I have $20k to spend and I need help!!!

[AaronP]

There are many investment opportunities out there... gold and silver in my opinion is currently "hyper inflated"



Are you saying breeders like myself that are realistic and believe that there IS money to be made are purposely misleading?



Prices are very stable. They are measurably falling. Unstable prices would be up one year, down the next, seriously down the next then back up, etc. Any savvy person can predict next season pretty accurately.



Living in fear man. Makes me wish I had never "invested" !! Best business decision I have ever made.

I want people to be smart with what they do with their money, ball pythons or not... If you're talking from your personal experience, please share your experience.

Justin K.

I pretty much agree with most everything that's been said here. I have not invested much money but I have invested hundreds if not nearing thousands of hours in developing software/web sites for Snake Breeders and I would consider myself semi-successful at it. I've done the majority of that work for Trade in Animals, animals that will continue to provide a stream of revenue long after the job has been completed.

I don't see how that's a bad investment .

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

I think you have gotten all the advice you possibly could concerning the money side of your question but no one has answered your actual question.

I have invested quite a lot. I dont yet have a website but I am getting to know quite alot of people on here and through word of mouth. I do believe you should get some recessive genes but like other people said, dont invest in a bunch of visuals or you will spend all the money on just a couple snakes.

Go for yearlings at least. Co-doms that are het. Maybe buy a couple visual males and then females that are say, pastel or super pastel het for the recessive trait. Your hatch odds will be higher than if you breed het to het. There are tons of good co-dom hets out there right now.

For females look into some co-doms or doms that are not over used yet. Things that have not been crossed with everything yet. Like the dark morphs, the light morphs like fire, vanilla, lemonback. Of course get some normal breeder females. They are very affordable late summer. Then Id get a couple double or triple co-dom males. Maybe one or 2 really good triple combos. That way you never get any normals with your breedings. Do research on the combos that are known or suspected of running into problems when combined with other morphs. How no one is sure if spider gene combined with spider gene if it produces viable babies. Or how woma balls create some amazing combos but are believed to be incompatible with some. How some recessives can cause kinking (like caramel) and that it is better to out breed unrelated animals to help prevent kinking. Etc..

If you are looking to make it a good investment, its probably best to start with quite a few normal breeding females and a couple double co-dom males to ensure a decent return within the first one or 2 seasons. Then work up from there with holdbacks and future investments.

[Emilio]

Stock market is just as big of a game if not more-so than ball python investment!



Well, see.. that 20K isn't his to spend. He's getting it from an investor for an established business, so there isn't really any reason he should not get these animals if he has the husbandry, feeding, facility, and reputation taken care of.


Personally, I would look at some of the combinations you could make with the current ball pythons you have, and get a couple good animals with Recessive and Co-dominant traits mixed into single individuals. You'll have good clutches and lots of traits to work with and potentially even create something new! I would not buy a recessive morph that costs 18,000 that has no other genes. Any revenue and profit would be limited to breeders and it would be too localized.

Just my opinion.

The stock market is all about knowledge and putting in some work to be successful. Same with ball pythons if you don't know squat about them or how to properly take care and breed them etc your stuck. Come on now let's be honest here how much do you think a pied will be in 5 yrs???? Come on. Now take a good guess? I absolutely love my hobby and not going against it but the future is just like the corn snake market.

[NatelovesBPs]

The stock market is all about knowledge and putting in some work to be successful. Same with ball pythons if you don't know squat about them or how to properly take care and breed them etc your stuck. Come on now let's be honest here how much do you think a pied will be in 5 yrs???? Come on. Now take a good guess? I absolutely love my hobby and not going against it but the future is just like the corn snake market.

Corn snake market?! I dont think thats going to be an issue any time soon... Its all about how you play your cards and push yourself, just like any other buisness. It may be unpredictable but still profitable, at very least a hobby that can easily pay for itself if done right. All that being said even if i start making decent money off my hobby I will never quit my job hoping to make it my living, just an extra source. Ohh and last but not least animal hoarders dont make any money.

[Emilio]

Corn snake market?! I dont think thats going to be an issue any time soon... Its all about how you play your cards and push yourself, just like any other buisness. It may be unpredictable but still profitable, at very least a hobby that can easily pay for itself if done right. All that being said even if i start making decent money off my hobby I will never quit my job hoping to make it my living, just an extra source. Ohh and last but not least animal hoarders dont make any money.

I agree with most everything you just posted.

[Big Gunns]

The stock market is all about knowledge and putting in some work to be successful. Same with ball pythons if you don't know squat about them or how to properly take care and breed them etc your stuck. Come on now let's be honest here how much do you think a pied will be in 5 yrs???? Come on. Now take a good guess? I absolutely love my hobby and not going against it but the future is just like the corn snake market.

BG doesn't think a Pied will be worth 1/3 of what it's worth now, but BG will bet you this. If you bought a Pied male now and some females to breed it to, you could easily make ten times your money in 5 years if you have any clue what you're doing. Pieds are one of the best investments in the game. BG would break it down for yah, but he's in one of his lazy moods.

There is no way you can possibly make that same claim with the "stock market". Well...you can make it, but BG will call you a con artist and a liar.

[WesleyTF]

BG doesn't think a Pied will be worth 1/3 of what it's worth now, but BG will bet you this. If you bought a Pied male now and some females to breed it to, you could easily make ten times your money in 5 years if you have any clue what you're doing. Pieds are one of the best investments in the game. BG would break it down for yah, but he's in one of his lazy moods.

There is no way you can possibly make that same claim with the "stock market". Well...you can make it, but BG will call you a con artist and a liar.

bingo on the pieds. you've GOT to have some pieds going if you want consistent $ coming in. I'm amazed at how well they've held up $ wise.

[Emilio]

BG doesn't think a Pied will be worth 1/3 of what it's worth now, but BG will bet you this. If you bought a Pied male now and some females to breed it to, you could easily make ten times your money in 5 years if you have any clue what you're doing. Pieds are one of the best investments in the game. BG would break it down for yah, but he's in one of his lazy moods.

There is no way you can possibly make that same claim with the "stock market". Well...you can make it, but BG will call you a con artist and a liar.

I have my pied project and will make some bad arse animals and get some return off them too. But my point was exactly that if the pied is worth 1/3 of whats its worth now, thats sad man cause shiz that was the king of the hill. I don't know I guess my frusration came out in this thread, I hope people are getting into these bad arse animals to take great care of them even when there not a big money maker.

[TessadasExotics]

bingo on the pieds. you've GOT to have some pieds going if you want consistent $ coming in. I'm amazed at how well they've held up $ wise.

Held up money wise? It wasn't that long ago that they were selling for 30k and up! I don't think that they have held up at all. Now they are selling 700 to 2k. That's in what about 5 years? That's a considerable drop. Too many people that are out there for a quick buck that are willing to slash prices to get that sell. They ruin it for every one because they don't care.

[Jason Bowden]

Designer Morphs by John Berry

Investment wise:
-I wouldn't breed normals or hets(males or females). Your clutches will produce them anyway. ---This is my opinion from a business point of veiw.

I enjoy breeding my snakes as a hobby! Yes, I've sold snakes and had some return on my "investment". No, I don't think there is anything wrong with breeding normals and hets. But, on the other hand, this is a post about owning a reptile business and making money breeding reptiles.