A number of reasons actually, life putting things on hold mostly. But in that time I tried to narrow down exactly what I was looking for in a snake, attribute wise, and researched the laws in my state regarding them.
What I ended up trying to find was:
Diurnal or mostly diurnal
A large snake that was still manageable
Very low heating and humidity requirements
A snake with a good temperament
A snake that would make a good pet with children
What I would consider a beautiful snake
A snake that fit into our current budget
One that would fit in our big enclosure (6'x6'x2')
Semi-arboreal
A higher level of intelligence
Doesn't mind being out in the open
One that's curious
While life took over (married, two kids, etc) and I couldn't have one, I still had time to research all of these criteria, figure out exactly what I wanted. Turns out it was a taiwanese beauty snake with a good disposition.
From there, it was a matter of finding one for sale. Harder than it sounds. There were a few big name sellers of them, most with bad reputations on fc boi, and I do pay attention and research that as well, so they were out.
The next were private breeders inside of the US, few and far between, some wanting a bit too much for them, one (not named) on facebook wanted $250 + $90 shipping, and that's just outside of my price range. A couple with the response of "they'll get back to me" and never did.
Then I turned to craigslist, got burnt, seller said he had one for $100, great, we agree on a day and time, I drive 3 hours out of state and by the time I get there he said he already sold it but he had a ball python if I was interested. I wasn't.
Jump a year later from all of that, and basically giving up on getting one, my wife says that the narbc show is coming up and that we should go, she knew about me looking all of this up because I had pestered her with all of it.
We go and she was there and I consider myself lucky.
