Decreasing Value

[golfsk8er]

What do you guys think of the general decreasing value of “common” herps like leopards and corn snakes. How that all of the new and better morphs come out the value of all the others plummets, I’m a bit cheezzed about it I was just wondering if you lads / lasses feel the same?
Matt

[snakehunter]

i think its bad because the people who dont take very good care of animals in general can get them just about anywhere, and they arent so expensive like they used to be

[jim mcallister]

It's economics, supply and demand, i like the fact that some beautiful animals i can't afford today will eventually be more in abundance. It's not a business for me but a hobby so it will benefit the average keeper. Hopefully sites like ssnakess will help educate the ignorant people who don't care for their herps properly.

[MouseKilla]

I actually think prices falling on all herps is potentially beneficial to the hobby. I don't see any evidence that higher prices bring better keepers, just fewer of them. I figure the lower the prices get the more people will have access to the hobby which will mean that husbandry information will become easier to find and of better quality. Also the more common it becomes to keep reptiles the fewer stupid bylaws there will be against doing so. What better way to fight the bad reputation herps and their keepers get in the general public than to bring it increasingly into the mainstream?

[Jayson]

I dont buy snakes based on their value. I buy the snakes that i like and do not intend to resell them.

Also price is rarely a problem for me because i like the normals best. :)

[Derrick]

I think it's great because people who do take good care of thier animals and arent rich can eventually afford them.

There are plenty of morons out there with lots of money to blow on a cool snake that wont take care of them. The only issue is when the prices get to low that good breeders stop breeding them.

It would be kind of neat if the snake industry went the same direction as dog breeding has. With show and the like. With pet quality and show/breeder quality animals. It kinda backwards now. You pay more for uncared for animals in a pet store than you do from a breeder

[Linds]

Unfortunately, animals with less dollar value will sometimes be treated with the mentality "it's only a $20 snake", and may not recieve the proper attention. Often people would put everything they had and hundreds or even thousands of dollars to save a sick snake that they paid $10000 for, however they may not want to put $800 in vet bills for something they only paid $20 for. Very sad that this can sometimes dictate the care one recieves and seems to put the animals life at that value :/ Of course this is not always the case, there are many great keepers out there that will do whatever they need to to save the life of their green snake or leopard gecko, but nonetheless, the lower the price range, the more incidents of this are more likely to occur :(

[MouseKilla]

I can see what you mean about the amount of money people would be willing to spend on care for an animal that is already sick. Obviously someone is going to be quicker to pay for a $1000 treatment for a $10,000 animal than they would be for a $20 animal but I feel that has more to do with caring about the money that you've spent than it does caring more for an expensive animal.

At the same time there are many expensive animals that suffer neglect and abuse. I have seen neglected horses, which are relatively expensive animals. There is a zoo in my area that has poorly cared for jungle cats and even elephants. On the other hand I know people that have spent hundreds of dollars treating a cat that they got for free. A friend of mine had an iguana that he paid about $30 for that he regularly took to a vet and spent all the necessary time and money to keep it in excellent condition and it lived a long time.

Another thing to consider is the ability of those keeping the cheaper animals to pay for any necessary medical care. Chances are if you can only afford to keep a $20 snake you can't afford to pay hundreds of dollars to a vet if something goes wrong. If you've shelled out $10,000 for a high end snake then it's likely that you have the disposable income to pay the vet if needed too.

All the vet bill stuff aside though I don't think that the price someone pays for their animal will tell you how much care and attention they will give it. In fact those who can only afford one, low priced herp will likely fuss over the $20 animal way more than the guy with the same animal as part of a big expensive collection.

[Lisa]

my cats were free, i just paid over 500$ for one of them to go to the vet. cost of the animal doesn't dictate it's care i think.

[Corey Woods]

Everything is cyclical. It seems like the last 2 years leopard geckos were everywhere. So................what do people do?.....they sell all their stock and then in a couple years when very few people are working with them their is a shortage. So, the price goes back up. Then, everyone wants to cash in on the new "trend" so everyone gets back into leopards again and in a couple years the cycle starts over again. It's like this for all of the lower end animals. If leopard geckos were selling for $125 each how many people would get into them?......I'm guessing quite a few people. On the contrairy how many people would get out of them if they were down to $10 each (like they were last year and this summer?).....I'm betting not many people would be breeding them. I'm sure most of you long term keepers have seen the price of common boas go from $100 each to $225 each and then back down to $70 each all in the span of about 5 years.

Corey

[Neo]

prices might also go down cause shipping costs so much already

[BoidKeeper]

I'm with Jim, it's pure economics. Am I right or am I right Jim? Just look at the price of corn in NB this year. Last year there were no snows or ghost and this year there where too many corns produced for the amount of herpers the province has and the price for normals was as low as $35 dollars.
I'm affraid this year will be even worse. I'm plaining on 4 clutchs of morphs myself. I have to say I'm glad my stuff goes to TO.
Cheers,
Trevor

[JeffT]

Well it all makes sense to me. Wher there is an incredibly large ammount of something the prices drop. Ill bet that in a few years carrottails will be down to $50.

[Emily-Fisher]

I don't like it when people don't want an animal because it's not expensive. I absolutely HATE it when someone says "oh... it's just a rosie T" or "it's just a curly hair" when those two species are extremely gorgeous. Same with normal leos. They are, imo, one of the prettiest morphs but people still want the more expensive leos. I shouldn't be talking since I just threw out a TON of money on one leo but at least I'll be using him for breeding! There IS a difference... right?