MorphMarket Launches Today

Fellow ball lovers, please allow me to share with you a new website dedicated exclusively to ball pythons: http://www.morphmarket.com

As a software developer who owns a dozen ball pythons myself, I have found the lack of modern tools available to us somewhat lacking. Therefore, I have created MorphMarket, a site completely customized for ball pythons. It empowers buyers with a powerful and mobile friendly system for locating specific morphs of interest. It also provides an unconventional approach to listing your BP's for sale. These two short videos explain, as well as this comparison to other sites.

MorphMarket also has a new mobile friendly morph calculator.

Today marks the "official launch" of the site by way of this announcement (though it has been quietly online for a while).

I hope you like it, and I want to emphasize that it is an ongoing project. This work wasn't outsourced or contracted -- it's been done by me. I will be listening to your requests and doing my best to add features to get it right. I would love to hear your thoughts and questions, and of course about any problems you experience. You can reach out on this thread or on Facebook and Twitter. If you have a question, you might check the FAQ first to see if it has been answered.

I want to give a special thanks to Matt "OWAL" for providing feedback and contributing his site's gene data. My gratitude also goes to JT @ OnTheBallPythons and other breeders for their input and encouragement.

Thanks for checking it out!

John

https://morphmarket-media.s3.amazona...869b5d28e6.png

Just checked it out and registered. I like the layout and design very easy to use and I really like the calculator though when I typed Pastel Clown it said morph not found but then pulled up pastel clowns when I did a pairing to a clown and ran the tool.

@C2tcardin: thanks! You're right, if you type in multiple genes at once rather than selecting them as you type (with tab or enter), it will give that faulty warning (since it will still work). I will fix this soon to give a more accurate warning on the result page instead if needed.

I love that website. I've been using it a lot for browsing. One thing I think would be cool is if on the page where it shows all of the morphs by name, you could click on each icon. Like the het, pos het, and visual.

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Originally Posted by Yodawagon

I love that website. I've been using it a lot for browsing. One thing I think would be cool is if on the page where it shows all of the morphs by name, you could click on each icon. Like the het, pos het, and visual.

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Guess I need to check this out when I get home tonight BUT a het and p/het are not going to look anything like a visual so you would just expect to see a normal.

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

Guess I need to check this out when I get home tonight BUT a het and p/het are not going to look anything like a visual so you would just expect to see a normal.

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I know visually they wouldn't look different, but when you deal with something like say the albino tab on North Market it has the visual and the hats mixed together. It be nice if on the page that you go to if you could pick hat or visual. When you get home today and check out the website and you click on browse it'll all make sense to you.

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Originally Posted by Yodawagon

I love that website. I've been using it a lot for browsing. One thing I think would be cool is if on the page where it shows all of the morphs by name, you could click on each icon. Like the het, pos het, and visual.

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@Yodawagon: Appreciate that, you were one of the earliest users!

I think what you're asking for is already possible. From the gene index, if you click on the gene name, you will get all animals with at least that gene, regardless. But if you click on one of the colored numbers instead (orange for het, see legend at bottom), it will perform a "trait search" and only return matches for that expression (such as het albino). Let me know if that's not what you're asking for.

Of course you can also just type "het albino" into the search box.

@pit: And yes, het albino result should all look normal. Although the results may have other genes in them as well in which case they would not.

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Originally Posted by jplehmann

@C2tcardin: thanks! You're right, if you type in multiple genes at once rather than selecting them as you type (with tab or enter), it will give that faulty warning (since it will still work). I will fix this soon to give a more accurate warning on the result page instead if needed.

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Ah I see, I just went back and played with it and I get it now. You may just want to add a note that or tweak the notes there regarding selecting each gene so it populates the field then move on to the next gene. Just a suggestion.

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Originally Posted by jplehmann

@Yodawagon: Appreciate that, you were one of the earliest users!

I think what you're asking for is already possible. From the gene index, if you click on the gene name, you will get all animals with at least that gene, regardless. But if you click on one of the colored numbers instead (orange for het, see legend at bottom), it will perform a "trait search" and only return matches for that expression (such as het albino). Let me know if that's not what you're asking for.

