Just over this weekend we went to 2 different shows. Made more selling our baby Nic boas and baby blood pythons than we did selling ball pythons. As a smaller scale breeder of ball pythons you have a lot of competition at shows. At least 8 out of every 10 tables starts the day off with a ball python on it. At most local shows people don't walk in the door with $500.00+ in their pocket and 95% of the people that come through the doors just can't, won't, or shouldn't afford animals that are $250+. They tend to look and possibly get their kid an inexpensive normal ball python if they even get a ball python. In the mean time your trying to capture that 5% of business from all the other breeders when in most cases multiple breeders will have the same single gene stuff on their table as you have on yours. So now your dependent on having a multi gene animal that is nobody else has that someone coming through the door is going to want, having better enough quality that it is easily noticable, or having cheaper prices.
Boas being the second biggest item at shows only appear on about 50% of tables, but with then you can compete based on locality and temperment which are qualities you just don't have competition on in ball pythons.
Then you get into blood pythons, Short tail pythons, and the rest and generally only 10% to 20% of tables will have any of these. Not so much competition, but a smaller clientel base for now.
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