Market "crashing"- your take on the future

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Originally Posted by TexanLady

See I don't mind selling animals at a very low price, but not to an individual buyer. I understand how that "crashes" the market, and in the long run any breeder that is selling dirt cheap to the public is only harming his/her own business. Along with everyone else's. If people want to sell dirt cheap (and I plan to sell all my single gene and hets for dirt cheap) why not do it to one of the big breeders?

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Why am I going to sell something to someone just so they can make a bunch of money off it? If I am going to sell something for cheap I do it not for my own gain not some one else's.

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Originally Posted by fishdip

Why am I going to sell something to someone just so they can make a bunch of money off it? If I am going to sell something for cheap I do it not for my own gain not some one else's.

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The only response you're going to get when people whine about your prices is "if it bothers you, buy it off me and sell it yourself".

Which is a good response.

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How many fake snake prices are also helping to drive the so called crashing?

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Originally Posted by fishdip

How many fake snake prices are also helping to drive the so called crashing?

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How many people lie about sales at fake prices to make people think they sell lots of snakes?

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I'd like to chime in on this one. I do breed snakes full time and live within this market, however I do not feel "crashing" is a word to use what-so-ever. This market is like any other, you just observe the flow of how the market works and you have to make it work for you. If wanting to make a profit, you can, it's not really even that hard to do if done right. I know how my investments work and within most other investments making you 3% - 7% yearly return, snakes are actually a fairly decent investment. Is it instant? No. Can it take years? Yes. If you plan your investment longer term and put together a plan for what you want to do, then you'd be much more successful. You can make your money back first year, especially if co-dom and selling, it's extremely possible. However, if you planned on a 3 year term, you're bound to be successful and will also have animals held back to make other combos which in turn also give more revenue.

A lot of people have their reasons on why they think the market does what it does. I see this time and time again of people talking about their lack of sales, yet I've never seen an ad for their animals, I've never seen their name in front of me, and I would have never known they even had an animal for sale until I saw them talking about their lack of sales. Sales don't just come, you have to market and work for them. You have to put yourself in front of people as much as possible and not limit your market to just the reptile community. The world is your market, not a niche community. People should think bigger and expect to have to work a little for their profits, have fun with it.

As far as where I see the market in 5 years, I see it expanded. 5 years ago, everyone was saying the same thing, yet I'm still selling snakes for a living. The market has a set of ups and downs every year, just like any market. I think people need to focus more on their animals and sales vs. the market, focus on their marketing and make it work in your favor, not by cutting prices, but by providing an amazing animal, with great service and help, educate your customers, and actually promote what you have for sale.

Five years ago when I was in the market for a pied males were going for $1200+ and two weeks ago I just purchased a male low-white for $295. I remember when pieds were $20,000. So many people are breeding pieds now that over time people competing to sell their snakes a little lower to get rid of them quicker contribute to their prices going down. I cannot breed for profit due to my time limitations but next year I hope to pick up a female pied and a female morph 100% het pied and make some cool babies for fun. But I would never drop their prices low since I will never be a big breeder needing to make room. And a low-white can produce high-whites and low-whites which makes them still worth working with. I think pieds still had the slowest price drop out of any morph. Morphs that were going for $10,000 a few years ago are only going for $1000 now. Some morph prices drop faster then others depending on how many people are working with them.

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Originally Posted by ben_renick

as far as where i see the market in 5 years, i see it expanded. 5 years ago, everyone was saying the same thing, yet i'm still selling snakes for a living. The market has a set of ups and downs every year, just like any market. I think people need to focus more on their animals and sales vs. The market, focus on their marketing and make it work in your favor, not by cutting prices, but by providing an amazing animal, with great service and help, educate your customers, and actually promote what you have for sale.

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exaclty!

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/image...quote_icon.png Originally Posted by fishdip http://ball-pythons.net/forums/image...post-right.png
How many fake snake prices are also helping to drive the so called crashing?



"How many people lie about sales at fake prices to make people think they sell lots of snakes?"

I don't understand this. Who uses fake prices? Why would anyone use fake prices? What is the logic in that?

sorry for reviving an old thread but i was reading something and it made a lot of sense to me and was on this topic and i remembered reading this thread ... long story short i thought it was worth the revival.

http://ballpythonbreeder.com/2009/04...price-animals/

Ben, spot on dude.

Everyone else: the people who are whining are selling small beans to newbies who want to get the cheapest snake they can to make millions. The people who are turning profit are buying snakes at full price because they're excellent examples, they're breeding selectively and looking for certain combos, and they're producing multi-gene animals. They're holding firm on their price and they're WORKING HARD... THAT THING GRANDPA DID, to put the snakes in front of as many people as possible with the best image and most polished and professional advertising they can come up with.

That said, without the small beans newbies selling single gene snakes of whatever quality comes out of the egg, there is no industry. Don't fill a thread cursing the lowballers - they ARE the market. The savvy folks don't worry about what those goons are doing. They're the guys being strategic while the lowballer goons are on the corner selling dime bags for a dollar a pop in profit.