I don't want to offend anyone but personally I think ball python is not a beginner snake the main reason why its cuz (my opinion) they are the pickiest pet you could possibly get in term of habitat requirements and feeding. They would literally starve them selves to death if they don't get the food they want, I'm not gonna lie its really really frustrating especially for a first time snake keeper to encounter such behavior(me). A lot of people said online that ball python don't smell, well I think a part of it its true they don't but their enclosure does, especially when they pooped and refusing to eat the meal I left there overnight. Because sometimes when you leave the thawed mouse or rat inside the cage overnight the prey item would bleed out and become really sticky to the bedding for me I use paper towels. And this one time I left a weaned rat in the cage but he didn't eat so I went to get the tong to pick it up and half of its body just sliced open all the blood, organs just went out and the smell of it is so bad. Also, they are not like dogs or cats they don't bond with you like how a dog would bond with its owner. I think snake itself its affordable but also depends on morph, mine cost like 80$ or so its a male Mojave. Male is usually lot more picky than female I heard so that could be one of the reasons why. The bedding, hideaway, water bowel, all these only cost me like 8$ so its pretty cheap. The thing that can cost a lot is food (I know a lot of people is gonna disagree with me on this one), heating pat, thermometer and thermostat. Personally, I use zoomed heating pat and also thermometer and whatnot all these cost about close to 50$. And things with food, I think if someone has a really big collection of ball pythons then i think all the money is worth spending because if one doesn't wanna eat then just simply give it to another one so on and so forth. But someone like me we only have one snake, and if he doesn't wanna eat then it just gonna go to waste. If you get it from regular local reptile store one small rat is like 2 bucks after tax, pet smart and Petco has this ridicules price on their rodent its unbelievable. And if someone wanna get it online then there's always shipping, the cheapest shipping i think its 25$. Again, I'm not saying ball python is not a good pet, I'm saying it takes a lot of time, money and patience to really care for one. I would recommend someone to get a corn snake or king snake as their first pet snake because they are not as picky as ball python, some of them still do but its rare. To be honest, I sometimes just wanna give up on him return it whatever, but I love animals deep down that's why i got him in the first place and I will keep trying to make him as happy as possibly. But reality and imagination is different.