What the Heck is Market Price?

[piedplus]

I didn't realize that the OP was trying to sell hets as I didn't see his ads. No rep + het anything is going to be a tough sell. Not bashing you OP btw, it's just the nature of the business and it's why I'm in no hurry to get into recessives.

Going forward for the next few seasons, I would stick to pairings that would produce only visual recessives. If you do decide to cross a het with a visual, either be prepared to hang onto any het babies or sell them at a steep discount.

Yes, I think you're right, steep discounting is going to be the answer. They're Pied het Clown from a Clown het Pied X Pied. I only want to hang on to one of the babies, so the other two will have to go for a pretty good deal. At least I know they can't sell for less than a visual Pied. Let's hope I don't have to go that low! Thanks for your input.

[bcr229]

Yes, I think you're right, steep discounting is going to be the answer. They're Pied het Clown from a Clown het Pied X Pied. I only want to hang on to one of the babies, so the other two will have to go for a pretty good deal. At least I know they can't sell for less than a visual Pied. Let's hope I don't have to go that low! Thanks for your input.

Yeah for those two I'd suggest staying local, maybe even have the buyer over so you can point out the sire, dam, etc... though I also know many breeders who don't want buyers in their homes or reptile rooms, so there has to be trust on both sides.

I've met two relatively local breeders and seen their stock in person, and would only buy hets from them versus an online seller unless it was someone with a huge name (and thus the price tag to match) behind it.

[MootWorm]

That really hurts, especially when those are some darn good looking snakes. If I had the cash, I'd snap that male up in a heartbeat

[piedplus]

I can't speak as a seller, because I haven't sold any snakes and am probably a ways off to being there, but speaking as a buyer:

I want to see pictures. If the ad doesn't have pictures, I will probably pass it up. They need to be quality pictures too, nothing too blurry or in the wrong lighting. If it's an ad with a number of animals listed, the pictures don't have to be of the specific animal I am interested in, but there need to be pictures of some of those animals in the ad, and the seller has to have pictures of the actual animal I'm interested in available to send me.

The price needs to be competitive. When I've added animals to my collection, I've searched through dozens (or more!) ads looking for the best deal. "Best deal" doesn't necessarily mean the cheapest. I might pass up a cheaper snake if the morph quality isn't good enough (i.e. a browned out pastel vs. a bright yellow one) or if something about the ad doesn't look right. But considering all factors, I want competitive prices. When it comes to hets, I'm looking for a really good deal. Can't really speak for anyone else, but I personally tend to buy visual over het because it gets me to my end goal that much faster. If/When I buy a het, I'm not going to shell out hundreds for it. Others might disagree with me, and that's fine, that's their opinion, and this is mine. I would probably pay a little more for a het than a normal (depending on what it was het for and how common that was and what the visual is normally priced at), but I'm not going to pay hundreds. Again, just my personal opinion.

Shipping being included in the price can be a factor, as can group discounts. For the most part I've picked up locally or paid shipping, but a few times I have gotten a discount on an animal for paying shipping (basically shipping was included in the animal's price, even though that was not listed in the original ad), or discounts for buying multiple animals at a single time. This isn't going to make me buy a particular animal, but it may encourage me to buy from that seller.

Key words are big. I don't browse ads one at a time, I search for key words, i.e. specific morphs I'm interested in. Now most of the time that morph should be named within in the ad, but think of variations in that morph's name too. For example, "yellow belly" vs. "yellowbelly" vs. "yb". I generally don't search for abbreviations, so if you are using them in your ad, consider making sure the morph name is spelled out at least once so the search function can find it. If there are variations in how the morph name is spelled, or other names for the morph, consider incorporating those into your ad, or if allowed, include a "key words" section at the end of the ad where you can list all of them out.

I'm very cautious about buying animals off craislist, but I do search there just to see what locals have. If you haven't already, consider listing your ad there, just be cautious of who may contact you, and beware that potential buyers may be cautious of you as well (and they should be!). I also casually search the ads on this forum, as well as fauna and kingsnake. I haven't bought any snakes from kingsnake, only fauna, but I do search there. I have liked several facebook pages for snakes, but I don't really search there too much when I'm actually considering buying something. Other people may do it differently, this is just me.

That's all I can think off at the moment... hope it helps!

