Quality of breeding stock

[Simple Man]

I'm going to constantly try to improve what I have and what I'm working with to produce the best representations I can for my own holdbacks and any future customers. I have a lot of thought into all my animals and what I was specifically looking for when I bought them. I try to take all of my future projects goals into account. I believe that breeding high quality animals and producing the same will not only help differentiate myself from everyone else but lead to the advancement of whatever morphs I'm working with. That's my idealistic goal anyhow and the standard I try to hold myself accountable to.

There are lots of great points in this thread. Ultimately it means finding a breeder or breeders to do business with that actually sticks to that ideal instead of preaching about it and doing something completely different. How many people sell an animal that produced ugly babies? There is tons of responsibility in breeding animals. That responsibility rides within the person making the decisions. That is why it is important to stick to someone that makes good decisions.

I also agree with the point that many of the best animals DO NOT reach open market. They are held back for breeder upgrades or sold to close friends and acquaintances. I've witnessed this, participated in this (on both ends), and seen it happen on countless occasions. Let's face it, the stuff on the market has already been picked through before you ever see a shot of any of these animals.

We live in the Walmart generation where price overrides quality and service. I can not count how many times I've read a thread that started with the premise of finding an animal really cheap. There is a right and a wrong way to negotiate for animals. I always pick the animal and then negotiate a price. The honest truth is that I usually pay quite a bit under market (and many times less than a poor example of a morph) for a top notch example! People just have things so backwards with the "Got to collect them all" mentality. This mentality then extends to "Got to breed them all" and things really take a turn for the worse.

Overall this is a great thread and discussion with lots of interesting points being made. Thanks for starting this jinx!

Regards,

B