What Morphs USED to cost ....

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Originally Posted by eel588

I wish more breeders would voice their opinions on whether they find the lowered pricing to be beneficial or harmful to their business.

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The majority of people who purchase ball python morphs with the intention of breeding will never see a profit. The biggest factor behind this is that they can't get 'ahead' of dropping prices. The only way to have a shot is to buy your way up the 'pyramid'.

Keep in mind, the 'majority' that I'm talking about are the kinds of people who buy a pastel or spider male for their first snake, think about breeding it, then go buy a more expensive morph female and take three or four years before they get a successful clutch out of her.

I'm running a little experiment with our POG male and Pastel Het OG female. The goal is to see if, keeping back the best animal from each clutch every season, we are able to break even or hopefully make a profit. A lot depends on hard work, good planning, and luck. My bet is that the first season will not come close to paying for two years of maintenance, caging, and the initial cost of the snakes. However, I'm betting that 6-8 years out, once holdbacks from the first two seasons are producing, we will eventually see small profits, if we're able to get SPOG to SPOG clutches and sell each snake for $200 or so by the end of that timeframe.

Breeders would love to see prices stay stable, and it's not just because they feel like their snakes are 'worth it'. If prices were more stable, that would mean an exponentially increasing number of people are flocking to the hobby. Snake breeding->New snakes->Selling to breeders->Snake breeding causes an exponential increase in supply, so a similar rise in demand would be necessary. So yes, I would LOVE to see prices stay flat, and so should everyone else in the hobby.. not for the love of money, but for the love of sharing our passion with others.

However, most breeders do not see dropping prices as a 'bad' thing. In fact, their prices remain fairly stable. 'HUH?' you say? I don't mean prices per morph, but the market value of their entire year's production. They don't care about any particular morph being worth $X. To maintain profits, all they need is for the 2011 generation to be as valuable in 2011 as 2010 generation was valued at market price in 2010, and so on going back to when they first started.

To maintain the value year to year of a new generation, they need to stay ahead of the 'morph game'. If the first season they produce a pastel, and then their second and third seasons they are producing bumblebees and super pastels, and the fourth and fifth seasons they are producing killer bees, then they likely aren't seeing a drop in price.. for the average ball python that they sell. As long as demand for the newest and hottest morph on the market is there, some breeders can make profits.

The tricky thing about shooting for profits in ball pythons is that you do have to think about it as a pyramid scheme. You buy your way in, you do your work, you produce some clutches, and that season you get $X in revenue. Next year, even if you had a holdback combo male powerhouse, you likely aren't going to see a jump in revenue, but you very well may see your revenue stay stable. Don't like where you are in the pyramid, and need to generate more revenue every year? You have to buy your way up higher.

how much I would love a time machine right now :o:O:O:O:O