I just got my first phone call inquiring about them! I feel so much better. I still think I should have started out with a lower price. Yes, more pictures are a good idea. Right now I have the first pictures just out of the shell. More are in order. I also have pictures of parents & clutch.

Setting a competitive price has been difficult since there's so little to compare too. I haven't seen any other Pied het Clowns out there this year. I've lowered prices about 15% from what I thought was a low market price, and have included free shipping.

You make some very good points about words. I should have Pied and Piebald in the title I think, and I always use tags if I can. Craigslist is something I hadn't thought of. It may be a long shot, but it's free, so why not? Thanks for all your good suggestions.

[piedplus]

Great points, sorraia! Totally agree on the quality pics part. I've seen wayyy too many ads with poor lighting, or animals that are curled up so bad that you can't even tell what you're looking at. Sometimes that can't be helped, but always use the best possible photos.

As for hets, I think pics of the parents and locks can go a long way (granted, those can be faked by unscrupulous sellers, but what can you do?).

Ah, locks. I could include that picture too. Thanks!

[piedplus]

Yeah for those two I'd suggest staying local, maybe even have the buyer over so you can point out the sire, dam, etc... though I also know many breeders who don't want buyers in their homes or reptile rooms, so there has to be trust on both sides.

I've met two relatively local breeders and seen their stock in person, and would only buy hets from them versus an online seller unless it was someone with a huge name (and thus the price tag to match) behind it.

That's a good reason to focus on the local community. Thank goodness San Diego's a pretty big town.

[piedplus]

That really hurts, especially when those are some darn good looking snakes. If I had the cash, I'd snap that male up in a heartbeat

Thanks! At least now I know I have to price things lower than what seems like "market price". And I have to think about what people can afford to pay.

[sorraia]

I just got my first phone call inquiring about them! I feel so much better. I still think I should have started out with a lower price. Yes, more pictures are a good idea. Right now I have the first pictures just out of the shell. More are in order. I also have pictures of parents & clutch.

Setting a competitive price has been difficult since there's so little to compare too. I haven't seen any other Pied het Clowns out there this year. I've lowered prices about 15% from what I thought was a low market price, and have included free shipping.

You make some very good points about words. I should have Pied and Piebald in the title I think, and I always use tags if I can. Craigslist is something I hadn't thought of. It may be a long shot, but it's free, so why not? Thanks for all your good suggestions.

Congrats on the first phone inquiry! Good luck with that! And glad I could offer some help.

One thing too... don't be afraid to say "OBO" or "OBRO". You might get some low-ball offers, but you can always refuse those. But including that in the ad, you might get some people more willing to try you out if they know they might be able to haggle a little. I personally am not a big hagglers when it comes to animals (I can and do haggle for inanimate objects though!), but I know other people may be.

One nice thing about craigslist too... when you use the search function for your immediate area, it will also search ads just outside your immediate area. I'm in the Inland Empire, but when I start searching for things, I'll also get hits for Los Angeles or San Diego. That's nice for people who are willing to travel (and let's be real, a lot of So Cal residents aren't afraid to drive a little bit for something they want, since our world seems to be centered around that!), and gets you a little bit more potential business/views.

[piedplus]

Congrats on the first phone inquiry! Good luck with that! And glad I could offer some help.

One thing too... don't be afraid to say "OBO" or "OBRO". You might get some low-ball offers, but you can always refuse those. But including that in the ad, you might get some people more willing to try you out if they know they might be able to haggle a little. I personally am not a big hagglers when it comes to animals (I can and do haggle for inanimate objects though!), but I know other people may be.

One nice thing about craigslist too... when you use the search function for your immediate area, it will also search ads just outside your immediate area. I'm in the Inland Empire, but when I start searching for things, I'll also get hits for Los Angeles or San Diego. That's nice for people who are willing to travel (and let's be real, a lot of So Cal residents aren't afraid to drive a little bit for something they want, since our world seems to be centered around that!), and gets you a little bit more potential business/views.

Oh, yeah, I forgot to put in OBO. Thanks! That's good to know about craigslist too. I never would have thought of it, even though I've had good luck selling things there.

[piedplus]

Thanks everybody for advice on this subject. I dropped my price %15 on Fauna, and now I'm getting the kind of response I would expect. This weekend I'll put my new prices here on bp.net, and maybe they'll be going to their new homes soon.