Why would anyone buy a rack?

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Originally Posted by VEXER19

Obviously Im not stupid and I know you can buy them used. I was referring to brand new racks. And yeah go look at any real rack with more then 4 bins in it. If you were wanting to breed, to have enough bins for a actual breeding process, it cost so much and craftsmanship and labor. So you think they what have their own metal shopes and do it all by hand? Um no. They are all manufactured. Just like cars? Im not asking any one to fix a rack so that makes no sense and if its like buying a new car, well new cars are MANUFACTURED. So please next time you want to talk to someone like an idiot. Find one first. Oh and I was talking about full racks not 4 bin racks which is what your talking about if its brand new.

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Why are you being so defensive? I don't believe anyone in here was talking to you like you are an idiot. They simply answered the question you posted. Yes I see your point, you are right it would be a lot cheaper to make one as opposed to buy one but not everyone has the time nor skills to make one.

I have the skills to make one but time isn't something I have to put into a rack for my snakes so I bought a couple or racks. It just depends on what you value more, I for example would rather get off work spend time with my family or hit the gym than put time into making a rack, so in turn I'll spend more for a built rack.

If you have the time and skills to make one by all means go ahead that's great. As for the car/mechanic thing I'm sure she meant it as a skills thing. She doesn't how to fix a car so she could a) read about fixing and attempt herself or b) save the time and get it done right so take it to a professional. That's all they meant from what I took from it, not comparing cars and racks.

Because they can.

Not all racks cost $1500 either I have 10 slots racks that were bought new for the third of the price.

People buy racks they like that fit their needs, I like lightweight racks which is why I chose expended PVC racks.

There are racks for everyone and for every budget, not sure what the anger is about or why you are so defensive about people answering your question.

You don't like some racks and their prices you don't have to buy them it's that simple.

Also considering that people drop a few thousands on a single snake $1500 to house several of them is not that bad, well unless you don't understand why people drop several thousands on a snake either. ;)

I cant build things for my life, Im slowly practicing though on smaller melamine racks, but for the time being I am getting a small RBI rack made for me. In my opinion, like Deborah said, there are $300 racks and there are $2500 racks. The only ones REALLY worth the money IMO are the freedom or ARS breeder racks that you see most big breeders using, but even then, Im sure there are tons of breeders out there who have the similar volume as Jkobylka or BHB and use home-made racks.

I personally really like the look of the stainless steel/custom vent system for the freedom/ars breeders. The tubs are super nice too with the water dish holder & the fact that they are not see-through is great. Having these things available in the market is not such a bad thing when you think about it. It pushes the snake industry a little further everytime people make more "professional" looking racks. It pushes big breeders in that direction and make normal breeders like people on here want to improve their setups (thus advancing the herp industry). Im sure if you were to ask normal breeders 10 years ago what racks they were using, I highly doubt anyone was using Animal Plastics or RBI racks (I may be wrong). Thats my morning :2cent:

this all depends on what racks you are talking about. i priced out what it cost to build a six high rack out of PVC with tubs for someone and my cost was almost that of buying it built.

i also priced out what it would cost to build a friend a rack for his boas. he wanted to use those giant vision tubs. for 100 bucks more, he could buy the metal one so that is the route he is going. this rack would go floor to ceiling.

To echo what others have stated, depending on the type of racks you prefer, once you start needing them in serious numbers, it can be much more cost-effective in terms of materials, time, and labor to buy racks made by a professional caging company. Same goes if you need a specialty size rack or tub.

My husband & I can & have built nice, functional racks in the past, but we prefer to buy them from Animal Plastics instead. The good folks at AP have better experience, better equipment, better resources for materials and get them done more efficiently than we could. The racks are all precision built, uniform & look great. Not to mention, we'd rather spend that time down in our snake rooms caring for and enjoying our pythons, instead of out in the garage building racks. Besides, we feel our snakes deserve the best enclosures we are able to provide, and to us that means buying them from a professional enclosure builder.

It's all a matter of where and how you want to spend your time and money and efforts. Just because people do it differently than you certainly doesn't mean they're getting robbed or haven't put any thought into it. :D

It's like this you're paying for the convenience of having to do nothing more than to put it together and plug it in.. Now while most people think it's cheaper that depends..if you really do the math how much are you really saving..I build all of my racks because I have the time space and tools to do so..but there will come a time when I have to spend more time tending snakes and rats so build them won't be piratical. but if you look at the cost of keeping them look at it like this, an ARS to house 75 snakes in a 1075 rack with heat it works out to 40.00 per snake. That's cheaper than tanks and way cheaper than the cost to build my own..