Of course you can also just type "het albino" into the search box.

@pit: And yes, het albino result should all look normal. Although the results may have other genes in them as well in which case they would not.

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The does appear to be the case. I'll have to remember that. I think I tried that once before but maybe it wasn't working or maybe I didn't touch it the right way on my tab screen or what but it's working now. I tend to bounce between morph market and king snake a lot. If nothing else for the eye candy

What about the Morse the don't fall into those categories that are already on the website.. Like trick or Arroyo and the like. Is there an other category.

Slick looking site. I've not had a chance to delve deeply into it yet, but can't wait.

Dave

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Originally Posted by Yodawagon

What about the Morse the don't fall into those categories that are already on the website.. Like trick or Arroyo and the like. Is there an other category.

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The gene index initially shows single genes for which there are currently snakes for sale. But, if you change the blue box "for sale" to "all" it will also show "sold" snakes which is over 3,000 total. That includes a couple Tricks but I don't see any Arroyo's yet.

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Originally Posted by C2tcardin

Ah I see, I just went back and played with it and I get it now. You may just want to add a note that or tweak the notes there regarding selecting each gene so it populates the field then move on to the next gene. Just a suggestion.

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Hi Jeff, I just released the fix. I removed the client-side warning (simple explanation is I can't run the full gene parser in the browser), but after you "calculate" it will now show a warning if there was any unknown gene. This fix applies to the advanced/filter search and edit snake ad as well. Thanks for the input!

Very cool site! I've been playing around on it for like half an hour and I'm really enjoying it. I love the way it has both available and sold pythons from so many breeders, I like being able to compare prices and morphs all in one place, without having to bounce around to different sites.

Definitely like it and am excited to see how it grows and improves!

Super cool!!

i'm playing around with it now. i really like that it's mobile friendly. it will be really nice for those in real time situations at a show or expo. ;)

Very cool site. It must have been a ton of work to make all these features.

I favorited it to look at again and again.

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Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

Very cool site. It must have been a ton of work to make all these features.

I favorited it to look at again and again.

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Ditto, I also favorited! Love the site.

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

Wow! Once I start breeding, I'll definitely use this to sell my babies. I had been hoping somebody would make a site like this. I'll tell the local breeders about it, too. Thank you for creating Morph Market! Amazing work! :)

Glad to see it finally released, you've been working very hard on it. Looks like its almost time to shut down my calc i've been neglecting lol. A tool like that has been needed for a while and the search function is unlike anything else to date.

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Originally Posted by Penultimate

Wow! Once I start breeding, I'll definitely use this to sell my babies. I had been hoping somebody would make a site like this. I'll tell the local breeders about it, too. Thank you for creating Morph Market! Amazing work! :)

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Thanks Penultimate, and everyone, for the encouraging words! And as you said, for anyone who likes this and thinks this is a good thing for our community, the best thing you can do is to spread the word and ask your favorite breeders why they're not on it yet. =) The process for the seller is equally unique.

Just tell them they can import their entire inventory into the market in a few seconds (as this video shows).

will check out at home

Gotta look at this a bit more. So far it's beautiful and easy to navigate. I'll have some more feedback later :gj:.

I messed around on it for a little bit and I love the concept! Especially browsing by morph and the color coordination that goes with it!

Nicely laid out website. My only issue is that people seem to think too highly about their morphs. Some of these morphs are way too expensive. When your morph looks just like a $25 normal and you're charging $750 for some tiny alteration, I almost choke. No way those things are worth that much. I don't see why anyone would ever pay that much.

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Originally Posted by lpaulgib

Nicely laid out website. My only issue is that people seem to think too highly about their morphs. Some of these morphs are way too expensive. When your morph looks just like a $25 normal and you're charging $750 for some tiny alteration, I almost choke. No way those things are worth that much. I don't see why anyone would ever pay that much.

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Chances are you are being short sighted, some of those almost normals combo up with things like look like nothing else. Which morph are you looking at? I'm sure id be able to show you why people might pay for it.

