Pied combos

So.. I absolutely LOVE pied combos. Killer pieds, axanthic pieds, spieds, pumpkin pieds.. I love them! :D

Now I'm curious, though. People always say in this hobby, if you're gonna breed, breed what you love! I know I'd love to hatch out some nice pied babies one day years from now, but I do want to know how well they sell? Not necessarily looking to make money on this, but it would be nice to get them into home and not have to settle -too- much when it comes to getting them out there.

I know if I were to work with breeding, I would want to do a lot of combos, and especially recessive combos! They are some of the prettiest anyway! :D

This is all merely for my own brain to mull over, don't worry I'm not going to suddenly jump into the breeding game! I might not even ever end up doing this, but hey maybe this thread will answer someone else's question, and knowledge is never a bad thing, right? ;)

Well, I dont know if you have been looking at the pricing lately.. Only a couple of years ago you could get a nice looking pied for about 1800bucks. Now a days I see nice looking pieds for 1100-950.. The more pieds that are being produced and people selling them.. is driving the price down. by the time you get going.. who knows where the price will be.

Good Luck!

Scuba

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Originally Posted by ScubaDiver007

Well, I dont know if you have been looking at the pricing lately.. Only a couple of years ago you could get a nice looking pied for about 1800bucks. Now a days I see nice looking pieds for 1100-950.. The more pieds that are being produced and people selling them.. is driving the price down. by the time you get going.. who knows where the price will be.

Good Luck!

Scuba

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thats goes with every single snake morph, if you ask me pieds have kept their value way better than alot of other morphs.

Oh god, here goes another market conversation! :O Pieds are extremely popular, and for every person who bought one at $1000, there's 10 more waiting in the wings hoping they'll come down to $700 so they can buy one, too.

...you have to bear in mind that in 1997 there were what, 20? 30? 50? pieds known to exist worldwide. Today are many hundreds, likely thousands out there. And yet they still sell for $1000... that tells me that LOTS of people WANT pieds.

And we know that: pieds are the reason a lot of people get into the hobby, and into ball pythons in particular.

If you're worried about staying on top of the market, and you want to do pieds, go for combos immediately and buy some enchi het pieds or black pastel het pieds or Whatever You Like het pieds.

I think they will keep their value pretty well as they are recessive. I think the market will go down like all markets. As for your concern on rehoming, I believe if pieds keep a marketable price, people who have the ability to put money into a snake will also put care into them. I certainly wouldnt spend alot of money on something that I didnt really care for or want. I worry about all the normals out their that are just "a cool thing" or an impuse for someone to buy who really will not care for the animal. I am not saying that all people who buy a normal snake will not provide proper care because thats how I started, but I've seen far too many mistreated snakes. I would suggest if your going to breed and sell providing education or a care sheet for all potential buyers.

:P Oh I have no doubt that whatever I pay for my pieds... they will not be worth by the time they have babies! I just wanted to make sure.. I don't know, they weren't in an awkward part of the market, like too pricey for the average new owner, but not something that the big breeders would buy. That's why I had hoped to get into a lot of combos and someday triple combos!

Like, price drops are okay, as long as I know that I can breed without ending up keeping 90% of the babies cause I can't sell them!

Part of the package I would include would be a very detailed caresheet for the buyer, and if they mentioned it was their first snake, I would hope to be able to do my best to educate them! These would be my grandbaby snakes after all!

I think pied combos are great, and I am sure many people have panda pied project in mind. But how many are there today? The point is: some combos are just going to hold their price well since they are hard to come by.

As far as price goes, I'm actually pretty new to the BP game. I did go to a reptile show last year and my friend bought a female hi-contrast Albino for about $450. After deciding I might want to add one to my collection, I research and find that prices haven't really dropped at all. So I'm assuming that Pieds will always retain more value than other morphs (ex. Bought a nice Female Pinstripe for $325 a year ago from BHB, which now sell for $250).

My figuration as far as money goes, you will probably make more money on producing visual morphs het pied than actual normal visual pieds. My plan is to purchase all dom/codom/het females this year, and visual males next year and start from there and just pray I manage to get uber lucky and hit my ultimate dream (Pied Caramel Albino Clown!? FTW?) but also produce some stock to make some awesome morphs in the process. What I wouldn't do for a Lesser Clown *drools*

Also, if you just breed for combos that YOU like, you probably wont mind ending up with a few extra babies ;)

For me, I knew that when I got my het pieds by the time they produced visual pieds I might be fortunate to get $500 each for the babies.

Know what ? I don't care. If someday a pied will go for the price of a normal I still wouldn't care.

But to be able to produce the snake that got me hooked on ball pythons, to create with my own snakes those amazing creatures, I'd still do it if I had to pay people to take them.

Gale

I doubt you'll see pied for the price of normals. Albinos have held steady at $300-400 for the last few years. Pieds are just now getting to affordable levels for "keeper" hobbyists. I think they will stabilize at $300-500 in the next few years.