To the major ball python breeders

[pythontricker]

How much would a breeder who is just starting out sell a spider ball python, spider het albino, spider albino, het albino, and albino on an individual basis. I am hoping on getting these morphs on the road, and selling them. how much would you guys say i sell some of these puppies for? I just dont want to go overboard in pricing nor do i want to get ripped off. i just want an accurate price range for some of theses animals. thank you.

[LadyOhh]

(NOT a major BP Breeder by any means)

I would first go with how much they are worth to you. Would you want to keep any, or move them on?

Secondly, you'd have to gauge the prices that year. Co-doms tend to drop pretty significantly as the years go by. Co-doms het for stuff tend to hold a price a bit higher than normal co-doms, but only a bit. Recessives tend to stay pretty well even, but even that is changing.

You have to basically see what you see, and base it on what you think is fair compared to other prices.

[pythontricker]

so i see spider albinos for $5000. should i sell for $4500 or $5000. thats what im really interested in knowing.

[waltah!]

I agree that it's what the animal is worth to you. There will always be certain breeders that can get more money than a small breeder for similar animals. I feel that it might help if you keep great records and know the bloodlines of your stock. Offspring from say snakes bred by NERD, VPI, RDR ect may command more than offspring from "Bob" on KS. As Heather said you have to guage the prices for what they are when you are selling. The animals are only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it.
To answer the question from the second post....as a consumer I would really check pricing and reputation of the seller. If a big breeder has one for $5000 I would not pay the same amount from an unknown source. I see people getting into this business probably with dreams of Ferraris in their heads. The people that make it that big are few and far between.

[joepythons]

so i see spider albinos for $5000. should i sell for $4500 or $5000. thats what im really interested in knowing.

Well if the prices for these morphs are still this high then yea.If you try to get ahead of yourself with dollar signs in your eyes you are going to miss out on the main reason we keep snakes.The love of working with them

[rabernet]

so i see spider albinos for $5000. should i sell for $4500 or $5000. thats what im really interested in knowing.

There's no way to know if they'll still be that price by the time that you produce them. You'll need to watch the market when you produce them and charge what they're going for at that time.

[Gloryhound]

If the big guys came in here and told you how to price your snakes it could constitute a price fixing scheme. The best thing to do is keep an eye on competitor pricing. This is refered to as market research. The big guys don't want small breeders to under price their snakes as that would cause the market price for all breeders to have to be reduced. Thats how competition works! See what you can find out about competitor pricing and put yourself in the ball park with them maybe just slightly lower due to you don't carry a name. But do not go very much lower and do not pay attention to expo prices so much as competition there is direct with breeders litteraly side by side.

[WaRocker]

So I must be out of the loop and /or just the new guy..
What the heck ya spending that kind of money on a Python for?

Mine cost 79.99 which was a bit high I was told. Why would you spend that kind of coin? I must be lost ???

I know I see some of the coloring is pretty cool looking but come on... Remember I am a new one to this..

[Texas Dan]

So I must be out of the loop and /or just the new guy..
What the heck ya spending that kind of money on a Python for?

Mine cost 79.99 which was a bit high I was told. Why would you spend that kind of coin? I must be lost ???

I know I see some of the coloring is pretty cool looking but come on... Remember I am a new one to this..

I'm new here, but read enough to understand a little bit.

Some of the pythons morphs that are available are brand new morphs. From what i've read, breeding morphs hasn't been around that long, and again, a lot of them are newer and hard to find. Some of the new morphs don't have many adults yet because they have only recently been developed.

I paid $70 for my ball python as well, but i'm gonna be buying more this summer for $300-$400 for a breeding pair. Some of the morphs like Albinos don't cost as much because they have been around for a while and aren't as hard to make.

The snakes i'm getting are 100% Het Albino, meaning when they make babies in a few years, they will be albino babies. 1 Albino is worth more than 2 100% Het Albinos, so when the albino babies come, i'll make the money back from my snakes. (Years later of course, and It probably won't cover the time and money I spent keeping them, but I will get the satisfaction of having my own Albino ball pythons.)

*If i'm wrong about any of this information, please correct me, but that's what i've gathered being around the forums for a couple of weeks.*

[jkobylka]

There's no way to really tell in advance the value of the snakes that you might/will produce. Your best bet is to produce them and then find out what they are selling for at that time, combine that number with the knowledge of how much they are worth for you to keep them and you'll have a good start.

Justin