Has anyone ever bought from Ralph Davis?

I have never purchased from RDR I have nothing against him he seems like a great guy but yea you would think he could at least put a price range like lessers from 400 - 600 spiders from 300 - 500 or something like that. I would have possible purchased from him in the past I did see some snakes that I was interested in but not having any prices drove me away too. So maybe one day he will change his site maybe he wont but he must be selling them just fine apparently.

Maybe he also cares about the snakes and doesn't want people to make impulse purchases.

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Originally Posted by LotsaBalls

Maybe he also cares about the snakes and doesn't want people to make impulse purchases.

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Please explain...

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Originally Posted by BbyBoa

Ralph Davis is a great reptile breeder. That is all there is to it, you don't get to where he is today without knowing what you are doing.

That being said for being one of the "Big Name" breeders he has one of THE WORST websites I have ever seen in my life.

BHB is bigger then Ralph, and they have a great website. So I can't say that Ralph just has so many animals its to hard to price them all.

I think its just Ralph's personal style, he would rather someone talk to him directly about his animals opposed to just shopping online.

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Well I like on his website how he goes into such detail on all of his clutches except for his Top Secret which is understandable. His videos are cool. Pics are awesome...

But you would think that its just a hobby and not a business on the way the website is setup. On one page it says "CLICK THE BIG LIST FOR EVERYTHING THATS FOR SALE"

Then you do and its like uhhhhhhhhhhh I dont get it? Where's the stuff for sale?? So you click the "Birthing Record" link and everything just says call or email..... so..... yeah

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Originally Posted by BbyBoa

Ralph Davis is a great reptile breeder. That is all there is to it, you don't get to where he is today without knowing what you are doing.

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There really isn't much to it...the snakes do most of the work...:D

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Originally Posted by sho220

Please explain...

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I've seen many of dog breeders that interview people and do a home visit before you get to buy a dog from them. I can't say for sure but maybe in part it's his way of screening customers. I emailed him about a snake last year, he called me back that evening and talked to me for about 45 min. I didn't end up buying from him (I was asking about platinum$) but he was very nice and answered all my questions plus. I'm planning on talking to him if PE doesn't have a desert het clown this spring.

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Originally Posted by LotsaBalls

I can't say for sure but maybe in part it's his way of screening customers.

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I really doubt it...it's probably more a case of him running his construction company, spending time with family, friends, doing other things around the house, and just generally having a life outside of breeding snakes...he probably manages to turn a profit from the ball breeding, but I do believe his main income is his construction company...

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Originally Posted by sho220

I really doubt it...it's probably more a case of him running his construction company, spending time with family, friends, doing other things around the house, and just generally having a life outside of breeding snakes...he probably manages to turn a profit from the ball breeding, but I do believe his main income is his construction company...

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Maybe

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Originally Posted by Monster Dodge

That guy has so many different clutches of snakes on his pages, I might have questions on prices for 20 different snakes or more. So everytime I ask about one he will quote a price and it might be too high and I say "ok what about this snake.... hmmmm thats too high also, what about this snake" etc....

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Well, when I called I was pretty specifically looking for a female enchi (and only a female enchi). So my questions were just how much for a female enchi, and which one will you sell me. And he holds back a lot of animals--I don't think he sold many enchi girls this year, but he sure produced a ton of them.

Regarding the quality issue with RD, he produces a very large volume of snakes, and has for some time now. Because he has produced this kind of volume over time, that has allowed him to keep the very best specimens from each year to keep as hold backs. Then when those produce he can keep the best of those specimens. This selective breeding means that on average most of his snakes look better than an average example of that morph. Even his het normals seems to look better than a typical normal to me. I'm not saying that small time breeders can't or don't produce excellent examples of certain morphs, but it's harder for them to do so with as much range and consistency because they haven't necessarily had the benefit of generations of selective breeding like he has. Imagine if you got the pick of the litter from from 200 pastels each year, or from his countless lessers or platinums, etc, your stock would be superb.