Does this sound like "stolen" balls to you?

[Vasiliki]

I understand that everyone here is passionate about snakes but i feel like some people are jumpin the gun here. How is this any different from people finding morphs that were dropped off in animal shelters or at petco? It could very well be that maybe the lanlord found out about the snakes and didnt allow them in the first place, causing them to have to dump the snakes. I just cant see someone having the time to steal the snakes and the rack and t-stat. I think theres more to the story but i dont think its bad as everyone here is assuming. Call me optimistic maybe....

If you hang out at the BOI, you'll realize all the kinds of stories we hear in the reptile world. It's not kittens and rainbows. People can be terrible, and unfortunately, it's almost always at someone else's expense. I'm not jumping the gun. I'm saying that the facts give me a red flag. When people are unloading animals, the general way they do this is to ask for just slightly less than the value they paid. They don't want to be 'out' for what they put into it. Asking $250 for that entire set-up tells me that the guy isn't sure what they're actually worth. That is a huge red flag. If I paid $250 for a rack system, you bet I'd be asking for at least $100 for the rack alone. That's a pretty drastic mark-down. I'm taking a loss, but not a huge loss.

With the animals this guy sold for $250, including the rack set-up... It doesn't make sense to me. Even if you 'needed money now', you'd still be asking for about 50% the value of what you paid. Asking $250 for that 'deal'? That doesn't sound like the guy knew what he had.... And more often than not, people who don't know what they have aquired these animals through unfortunate situations.

Maybe he didn't steal them... But maybe they aren't his either. In which case, why is his story changing?

To save the person who BOUGHT the animals for $250 from getting charged with handling stolen property, they should call the police, inform them of an 'unusual' transaction and ask if anybody has reported any missing snakes.