Ok, here is my response to the article. My father and I own/run an online distribution business in the remote controlled airplane market and the one thing that I noticed is that the large name brand companies control the prices in the market. Companies like Futaba, Hitec, and JR are the large scale manufacturers of the high quality radio equipment. They are able to set the prices for their products as they see fit because they have a HUGE market presence.

I think the reason that there is no real price control in the Ball Python market is due to the lack of large market presences. We can all agree that there are “Big Boys” in our market. Just take a look at Nerd’s website, but the problem is that they don’t sell enough snakes to control the market. The number of small time breeders outweigh the serious breeders “Plain and simple.” Then, all of these small time breeders that make up a large portion of the market enjoy the benefits of their lower prices, so where are their incentives to keep prices high?

Now, if the goal is to control price and the internet is the source of fear for price damage. Shouldn’t the “Big boys” setup an online venture of their own? Perhaps have a one stop shop for everything ball pythons. There would have to be some serious compromises between the partners participating in the web store, but if it became the new place to buy snakes online rather than kingsnake.com the goal of controlling prices would be achieved.

Just my take,

Sean