This is getting RIDICULOUS! Lesser pastel for $400 shipped?!

[mainbutter]

Before too long, people will realize.... a ball python is a ball python.

Yup! Nothing wrong with that either.

[Freakie_frog]

I don't really worry about what other people are selling their stuff for. If they feel the need to race to the bottom let them.. I'll produce a few Pastel lessers and keep them to make other cool stuff or sell the few I do make for the current market price then invest in a more stable animal like something recessive..

I remember when Lesser's and Mojo's took the big nose dive everybody freaked, the world was over the market is ruined, , BLAAAAAA, then we realized hey there is still a market for Lessers, and mojo's. Yea it sucked yea it kicked allot of people in the sensitive area of their being aka wallet. In the end the business people Overcame, improvised and adapted and are still here.

If you don't like what people are selling pastel lessers for you have two options; 1: don't breed for pastel lesser's thinking you're going to make your house note on one combo or 2: keep the ones you do make grow them for a year or two and double the price..

Just my two cent's,

P.S. there are still loads of combo's out there getting good prices. I see other combos that I see the prices and go well sucks wont be producing those, because I can't afford to spend 1500.00 on a mojo female and see the supers go for 500.00 - 1000.00 and to be honest with the average 75.00 price of a Pastel and the average price of a female lesser being 200.00 I'd say getting 450.00 for a 275.00 investment isn't to bad..and that's if you only produce one.

But then again cost an worth are two different things, I produced 0.2 bee's this year and didn't sell them. Why because in two year's it'll be worth more to me to have 4-5 breeder bee's in a couple of years then it would to sell them for 350.00 or what ever they are now.

Just my two cents..

[Jerhart]

Supply vs. Demand.

/thread

[mschmied]

When you list your animals do not include a price. That way other people can't see what you are doing and the market will not be affected as much. Determine the price with the customer in private if you plan on killing the price that much. (Not that I would drastically undersell my animals)

[Serpent_Nirvana]

If you don't like what people are selling pastel lessers for you have two options; 1: don't breed for pastel lesser's thinking you're going to make your house note on one combo or 2: keep the ones you do make grow them for a year or two and double the price..

This.

This market is kind of amazing to me in that people seem to think that if you can't make 3-4x your investment back on the first breeding, that the market is crashing and the sky is falling and ZOMG, these stupid snakes are worthless!

Well, three things. One, they kinda are worthless, in a manner of speaking; their inherent worth is dependent solely on us, the "snake people." I mean, when you get down to it, you can't eat them, you can't ride them, and you can't even take one for a walk to the park. (Well, I guess you could take one to the park, but most people don't generally do that with their morph ball python collection.) These snakes are, by and large, pretty little living trinkets; we provide them with warmth, shelter, water, food and security, and they repay us by bring pretty. Sometimes, if they are in a cooperative mood, they sit still for a camera so that we can show off how pretty they are.

So, my point there is twofold; one, there is no "bottom line" price for ball pythons like there is for, say, a cow. I can't look up the "price of snake" like the price of beef to determine the bear minimum that I ought to get for a snake. It's only worth what we all, the snake folks, say it's worth, and if the supply that we create outstrips the demand that we create, as others have said, that's when prices have to drop. And two, really, we should kinda be thankful that we can sell these guys at all, since really they are just a pretty little speculative market pet. Most of us are doing better than alpaca breeders, from what I've seen, and our animals don't even make nice socks!!

Two more points and then I'll shut up -- one, what we lack is a base market. The vast majority of chinchillas I sell go to pet owners and those babies will never be bred. The vast majority of snakes I sell go to others with aspirations of breeding. Whether they'll really get bred or not is a totally different story -- but nearly every snake I sell, I'm selling to potential competition. We have very few "end users" supporting this industry, which is a setup for failure.

Despite that, however, we are doing shockingly well. The most I've "overpaid" for a ball relative to its market value is my male bumblebee. I paid $900 for him a few years ago, because he would breed that very year and I wanted to breed ASAP. Well, he didn't quite make his money back that year and I felt burned ... Which is completely stupid. He isn't dead. He didn't get a one-shot deal. He's already bred many girls this year, and even if male bees drop to a buck fifty a pop, that will only take six bees to totally pay for himself. He may well do that this year, or next year; one way or the other, I do think he'll pay for himself. Just may take a little more time.

... We're selling an inherently "useless" product, one whose value only we can see, appreciate and create. We have virtually no bottom tier, "end user" market and are, essentially, selling within our own circle only, to our own competition. The majority of us are hobbyists who are doing this only because we love said "useless product," are fascinated by these creatures and enjoy their upkeep and reproduction, and appreciate their presence in our homes -- in other words, we aren't businessmen. And yet, with perseverance, patience and time I think any one of us could probably make our investment back. In that regard, I think we're doing pretty darn well.

[Dave Green]

........It is what it is.........

[Atherosdragon]

i agree that the market is being played I personally like it just because i'm getting started and the low prices help ME but when i have bred my dream animals and i have some to sell the low pricing will hurt me as well it's what we used to call "wal-marting" u see someone with one for $700 u adjust down to $650 then some jerk comes in and wal-marts his for $350 just to get rid of it and make some money

[Serpent_Nirvana]

i agree that the market is being played I personally like it just because i'm getting started and the low prices help ME but when i have bred my dream animals and i have some to sell the low pricing will hurt me as well it's what we used to call "wal-marting" u see someone with one for $700 u adjust down to $650 then some jerk comes in and wal-marts his for $350 just to get rid of it and make some money

Well, right. And as if I haven't already blabbed enough on this thread, I think this raises another good point: the lower the prices go, the more people will be able to get into ball python morphs, and the more the market expands.

I know I didn't get into these guys until the average prices came down into the $100's instead of the $1000's, and I've been coveting some ball python morphs for over almost two decades now.

[PweEzy]

........It is what it is.........

I can agree to this... I plan on making pastel lessers this year, and ultimately if I can make an awesome looking hatching to upgrade a piece of my collection, I had a successful breeding season.

As far as my knucklehead comment... Charles Barkley calls about everyone a knucklehead so it was the cornyist harmless thing I could think of. Just have fun with the hobby and have pride in what you create. If the cash is that big a deal, just make sure you are producing the eye grabbing snakes and you shouldn't have to worry about it....right?

[Samantha07]

Grizzlybear that pastel lesser is actually $425 plus shipping. I should know it's my snake. I still own and not sure why my pic is being used?