Price Drops a Good Thing for the Herp Community?

I've seen many threads moaning and whining about the price drops. Spiders and Pastels used to cost $$$, Pieds used to be worth $$$$ and so on. I may be in the minority here, but I think the price drop may have been the best thing that could have happened. It generated a tremendous amount of interest in what was once a rather exclusive community. As prices dropped, more and more people could join, learn, exchange what they had learned, and influence the rest of the community. It's hard to be afraid of something that's familiar. It's hard to pass a law banning your 10 year old kid's pet. Just my two cents ;)

I certainly wouldn't have been able to get into the hobby a few years ago if prices hadn't dropped. The fact that a pied used to cost more than some new cars amazes me.

There are certain reptiles that I wish prices hadn't fallen on though. I hate that any idiot can walk into a pet store and buy a green iguana for under $50. I don't think price is a great way to control this, but it certainly would deter a lot of people if it cost $200-$300 to buy one.

I would hate to see prices reach the point where people don't bother taking their sick pets to the vet or giving them good care because they are so cheap to just replace. :(

i, too, wouldn't have been able to get into this hobby if prices hadn't dropped. But i personally think that price is a good way to control it. simply because (most people) people tend to take better care of things they paid a higher price for.

sadly the price drop makes a lot of pets throw away like computers/tv and such items have come to be. It took me 4-5 years ago to save up for a pair of het pieds, and now I can buy a visible pied for less than i paid for the pair . and I still have to save for snakes( unless I can produce a morph for trading like I did last year.)

I think that to have any animal a person must take a x hour course on it care and keeping of such animal and then require a permit picture iding the animal ( as a drivering lic renewal ), and a quick inspection at random to make sure animals are cared for.
that be the best way to enforce regs and such aswell as prevent problems. ( if I animal dies it must be frozen and a call made to be seen by a certified person( vet) before it can be disposed of. and if another animal is wanted then an reason for it death should be noted before a new permit issued.

It is good for those just entering or trying to get into the hobby. It isn't so good for those who paid a lot of money for morphs that dropped in price.

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Originally Posted by Don

It is good for those just entering or trying to get into the hobby. It isn't so good for those who paid a lot of money for morphs that dropped in price.

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I kind of see it as a double edged sword though. Those who have been in the hobby for a while did pay tons of money for what we now consider base morphs, but you've also had more time to work with these morphs and produce some killer combos. It's going to take me a long time before I can produce anything more than 3 gene snakes because I've been buying the base morphs that now flood the market. Prices dropped because there was so much supply, but anything outside the base morphs is still expensive. I'm still seeing snakes that go for $20K+.

Just because a pet is cheap, doesn't automatically make it a throw away. People can find dogs and cats on the side of the road. Most people who pick up the strays and take them home take care of them, take them to the vet, etc.

I believe that there are both Pro's and Con's to the price drops. I will just name a couple that I can speak to first hand...

Pro - It has allowed people such as myself to enter the wonderful world of Ball Pythons; where as 5 years ago I was very much interested in Pythons, but not willing to drop the cash on them. It has allowed smaller breeding operations that may not have had the big overhead to break into different morphs and new creations. I know people who have spent the big money on Spiders and other morphs when they were much more expensive, but when they bought a 6K, 10k, 20k etc snake they made their money back time and time over breeding.

Con - When you have animals that are super affordable and anyone can afford one you open the risk to the "impulse buy". You now have people buying these wonderful snakes with little to no knowledge of what they are buying. That, and the snake is not the only cost. When you buy a snake you need to be prepared to shell out for the appropriate equipment needed to adequatley care for your new pet. I have seen this too many times and not just with snakes, people purchasing an animal for a "good" price and then not being able to financially care for them whether it be proper housing, food, vet care etc.

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Originally Posted by Kinra

I certainly wouldn't have been able to get into the hobby a few years ago if prices hadn't dropped. The fact that a pied used to cost more than some new cars amazes me.

There are certain reptiles that I wish prices hadn't fallen on though. I hate that any idiot can walk into a pet store and buy a green iguana for under $50. I don't think price is a great way to control this, but it certainly would deter a lot of people if it cost $200-$300 to buy one.

I would hate to see prices reach the point where people don't bother taking their sick pets to the vet or giving them good care because they are so cheap to just replace. :(

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This. This times 100000000000x's. Many years ago my pet cockatiel became ill and my Mom rushed him to the vet. When we got there all they said that could do was put him on oxygen and hope for the best. What they didn't say was that oxygen was about $2 a minute. On top of that they kept us waiting quite awhile despite us having decided to put him down to end his suffering. When the bill came my Dad happened to be there and his only response was, "With that money, you could have replaced him with two birds". Even if the vet visit did turn out to be a waste that time, it's an example of how some people think when it comes to pets.

(I will add that my Dad does love his dog and would do anything should the dog happen to fall ill if he could afford it, even if it went beyond what a replacement would cost. It depends on the person/animal relation I guess).