The most you've paid for a normal adult female ball?

[BoidKeeper]

What's the most you've paid or heard that someone has paid for a normal adult female ball? Some people say that an adult female ball could command as much as $400 depending on her size. Has anyone actually paid this or know someone who has? The most I've paid and charged was $200.
Oh and were these normal females proven or not?
Cheers,
Trevor

[Joe]

I personally purchased animals as hatchlings then after my seperation with my ex wife had to buy them back... all in all a pretty expensive normal...lol... but in honesty I think 200 to 400 is a fair price for adult females depending on size...

[Ron]

The most I have paid is $150 but it was from a petshop who just bought it for $75. If I were to find a proven 3500 gram rat eating machine I would probably be willing to pay $500 - $600.

[BoidKeeper]

Really, I'll keep that in mind Ron.lol
Cheers,
Trevor

[Jeff_Favelle]

I'd pay a grand easy. Breed that thing with the lowest co-dom out there (Pastel) and it'll make you 10x that amount.

Never bought an adult though.

[BoidKeeper]

You've never bought a normal adult female ball Jeff? Is that because you've held back and raised enough of your own? Myself I've bought 4 in since last year.
Cheers,
Trevor

[Tim_Cranwill]

$200 in trade or $175 cash but I would pay more. I think they are worth WAY more, actually. Right now, if I had the cash, I would be willing to pay $500 easy for a proven girl or a 1500g+ girl. I would be crazy NOT to. If I spent $1500 on 3 big females and only ONE produced a decent clutch of pastels, it's STILL a good move on my part... and for the ones that didn't go, there's still next year. ;)

[Jeff_Favelle]

Exactly Chewie. I had my first clutch in 1995, and it was 6 eggs and 4 females. I kept those 4 back (still have them) and did the same the following 2 years (traded with another local Ball breeder for new blood) and that was it. Kept a few more back in 2000 in preparation to getting a Pastel. I also got 4 babies from Mandic with the Pastel because he gave me a good deal. But other than that, I've never actually "purchased" any more normals. I don't like the idea of buying adult animals. I like to know the history of the animal. What better way to know the history than if you own the animal from the SECOND it hatches? LOL!

But I don't have a HUGE Ball collection by any means. I have 30 normal females where some of the BIG dudes have like 200!! 30 is enough for me. Add in the various hets and possible hets and Pastels and sheesh, its enough!

Good thread though. Some people say they'd only pay $100, but those are the people that will never make any money, LOL!

[Ian]

I'd pay an easy $500-1000 for a female over 1500 grams. Not that I have but if I didn't have alot already then it gets you into the market that much faster.

[arkuden]

i would pay around 100 for a good size norm only if it was not for breeding. If i was going to buy it for breeding then yeah i would see the potential in it and be more willing to spend more. Depends on your needs i say.

Jeff - 30 snakes sounds like a decent amount to me and as long as it hasnt done you wrong financially then it must work well :D

[Jeff_Favelle]

I wish it was 30 snakes Arkuden! Ball Pythons are just a fraction of my collection. But they have been there since the beginning, so its hard for me to not work with them.

Cheers! :D

[Corey Woods]

I've sold larger females in the past for $600. Right now if I decided to sell some of my 2500 gram + females I'd ask a minimum $1000 each.

Corey

[drupan]

I was offered $500 each for two of my female norms. One of them is just over 5.5ft and eats rats like a champ.

drupan

[CamHanna]

What about prices after the breeding season? Is there a noticable drop?

[BoidKeeper]

Not if they lay eggs there isn't. If anything it goes up. I'm still undecided about what I want to do with my ball collection after this season but one this is for sure any females I have here I will hang to until they are adults or better yet proven adults before selling them. All those new pastels owners from last year will be looking for adult balls next year if they aren't already.
Cheers.
Trevor

[zero&stich]

Well I bet most will smack me with "the stick", but the most I've spent was $35, wholesale for a C.B. at Regal. But she was a juvi then, "normal", unproven.

But the most I've personally seen purchased was $165 for a C.B. female. Don't know the technicalities though, such as grams, age, length ect. Was a "normal" but unproven. Looked to be an adult to, well never saw the person measure it but it looked bout 4 ft-ish.

[RandyRemington]

I sold a couple of big eating machine normal girls a few months after they laid 8 eggs each for USD $250 each in 2003. Hated to let them go but I still don't have any co-dominant males and needed the money for a new project. I'm down to only two females that aren't known to be possible hets for something. Now I’m using untested 50% chance het albino girls to cross with possible het males from other morphs so that I’ll increase my odds with chances on both sides and who knows maybe even have a double het girl in there somewhere.

[justinO]

I've just seen 2 or 3 posted for $500-$650 USD PLUS shipping! The americans must be out of their minds, or really short on adult females.

Anyway, I have one girl that I bought for $175 at 850 grams who ate ALL winter and is now 1550. I have one i paid $250 for that's about 2500 grams but only eats live, oh well, that hasn't been proven yet, and one I paid over $300 for that is 3500 grams (yeah, you saw that correctly!!!) that is proven.

You are right Tim, why skimp on paying for a good size female when you are going to get your money ten fold?

