How to price

I am just curious of how I would go about pricing a morph? Usually I would just look up at the many snake sellers websites but sometimes there are times I cannot find a price. The basic morphs are usually really easy to figure out a price but morphs with combos is a little tougher. So say I have a pastel leopard spider pied <-- (hoping to make this next year), how would I go about figuring out the right price to sell them at?

I typically check Kingsnake and get a idea of what a animal is going for. Keep in mind, quality as well :)

Here is the link http://market.kingsnake.com/index.php?cat=32

I price based off of what the animal is worth to me, and then compare to "market" price. If I am way off, I'll adjust my prices a little, but not much.

I have noticed that my animals are normally right at or slightly over market price, but the quality of my animals is typically higher than average also.

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Originally Posted by Marissa@MKmorphs

I price based off of what the animal is worth to me, and then compare to "market" price. If I am way off, I'll adjust my prices a little, but not much.

I have noticed that my animals are normally right at or slightly over market price, but the quality of my animals is typically higher than average also.

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Yes, but I cannot sell an animal at $1600 just because I think it is pretty. If I cannot find the exact morph when comparing with other's prices, how would I go about doing that?

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Originally Posted by BCS

Yes, but I cannot sell an animal at $1600 just because I think it is pretty. If I cannot find the exact morph when comparing with other's prices, how would I go about doing that?

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There are a lot of factors that go into pricing. Age, sex, size, combo, hets, what its feeding on and feeding response, and most importantly the quality of the genes that it is carrying.

Is there a certain animal that you are trying to price out?

If a snake is worth $1600 to you by all means price it as such. These are living breathing animals that have value. Be patient, screen your buyers, and the right person who values that animal just as much as you do will come along.

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Originally Posted by Marissa@MKmorphs

There are a lot of factors that go into pricing. Age, sex, size, combo, hets, what its feeding on and feeding response, and most importantly the quality of the genes that it is carrying.

Is there a certain animal that you are trying to price out?

If a snake is worth $1600 to you by all means price it as such. These are living breathing animals that have value. Be patient, screen your buyers, and the right person who values that animal just as much as you do will come along.

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Okay, I am not really sure what I am looking for when you say quality? Would that mean high whites, low whites kind of thing? I have a medium pied female who I think is gorgeous and I tend to like medium pieds more then high whites or low whites so to me that is better quality, but that would be an opinion right, not quality.

Ah, economics, my old enemy. I will point out that your intended combo might be a challenge since the spider gene tends to make extremely high white pieds (spieds and bumblebee pieds tend to only have color/pattern on the head and sometimes not even on the entire head), which could make identifying leopard very difficult.

A couple things factor into the price of a snake including your own reputation, quality of the animal, and overall what people are willing to pay. I don't know that there is necessarily a formula, though. I found one bumbleebee pied female for sale from NERD, but she's 2500 which is a bit off from what I would have expected (to be fair, every big name breeder is going to have prices that seem pretty high compared to what hobbyist produce).

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Originally Posted by BCS

Okay, I am not really sure what I am looking for when you say quality? Would that mean high whites, low whites kind of thing? I have a medium pied female who I think is gorgeous and I tend to like medium pieds more then high whites or low whites so to me that is better quality, but that would be an opinion right, not quality.

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With pieds, that's sort of down to personal preference as far as high, low or medium white go. I prefer mine to be at a medium, enough to show the color and pattern that exists and still register as something unique. Pieds are a recessive gene, and those tend to go a bit higher than a dom or co-dom single gene animal, but single gene pied are becoming much more common, which means their prices have gone down over the last couple years. In this case, personality, feeding response, current size, and whether or not she's proven out as a good breeder would influence the final price.

In regards to pieds, I look at the patterned area of the snake and look for color, pattern, and contrast. I like bright, high contrast pieds. I have a 50/50 medium white girl that looks better than most pastel pieds or yellowbelly pieds because she is a lighter/brighter colored pied with higher contrast. She is about 1400 grams now.

http://41.media.tumblr.com/803341c36...paao1_1280.jpg


So, yes she is a single gene pied, but because of her color, high contrast, and strong feeding response I would price her more than other pied females of her same age/size.

Some people have price differences based on how much white their pied has, but what I personally look for in terms of quality is how bright the pied is in the colored areas. Some hold color really well, while others turn dark brown and get a bit muddy looking as adults.

It will depends on 2 things the price you are willing to let the animal go for and the price someone is willing to pay.

I have produced animals that have never been offered on the market and I have priced them based on what I thought was fair for a triple gene animal female (Enchi Pinstripe Pied).

Now when it comes to the animal you will produce while pied combos are very thought for especially high white ones (which will be the case with this one) anything containing Spider might be debatable however so take that in consideration.(not everyone wants to work with spiders for obvious reasons)

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Originally Posted by Chkadii

Some people have price differences based on how much white their pied has, but what I personally look for in terms of quality is how bright the pied is in the colored areas. Some hold color really well, while others turn dark brown and get a bit muddy looking as adults.

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EXACTLY! It is very hard to find the correct wording at times.

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Originally Posted by Marissa@MKmorphs

EXACTLY! It is very hard to find the correct wording at times.

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You were much better at it than I was! Your explanation was thorough, and you even included an example. And btw, your pied is amazing! I might just have to pull up that picture to reference as I walk around Hamburg on Saturday. "This is how great they can look! Don't settle for less!" [emoji4]

Okay, brighter pieds. I did not know that would be considered quality as I like darker pieds but again that is a personal preference so I can see what you mean by how much i would value the snake at. Of course there are a lot of other morphs I plan on mixing up, but the pied project I am more excited about. One day I plan on working with clowns which will turn out to be my new highlight in the future. I currently have 7 females and 3 males. All the males will be ready to go next year but only three females (maybe four hopefully). This will definitely be a hobby for me, nothing I would make a business on but I do have a couple that I spent quite a bit of money on so not sure if that would mean they are great quality, but that would not stop me from loving these creatures. Thank you guys for all your help.

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Originally Posted by BCS

Okay, brighter pieds. I did not know that would be considered quality as I like darker pieds but again that is a personal preference so I can see what you mean by how much i would value the snake at. Of course there are a lot of other morphs I plan on mixing up, but the pied project I am more excited about. One day I plan on working with clowns which will turn out to be my new highlight in the future. I currently have 7 females and 3 males. All the males will be ready to go next year but only three females (maybe four hopefully). This will definitely be a hobby for me, nothing I would make a business on but I do have a couple that I spent quite a bit of money on so not sure if that would mean they are great quality, but that would not stop me from loving these creatures. Thank you guys for all your help.

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Of course it could go the other way too, with an unusually dark/richly colored pied. It all depends on what the buyer is looking for!