Thoughts about future of BP market.

I know there are a lot of people here that breed professionally so I wanted to ask a few questions. I'm relatively knew to herping with two yearling snakes that i've had since they were hatchlings. After keeping snakes for a few months I realized breeding was something that I wanted to attempt. My primary reason being my love for the animal and the desire to become a reputable breeder like many of you here. But besides the primary reason there is also the reason of money which unfortunately makes the world go round so it can't be ignored.

I know the market is strong now but I'm curious what everyone thinks. My biggest fear is that a few years down the road I'll finally aquire a collection worth breeding and there will be no demand for my offspring. I'm sure its an extreme thought but none the less one that I've had. Especially after seeing some of these news reports about loose snakes and seeing the way the media puts such a negative association towards snakes, makes me feel like the laws that are always trying to be passed might happen since more and more people are buying and housing snakes irresponsibly.

I was hoping to start small and use profits from breeding projects to further aquire higher end morphs. I'm sure some of you know what boat i'm in starting out, but for those of you well established breeders who have a working knowledge of the current supply and demand of our market. What do you see in the future? What are the mophs that have retained their value over the years?

As of right now I have a normal female and a 100% het albino male. I have plans of aquiring a pastel and a few more females and starting with a small collection. I know its tiny but I'm only 22 and college is a big financial black hole as it is. Well I guess thats enough rambling, thanks to those that took the time to read all this and I look foward to some replies.

~Rich

Here is a couple threads on the subject.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ghlight=market
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ghlight=market

Thanks for those two links read the first one throug and i'm on page 3 of 5 of the second...i needed a reading break, but i'm finding some good info thanks a lot. If anyone has anything else they would want to share I would appreciate it.

I think I agree with Ralph when he says that the fly-by-nighters are adding to the instability of the market. It makes sense. Some years ago the market was in its growth stage...few sellers many buyers...hight prices, huge profits...those profits cause entry in the market to occurr. That's where Jimmy comes in. Fast forward to 2006 and put the ball market in the "maturity stage" of an industry's life cycle, characterized by increased supply, market saturation, lots uncertainty...its just the normal way of things.

From my narrow point of view, I see the "quick money sellers" who are in it for a quick flip are going to be the first ones to get out. As all of these guys amass huge collections of co-doms and doms and get thier "ball mill" running, run into huge overhead and huge feeder bills, they find out that they'll actually have to do some marketing to sell their product, and they're going to find the juice not being worth the squeeze anymore as the supply increases and the price drops. Eventually, they'll be gone, and what you'll have left are the breeders who "do it right" and the hobbyists that do it for the love of it, and don't really *need* to sell anything to stay afloat. Those hobbyists might trade up for things that can't pay cash for, or wholesale their animals out to pay for feeders and supplies to make it a free hobby. Not a bad deal, IMHO.

elevate this, i want to give you an award for that reply. :rockon:

thanks, but most of those ideas i've conjured up from talking to more experienced people who've been around for longer than myself...so I think they get most of the credit!

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Originally Posted by elevatethis

thanks, but most of those ideas i've conjured up from talking to more experienced people who've been around for longer than myself...so I think they get most of the credit!

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And I hope they are right ..... :)

Neil

I mean, it makes sense. Do you think Jimmy is going to keep producing co-doms on a large scale, with each year requiring the same (if not more) overhead and getting less and less for each sale? Then throw in this- how's he going to sell XXX pastels in the first place when all of the "big" distributors have a list of 100 other jimmy's offering the same thing? Sell them himself, start a website, act like a real business? No way! He'll dump his collection and get out because the money isn't there anymore. Thats why they got into in the first place, remember?

Oh, I agree with the outlook. I just hope it goes that way. I hope that it brings more responsible "hobby" type breeders in, and flushes the "Jimmys" out. I think everyone that is in it for the love of it, whether they have 2 snakes or 200, would be better in the longrun.


Neil

in my oppinion the bp market is going to keep going strong although i can almost guarentee you that the future of pastels being 300-1000$ will go down to maybe 150-200.