How do you all price out your snakes?

[ScottyDsntKnow]

Do you go with what the big breeders are charging or is it just sort of gauging from personal experience? I'm thinking of getting into breeding in the next year or two and I've been doing tons of research on it. However, I'm not quite sure how I'd go about pricing these things.

Like for example, I've seen young pastel YBs selling for around $900. How does the breeder come up with this price and how can one adjust for market fluctuations?

[JoshJP7]

I havent bred yet but this winter will be my first go at it... the way I plan on pricing out my snakes is a combination of what the general market is for a particular snake and the looks... For example... a pastel runs anywhere from 100-300$... If I hatch a bright yellow pastel it will be priced at the higher end and vice versa for a not so bright pastel. I dont think it makes much sense to price all pastels based on the market. If one looks better than another then you should be able to get more $$.

[FloridaHogs]

I take the market average.

[AaronP]

I take the market average.

QFT. And be patient, don't just bottom barrel your snakes. As BT put it on Reptile Radio "Be Proud of what you produce".

[ScottyDsntKnow]

Ok cool. And I take it the small breeders start out by advertising on kingsnake, faunaclassifieds and the classifieds here? I know all about watermarking and I plan on ALWAYS doing that, I also plan to do the fedex certified shipper thing.

Thanks again.

[Gloryhound]

Generally speaking I think you have to think about how much the animal is worth to you! While we have not sold any ourselves yet we kinda use our buying experience as our base line on how we plan to price. A primary example would be our blond Pastel. Yes you can see females priced between $200 and $300, and we looked at a lot of different ones. Finally we found one that was I think around $400.00. She had all the other traits we wanted and we could see a distinct difference between her and "the rest" of the ones we had seen. On the same note when we went looking for Mojaves which at the time were in the $500 to $600 range we found a male that had all the qualities we were looking for, and we got him for below market value. Thing about Mojaves is they are not a one size fits all deal. Some have brighter yellows, some almost look axanthic. Some like it one way and others like it the other way. So the price is actually dependent more so on the buyer and what they are looking for. Also you have people who will shop for the cheapest thing they can find and could care less about what they are getting!

[Colin Vestrand]

i usually turn on CNN marketplace and see what that guy says i should do.