Is this a good trade?

[Jabberwocky Dragons]

I got really lucky with the retic. It could have been bad, she could have been aggressive and shy or anything else. I am very fortunate in that it is very obvious that she has been handled a lot. She is so calm and about as tame as one of my ball pythons, I actually had her laying her head in my hand and falling asleep

You probably would have been more fortunate getting a demon of an 8' rectic to give you some small idea of what you may face when it doubles and then triples in size. Like people, animals have their cranky days and a responsible large boid keeper has to know how to safely handle a 20' angry python regardless of how tame it seems at 8'. I wouldn't credit someone who got rid of their snake at a relatively small 12' to have knowledge about large boid keeping. Hopefully, your friend kept his rectics to a longer length and you could apprentice with him.