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Originally Posted by lpaulgib

Nicely laid out website. My only issue is that people seem to think too highly about their morphs. Some of these morphs are way too expensive. When your morph looks just like a $25 normal and you're charging $750 for some tiny alteration, I almost choke. No way those things are worth that much. I don't see why anyone would ever pay that much.

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Perhaps you haven't seen what the "nearly normal" looking morph does when combined with other morphs? A good example is the crystal gene. Look up a "special" morph then look up a "super special" or "crystal". The almost completely normal looking "special" turns into a completely different animal in combination. A mojave and special makes a crystal.

Or take yellowbellies or enchis. They also look close to normal but when combined with others or even with themselves to make a super(yellowbellies super form = ivory) they make incredible animals.

The newer the gene, the higher the price. When the gene can make incredible combos, the price will be higher. When people discover something awesome that the gene can do, the demand can go up also.

I still have trouble seeing a yellowbelly, it looks like a regular normal. But I know what yellowbelly can do in combinations. So yellowbelly is a desirable gene and worth a lot more money.

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Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

Perhaps you haven't seen what the "nearly normal" looking morph does when combined with other morphs? A good example is the crystal gene. Look up a "special" morph then look up a "super special" or "crystal". The almost completely normal looking "special" turns into a completely different animal in combination. A mojave and special makes a crystal.

Or take yellowbellies or enchis. They also look close to normal but when combined with others or even with themselves to make a super(yellowbellies super form = ivory) they make incredible animals.

The newer the gene, the higher the price. When the gene can make incredible combos, the price will be higher. When people discover something awesome that the gene can do, the demand can go up also.

I still have trouble seeing a yellowbelly, it looks like a regular normal. But I know what yellowbelly can do in combinations. So yellowbelly is a desirable gene and worth a lot more money.

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That makes a lot more sense. It's still shocking seeing a $750 BP that is only marginally different than a normal. For example I see a pastel puzzle that I honestly can't tell a difference between that and my normal, except theirs is $850. Then the Huffman Het Ghost looks exactly light a slighty lighter shade normal. Maybe my eyes are dumb. I can see why Super Chocolate is expensive ( beautiful snake by the way), but it's still high.

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Originally Posted by lpaulgib

That makes a lot more sense. It's still shocking seeing a $750 BP that is only marginally different than a normal. For example I see a pastel puzzle that I honestly can't tell a difference between that and my normal, except theirs is $850. Then the Huffman Het Ghost looks exactly light a slighty lighter shade normal. Maybe my eyes are dumb. I can see why Super Chocolate is expensive ( beautiful snake by the way), but it's still high.

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To a pet owner, buying an expensive BP that looks minimally different than a normal probably wouldn't be worth it. To breeders, though, it is. Breeders know how to utilize that morph.

What does it take to get added to the "Breeders" page?

Somewhat minor, but this helps me when looking around on Fauna > maybe there should be a sort on the BPs for sale for "Location". Sometimes you can get a good price by negotiating a pick-up rather than a fedex delivery.

I LOVE the breeders page! This is a crazy feature request - but having some way to customize your page's colors, layout, or font would be awesome! Even having an avatar to go with your name, or a breeder page profile photo to show off your logo would be cool. I don't know, I just fantasize about decking out my breeder page, as there's no other place to do this than to make your own website. I imagine people who make something really cool linking their MorphMarket page to their signatures. Just a thought :gj:.

Do you also plan on having a rating/review system for breeder pages? I'm not confident that it's such a good idea to do that, as flame wars are almost guaranteed to grow :rolleyes:.

If I think of anything else, I'll reply :gj:. It's awesome having a platform to discuss this with the creator! You did a great job!

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Originally Posted by h00blah

What does it take to get added to the "Breeders" page?

Somewhat minor, but this helps me when looking around on Fauna > maybe there should be a sort on the BPs for sale for "Location". Sometimes you can get a good price by negotiating a pick-up rather than a fedex delivery.

I LOVE the breeders page! This is a crazy feature request - but having some way to customize your page's colors, layout, or font would be awesome! Even having an avatar to go with your name, or a breeder page profile photo to show off your logo would be cool. I don't know, I just fantasize about decking out my breeder page, as there's no other place to do this than to make your own website. I imagine people who make something really cool linking their MorphMarket page to their signatures. Just a thought :gj:.

