Outrageous

I was at a pet store out of state, looking through their reptiles when i came across 2 male red tail boa's for $230. each, no morph! I was bewildered. 1 & 1/2
years old too. I just thought that was worth saying . Plain ludicrous...

$200 is about what you pay for a regular boa here in Canada, atleast in the province I live in. Common to see them on places like CL for $350+ for just the snake :P

I'm from MA too :D

It's crazy what some pet stores sell snakes at. I was at Petco the other day getting crickets for my T and I overheard an employee trying to sell this college student a normal ball python. He says "you won't find them this cheap ANYWHERE else". I couldn't help but laugh, and intervene when he walked away. I actually gave her this website. :D

if they are true red tails (BCC not BCi) that would be cheaper than alot of breeders over on this side of the pond.

the ones here usually go for 180ish, one of the pet stores here has an albino for 250 i think, i got my normal at a show for $20 though:D screw pet stores lol

Yeah there was a private pet store by me that had silly boa prices.

Pet stores near me sell normal baby BPs for 80-150 dollars each and RTB normal babies for 150-250 each as well. It's crazy! :D

Not to mention most of these babies are sick. So add vet costs to that!

MA all the wayyy! But $230! CB and not even females? One of them had a bite mark from a mouse too ( asked the owner about it). I can understand a family owned business's need to more of a profit ( vs. mega monster petco-style stores), but cmon man! Money doesn't grow on trees! In my town cb red tail boa's are rare, so going over to New York is commonplace.
I have no idea where i was going with this post but, it's very frustrating!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by huskie bear

MA all the wayyy! But $230! CB and not even females? One of them had a bite mark from a mouse too ( asked the owner about it). I can understand a family owned business's need to more of a profit ( vs. mega monster petco-style stores), but cmon man! Money doesn't grow on trees! In my town cb red tail boa's are rare, so going over to New York is commonplace.
I have no idea where i was going with this post but, it's very frustrating!

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yeah, 230 is absolutly outrageous, you can get full grown females for less

In lubbock, texas they sale normal bp's for 80 bucks at any pet shop

Pet stores need a great deal of mark up for all their expenses in running a business. It's common to see a baby BP for $80+ at a pet store, while you can get a similiar(i.e. not super quality) normal BP hatchling at a show for $10-25.

Remember all the expenses? There's a lot that you probably don't think about. The fact is that most of the general public thinks that pets come from pet stores and that individual people selling animals are all "puppy mills" or "backyard breeders", thanks to all the AR folks AND all the people who insist on using those vague terms for anyone who breeds. A storefront says respectable business who pays their permits and taxes, while a person says shady street dealer who disappears after they sell the animal. Is that true? Not always, but that's the public image.

If you started to go into a store to buy CDs and someone in the street said "Hey, I'll sell you these CDs for 1/4 the price..." would you think he was a independant CD seller or some shady character who might not have legitimate merchandise?

It's similiar to the public perception of pets, especially exotics. All those smuggling shows on AP don't help any.

So yes, the prices in pet stores are way higher than an expo or a breeder. But it's not really "outrageous" for those prices to be higher, considering the expenses involved in running a brick-and-mortar business, as opposed to just breeding in your home and selling the excess, or selling only your produce at the occasional show table.