Why We Are Idiots For Using Kingsnake.com To Price Our Animals

[Matt K]

First of all thanks for the great post, I'm glad to see your passion here. Secondly, all the dog talk is interesting to me, it's a very cool comparison. I wish the Ball Python market was a lot more like the Dog market is now. You could go online and find, lets say a Husky, for $300-$400 from a smaller breeder with average or okay looking parents. In fact, you could find a lot of them for this price, and almost all will be from a small breeder whose dogs are not quite up to snuff (breed standard-wise I mean). On the other hand, you can't get a puppy with great breeding and champion bloodlines for anything less than 3 or 4 times that price; anywhere from the $1000-$1500 range would be completely standard and acceptable. People will and DO pay this price for a good dog. I think it's very odd that people can easily understand that you pay for quality in the dog world, but not in the snake world. It would be ludicrous for a prospective dog buyer to bring up the fact that they saw a Husky for sale from Joe Blow for $300, and expect that to bring down the price of the champion-line $1500 pup. Likewise, the breeder of that $1500 dog doesn't feel insecure about charging that price, as they are confident that they are producing only the best. It's tough for me to swallow that the Ball Python industry could be so drastically different from the Dog business--but it is! I don't understand why small scale breeders can't sell their spotty Spiders and drab Pastels for <$200, while bigger, more respectable breeders sell theirs for >$500. In a way the market is set up perfectly for a change, the variability in the quality of various morphs is astounding right now. As breeders we should all have a realistic perspective on the quality of our animals, and price accordingly. It could be done, and people would fork out the cash for better looking animals. Besides the novelty of simply breeding two animals (not to say it isn't COMPLETELY exciting to breed even normals, as I know it is), we are left to take pride in the quality of our animals. For those who just want to breed for fun, buy $100 animals. For those who want to take pride in having top quality, unique animals, and producing the same kind of offspring, pay >$1000. After all, aren't those two completely different goals...almost two completely different hobbies? Anywho, this was long winded to say the least--much longer that I had intended, haha. I hope this isn't out of line and/or offensive to anyone, and I hope that it makes sense to someone other than myself, as I've sometimes been known to rant nonsense.

Cheers,
-Matt