Do you also plan on having a rating/review system for breeder pages? I'm not confident that it's such a good idea to do that, as flame wars are almost guaranteed to grow :rolleyes:.

If I think of anything else, I'll reply :gj:. It's awesome having a platform to discuss this with the creator! You did a great job!

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Hi h00blah,

> What does it take to get added to the "Breeders" page?

http://www.morphmarket.com/faq#breeders-page

> maybe there should be a sort on the BPs for sale for "Location".

Is medium-high priority.

> Customizing breeders's page

Great ideas. The logo in particular is very likely. I would like breeders to be able to use this as their page. In fact here's a button you can use to point to your store if you like. Update the link obviously.

<a href="http://www.morphmarket.com/stores/XXXYOURSTOREHEREXXX"><img src="https://morphmarket-media.s3.amazona...g/MMButton.png" alt="MorphMarket ball pythons for sale" title="MorphMarket link" style="height:40px; display:block;"></a>

> Rating system

Maybe one day. As you said, it's tricky to do this right.

> It's awesome having a platform to discuss this with the creator!

Glad to be available. It's exciting to be building a platform that unlocks the awesomeness of what you guys are doing!

thanks,

John

Any plans to make an app? The website is awesome. I'm looking for a cinnamon combo male and it was soooooo easy to just click cinnamon and see everything available

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by Izzys Keeper

Any plans to make an app? The website is awesome. I'm looking for a cinnamon combo male and it was soooooo easy to just click cinnamon and see everything available

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

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It's a responsive website, there's no need for an app :P

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Originally Posted by Izzys Keeper

Any plans to make an app? The website is awesome. I'm looking for a cinnamon combo male and it was soooooo easy to just click cinnamon and see everything available

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

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Hi Izzys, as Matt said, it should work well on devices. There are some benefits to apps but the cost is probably too great, official answer:

http://www.morphmarket.com/faq#app

Hey everyone, quick update. I just posted a recap of the week to MM's FB page. Also, I shared that the best place to continue engaging me will be on the MM FB page. This will centralize our discussion and save me valuable time so that I can keep making it better. Doesn't mean I might not pop in to the forum but it won't be the surest way to find me moving forward.


https://www.facebook.com/morphmarket...21664058095777

So I have some more feedback/suggestions :D...

Suggestions:
* Is there a way to sort the list of morphs by date in which they appeared, so you can have a "classic" view of the classifieds, similar to what they have on Fauna or Kingsnake?
* Perhaps another way to achieve this which is similar to the way forums work, could you bold text morph names that have updates, then unbold them if there haven't been updates since you last clicked that morph? Currently they're all un-bold by default.
* The photo banners at the top are awesome! It would be even more awesome if you did something like the Ball Python of the Month/week feature that BP.net used to do :gj:. People could submit photos, and by a certain date, the registered members of the page get to vote which ones are their favorite :gj:. You may need to hire a moderator to do this, or do it yourself, or just trust the people to not submit weird or irrelevant photos :confuzd:? OR you can have people nominate the morph of the month/week by scouring through the photo ads.
* I put a little more thought into the rating system I suggested. I think I just want to be able to comment on peoples' snakes.
* A feature to be able to "watch" or "get notifications" for a snake ad or a breeder's page could be cool. Any time they update their Inventory or Breeder page, it could be cool to see a notification somewhere :gj:.

Feedback:
* I LOVE the pro-tips at the bottom of the page! I just tried it and was blown away by how accurate it was! More of these please :D...
PRO TIP: You can access the calculator from any page, by putting two morph names in the search box (in the top menu bar) separated by an 'x' and click 'Submit'.

Question:
* If people contact you about your snake ad, do you receive an e-mail? Or do I have to check in with the site to see notifications?

As usual, if I think of anything else, I'll come back here :gj:.

Thanks!
- Travis

Hi Hooblah, thanks for all the feedback!

