Morning Gripe: A thought on lowering prices too far

[WtGreg]

This is something you should have planned for before you even thought about breeding,
do I have the space and or money to house and feed them if they dont sell.
Momma always said "Dont have them if you can't raise them"
Seems like every kid with 3 bp's thinks they can breed them and make millions in a month.
So sad for the animals, they are the one's suffering for our choices.

To touch on that last line, I feel the problem is many kids are not responsible enough for breeding (aside from the selling and business sense, but more for the care of the animals), this results in less healthy animals being sold, or many other careless mistakes along the way that can be hazardous to the anmals, the market, or the hobby. That said, I have met some gems of kids who I would say I would trust my whole collection with if I had to, unfortunately I have not met enough of them..... aslo met a few adults who are worse than the bad kids, unfortunately.
As for the millions in a month, to a kid a little extra money is a huge profit, but later in life they find it was a miniscule amount, so what those of us who have had more experiences with finances see, they view it differently and don't care as long as they made that little extra money.... oh I want to rant on about this point but will hold my tongue (for now)

[WtGreg]

If you have the room to raise up some of your babies for a while there is a huge demand later on. I find early in the season and after the new year are when stuff sells the fastest. It's amazing how I'll have some common stuff on my site for months with little interest and then in February I wish I had ten more. Patience is key.

Let me just draw attention to Dave's post one more time!!!!!

[bcr229]

His complaint was that he can't make back what he spent on his balls and his parents are pissed.... hold up, what? I did some snooping (clicked on his FB page) and the kid was 14! He listed points that he couldn't believe about the market, but it comes down to him being too young to understand the business side of how things work.

As a buyer I'm going to be very hesitant about purchasing from a 14 year old. What if something goes wrong on his end and he refuses to make things right? Do I go after his parents? Because legally going after him is a nonstarter.

[WtGreg]

As a buyer I'm going to be very hesitant about purchasing from a 14 year old. What if something goes wrong on his end and he refuses to make things right? Do I go after his parents? Because legally going after him is a nonstarter.

Tricky part is without snooping (not that it was much snooping nor hard) one would never know they were dealing with a kid until too late.

[Crazymonkee]

Very true

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[bcr229]

Tricky part is without snooping (not that it was much snooping nor hard) one would never know they were dealing with a kid until too late.

You call it snooping, I call it researching the seller. Heck, just put an inquiry on the BOI, you know one of the bloodhounds over there would find it.

[sho220]

Good question, and picking a fight or not, a good point to bring up regardless.
This is honestly tough to answer as there are many approaches, each with question of what your goal is. Save time and money I would say do the suggestion of selling to a breeder or reseller at wholesale. desire a set amount and don't want to go lower, bring it up in size and sell it later. It looks like alot of what I would suggest has been covered. The thing is how you approach each of these options. Don't post lower and lower and lower. Want to move it out fast, sell it wholesale because you'll end up at that pricepoint anyways by lowering it constantly, and save the time spent over the period of constant lowering. Try a sale and then raise the price up. Try a package deal. So many options, you will get a feel for them as you get deeper into breeding and then selling them off.... Just don't post lower and lower without reason. You are shooting yourself and the rest in the foot without knowing it. The idea is keeping a separation between your prices and deals/discounts. Be discreet about deals. These days everyone wants something for nothing and feels they are entitled (for some reason) to it. If you are in this for the money like Doughy John, get out of breeding now as you may be disappointed. So many options and each with different points, so like I said, tough to give one direct answer. If you are trying to breed for the fun, but also make a business out of it, think of it like a business and not like a kid who sees $100 for a $300 snake (or however you want to work the math for that example) as a huge profit because you've never seen that much money and you don't have to pay for other things because you are still living with mom and dad.... sorry, that last line was a little direct and targeted at the one who pissed me off....

Thank you for the thoughtful reply. Although I do consider myself a 43 year old kid, I make a very good living, so the money aspect was never really a consideration. I've never kept track, but I'm fairly certain I've lost money every year I've been doing this. I think if I had more time to devote to selling it would help, but there are only so many hours in a day. Thanks again for the ideas...more options are a good thing.

[WtGreg]

You call it snooping, I call it researching the seller. Heck, just put an inquiry on the BOI, you know one of the bloodhounds over there would find it.

Nothing on the BOI, checked there first, but also that is why I love the BOI!

[WtGreg]

Thank you for the thoughtful reply. Although I do consider myself a 43 year old kid, I make a very good living, so the money aspect was never really a consideration. I've never kept track, but I'm fairly certain I've lost money every year I've been doing this. I think if I had more time to devote to selling it would help, but there are only so many hours in a day. Thanks again for the ideas...more options are a good thing.

I too will always be a kid at heart, and don't make a good living, but love my snakes and probably have lost a good deal of money in the long run. Still I keep driving on... Since I had kids though, I feel ya on having more time. Along the way my biggest concern has been the time spent caring for the snakes over the costs. To me time is very valuable and it has come up before whether the snakes or time would be more important, this has actually come close to driving out of breeding a couple times. It is another consideration for people wanting to get into breeding: "what is my time availability to do this?"

[sho220]

I too will always be a kid at heart, and don't make a good living, but love my snakes and probably have lost a good deal of money in the long run. Still I keep driving on... Since I had kids though, I feel ya on having more time. Along the way my biggest concern has been the time spent caring for the snakes over the costs. To me time is very valuable and it has come up before whether the snakes or time would be more important, this has actually come close to driving out of breeding a couple times. It is another consideration for people wanting to get into breeding: "what is my time availability to do this?"

"what is my time availability to do this?" < You're spot on and I don't think people consider that enough. I think that's what leads to a lot of the "collection for sale" ads. I've seen it in other hobbies...cars, guns, bikes...etc...some folks just get way carried away, get overwhelmed and just bail on the whole thing. I see it every day on the car forums...a guy will spend all his money and all his time "modding" his car that never leaves his driveway because it's always broken or being worked on. Eventually he loses interest/runs out or money/runs out of time or gets sick of having a car he can't drive and bails...and takes a beating because he'll NEVER recover all the funds he spent. I've avoided that pitfall by keeping a small, manageable collection...I've kept my collection to around a dozen (not counting hatchings every year) and that's helped keep it managable as far as my time goes. Like any other hobby, it's a balancing act between that and all the other commitments we all have...