Usually, if you see them at all available in Canada, they are around $400. That's if you can find them..... heh

Jessy

[MouseKilla]

It's obviously going to vary from person to person but I'm pretty surprised at how high some people will go for the sake of 4 - 8 more eggs. Of course, if spending $600 - $1000 means getting back several times more than that when the eggs hatch then who can argue with that? I can forsee some really whacky ads turning up in the classifieds as a result of this thread though. lol!

Very interesting subject, I have to wonder what this means in the case of animals that throw a lot more offspring such as a corn or boa.

[MarcB]

When one considers the dollar value it takes to feed a hatchling up to a big 2 000 gr. female, they should therefore not be sold under $500. I'd rather keep them then sell em at $200..

[honduranfreekk]

Well with that said Marc my friend I will be over this weekend to buy all your females lol ;) I will be down to see you soon Marc now that things have slowed down for the season :)

[MarcB]

Your welcome over anytime Kelvin, cold bruskies waiting on ya here...

[justinO]

I don't think that the amount of food that a snake has consumed should be considered when selling an animal, at all.

if this was a general idea then burms should cost about $3000 when they are sold at 10+ feet.

on the same note, a normal male bp that will max out at a lower grams, still needs to be fed, so selling a 15 year old male doesn't mean it's worth $2000 just cuz it's been eating after it became an adult.

anyway, it just bugs me when people talk about how much an animal is worth based on the food it ate, it's a living thing, and while you have it, you feed it....... you don't put that cost on to the next person who owns it.

Jessy

[pinoiballer01]

Hey guys!!! Im just curious bout the prices ur saying.. I live here in los angeles ca.. I think u can easily buy a female bp for 40 USD. Im not really sure for this though. I got my bp in chinatown in downtown Los angeles and they are selling a bunch of bp's for 40. Im not sure if this is a good thing or not

[malaysianbloods]

Personally I would pay $500+ for a big female ball(Close to breeding season). But if it is not close to breeding season then I would rather go with a smaller female pay less and fatten her up my self, so I think that once breeding season has past a female ball pythons price does drop fairly good because then breeders are not in a rush to get 1500+gram females because then they have time to fatten it up themselves before the next breeding season.
But then again thats just what i think.

[justinO]

pinoiballer01: no, we usually never talk in USD unless we say so, 99% of the time we would be talking in Canadian $$.

Also, this board is about ADULT female ball pythons (1500 grams +), not babies.

[Jeff_Favelle]

No, food is not taken into consideration when adult animals are sold. What I consider, and what most other breeders have in mind when selling an adult animal is, "what is the lost income from that snake if you bred it the subsequent season?".

Why would I sell an adult pair of Rainbows for $500, when I can just keep them, breed them next year, and wholesale the babies (20) for $150 each and make $3,000!?? And STILL have the adult pair! This is why adult animals from a breeder cost WAY more. Take Pastel females. EVER seen a 2500g Pastel female for sale? I haven't. And if you have, its was probably $10,000. Why? Because with ONE breeding, that snake could make you $50,000, so why would the breeder sell it to joe-blow for $3K?

[Corey Woods]

For the seller it's short term gain with long term losses........not always the best move to make!

Corey

[Jeff_Favelle]

I agree Corey. Which is why you see the people that never produce anything constantly flipping animals every year. They would make 10x more money if they just stuck it through, bred the damn snakes, and then wholesaled the babies, and THEN sold the adults as a proven pair.

I'm always sketchy when I see adult animals for sale.

[Ron]

Hey Trev,

Finally got one of the sweet deals you have spoken of; I picked up a 1800 gram female today for $100.

[BoidKeeper]

Nice Ron!
Jeff, what about proven females???
Cheers,
Trevor

[Jeff_Favelle]

Then I'm even MORE sketched out Trev. If they are willing to give up a female that could give them $10,000 worth of eggs for like $100, then something must be up. So the fact that they are "proven" (and how can they PROVE that?) doesn't make me feel any better because the only people I would even consider buying an adult animal from would never be selling adult female BP's in the first place.

Plus, with proper planning, a Ball breeder can work it so that he's never in need of adult female ball Pythons. I honestly couldn't use one right now unless I bought another co-dom. But when I do, I have another 12 females growing up. ;)

[Corey Woods]

I'm keeping back about 75 balls from this year........90% of those are females.

Corey

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

75 BALLS?!?!?!?! GODAMIT CORREY! LOL. Where you got space for all this?!?! Haha, or are you like Jeff, you have no space but you still have more snakes? Lol.

C.

[Jeff_Favelle]

No Chris, Corey is crazy, that's why. LOL! ;)

[Corey Woods]

I just bought a house.............with lots of basement. I'm probably keeping back more than 75........but in the end that's probably as many as I'll end up keeping back. When animals turn a year old people want them and are willing to pay more for them.......so the odd yearling I'll let go. Usually they are males but sometimes I let go of a female for the right price.

Corey

[BoidKeeper]

(and how can they PROVE that?)
How do you prove your animals are proven? We post pics all time of copulation, egg laying and hatching. If an animal produces for us most of us record it and document it with pics.

...because the only people I would even consider buying an adult animal from would never be selling adult female BP's in the first place.
What about people getting out of balls, or downsizing like I'm considering doing?
Cheers,
Trevor

[Stockwell]

congratulations buddy!! sorry I missed your call last night...