Guaranteed Money

[ladywhipple02]

Does that mean the big breeder is money-grubbing and less passionate than the small breeder?

I don't think so, but it's my opinion... for whatever that's worth.

EDIT: I was thinking about this and want to restate - I don't think that's ALWAYS true. In some cases, yes. In others, no.

[Lizardlicks]

An interesting thing: in one of his videos, Justin Kobylka said that if your collection is so big you can't spend an least a little bit of time with each snake ona regular basis, then it's too big. And I tend to agree. Justin is one we might consider a "Big Breeder", certainly he's a big name in the hobby. But when you look at his collection compared to names like Brian Barczyk, Bob Clark, or Kevin McCurley, he's small potatoes. And yet he consistently gets a higher price for his animals and has stellar reviews across the board. Not a single buyer beware that I could find, where as many of the big names have quite mixed reviews at this point - anything from poor communication, to messed up orders, to sick or dead animals. Justin - and many others- competes easily with these big breeders, and perhaps his profits aren't as high when you consider the sheer volume of product moved, but his name has become synonymous with above average product and customer service.

Do the other guys still have a passion? Sure. Were they pioneers back in the early dark ages of reptile keeping? Absolutely. But when they have to put the bottom line before the animals by simple necessity of maintaining size, I don't think that does any favors for them or the hobby in the long run.

[JodanOrNoDan]

An interesting thing: in one of his videos, Justin Kobylka said that if your collection is so big you can't spend an least a little bit of time with each snake ona regular basis, then it's too big. And I tend to agree. Justin is one we might consider a "Big Breeder", certainly he's a big name in the hobby. But when you look at his collection compared to names like Brian Barczyk, Bob Clark, or Kevin McCurley, he's small potatoes. And yet he consistently gets a higher price for his animals and has stellar reviews across the board. Not a single buyer beware that I could find, where as many of the big names have quite mixed reviews at this point - anything from poor communication, to messed up orders, to sick or dead animals. Justin - and many others- competes easily with these big breeders, and perhaps his profits aren't as high when you consider the sheer volume of product moved, but his name has become synonymous with above average product and customer service.

Do the other guys still have a passion? Sure. Were they pioneers back in the early dark ages of reptile keeping? Absolutely. But when they have to put the bottom line before the animals by simple necessity of maintaining size, I don't think that does any favors for them or the hobby in the long run.

I don't know him but Justin sounds like a good guy. There is always a place for a "craftsman" in every industry. He has to play a very different game from the volume guys and the closet breeders. The problem with this type of model is that there is a financial cap. Justin sounds like the type of person that is involved in his whole operation. The problem with this is there is only so much Justin to go around and if there is no Justin there is no operation. While very ethical and great on the quality side of the house, the model does not scale.

[ladywhipple02]

In the end, you can run your business how you want to, but if you can get a better price for your animals by being patient and persistent and giving attention to detail, wouldn't that make more sense?

We see people buying $75 normal ball pythons at PetCo every day - pitiful, unhealthy animals purchased by people that are ignorant and don't know any better but want the cool factor of owning a pet snake. PetCo can get away with it because that's their market - the ignorants - and they have the money to advertise on a big, wide scale to draw these folks into their stores. Small companies - and even "big breeders" are probably considered small companies since I'm not going to see any of them in the INC500 any time soon - don't have this excess and can only advertise at a certain level and therefore draw a certain market... namely, other snake breeders and enthusiasts.

When you reach a certain level, you really have to think about who you're marketing to. The general public isn't going to purchase a $5000 snake when they don't really care about color so much coolness, and most don't even know what they're getting into with cost of care. You can sell to other breeders at a higher rate, because they understand what they're buying, but only for a certain amount of time - when you have more product than purchasers at the breeding level, you have to drop your price to move the product or you risk loss due to overhead. If you're running things as a business, you have to pay attention to this.

If you pay attention to the market, you see it's a cyclical beast. There are peaks and valleys, and inflation, and all sorts of other fun factors in there. Dogs are an interesting comparison because nowadays people are selling what would have once been considered "mutts" as exotic mix breeds (pomskies, dorgies, chug, yorkie poo, etc) and charging exorbitant prices for them. And the animals can't even be registered with the AKC, but people will pay.

I think you'll see some leveling off in the coming years. Maybe even a rise again if you wait long enough. People will lose interest and the prices will go up, then it'll become a fad again and prices will fall off.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Alright people so after some gentle there is now a spinoff on Breeding Standards which can be found right here https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...ding-Standards

You're welcome

Sincerly, your Maiderator (yeah I came up with that)

Now back on track.