The BP Market - My Thoughts

[jhall1468]

I've read quite a few opinions on the BP market. The two that interested me the most were Adam Wysocki's journal entry, and Ralph Davises rant about the dime-a-dozen breeders driving down prices. However, let me first start with a disclaimer:

First and foremost I have no where near the experience that either Adam or Ralph does with ball pythons. I do, however, have many years experience with running web-based businesses, and for some reason I seem to be attracted to those that consistantly have these types of arguments.

As an aside, for the sake of this little rant I define a "community market" as a business which targets a very specific group, and a "commodity market" as any product or service which is targeted towards a large sector, at a low price. Although the latter is not a traditional definition, I can be lazy that way .

The first business I started in 1998 was a web hosting company. I was charging rates at around $100.00 per month. When I left the industry in 2004, prices were hitting the $5.00 to $10.00 per month mark. Those types of price drops would make your $2500 albino ball worth $125 after 3 breeding seasons.

During those years, I saw constant complaints of web hosting becoming a commodity market and its future was certain doom. Today the market is flurishing, with over 1000 new companies starting everyday. And yet, of those 1000 companies the majority are consistantly trying to push the already LOW barriers for pricing. And those companies are usually disappearing, along with a whole chunk of their customers money with them.

Now, obviously reptiles and web hosting have very little in common. In truth, that's a good thing. As long as reptiles remain a community market, the massive flucuations in pricing are going to settle considerably higher than that of a more widely targeted product.

To use a better comparison, Albino Burmese pythons have been around for over 20 years now, and are still demanding a price of $200. This is a snake that can get up to 20' and lay anywhere from 20 to 80 eggs. Ball pythons, with considerably smaller clutches and smaller lengths makes for a much larger market of buyers (demand) and a much smaller market for vendors (supply).

So will we see a $200 albino ball? Maybe, but it won't be for a long time, if ever. More importantly, it's going to require a substantial decrease in demand, which I don't envision happening. And even if we do, the shear number of morphs available for balls will make them a constantly profitable investment.

If you are a potential ball python owner that is concerned with falling prices, I'd highly recommend asking yourself what your motive in buying a python is. For me, even if I have to sell a $200 albino, I still have the benefit of loving every moment of what I'm doing. If you can't say the same, all you have is $200 and a lousy job. And if that's the case, there are plenty of markets out their with a far smaller barrier of entry, that require a lot less patience. I hear web hosting has some openings.

Justin Hall

[elevatethis]

I think that in the reptile business, as in any, if you set yourself up right and treat your customers right, you'll do fine and make money regardless of what market prices do.

The only people whining about the sky falling in the ball market are the flea market type sellers that buy and flip all day long.