Is this a good deal?

[PghBall]

http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?cat=32&de=675348

I have been looking to add a female pastel to my collection and found this on Kingsnake.com's classifieds. He said that they both just ate this week and can be shipped out Monday. Male is 222 grams, and female is 163. I wanted to know what some of you more seasoned owners/breeders thought?

[Spaniard]

The 2nd one is nice but the first one is too brown for such a young snake. Not what I look for in a pastel. My two cents.

[PghBall]

The second smaller snake is the female and the one I am most interested in. He does not wish to split them up and sell the female only. I too thought the first snake was a little brown.

[Spaniard]

I guess we now know why he wants to sell them as a package...

In all honesty the first snake is extremely brown, I would bet that in a year it would be really hard to distinguish it from a normal bp.

[PghBall]

When I asked him earlier today about the famale only, he said he may just keep them if he could not sell them by today. I told him I would contact him early next week to see if he changes his mind. I'll keep looking or see if he caves. Thanks.

[stratus_020202]

You could try to talk his price down. That first one is pretty brown, but he has great blushing. Is the browning a trait they pass to offspring?

[Jason Bowden]

Greg, If you're looking to buy a female, I don't think this ad should be too interesting to you. You will be paying $100 extra for the male and you are looking for just a female. There will be plenty of deals on kingsnake.com. I'd hold out!

[Spaniard]

You could try to talk his price down. That first one is pretty brown, but he has great blushing. Is the browning a trait they pass to offspring?

Mother of the clutch has a lot of influence on the gene as well. There's no rule saying that a browned out pastel won't throw attractive offspring. But if you're building up breeding stock you want to start with the best quality, that's just my opinion though. I paid higher than market price for my pastel male, and I have no regrets.

[PghBall]

Thanks all. I am going to try to talk down his price when I write him back. If he doesn't budge, I'll just wait until I find a good looking pastel female.

[DrEwTiMe]

My opinion is if you don't really know how to really prove this type of gene then paying for something without a way to prove its authenticity then i would find that a bit sketchy. I would just use a lot of caution and not be impatient when buying snakes. There are a lot of so called "good deals" out there.