Ball Python Prices

[ReptileRant]

Have ball python prices been going down recently? I have babies that hatched last year and I’m just getting around to selling them now. However the prices I’m seeing now are lower than what I remember.


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[Snagrio]

There are just too many out there by now. Go to any given expo and half the tables will be ball pythons. They are the most numerous species on Morph Market by a wide margin. Craigslist/classifieds/rescues are overflowing with them. Doesn't even matter if they're morphs (you can get a lot of single genes and even multi-gene combos for $100 or less if you know where to look), the market is simply that over-saturated.

To give a personal example, I got my banana BP a little over 2 years ago for $250, which seemed about the standard price at the time. Now? You can get a banana with one or even two other genes in the mix for half that price.

[YungRasputin]

mine is wild-cb normal type and i got it for $100 usd plus shipping - if wild types are your thing, there’s all sorts of cheap CBB + WCB normals available because everyone is obsessed with frankensteins hehe

i think the Volta locality normals might be a little bit more expensive but still in that $100-$200 usd range - i have seen some exceptional dinker types go for more than what I’ve said so far but that’s cuz they have some interesting visuals and thus potentially useful genetics for breeders but normals are generally from what I’ve seen v cheap

[Animallover3541]

There are just too many out there by now. Go to any given expo and half the tables will be ball pythons. They are the most numerous species on Morph Market by a wide margin. Craigslist/classifieds/rescues are overflowing with them. Doesn't even matter if they're morphs (you can get a lot of single genes and even multi-gene combos for $100 or less if you know where to look), the market is simply that over-saturated.

To give a personal example, I got my banana BP a little over 2 years ago for $250, which seemed about the standard price at the time. Now? You can get a banana with one or even two other genes in the mix for half that price.

I had the opposite happen actually. I have a male redstripe that I got for $75 at an expo in 2018. Now I feel like I usually see them for a lot more. I suppose it could also be because he's much more vibrant now than he was when I got him, so maybe he was lower quality and the breeder wanted to get rid of him...? Idk, either way he's a gorgeous snake, even if he does like a lot like a normal. My avatar doesn't do his colors justice.

[Armiyana]

Red stripe has gained a lot of popularity over the last 2 years because of the work Kinova is doing with his clown lines. Some of the weird ups and downs in prices is also tied to work that the big breeders are doing.

The majority of prices dropping is the mentioned oversaturation. The other reason is partially tied to the pandemic. Recession, supply shortage and such... Some people bought in thinking it would be easy money and are now realizing that it's not.

Multiple recessives are what tends to keep the price the most at the moment. And that's just because of the difficulty in producing anything more than 2 recessives. Even then, you'll have some duds along the way in regards to less recessive visuals or possible hets.

Sunset and monarch are still fairly new so prices are a bit less likely to plummet right away. Axanthic Pieds will probably start dropping fairly soon because a few breeders already jumped in on the lack of that combo in the US.

Olympus reptiles actually put up a pretty decent video explaining what's up with the market a couple weeks ago as well. So some good stuff to check out there.

[Malum Argenteum]

Yes, there are price drops on a lot of species compared to 2020-21. The 'easy money buy in' phenomenon is certainly part of it, but there are a lot less casual pet purchases in the last year. I think many people who wanted a reptile or three pulled the trigger during the early days of the pandemic and now they're set.

Yes on market saturation, too. There are 48,000 BPs listed on that big classified site today.

Morph-chasing is more complicated, of course, but over time they all lose financial value in a huge way.

[Homebody]

My father is fond of telling a joke about farming that also applies to other forms of husbandry, like BP breeding. A reporter asks a farmer that just won the lottery, "What are you going to do with all that money?" The farmer replies, "I guess I'll just keep farming 'til it's gone."