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

[Big Gunns]

You are forgetting something BG's rookie fan. Prices may go down on the animals, but you're not just letting them sit there...you're breeding them. You have to take the babies produced from the animal that dropped in value into account when considering whether it was a good investment or not.

Recessives will hold their value longer, but Co doms will see a faster return. If you don't want to see your snakes value seem to drop overnight....buy recessive. It will however take you a leeetle longer to see results.

Whatever you may be looking for though Ralphy....BG just might happen to know where you can find it.

Very good post. A lot of people seam to be forgetting your going to produce plenty of offspring to sell. So even if these snakes prices do drop, your going to most likely make back the difference within 1-2 clutches.

As you can see from BG's first post on this thread, he did not "forget".

If you have 20K lying around purely for investment purposes, I hate to say it but ball pythons probably aren't your smartest investment. How about putting it into a couple nice blue chip stocks where instead of having to continually dump more money and time into husbandry, food, vet bills, etc. you can sit back and collect dividend checks and watch your investment grow. Just saying...unless you are doing it because you love snakes 20k worth, i think you might regret the decision in a couple years.

BG has got to call you out. BG is gonna be mean here, but he feels it needs to be said. Big Gunns has seen many of these threads over the years and he has seen this same answer over and over by people who shouldn't be giving it. Unfortunately for you Jimmy, you listed the snakes you have in your signature. Now BG doubts you just sold off you large breeding collection, so how can you possibly be any way shape or form qualified to give any good advice on this thread? Maybe you have a good friend that's lost money, but BG doubts it. Sorry Jimmy, BG is kinda tired and cranky and your reply is a pet peeve of his. If you want a free male Pastel for BG picking on yah...he owes yah one.

Here's the deal people. Ball Python breeding is nowhere near what it was just a few short years ago, but there is still money to be made if you invest wisely. BG doesn't think many people are gonna get rich in this business anymore, but you can make money. A lot more money than collecting "dividend checks". You may need a leeetle luck though. You just never know if someone is gonna go Joey Bananas(Morph King) with the project you invested in. This is always a possibility.

There is a saying that most people have heard. "The greater the risk, the greater the reward". This is very true with snake breeding. It is no coincidence that the people who have invested the most(first), are making the most money in this business. You must invest wisely though(more than ever now), and you really need to do your homework and do things right. However, even an idiot can breed Balls which is fully evident by some of the people BG meets in this business, so most of you are in luck.

You really need to decide when you need to see a return on your investment also. If you need it quickly, you probably want to invest in a different snake than if you don't. This may mean you make less money in the long term. BG will admit though. This business is very volatile right now and there are many variables that can decide whether or not you make money. This list includes the jealous weasel(Joey Bananas and his ilk) that wants revenge on the big breeder, or the broke Banker that needs to pay his mortgage. You just never know what can hurt your investment. BG does believe there are many "safe" investments that you will make a lot more money than those "dividend checks" though. You'll just need to decide what kind of risk you want to take.

One last tip. Don't listen to any advice on this thread. Talk to people who are not trying to sell you anything like some of us may be, and make a pros and cons list of everything you've learned....then go out and buy.....wisely. If you just go out and spend that money on the first thing that somebody has sold you on as a "good investment"....chances are it's not gonna be.