Papers are also for the seller's protection just as much, if not more than, the buyer's. A smart seller will save and send papers in a PDF format. If down the road, a scam artist sells a normal to buyer C and claims it came from Company A, Company A may have to defend their reputation when it doesn't prove out. Stored papers from Company A can show it's not even their snake.

In the reptile world papers are only as good as the breeder that they come from. They do not guarantee anything more than the possibility of taking legal action... but even still things like this can happen:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ptiles-bad-guy
What if in the above example, the seller had real het papers(instead of the obvious fake ones) but photoshopped a different snake in? Having clear photographic records that show the scam artist bought a different snake as a 100% het will clear the situation up immediately and protect the original breeder.