> The photo banners at the top are awesome! It would be even more awesome if you did something like the Ball Python of the Month/week feature that BP.net used to do :gj:. People could submit photos, and by a certain date, the registered members of the page get to vote which ones are their favorite :gj:. You may need to hire a moderator to do this, or do it yourself, or just trust the people to not submit weird or irrelevant photos :confuzd:? OR you can have people nominate the morph of the month/week by scouring through the photo ads.
> I think I just want to be able to comment on peoples' snakes.

Cool ideas, I've taken note.> A feature to be able to "watch" or "get notifications" for a snake ad or a breeder's page could be cool. Any time they update their Inventory or Breeder page, it could be cool to see a notification somewhere :gj:.

Yes, activity updates like this is planned!!

> I LOVE the pro-tips at the bottom of the page! I just tried it and was blown away by how accurate it was! More of these please :D...

I added a new one to Edit Snake just for you, and will try to do more. :)

> If people contact you about your snake ad, do you receive an e-mail? Or do I have to check in with the site to see notifications?

You can try it out and see for yourself. They either will click "go to ad" and go to your site, etc. Or they can click "contact sender" which right now is just your email address. So there are no notifications currently on MM. We're keeping that simple for now to work on cooler stuff.

> Is there a way to sort the list of morphs by date in which they appeared, so you can have a "classic" view of the classifieds, similar to what they have on Fauna or Kingsnake?

I'm going to answer this one on the FB page in a little bit, because it's of particular interest.

Thanks again!

The other answer is at: https://www.facebook.com/morphmarket...22527811342735

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Originally Posted by jplehmann

> The photo banners at the top are awesome! It would be even more awesome if you did something like the Ball Python of the Month/week feature that BP.net used to do :gj:. People could submit photos, and by a certain date, the registered members of the page get to vote which ones are their favorite :gj:. You may need to hire a moderator to do this, or do it yourself, or just trust the people to not submit weird or irrelevant photos :confuzd:? OR you can have people [I]nominate the morph of the month/week by scouring through the photo ads.
> I think I just want to be able to comment on peoples' snakes.

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I realized I didn't actually flesh out my pitch here :gj:. Just in case you didn't already figure it out, I was pitching that photos that receive the most votes get featured in the banner, or there would be a sidebar that contains the Ball Python of the Month. If you click on Home on Bp.net, you can see what I'm referring to. You get to highlight snake ads or registered users.

I am not opposed to comments on photos. Though I brought this up before, I worry about flame wars, or spiteful/hateful comments on breeder photos by kids who have some vendetta against breeders. Of course this is the worst case scenario, I can imagine other cons that come from this.

Thanks for the reply :gj:! Added the site to my bookmarks toolbar :D...

Just as a general reminder... A lot of these posts are getting very close to the edge.

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14. No advertising outside of designated area without Administrator approval. “Designated area” is the For Sale/Trade/Adoption/Wanted Forum, and is free for our members limited use. All goods, services, or animals advertised in these spaces must be the property of and in possession of the member posting. Administrators reserve the right to pull any ads deemed to fall outside of our Family Friendly parameters or that may constitute a legal liability for the site. Rules for Advertising --- One exception to this rule: Posts or threads made for or by NatPet, USARK, or PIJAC for the purpose of drawing attention to or soliciting help for their cause will be allowed to remain. The work they do is critical for the survival of our hobby and thereby this site as well.

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Originally Posted by MarkS

Just as a general reminder... A lot of these posts are getting very close to the edge.

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Mark, thanks for that warning, and I appreciate the moderators on the site allowing this thread to announce the site.

I will re-iterate what I said 2 posts ago, to anyone who come across this in the future:
> the best place for now to continue engaging about MorphMarket is on our Facebook Page

Just post on the wall there and we'll respond.

thanks again!

I LOVE the site, browse all the time. One thing that I dont Like is ads without pictures. The point of morphs is visual appeal. If I can't see it, I'm not hunting down a picture. If your selling, don't be lazy, post a picture.

Question: does a website such as this serve to drive down prices?

I don't breed, but I do like seeing what's available and for what it's selling for. In a site such as this, when two or three breeders are selling essentially the same/similar snake, wouldn't the logical thing for the breeder to do be to offer theirs for less than the competition, driving down prices ultimately?

