Morphs

I’m fairly new to snake keeping and I’m still learning about all the beautiful BP morphs and genes and all that complicated stuff. I’m not planning to breed it’s purely curiosity driven. I stumbled upon this article listing the most expensive ball pythons ever sold and I was shocked to learn how much some of the morphs have dropped in price over a fairly short amount of time. I found it very interesting and I thought I’d share it :) Check it out!

https://royalpythontips.com/2018/01/...ons-ever-sold/

Very interesting article. As you said, crazy to see how much the prices have dropped. With the market as it is currently, who knows what other morphs will be produced? Seems like every week there’s a new gene now haha. There’s truly so much more variety than when those first morphs were produced; crazy how much they went for!

Many drop just because of how easy they are to produce and the amount being produced.

The thing that always springs to my mind when I hear about morph prices is, what happens to all the normals and less valuable/desirable ("lower quality" - that phrase always bugs me when applied to a healthy animal) babies that hatch while people chase exciting paint jobs? The best case scenario for them is that they go to a forever home with knowledgeable and caring owners that will take good care of them for their whole lives. But we're talking about animals with lifespans in the multiple decades, compared with morph crazes that last a few years. And there are more hatchlings than there are good homes.

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Originally Posted by Coluber42

The thing that always springs to my mind when I hear about morph prices is, what happens to all the normals and less valuable/desirable ("lower quality" - that phrase always bugs me when applied to a healthy animal) babies that hatch while people chase exciting paint jobs? The best case scenario for them is that they go to a forever home with knowledgeable and caring owners that will take good care of them for their whole lives. But we're talking about animals with lifespans in the multiple decades, compared with morph crazes that last a few years. And there are more hatchlings than there are good homes.

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Great point, hopefully they all do go to good homes, but there is no guarantee of that. For what its worth, I’ve wanted a pied since those $25K figures...finally got her and a blue-eyed leucistic this year. Patience paid off. :P And for what its worth, I don’t particularly have any plans to breed them, just love the colors and they have been on my wish list forever.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Coluber42

The thing that always springs to my mind when I hear about morph prices is, what happens to all the normals and less valuable/desirable ("lower quality" - that phrase always bugs me when applied to a healthy animal) babies that hatch while people chase exciting paint jobs? The best case scenario for them is that they go to a forever home with knowledgeable and caring owners that will take good care of them for their whole lives. But we're talking about animals with lifespans in the multiple decades, compared with morph crazes that last a few years. And there are more hatchlings than there are good homes.

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I agree. While I enjoy looking at all the crazy beautiful colorings I myself got a normal ball python who in my opinion is just as high quality animal as those that go for 20 Grand. She’s absolutely lovely and beautiful and the best tempered pet I’ve ever had. I don’t plan on breeding her either. Just taking care :)