Quality is first for me EVERY time. I don't believe in buying sub-quality animals and try to breed them into quality. Save your money and shop the snake, not the deal. My cinnie and lesser took me over a year to find when I decided I wanted to add those genes to my collection. I was super picky and knew exactly what qualities I wanted.
Quality in = quality out. Sub par in = sub par out. You do get what you pay for.
I still sold NICE lemon pastel males for $200 this year, because my buyers wanted the quality that I was producing. They knew what an "average" pastel sells for, and chose to buy from me instead. When I delivered some lemon pastels to a customer at a show last year and we were out in the common area looking at them, multiple people stopped and asked my buyer "where did you get those, because those are the nicest pastels I've seen and I didn't see any like them in the show".
I will agree - even with the best that you can find - you need to also breed them to the best you can find and not "dirty" them up with just any normal or average critter.
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