Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here’s my two cents for what it’s worth. I’ve been in this business for a very long time and use to purchase quite a bit of animals from the big importers. I say I use to because I no longer support them and what I’ve learned is they will sell to you but will also sell to your customers for the same price. So now your looking to invest in Ball Pythons and you see a less well-known breeder posting a great cutthroat price. You support the cutthroat thinking wow I got a great deal and maybe you did at the time. Now comes later when you have your own surplus to sell and your buddy cutthroat is now cutting your throat to make a sale for much less than you.
I rather purchase from someone who supports fair market prices and who's not out to slash prices.

I totally agree with you... and for those of you who were around in the trade in the 90's... the same things happened with Taiwan Beauty Snakes (yes I know they're colubrids)... which are now re-visiting us in "blue beauties" - the quick turnaround just wasn't quick enough for some, so they undercut their prices, and the snakes' value plummeted from about $300 to about $50 in maybe a year. Rainbow Boas are another - anyone notice how today's "Brazilians" just don't have the same punch in color that they used to? It was the cheap way to produce "Brazilians" if you crossed a Columbian to a Brazilian; now they don't hold a candle to the brilliant color they once had... and their price reflects it.

It is the same market, and effectively the same people who are out there today. The Ball Python market will do exactly what we allow it to do. If we all play that cutthroat game on pricing, none of the morphs will be worth much at all; picture not only Pastels, but Spiders and Cinnamons and such, for normal prices! Sure, all of us are thinking in the back of our minds that we could buy more cool morphs for less, but that definitely removes any chance for "investors" to see much of a return.

In the end, it becomes one of those slippery slope arguments that makes me want to throw up my arms and ask myself why I bother with this at all? The answer, of course, is that I love snakes, especially Ball Pythons. If there was no profit to be had from breeding them, I would still want to do it... however the possibility of making a profit doing something that I love is such a beautiful thing! Who wouldn't want that??

sorry for ranting... just my 2 cents there

~Rebecca
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1.1 Ball Pythons (1.0 '05 Ghost, 0.1 '03 Normal)
0.1 Dumeril's Boa
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40 lb darling lap dogs)