Are we the last of the old timers?

[JRSCB16A2]

2.6 Rats "Cheeto, Oscar, Bailey, Tinkerbelle, Peach, Cow Level, Chi, Biscuit"

There is no cow level, sorry, had to do it.

[mainbutter]

I wonder... Will that be true again 5 years from now, or is this the end of the beginning?

*based off of asking prices on fauna*

Sept 2009: killer bees $2k

Now: killer bees <$1k

------

Now: killer clowns $15k

Later?: killer clowns $?


Fill in the ?s. As long as price is driven most by what is new and how 'available' it is, then yes, prices will always drop as people continue to breed. Because this hobby is entirely built around selling reproduce-able genetics to those who are going to breed, supply of any given identifiable and desired characteristic will increase.

Luckily there are so many base morphs in ball pythons, that the combinations are endless. It's going to take decades and tons of work to make that 25 trait animal.

Don't get discouraged however. In the coming decade, we're going to see individual ball pythons' perceived value be more determined by OVERALL look than any particular identifiable genetic characteristics. That high quality super reduced pattern killer clown may very well be valued more than the low quality lesser-killer clown with a less-desired busy pattern.

It's not about how the offspring you produce today *would* be valued if they were produced 5 years from now. It's about how the offspring you produce today will help you produce EVEN MORE AWESOME offspring tomorrow.

[SlitherinSisters]

I was thinking about this just the other day. I hope it is something we can all keep doing for the rest of our lives if we wish to! I do worry that there won't be enough buyers to keep up with what we are producing. I just hope we keep recruiting new snake owners to keep the hobby running strong!

[PitOnTheProwl]

I do worry that there won't be enough buyers to keep up with what we are producing.

itts a good thing the human race reproduces faster

[Mike Cavanaugh]

It's not about how the offspring you produce today *would* be valued if they were produced 5 years from now. It's about how the offspring you produce today will help you produce EVEN MORE AWESOME offspring tomorrow.

I totally agree with this! This is why I just did a bunch of trades completely rebuilding my breeding collection. Now instead of having 70 + animals that will produce normals, single and some double morphs I have only 20 animals that will produce NO normals and baby's with up to 6 morphs.

The days of doing well making lots of single morph babies are pretty much coming to an end. This has always been true but more so now then ever before... It is about quality, not quanity.

[Crazy4Herps]

Ha ha.. Generic engineering? Isn't that the same as the whole mad scientist thing?

We aren't using science to create anything new. We aren't altering anything. All we are doing is using the ingredients that nature has given us to make different recipes.

I think we still have a few more recipes to discover that will change things a bit... But I think that from there all we can do is tweak the recipes that everyone already knows for subtle differences.

That's genetic engineering for you.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

That's genetic engineering for you.

No it isn't.

Perhaps a definition of genetic engineering will help:

Genetic engineering: The science of altering and cloning genes to produce a new trait in an organism or to make a biological substance, such as a protein or hormone. Genetic engineering mainly involves the creation of recombinant DNA, which is then inserted into the genetic material of a cell or virus.

We are only selective breeding naturally occurring traits. There is a BIG difference between what we do and genetic engineering.

[snake lab]

I think this theory of genetic engineering and breeding natural re occurring traits is splitting hairs personally.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

I think this theory of genetic engineering and breeding natural re occurring traits is splitting hairs personally.

If you understood how big of a difference there is between the two you would understand... But that's a subject for another thread.

[corgigirl9]

The ones who truly love the snakes, will carry on the tradition and will respect what the ones before them have done. I started with Ball Pythons back in 2000, collected and bred small time from that point up until 2006, sold off all I had to enlist in the Marine Corps. Check out some prices from 04, this shows how far the founders of the trade have come and the amazing progress they made to make amazing animals affordable to everyone.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...ad.php?t=51417
Spiders

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...ad.php?t=62261
Pied

I remember back then dreaming of getting a Spider or a Pied, even an Albino was around 2500-3000. I could barely afford Pastels back then. Normals and Pastels is all I had then.

I very much enjoyed reading the pied thread. It really made me laugh at how far BPs have come.