Case in point: there is a beautiful little vanilla on there; it's selling for less than normals. Seems to me that vanilla could sell for more. If I was selling a vanilla, I think I'd be a little ticked that I am selling it for whatever the price should be (certainly at least more than a normal), but it's unlikely mine will sell when the one out there already is less (maybe a lot less).

I love free market, but the benefit is for the buyer, not the seller. I would think the largest breeder would just step in, undercut the market for pastels or cinnamons or mojaves or whatever. I can't see how something like this helps sellers.

I don't know, maybe the profit margins are made up on the shipping charges, which practically no one publishes?

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Originally Posted by hanzo_baseball

Question: does a website such as this serve to drive down prices?

I don't breed, but I do like seeing what's available and for what it's selling for. In a site such as this, when two or three breeders are selling essentially the same/similar snake, wouldn't the logical thing for the breeder to do be to offer theirs for less than the competition, driving down prices ultimately?

Case in point: there is a beautiful little vanilla on there; it's selling for less than normals. Seems to me that vanilla could sell for more. If I was selling a vanilla, I think I'd be a little ticked that I am selling it for whatever the price should be (certainly at least more than a normal), but it's unlikely mine will sell when the one out there already is less (maybe a lot less).

I love free market, but the benefit is for the buyer, not the seller. I would think the largest breeder would just step in, undercut the market for pastels or cinnamons or mojaves or whatever. I can't see how something like this helps sellers.

I don't know, maybe the profit margins are made up on the shipping charges, which practically no one publishes?

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This could be discussed to quite lengths, but undercutting does not maximize profits in this hobby. These animals are not iPads, they aren't all the same and they can also reproduce themselves, you can't compare a typical market to this one. In the case of most markets, I get the same item no matter what I pay so of course I shop the price. Sure there will be people who shop the lowest price, but this hobby thrives more on shopping the animal and not the price. Then factor in animals can also reproduce themselves, so supply grows without regulation, so naturally prices will drop. Simple supply and demand.

but a simpler answer would be, classified sites have been around for years, this one in a nut shell just makes you spend less time looking for what you want and less time posting. This is game changing tech wise, same snakes are still for sale, just on a different site.

http://www.kingsnake.com/
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/index.php
http://www.thereptilereportmarketplace.com/

I can click on one button and see every pastel everyone is selling, along with price, age and sex. There's not really a shopping of the animal going on here, it's, say, 4 breeders all offering male pastels, all born in 2015. Aside from a picture and maybe weight, what besides price separates what the 4 breeders are selling? I don't think any of the websites mentioned allow for such a direct comparison between breeders, pitting breeders head to head for the lowest price.

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Originally Posted by hanzo_baseball

I can click on one button and see every pastel everyone is selling, along with price, age and sex. There's not really a shopping of the animal going on here, it's, say, 4 breeders all offering male pastels, all born in 2015. Aside from a picture and maybe weight, what besides price separates what the 4 breeders are selling? I don't think any of the websites mentioned allow for such a direct comparison between breeders, pitting breeders head to head for the lowest price.

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Every snake is as different as a snow flake. Some pastels are lighter, some are darker. Some have more pattern then others. Nobody is pitting breeders head to head for the lowest price. Sure price plays a factor in the decision, but ultimately each snake is different and that's what you're buying. I could go on kingsnake and search 2015 male pastel and do the same thing. I have never bought a snake just because it was the cheapest. In fact, I've never bought the cheapest. I find what I want, figure out if I can afford it, then buy it or save up for it.

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Originally Posted by Yodawagon

I LOVE the site, browse all the time. One thing that I dont Like is ads without pictures. The point of morphs is visual appeal. If I can't see it, I'm not hunting down a picture. If your selling, don't be lazy, post a picture.

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@Yoda, Re: Picture-less Ad Hate =), I've posted a response here. Thanks!

