales. Ball pythons are even increasing here, but I cant ever see it becoming like the USA.

interesting

thanks

steve

I've seen few reptile breeders in Europe/UK (on Line).
Canada seems to be growing in Ball python fans.
( probably due to Markusjaynes awsome animals!)
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"There is a fine line between a hobby and mental illness"
COLD BLOOD.........WARM HEART

in every way. sometimes ill look at my normal snakes and just think about how pretty they are. and how a normal snake some how can make an amazing looking morph. all ball pythons are amazing to me. i think they are the $hit. sorry?..
i do not want to breed just for the money, i put the money though way deep in the back of my mine. im not trying to be a big time breeder. i just want to say to my grand kids look at this snake, i produced him, and hes lovely. lol (and yes that albino snake will be soo damn spoiled!)
for me personally it is MY goal to produce an albino on my own. and when that happens ill be sooooo damn satisfied that i might even cry or have an accident... i have wanted an albino ball python for 3 1/2 years now and this het is my first step, i dont care if it take 3 more years, one day it will happen.
i love my snakes and i love everybody elses snakes because they are all so beautiful and unigue looking. what a perfect animal to breed.
well any body who reads this i hope you dont get offened cause thats not what iam trying to do or say here. sorry if i offened.
i love these ball pythons...i love balls.
lol
take care everyone.

what ever happens to the market happens. iam just glade that ball pythons and ball python morphs are around.

-----
Under a dead ohio sky,
Eleven has been and will be waiting,
Defending his light,
And wondering...
Where the hell have I been?
Sleeping, lost, and numb.
So glad that I have found you.
I am wide awake and heading home.
TOOL

I feel the same way. I started collecting snakes simply because I love them. It was after I had about 10 that I started to realize I could make a living doing it, and figured it was perfect for me. My het albino pairing came about out of my love for albino ball pythons. I'm not gonna have snakes simply because they can make me money. There are morphs I don't like...and if I need to get one in order to create a morph I do, I'll be selling those animals once I've done what I need to do with them. An animal that's nothing more than a money making tool isn't going to recieve the same care as an animal that's a cherished family pet.

Chris
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0.2.0 Grey Rats-Lauren, Avril
1.2.0 Black Rats- Robert, Cady, Kylie
1.2.0 Albino FL Kings-Nick, Jessica, Ashley
1.1.0 Crimson Corns-Kane, Ruby
0.1.0 Het-Crimson Corns-Lola
0.1.0 White-Sided/Pos Het Albino Black Rat-Lita
1.0.0 Albino White-sided Black Rat-Rey
0.1.0 Albino/Het White-sided Black Rat-Stacey
1.2.0 Creamsicle Corns-Vince, Trish, Torrie
0.1.0 Fl King-Bonnie
1.0.1 Biak GTP-Brandon, Aru GTP-Orochimaru
1.0.0 Flame X Blood Bearded-Ruff
1.4.0 Ball Pythons-Kritsy, Gretchen, Alexis, 100% het for albino balls- Naruto, Hinata
0.1.0 Red-tail Boa-Xena
0.0.1 Savannah Monitor-Izzy

n/p
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Under a dead ohio sky,
Eleven has been and will be waiting,
Defending his light,
And wondering...
Where the hell have I been?
Sleeping, lost, and numb.
So glad that I have found you.
I am wide awake and heading home.
TOOL