Is it me??

The bel I missed out on was from a big name breeder. I think hes making room for this year's hatchlings. Breeders don't won't people to think the markets changing, because that affects them, and their bottom line. Anyone that says it's not is lying to themselves. All markets change.

Good riddance I say. People who were in it for the hobby are still keeping and breeding snakes and those that were in it for the money are moving on to the next big thing, whatever they may think that is. Before the ball python boom you used to see a lot more diversity and I think I'm starting to see that again. Shows that I've been to that used to be set up like ball python, ball python, ball python, boa, boa, ball python, are now more diverse. I seems to me like I've started seeing more colubrids, geckos, frogs and some of your less common pythons. Personally I think that's a good thing.

I'm scaling back this year due to time constraints (new job and the home business is growing) but I'm not getting out. I'm not selling off the adult breeders though, just won't be pairing more than a handful.

I'm also interested in working with other species as they start maturing over the next year or so, and I only have so much space available for hatchling racks.

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Originally Posted by Yodawagon

The bel I missed out on was from a big name breeder. I think hes making room for this year's hatchlings. Breeders don't won't people to think the markets changing, because that affects them, and their bottom line. Anyone that says it's not is lying to themselves. All markets change.

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The market is always evolving that's the nature of the beast no one will contradict that, however it is the inability of some to adjust, re-insvest , have a plan and be truly passionate that cause their downfall. The reason we see more of that now is that with price drop more people can afford single, double, triple genes animals but because they can afford it does not mean they can take it to the next level.

When I started all I could afford were a few normal, 1 Spider, 1 Pastel, 1 Black Pastel and a pair of Het Pied and I still made it and built my collection to where it is now.

I have said it many times it depends on your goals but most importantly on your plan and passion for it.

The fact that people are getting out is not a bad thing at all.

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I don't imagine too many folks who have been monetarily successful at it are getting out. Maybe a lot who've only managed to meet Deborah's first baby step of a business; make enough to feed the collection. The market is saturated and there's not enough profit for everyone with a couple of BPs. And it's a tough sell for the new guy with no rep. Of course the price drops have a lot to do with it. Plenty of people dropping a couple $K on the latest hottest morph thinking the offspring would sell for the same 2 or 3 years down the road. Had they done their research, they would've known that is the price point at which a morph is about explode (especially dom/codom) and prices are about to go into a tailspin.

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Originally Posted by DennisM

I don't imagine too many folks who have been monetarily successful at it are getting out. Maybe a lot who've only managed to meet Deborah's first baby step of a business; make enough to feed the collection. The market is saturated and there's not enough profit for everyone with a couple of BPs. And it's a tough sell for the new guy with no rep. Of course the price drops have a lot to do with it. Plenty of people dropping a couple $K on the latest hottest morph thinking the offspring would sell for the same 2 or 3 years down the road. Had they done their research, they would've known that is the price point at which a morph is about explode (especially dom/codom) and prices are about to go into a tailspin.

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Main reason I'm holding off on adding in a bamboo kid rn even though I really want to work with the gene. Lots of single gene kids going for $1k. In a year or 2 I'll probably grab a 2 or 3 gene animal for the same price.

I've only been learning about the BP world for the past 6 months, and been an owner about three months... I'm still very green... but I have seen more "selling off my collection" posts on the popular classified sites than I have seen or heard of people starting up a breeding business.

I'm sure there are pros and cons to there being more breeders and/or less breeders. I mean, as a buyer, it's nice to be able to have a larger selection to choose from, but then I'm sure when the supply exceeds the demand, the prices can fall. If anything though, I'd say the more breeders getting out of the business is definitely a good thing for those of you still doing it. I mean, a slew of morphs, and a slew of breeders going to all sorts of shows and popping up on all sorts of Facebook pages, etc... that's really a lot of advertising for BP morphs. Now, those people that saw "that one cool snake" that they "just have to have" are going to come looking for it... and searching the internet for it. If the little breeder in their town is no longer around, guess what, they're going to find you all.

I hope to breed snakes one day, but just for the hobby of reproducing a clutch of snakes. Nothing more. To those of you who are able to make a business or at least maybe pay for some of your feeders and supplies... I commend you, and thank you. Without you, very few of us would be here. :)

I fall into the hobby breeder category. While I make a decent little chunk of change from my small collection, I am in no way shape or form motivated to increase in size. I'm right at that point where if I expanded, things would become less relaxing and more like work in my eyes. This also means that when I want to add to a project, or even start with a new species, something else has to move out. I've had reptiles since I was a child and will until the day I die. That said, interests within the hobby shift - plain and simple. If you keep reptiles for 10, 20, 30 years you will probably go through a rather diverse hodgepodge of species. I have always been motivated to work with a wide variety and, since I want to keep it relaxing and laid back with my personal collection, this means sometimes selling off an entire species to someone more interested in them at the time.

Question for those of you who have been breeding for years: What percentage of your sales would you estimate have come from buyers who wanted the animal for a breeding project, and what percentage were from buyers who just wanted a pet?

Looking in from the outside, I have noticed that the BP market looks a bit like a ponzi scheme. So, while the exit of the less committed breeders may seem like a good thing, as they were saturating the market, on the other hand, they were also driving much of the market.

Not sure what will happen. Assuming that there IS an ongoing shake-out, then the future of the market depends on what those percentages have been.

I don't know what everyone else experiences are, but there's a video on Markus Jayne's youtube channel and he claims that while selling the thousand and up animals is nice, the bulk of his profit that keeps his business running are the $100-$500 morphs. Your pieds, enchies, fires, the classics that everyone recognizes and wants even if they've been around for ages. To me that suggests there is still very much a large pet market of people who want a cool looking animal but aren't willing to invest thousands of dollars into it.