For 10 28qt tubs of melamine you're talking 200.00 for the wood, 125.00 for a thermostat, another 50.00 for flexwatt, 20.00 for wheels and screws, then 10 tubs at 6 bucks each. Then lets say it takes you 2 days to build it right, your time is worth something so at 8.00 an hour that's another 130.00 min. That's a total of 585.00 now that's for 10 snakes.

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Originally Posted by VEXER19

Yeah I agree with all of you and maybe its more extreme to me because I can build my own. I just think that regardless of what goes in the rack, it could be 1,000,000 dollars for all I care, metal squares and plastic bins are just that, metal squares and plastic bins. I guess if I had the money to blow on it then fine. But how many people these days have money to just throw away. I know the more money I make the more things I have. I just think it is a waste and a shame for people who cant build their own to have to settle for being robbed.

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Couple of points here. Number one you get what you pay for is kinda true. There are exceptions but these $1500 dollar racks have advantages over cheaper racks. Now if you can build your own that's certainly a good way to go. The problem is that it takes tools, some know how and most importantly, TIME. I do ok at my job and I work about 50 hours a week. I value my free time at $50 an hour or more. If you think that $50 dollars an hour is ridiculously high just know that there are people who think $50 an hour is too low. So with all that said the math is really simple. You say it will cost you 1/4, that's $375. So if takes you more than 22.5 hours I would say you are losing money by making it yourself. Of course another way to look at it is what will your finish product be worth vs the professionally made rack. If yours is only worth $1000 then you best be able to make it in 12.5 hours. For me it still sounding good to build my own. But if you value your time at $100 an hour, or it will take you a long time, or you are not convinced you can produce the quality, it starts to make sense why a person would buy a rack.

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Originally Posted by Kara

To echo what others have stated, depending on the type of racks you prefer, once you start needing them in serious numbers, it can be much more cost-effective in terms of materials, time, and labor to buy racks made by a professional caging company. Same goes if you need a specialty size rack or tub.

My husband & I can & have built nice, functional racks in the past, but we prefer to buy them from Animal Plastics instead. The good folks at AP have better experience, better equipment, better resources for materials and get them done more efficiently than we could. The racks are all precision built, uniform & look great. Not to mention, we'd rather spend that time down in our snake rooms caring for and enjoying our pythons, instead of out in the garage building racks. Besides, we feel our snakes deserve the best enclosures we are able to provide, and to us that means buying them from a professional enclosure builder.

It's all a matter of where and how you want to spend your time and money and efforts. Just because people do it differently than you certainly doesn't mean they're getting robbed or haven't put any thought into it. :D

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Yep.

Made my own PVC rack a few months ago. 1/2" PVC purchased at TAP plastics. No charge for the cuts.

Bought my heat tape through RBI and the tubs at Target.

In the end I saved a whopping $40 on something that would have cost me about $450 through AP or the like.

After spending all the time gathering the materials, and all the time putting things together, I concluded that it would have been worth MY time coughing up an extra $40 and having someone else ship one to me.

As for the Freedom Breeder and ARS style rack - my old man is a welder. After pricing out the materials, there was little to no savings in having him weld one up for me.

One thing to keep in mind is that these dedicated cage and rack builders get volume material discounts that most of us don't get. An example of this is when I priced out building my own 3'x4'x2' PVC cage - the cost of having AP or ProLine build me a custom cage was essentially the same.

I guess if I were to compare those costs to DIY melamine costs it would appear as if I the cage builders were making a fortune. However that's and apples to orange comparison.

Melamine and masonite for 2 six-slot racks: $200
Heat tape, thermostats, metal foil tape, wiring: $175
My time (at my regular wage) 12 hours x $20: $240
Total: $615 (!!!)
and all I got was 2 six-slot racks that weigh a ton; I have the experience and know-how, but I still would have been better off buying some!
Here are the pics:
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/3936/rackx.jpg
http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/836/rackback.jpg
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/8623/img0262np.jpg

Time is money and a lot of people make more for their time than the cost of that rack. I build my own racks but I have more free time than I have money. You are shopping with your own wallet and perspective. I've been in sales my entire life and that's a big mistake. If the perceived value is there then they will sell. That's just the way any free-market based system works. Competition drives pricing down. There really isn't a lot of competition in that market segment. A handful of manufactures compete in that price range. There are people with $50-100+k snakes. Think $1500 is a lot of money to them?

Regards,

B