I've read a lot of this thread, but not all of it...so if I repeat something someone else has said...my apologies.
I think a primary reason the "supply & demand" point does not hold water is that we are not talking about national economics here. We're not talking about local economics either. It's not a matter of folks NEEDING certain items to get by in life and counting on other folks to produce those items.
For 98% of the people involved in this "business" of breeding and selling animals, it is a hobby. And the vast majority of those 98% have little-to-no clue about business models, price projections, market value, competition, promotion, etc etc. So...they are going to price their animals at whatever value they think best for themselves. They will usually base their prices on completely irrelevant issues...and a whole crowd of inexperienced "business people" may follow suit because if "Joebob" sells his spiders at $xx, then I'd better sell mine for less or I'll never move them.
NONE of that has anything to do with "supply & demand" driving the prices of these animals. Add on top of that the fact that we're dealing with what is essentially a LUXURY hobby....people's motivations for both buying and selling are all over the map and it will be impossible to force price trends to follow a certain desired path.
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