My GOD! Do prices usually slice in half every year!!!!

[Serpent_Nirvana]

IMO, the morph market dropping somewhat isn't such a bad thing, because it's starting to put morphs into the hands of the REAL customers -- the pet owners.

A pet owner isn't going to take his one morph ball python and breed it to seven normal females and produce thirty new morph babies to wholesale at dirt cheap prices and drive the market down. A pet owner is just going to give you your money for the snake, take it home and enjoy it. (And take good care of it, we hope!)

The problem with the market as it has been is that it is, as has already been stated, a pyramid scheme. There have been no "end users." Everybody buys in with the intention of making their money back.

I really don't think that's gonna last. I predict that sooner or later (probably somewhat sooner), those folks who got into this hoping to make a quick buck are going to jump ship. That may plunge the prices down even further for a little bit, but once prices are affordable then the pet owners will want to start picking up pretty morph BPs as opposed to regular ol' normal ones, and those dedicated breeders who have stuck it out will still have a market.

In addition, yes, I've said it before and so have others -- I do agree that really high-quality examples of morphs will start to command much higher prices versus lousy examples of the same morph. Maybe there even will be shows, with judges, or contests -- who knows!

But seriously -- other than the herp hobby, what other animal hobby do you know where more people are in it as BREEDERS than pet owners? Of all the chinchillas I've sold, I can only think of one pair that went to someone who intended to breed them. Of the snakes I've sold, I think the vast majority went to people who intended to breed.

I think part of the problem is the mentality that if you own a snake, you "ought to" breed it (or might as well breed it, or whatever). I wouldn't say there's a snake "overpopulation problem" like there is with dogs 'n' cats, but it is creating a weird market, that's for sure. I don't think it'll hold, though. It can't, one way or another.