Quote Originally Posted by PythonWallace View Post
I agree and disagree. When a bunch of people crash a given market from $2k to 400, you can still sell animals at the high end of the market prices, or about $500 -$600, but if you tried selling them for the $1,800 they are worth to you you would find that there is no longer anyone willing to pay that when the new crashed market prices are $400 or so. Then the next year, when they could easily be going for $1,500, the new market price is $250, and you can maybe sell a few at $350, but never for the $1,200 - $1,500 they could still be sold for.
I was speaking in the context of $150 for a spider vs. $200 or even $250. But it can apply to higher end animals as well.

The first year I produced lessers, the advertised retail on them was from $22,000 - $18,000 ... the behind the scenes deals were in the $8,000 - $10,000 range by the end of the year. I produced 22 lessers and sold 3 for around $20,000 give or take and that's all that I wanted to sell. I could have sold more for $20,000 each if I wanted, even with people selling them for $8,000 (I turned down offers from two people that I remember). I made all of my money back on my original investment and put a nice piece of change in my pocket. The following season, the average retail price on lessers was $7,500 ... and I did extremely well selling them at that price (even though the behind the scenes deals were at half that).

Did I like to see it? Of course not. Did I make money? You bet your a$$ I did. Did I expect lessers to stay at $20K each forever? Well, considering that just the year before I paid almost double that for mine ... no.

I guess I'm just at a point in the business where I acknowledge that how other people price their animals is one thing that I have absolutely no control over ... no matter how loud I scream, angry I get, or how many low price threads I participate in ... so knowing that, I choose to focus on my animals and my sales.

But believe me, I understand the frustration when you see those animals being sold for what you believe to be a low price ... been there, done that.

-adam