Also trying to plan for the next species.

So it seems a lot of people have been asking what they should get and....I'm in the same boat XD

My requirements:
1. Nonvenomous, obviously.
2. Must grow to between 3 and 10 ft, preferably in the 5 - 7 ft range.
3. Must have a reasonably good temperament. I know any snake can be mellowed out with regular handling, but the more willing they are to do so, the better.
5. Must be a good beginner or intermediate, as far as housing requirements (excluding size, that's not a problem).
6. $250 or less, for the snake itself
7. I do and will always prefer boids, but I'm not totally closed to colubrids.
8. NOT a ball python or boa constrictor subspecies/locality, except maybe a BCC.

The obvious choices are carpet pythons, blood pythons, Brazilian rainbows, and dwarf locality RTBs, but I'm not super crazy about any of them. I mean I really like carpets and rainbows, but I can't get as into them as I did with the ball pythons and the boas.

How about a Hog Island Boa? http://www.riobravoreptiles.com/imag...dboas_07_f.jpg
Their color gets darker when the sun comes out and gets lighter once the sun goes down, how cool is that?
http://www.arbreptiles.com/boids/hogs.shtml

Yeah, that seems to be the general consensus. But I was never crazy about the color of Hogg Islands. I like black and gray more as opposed to orange and brown, and Hoggs seem to be really freckly, too.

Ok well there are different options with carpet pythons. You have jungles irian jayas and coastal or queensland with alot of different colors in between each the irian jayas being smallest jungles in the middlle and coastals just meeting your size requirements. Heres a caresheet http://www.acreptiles.com/main/index...=81&Itemid=140 hope I helped:D

Yeah, I know there are different localities and whatnot with carpets, but none of them really strike me the way the balls and boas do.

Dumeril? Super cool pattern

Yeah, I was considering that. Any idea how much adults go for? I've seen juvs for $125, but I wouldn't mind getting a bigger one.

Ben Siegel reptiles has adults for 150

I have the same problem and I really start lean tu or Old world rat snakes.. or some Tree boa specie... lately I'm really interested with whole Indo Tree and ground boas Gene like rough scale, viper boar, or Salomon Island Boa..

Have you looked into bull snakes? They are a colubrid, but they can reach up to 8 feet and have a nice temperment. As for your color preference there's also black milksnakes, they develope into a solid black snake and grow to a nice size.