Selling questions

[Tash]

I'm have a hard time finding the answer to this, but how long do you find yourselves "stuck" with babies for sale? I've heard some people say they've had some for well over a year before they're sold. Is that typical?

I'm also curious to the demand for royals vs boas in general. Does one often sell better than the other? I suppose it depends on market and demand.

I've toyed around with the idea of breeding in the future, but nothing more then a very small scale operation when I'm ready. I just have to decide if I want to breed royals or a specific breed of boa (since I love so many, especially Dumeril's).

I'm professionally a graphic designer and I'd put together a website, Facebook, offer shipping etc. So I would hope by marketing myself people would know I was out there and what I had for sale. I realize I'm not going to get rich off of this and I'm totally ok with that.
My worry is breeding snakes and getting stuck with a lot of unsold babies that I would probably want to keep already lol. As appealing as being a crazy snake lady sounds, I just want to know what your experiences are with selling your snakes and how you go about it. How often do you keep the young before they sell? Personal experiences with customers you'd like to share? How long did it take you to get it all started? Selling boas vs royals? I am no where near ready to take on this venture still a lot of research and decisions to be made.
But I thank you in advance for any advice personal/horror stories you'd like to share on this matter.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

No one can tell you how long it will take to sell any given animals, there are many factor involved.

Factors being the market, the animals themselves (some are harder to move than others depends on the mutation and sometime quality), how well you market yourself, exposure etc.

For example if you have limited exposure (not vending at shows) low end single gene dom and co-dom males will be hard to move, could take a year or more which in this case from a business standpoint will be loss.

Other animals may take as long as well but from the business standpoint it will not matter as the animal’s price will remain stable (recessive projects) or even increase (females)

So yes you should be prepared to hold onto animals for a while this mean housing, feeding etc, you can also look into option to help you sell those animal faster which will generally be wholesaling.

Now BP vs Boas, BP are obviously more popular now that popularity also has a down side, this means more and more people are breeding them which lead to market saturation when it comes to certain mutations.

[Blue Apple Herps]

I would add that it's not just limited exposure, but reputation. It's hard to convince people to buy your snake for $200 if it's your first year selling vs an identical snake from Breeder Joe who's been in the business for 20 years and is selling their snake for $200.

That being said, with your background, just developing stuff that looks professional can go along ways. I also think good pictures are crucial!!!!!!! I can't tell you how many ads I ignore when they have fuzzy, cell phone pics with an over exposed flash. I literally have no idea what the snake really looks like with those types of pictures.

Last thing you want is your snake misrepresented in a picture to where someone ends up not satisfied, or ignores your ad (like I often do) if the pictures are just plain horrible.

I will say that 99% of my snakes I've bought from the "little guy" as I know how much harder we have to work to sell snakes compared to some of the big guys, which means often the snakes are just as good if not better. So just because you're small and new doesn't mean you can't do well, but it takes time, effort, work, and most of all patience.