Question on reasonable prices

[slartibartfast]

We are going this afternoon to look at a couple of boas for sale from private home.

The first is a one year old male that my friend produced last year, who was given to a friend (for free) and the friend gave him to his sister (who is now selling him). She's asking for $200 for him and his cage, which I am going to assume is a tank with heat lamp...that's what that whole social circle seems to use.

The second is a 7-foot normal female, supposedly very agressive. She comes with a home-made cage, again for $200.

I have a feeling the male is overpriced, but is that reasonable for the female?

What would you offer in a situation like this?
What should I be looking for in terms of purchasing boas? I'm pretty comfortable with balls, but know very little about boas.

Answers before this afternoon would be helpful. :-P

[frankykeno]

Personally Jess the MOST I would offer is whatever the used tanks are worth and leave it at that (and that's dependent on the condition of the tanks and if they are actually appropriately sized and usuable to you for these two snakes and factoring in that they are in fact in used condition). The large female is aggressive and won't be easy for you to deal with. Also it won't be easy to sell elsewhere or even place as an adoption by these people. The smaller male was a freebie snake that's gone through a couple of owners already, why in the world has it now grown in value?

These sounds like adoption/rehoming situations not top boa's for sale so I'd offer whatever you feel would be an appropriate adoption fee. Kind of ticks me off though when someone doesn't want a snake anymore but still thinks they should see a profit/get back their money "invested" when they grow bored of it. When we've taken in these types of snakes from owners that can't stay committed to them, we don't pay for the snake and it's expected it's enclosure will come with it. Sorry to sound strict, but I'm not putting out cash to solve someone else's problem.

[slartibartfast]

Thanks, that's very helpful. I kindof had that feeling too, but have been browsing adds and seeing a lot of females go for around that price, so wasn't sure what was appropriate. I feel like have a good sense of the ball market, but I'm totally out of my league with boas.

From what I understand, the family has split up and are moving in different directions, so the snakes are getting the boot.

My friend (who would be the one getting these snakes) is still in the "glass tank/screen top/heat lamp/why-wont-he-shed-right" stage of ownership. This evening we're sitting down to design some cages with flexwatt that we can move her kids to. She's very much stuck in the "my friend who's had snakes before told me this was fine" husbandry mode, and has been dragging her heels about upgrading.

So...I'm a little wary of her acquiring these kids to begin with, but want to help out and do what I can to see they wind up cared for. I think getting caging built will go a long way towards that.