Pet stores have a LOT of overhead, from paying employees, rent, electric, feed, bedding, insurance, licenses.... so yeah, they will mark up the snake a lot. You can also note, the snake was still there with the price of $125 on it. They might start out high and drop the price little by little until it sells.

Sure, people can go to a reptile show and pay $20 for the same snake, but there's nothing wrong with a pet store putting a much higher price tag on the snake at their store. No one forces anyone to buy from their place, or to not do the proper research regarding prices and places to buy from.

It's sort of like my friend who went out to buy a truck, and they bought one at the first place they checked. Raved about how great a deal it was, regaled us about the truck being awesome. Then a week later, they saw the same vehicle for about $4K less a few blocks away at a different dealer and tried to tell everyone how they were "ripped off". Sorry bub, you CHOSE to pay that price rather than take the time to check prices elsewhere, and you were happy to pay that price at the time of the purchase. The truck was as advertised, the price was the agreed upon price.. so you have no room to scream. To me, that's the same as prices at a pet store vs reptile show. It's not a rip-off, it's just business.

Similiarly, if a breeder or dealer in snakes wants to sell their pastel males at $1K each, as long as the snakes are advertised as pastel males, and they are genetically pastel males... I don't think it's wrong. If someone wants to pay $1K for that snake, let them. If they didn't do a lick of research first, and they were happy at the time of purchase, that's on them. It's the seller's snakes, and they can charge whatever they like. It is no guarentee people will buy their snakes rather than someone else's cheaper snakes, but it's their right to put whatever price tag they like on the snakes.

Just my $0.02 because I'm awake at an ungodly hour for my day off.