Cost vs. Quality

[Serpent_Nirvana]

im not saying that people shouldnt pay for what they want but sometimes you can find exactly what you want and pay less for it at the same time.

Sometimes you can, and if the seller also happens to be highly reputable and there's nothing shady about it, then you can do this dance:

I'm not one to knock price-checking, believe me -- everybody likes a great deal, and if you can get what you want for a good price, then I don't think anyone would begrudge you for doing so.

However, what I think people are trying to get at is that it seems that a lot of folks just getting into BP's just want XYZ morph, and they want to pay the minimal amount they can for it. That makes sense and it's perfectly natural to want to get a great deal, but the problem is that everybody who gets into this game is planning to breed (a relatively unique situation in various animal circles, and least AFAIK).

Right now, it's still quite possible to sell morphs on the basis of "this is XYZ morph." A dirty brown pastel that barely looks better than a clean normal will still sell for a bit more than aforementioned clean normal, just because it's a pastel, will produce more (ugly) pastels, and can be used as a building block to produce combo morphs ... But the margin is decreasing, and I honestly wonder how long it will last. I think that in the future, if you want to be able to sell your offspring, you're going to need to be able to compete in a saturated market even more than ever by offering morphs that really look great, not just morphs that kinda look like what they're supposed to if you take your glasses off and squint at them.

In addition, I am in complete agreement with Robin in that I don't really get the point of breeding just for the sake of breeding. Granted, I enjoy breeding a variety of animals and I can completely agree that it takes husbandry and enjoyment (and, potentially, disappointment and sadness!) to a whole new level ... But it's not just because I enjoy the process, but because I always want to improve whatever it is that I'm looking at. I have a thing in my head (chinchilla, snake) that doesn't quite exist yet, and I want to make one. To me, that's what's cool and fun about it (on top of the cute little babies, of course).

I think that with morphs, it's too easy to fall into the trap of "I want a bumblebee, all I need to get it is a pastel and a spider" ... But will that bumblebee really be all that great of an animal if you used a brown pastel and a dark spider?

Not to say that I believe it's morally wrong for people to breed lower-grade snakes -- if that's all you desire to get out of it then that's your prerogative to do so. But I guess my point (did I have a point? wow!) is that you have to like the animal first, not just the price, or you're going to wind up disappointed eventually.

To me, when I look into a rack tub I want to see a snake that really makes me smile, every time. And I want that snake's offspring to make me do a dance when I see them pip. There are so many freaking ball pythons out there, you see a great deal every week ... It's finding an exceptional-looking specimen that's rarer. (And sometimes you find both at the same time, and then you do the banana dance.)

I apologize for my inability to be pithy. (I had an English teacher tell me that I write too much ... That's a bad sign.)