Update on "Where is the Ball Python market heading?"

[muddoc]

Although the numbers of Ball Pythons produced and sold are very much higher han the number of Tegus and Rainbow Boas, I can see the market following similar trends of the two mentioned species. Rainbow Boas have been very easy to watch do this. They will sell for about $120 to $135 and everyone will produce them, as it is a profitable project at that price. Once everyone tries to cash in on the high price, the production outweighs the demand, and the price starts dropping. When the price starts nearing $65, people quit breeding, because it is not profitable at that price. Guess what happens next? noone is producing them, because they are too cheap, but the few that have produced them, because demand is high and supply is low. The next thing that happens is that the price starts rising again, and the cycle repeats itself. This same cycle has happened with Tegus in the past. This is a textbook example of how Supply and Demand works.

I would expect that some people will scale back on Ball Python production next year, due to alot of left over babies from the previous season, and the price is too low to profitably produce some things. Just imagine that ina 2-3 years, it may be almost impossible to find a plain old Pinstripe (I say that loosely, as I don't think there is anything plain about the gene). When that happens, it is possible that the price could go up. We haven't seen that in quite some time in the Ball Python market.

Just my .02,