Me venting!! (market price fluctuations)

[presspirate]

What a loving bunch we all are! I'm not averse to a manly hug from time to time just so long as it doesn't go over a few seconds. For the record, there should be drink involved and a lot of manly back pounding. In the midst of some bawdy drinking songs.

[Lankyrob]

No back pounding for me please!!

[presspirate]

Originally Posted by Lankyrob

No back pounding for me please!!

That's fine Rob as long as you can sing! Jen, I am sure I speak for everyone here when I say you can hug me without warning. Wayne, if you adopt a rtb you won't regret it. I adopted mine and he is just a puppy dog. Content to sit in his cage, or hang out on you whenever.

As for the breeding issue, I can certainly see where if you spend a large amount of money to purchase a breeding pair you'd like to see the price remain the same. The problem is, so does everyone else who spends the same amount of money. The reality is, as I see it. The economy sucks, and as the market is flooded with designer morphs, the price will go down . IMO in the end, it is the snakes that will suffer. I'd pose a question to the larger breeders. What happens to your snakes that don't sell? I'm being curious, not judgmental.

[Jendee]

Ive thought that to!! Ive seen people produe 25-40 litters of boas at an average of 40 babies each, what the hell do they do with all the normals and possible hets/or whets that don't sell???
I could care less about the market, I just think this hobby is awesome!!!

[sickvenom]

They probably wholesale them to a distributor.

[mykee]

"Ive thought that to!! Ive seen people produe 25-40 litters of boas at an average of 40 babies each, what the hell do they do with all the normals and possible hets/or whets that don't sell??? "

Seriously?
Wholesale or freezer.
Sad but true.
I give away all my normals with other animals purchased.

[presspirate]

Originally Posted by mykee

Seriously?
Wholesale or freezer.
Sad but true.
I give away all my normals with other animals purchased.

Like a 2 for one deal? What I mean is, a normal BP is like what, a $15 snake? (US) Obviously, it is not worth the cost to you as a breeder to raise them, feed them, etc. However, you can produce morphs with a morph and a normal, or a het and a normal, so do you fully expect to not make money on any hets or normals?

[Jendee]

Originally Posted by mykee

Seriously?
Wholesale or freezer.
Sad but true.
I give away all my normals with other animals purchased.

Thats an awesome Idea!! Im sooo using that lol

the giving away with purchase thing not the freezer thing lol

now a days in the boa world, people don't want to waste time with possible hets, hets or normals...unless your smarter then the rest and produce amazing whets and normals ie..me lol so its really hard to sell them, the new group of reptile keepers are the best bet for any normals or hets. So Im always looking to bring new people to the reptile world

[mistersprinkles]

Originally Posted by Jendee

So on alot of the big breeder forums I go to they are having these arguements about market price and value going down so much. ie, said morph was bought for 5k then 4 yrs later for $400. They actually have the nerve to get mad at people for pricing there animals this low and to get mad at people who buy animals this low!! Give me a break people!! everything losses value over time unless its a CD at the bank lmao. If you are trying to "get rich" breeding snakes then your a moron!! it wont happen infact you will be lucky to cover costs of feeding and bills of taking care of said snakes!!

Now. When you could sell certain morphs for $18,000, and you were one of two people in your country that had them, you could cover costs on the snakes, as well as a nice new boat. And a car. Maybe a new porch.

When I was like six, I remember a Burmese albino went for $15,000>

You can get an albino burmese for the same price as a normal morph, or very little more now. I'd be pretty upset. It's not right to get angry about it- but if these are people who bought into breeding, say, high yellow albino balls, when they were like six thousand dollars, and now those animals sell for maybe five or six hundred for a really nice animal and three or four for an average one, I imagine they'd be quite frustrated.

You reptile breeders need to form a coalition and find a way to keep your prices insane like parrot breeders do. An African grey cost you $2,000 ten years ago. It costs $2,000 now, and it'll be $2,500 in another ten. You need to get in on that.

[infernalis]

Since it would violate certain trusts, I cannot disclose who and where, But I know of several breeders who "cull" normals, runts and non feeders.

I always accept non feeders and then work with them, often with great results.

Never knew just how many babies refused to eat, until the boxes started showing up on my doorstep.

[stephanbakir]

Free snakes Truly an addicts wet dreams

[Jendee]

Originally Posted by stephanbakir

Free snakes Truly an addicts wet dreams

lol soo true!!

[mykee]

What I mean by "giving away a free normal" with a purchase is this: Because I don't generally do this for fame and fortune or to brag about a huge collection, (I don't even do Shows) I prefer to get rid of the animals I don't intend to keep or sell as quickly as possible; because of my O.C.D. I prefer to be neat, tidy and have everything in order.
200 babies doesn't allow for that.
Would I rather have a free bin?; one less animal to water, clean, feed, and heat or $25 (wholesale price for a normal baby ball python)?
I would rather have the free bin.
Since I only now have two normals in my collection (my two favorites), with all others being at the very least double and triple genes, I prefer not to tax the already super-saturated world of normal ball pythons.
Normals are given as freebies with the first "X" number of morphs I sell that season. I usually only have 25 or so, so the first 25 customers get a free normal if they want it.
If a high end morph is sold, I'll offer more than one free normal.
Everyone wins.

[infernalis]

Funny thing Mykee, most of my favourite "pet" snakes are the plain old "normals"

I tend to handle my normals and admire the morphs through the glass.

People sometime don't understand that my big red flame girl is actually a "normal" because bright red Garter snakes are really common in Canada, it is not a genetic "mutation" but rather a locality specific colouration.

My Albino / Anery / Snow / Axanthic / Erythristic animals get left alone except for maintenance and feeding or photo shoots.

[stephanbakir]

Have you owned any Red bellied grass snakes, ring necks or pine snakes?
All have really cool character quirks!