Market "crashing"- your take on the future

[Dragonviper]

There has been ALOT of talk in the bp world of market crashing- either by auctions/closet breeders/saturation etc. (depending on who you ask). I became involved in this community a few years ago and decided to breed balls because I love them as a species and think that all the variability in their patterns/colors is absolutely breathtaking. I have invested a nice chunk of money in high end morphs (i.e.,OD/GHI/Pieds) and hit the jackpot in terms of the quality of my animals (not my own bias I promise, other people have told me they are good looking too). I want to know the opinions of others on the market in terms of the future pricing of high end morphs and quality base morphs.

I ask this question because my small time breeding operation (I do not want to become a full time breeder or large scale breeder) is just a hobby, with the potential for me to break even and use the money I make with high end snakes to funnel back into breeding/save it for a rainy day. I hope that in a year or two, when I really pick up on production, I will have people willing to purchase really pretty snakes I've produced at reasonable prices. Do you think quality animals will continue to sell at reasonable prices in the next 5 years, or will they just plummet to a point where they loose the potential value? You can focus your answer on OD/GHI/Pied genes for this question if it makes it easier to explain (since they have alot of appeal and I happen to be working with them)

[fishdip]

I don't see a snake selling for 1-10k a reasonable price. But its just like dog breeding you will have prices going up and down but they still sell them for ridicules prices even tho so man of them are made ever year

[OhhWatALoser]

I actually don't see the market crashing, what I see is the normal trend with a few high end projects, such as banana and ghi crashing. OD on the other hand has either followed the normal trend or actually imo gone slower than normal. Pied has also followed the normal trend and it's recessive, so prices tend to fall even slower with them.

Did people "lose" a bunch of money in some high end projects, yes. Are some single gene morphs selling for under 100 bucks? yes, but isn't it about time? Demand is shrinking for single genes and supply will only go up... what happens then?

Auctions have a problem of the true price being in public, unlike the advertise for one price and sell for another in a normal ad.

[aldebono]

A little input/more discussion.

As a small time hobby breeder, I am not sad that many more morphs are coming into my price range.
However, I would like to preserve the market for years to come. Is there any way we can successfully do that?

Should we be more selective about our breeding and not just put two together to make more babies? Quality vs Quantity?
Should we not breed every normal female we have if the outcome would just be more single codoms?
Should we work towards supers in order to not create any normals in a clutch?
Or are we going to have state and federal laws crash down on top of us before we hit a full on market crash?

This is what I have been weighing in my head for this breeding season.
I also have been struggling on deciding if I should buy more morphs or not, with more anti exotic laws coming up.

[Coopers Constrictors]

However, I would like to preserve the market for years to come. Is there any way we can successfully do that?

Yep... give value to your animals and don't sell your snakes to the first person that comes along and offers x amount. Set a price and stick to your guns.

The market isn't crashing. However, I see a lot of people not being patient with their sales and dropping prices because they think it will either get them a quick buck or gain them respect with others... which it does neither. Most of these people that are dropping prices probably never thought about how to feed 30-100 mouths a week either, i.e. babies they produce and "need to dump" their animals because of this poor planning.

Patience pays off in the BP world

Don't be that impatient person and always have a solid, self-reliable plan to feed your snakes consistently (breed your own rats!!)

[Marrissa]

I think it's too much of quantity winning over quality. I keep seeing people breeding single gene males to normals. A pastel x normal isn't going to get you anything stunning. It's just adding more of an already dirt cheap gene to the population. I have all morph females and a pinstripe male. I will not be using that male for breeding . My plan is to buy a specific three gene male that has the genes to certain combos I'm chasing. So with all of my crosses with that male I'll have the chance of hitting 4 genes in one and in one cross a chance at five genes. Even then it doesn't really matter how many genes you tack on if they aren't nice examples of the morphs. I just feel like with males it's better that he have more genes than the females he's breeding to. My other male plans are ax fire and a pied with an extra morph I haven't decided on yet.

I think as long as you have a quality example of the gene, your animals are still going to sell for a decent price. If you don't you'll be sitting on them longer and sell for a lower price. I know with horses a lot of times people will hold out on the price of a nice horse. Eventually that right person comes along and are happy to pay the price for a quality animal.

[T&C Exotics]

I made a thread similar to this one. The single gene snakes are going out of style. Yes there will always be the new person wanting the single gene but those people will soon be getting the double gene animals and then triple gene and so on and so on. Me personally... I think more breedings should be done to NOT produce single gene animals. More people should be trying for the supers to breed instead of just throwing snakes together. Also I think breeders should be breeding less animals to have less saturation.

[wolfy-hound]

I've seen "market is/will crash" for about a decade with no sign on it actually happening yet. I think there was a heyday for BPs back then but there's still a decent market.

I agree, everyone should be breeding for high quality, not just "Hey I have two snakes". When you take lousy quality and breed it, and end up with lousy quality animals, then you can't get top price, people won't want to buy them at all, and then suddenly it seems like there's "no market for BPs".

If you use high quality morphs/snakes and breed for the very best, then there's generally a market.

[ViperSRT3g]

If it's a recessive gene, it will never degrade as much as dominant gene value.

[iCandiBallPythons]

I've seen "market is/will crash" for about a decade with no sign on it actually happening yet. I think there was a heyday for BPs back then but there's still a decent market.

I agree, everyone should be breeding for high quality, not just "Hey I have two snakes". When you take lousy quality and breed it, and end up with lousy quality animals, then you can't get top price, people won't want to buy them at all, and then suddenly it seems like there's "no market for BPs".

If you use high quality morphs/snakes and breed for the very best, then there's generally a market.

x2 on this^ I think the market is great imo it just changes from time to time. 2013 was my best sales year yet and 2014 is looking even more promising.