Will be following morphmarket, it's the only place I have been able to find a decent amount of axanthics, I'm preferring a younger one so maybe next breeding period I can find some of the kinds I'm looking for, but Deffinally good site. Little things here and there can be done to improve but very useful and wide variety of selections

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by hanzo_baseball

I can click on one button and see every pastel everyone is selling, along with price, age and sex. There's not really a shopping of the animal going on here, it's, say, 4 breeders all offering male pastels, all born in 2015. Aside from a picture and maybe weight, what besides price separates what the 4 breeders are selling? I don't think any of the websites mentioned allow for such a direct comparison between breeders, pitting breeders head to head for the lowest price.

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Aside from a picture? That is the shopping the animal part, that is the biggest variable of all, come on now. Also I would find it highly unlikely to have 4 breeders with similar reputation, similar advertising outreach, producing 4 similar looking pastels, and all feel they need to race to the bottom price. It hasn't happen yet on a scale that matters.

And all those website have the same snakes on them, therefore I can compare in exactly the same way. Search the morph, start opening tabs of all the search results, filter through the ads you have no interest in. Again this site just saves time.

Just a few years ago I was looking for double het hypo clown females, or females that were at least double het hypo clown. Do you have any idea how many hours were spent on looking for them? searching "hypo clown" "ghost clown" "clown ghost" "clown hypo" "double het" "dbl het" and going through tons of ads I had no interest in, tons of animals I couldn't afford lol. So many lists of snakes for sale. If everyone used this site I could of saved a lot of time

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Originally Posted by hanzo_baseball

Question: does a website such as this serve to drive down prices?

I don't breed, but I do like seeing what's available and for what it's selling for. In a site such as this, when two or three breeders are selling essentially the same/similar snake, wouldn't the logical thing for the breeder to do be to offer theirs for less than the competition, driving down prices ultimately?

Case in point: there is a beautiful little vanilla on there; it's selling for less than normals. Seems to me that vanilla could sell for more. If I was selling a vanilla, I think I'd be a little ticked that I am selling it for whatever the price should be (certainly at least more than a normal), but it's unlikely mine will sell when the one out there already is less (maybe a lot less).

I love free market, but the benefit is for the buyer, not the seller. I would think the largest breeder would just step in, undercut the market for pastels or cinnamons or mojaves or whatever. I can't see how something like this helps sellers.

I don't know, maybe the profit margins are made up on the shipping charges, which practically no one publishes?

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@hanzo, it's an interesting question. I agree with the guys said and I'd add: Our belief is that a smart search engine for snakes does not dumb down the process [to price only comparison]. On the contrary, we believe it saves buyers time by quickly locating their options within certain parameters, which allows them to spend more time to be more discriminating about their purchase based on a variety of factors.
Rest of response here: https://www.facebook.com/morphmarket...=share_comment

thanks,
John

As a point of clarification, I never said it would "crash the market," that's hyperbole on your part. The point I was making is that, while it's clearly beneficial for buyers, does this really benefit sellers? What's the difference between this and what goes on at a show, when someone says "hey, the table next to you has a cinnamon for $20 less than you, do you want drop yours by $20 or want me to buy at the other table?" other than the obvious: now instead of competing with the next table for that sale, you're competing with tables all across the country, with the ability to put all the BPs of the same morph side by side.

Further, I simply do not see how sellers distinguish themselves from one another on morphmarket. Interesting you quote Raphael Martinez, when what he's talking about is marketing yourself and how you are different from other sellers, but morphmarket only minimally allows for that individualism: click the pic, then there's only a minimal blurb on the seller. The one thing that bugs me personally is that it's so hard to find out where the breeder is located: all things being equal (or close to equal), I'd find benefit in finding a breeder closer to me (I know it's easy to ship overnight from coast-to-coast, it's just a personal thing). I wish the breeder had the opportunity to provide a way to set himself or herself apart; I just don't see it here other than the opportunity to click to an external link to the breeder's facebook site.

Don't get me wrong, I love the site, I visit it every day; but as I mentioned before, I'm not a seller. If breeders think it's a good thing to compete this head-to-head in a craigslist-style market, then everyone is a winner. Generally, increased competition decreases prices. If morphmarket increases sales, perhaps it offsets even the possibility of prices decreasing. It's not my business, I was just raising a question for those whose business is ball pythons. For me, I just enjoy ball pythons.