Does quality matter to you ?

Just had a friendly debate with a fellow breeder :D

We had been waiting a few years to locate ''THE CLOWN'' and we finally purchased one of the best BHB Reduced Pattern Clown that became available this year.

We paid a pretty premium for this animal and never regretted it one bit, the unnamed fellow breeder was saying he would never pay a premium over market value at that time. He claims that getting the best deal regardless of quality will give him the same results when offspring start hatching.

A friendly bet ensued and we will compare babies when they start reproducing.

The question is, would you guys pay a premium for a top notch animal or is pricing the only concern regardless of quality?

Marc

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The question is, would you guys pay a premium for a top notch animal or is pricing the only concern regardless of quality?

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To me the quality and finding the animal that appeals to me always come first price is secondary.

NO QUESTION.....

Your your own answer to the question. You happily waited and paid more for the animal that you wanted. I do the same and so do most now a days. Because more animals are now produced by more people, wait, find that animal that you love that has the traits your looking for. Ask for tons of pictures, high, low, both sides and top and bottom. Find what your looking for because its out there.

Quality sells and will continue to....

Yes and I have.

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Originally Posted by RegiusCo.com

Just had a friendly debate with a fellow breeder :D

We had been waiting a few years to locate ''THE CLOWN'' and we finally purchased one of the best BHB Reduced Pattern Clown that became available this year.

We paid a pretty premium for this animal and never regretted it one bit, the unnamed fellow breeder was saying he would never pay a premium over market value at that time. He claims that getting the best deal regardless of quality will give him the same results when offspring start hatching.

A friendly bet ensued and we will compare babies when they start reproducing.

The question is, would you guys pay a premium for a top notch animal or is pricing the only concern regardless of quality?

Marc

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Many times I've spend thousands more than market value to get the perfect animal. You made the right choice, especially with the clown trait, which is so variable and the parents have such a big factor.

Justin

Yes. Very much..and it's awesome when I can get both quality and a good price.

Depends on what I want the snake for. Say I want a blue eyed leucy for my girlfriend, because she thinks they are pretty (which is in fact the case), yes, I'd pay more for a lesser platinum so I can make her a prettier one. If I were looking for a breeder, a super mojave would be fine, because its going to make all mojave babies even if it isn't the best leucy.

Pastels are about the only morphs from what I can see where there is a big price difference based on appearance. My blonde pastel that I'm getting is very nice yellow (as a baby), and has a good looking pattern, and was $200 as a result. I could have found one for half that but it would look like a fancy orange normal until it browned out.

If you work with recessives I don't think it makes that much difference from a breeding standpoint, I know that high white pieds don't always pass that to their offspring. If its a snake for you to appreciate the aesthetics of, then just like any other visually appealing thing you can buy, yes, a premium is worth it.

I was just in your shoes a couple weeks ago... Searching everywhere I could for breeders who had female clowns for sale. I knew what I was looking for and I knew what I was willing to pay... When your dropping that much on a snake you def want to make sure its the right one and is everything your looking for. My gf made the best comment to me which ended up preventing me from buying from one breeder.... "are you 150% satisfied with the way it looks"... Well i was like 98% sure... but no where close to 150%. If I hadnt found the one I ended up going with I was willing to hold out and not spend the money. It may not be proven but it makes sense... good looking parents make good looking offspring the majority of time.

I personally want to know if an unbroken line down the back is genetic in clowns so I went with the only one I could find with a complete stripe with no breaks in it. Ive seen very few clowns with unbroken stripes so my initial guess is no but time will tell.

I never doubted making the right decision and can understand people being on a limited budget and all...

I just can't understand people that will settle for the very cheapest price out there and then expect to produced top quality animals from it :rolleyes:

I will pay (and have payed) whatever I have to in order to get an animal that I love into my collection. I've even offered 2 - 3 times market value on animals that "weren't for sale" in order to pry them away from another breeder because I loved the way they looked so much.

For me, this started as and always will be a hobby first ... no matter how many snakes I own or how many babies I produce. The day that I decide to "settle" for just any old snake in order to "produce" is the day that I find something else to do with my time.

But that's just me ... I'm a ball python maniac ... I love everything about them and rarely see any ball pythons (normals or mutations) that I wouldn't pay to have in my collection if I had an unlimited budget.


-adam

drool.....unlimited budget :tears:

I've paid over market value more than once for the snake that is right for me... whether it be a proven or unproven morph. :)

Quality is a backbone of any respectable anything!

It should be the first thing on ones mind if you choose to represent it as your own in the future.

I would pay more for an a+ specimen but it also depends on the type and age of the snake and also what you're trying to achieve.

Pattern and color are two different animals. Whereas pattern is constant throughout an animal's life color is not.

I had a customer buy his first pastel from me. It wasn't the best looking pastel (and was priced accordingly) but it was nice. He also purchased a female at the same show from another breeder and she was a screamer! 2 years later my male pastel blows her away.

I purchased a super pastel male. The breeder told me that it wasn't the best looking super he'd seen but he was nice. I thought it looked great (beauty is in the eye of the beholder) and today it rivals any baby pictures out there. It's gotten brighter with age...go figure.

So when it comes to colors and quality; are we breeding for what the babies will look like so we can sell them or are we looking for the best possible looking adult? Babies are great but the snake you'll be looking at for ~20 years isn't going to be the baby you bought.

It's better to ere on the side of caution and get the best possible animal that you can afford with the best pattern. As for color, a picture of the parents may give you a better idea of what its potential is.

There are exceptions and some morphs are more/less prone to change as they mature.

I think we need to inbreed our snakes more to know exactly what were getting. <-Kidding!!! LOL ;-)

Denis
DenJenn Reptiles
www.pythonregius.ca

With me I like value and quality, I do have a budget and when Im looking for an animal I look around a lot and find the best animal I can afford. If I dont find one I like and can afford I wait, one will turn up eventually....

Price only matters if I can't afford it. Quality in color is WAY more important.

When I was looking for a spider it took me forever to find the right one, and when I did it did not have a price tag. So what did I do? I OFFERED three times over the market value to get him. Could I have asked how much he was selling him for? Sure, but if he had said no im keeping him Id feel like an idiot offering something again.

http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/c...r/IMG_1636.jpg

I do not mind paying extra for a nice snake... I am on a very limited budget and so it means that I do not acquire snakes near as fast as some of my counterparts.

Sucks for me... seriously. It sucks for me. :(

But when I have found the "perfect" snake I have not regretted it for a second. :)

Again, my paying more than market is not even close to what some others can, and do, manage to pay.

But I also think that says something about foresight. If you know what projects you want to pursue, and you can get an ideo for how the snakes, age, combine, and what role selective breeding plays, you are better equipped to decide what traits are worth paying extra for.

I would rather take the time and spend the money, even it if means being a year - or worse - two or three behind in my projects, than spending 2-3 seasons selectively breeding to achieve the snake that I wanted in the first place.

Bruce

PS: If this is the clown I am thinking of... it is one of the nicest clowns I have seen. Put me down for 1.1 - in about *cough* ten years from now. :)