Thoughts on morph pricing levels

[Royal Hijinx]

I have been doing some thinking lately an what I think, with my cursory non-scientific research, on morph pricing layers.

I think these layers are important, as new business opens up as a morph falls into the next layer down.

Here are the layers as I see them:

10K+ - generally only large scale breeder to large scale breeder sales
7500-10K - Large scale breeders or big purchase for medium scale breeders
5K-7500 - High end level for medium level breeders
3K-5K - High end level for smaller breeders (like me) and very deep pocket hobbyist (rare)
2K-3K - Small breeder and high-end hobbyist
1500-2K - Small breeder and high-end hobbyist
1K-1500 - High end for novice breeder, med-high end hobbyist
500-1000 - in-between zone that cover a lot of groups
300-500 - Bulk of novice breeder single gene stock
200-300 - First stepping stone up
50-200 - Lowest level (includes Pastel, Spider etc...)

Now, with this I am speaking mostly of single gene, but you can apply the same idea to 2-gene, 3-gene, etc... Also, I realize there are exceptions where a small breeder splurges on a 15K animal or whatever, those are outliers.

IMO, it is a good thing when the prices drop to a level that hobbyist are beginning to get involved int he purchases, not just breeders. Breeder selling to breeder on the high end does not bring in new money from outside the hobby, just recycles it from breeder to breeder. New breeders coming in generally are going to start on a lower level, so we are still not seeing new money until the maybe the 2K-3K zone, and even then there is still a lot of established breeder-to-breeder sales (and trades which I am intentionally leaving out).

My overall point is that I think there is a sweet spot in a given single gene morph price between say 500 and 3K (kinda wide I know) that maximizes bringing in new money and still getting a decent return. Once the price drops below $500, the finicky nature of BP breeding really comes in to play OR the market gets absolutely FLOODED with the morph.

****Like I said, my methods are purely based on observation and speculation, no science whatsoever****

I would like to hear others' takes on this (preferably without discussing SPECIFIC PROJECTS, as that angers some).

[Royal Hijinx]

Also, now that i think about it, there can be new money coming in indirectly to fund larger purchases (via sales of lower tier morphs aggregated to then purchase a higher tier morph), but I think my idea that there is a sweet spot for sales to new folks still stands.

[Royal Hijinx]

So near 100 views, and I am the only one that thinks about these kinds of thing?

[Mike41793]

Well i read it all and pretty much went "yup, uh huh, ok, yup..." I agree with you and have thought about it all before too, I'm just not sure what you wanted us to discuss...?

[Kaorte]

I suppose I should preface this by saying that I do not expect to make a massive profit from my ball pythons, but I do expect to make some money to balance the upkeep cost, or pay for new genes. I love my animals and Their health and happiness comes first. I waited 4 years to start breeding and I believe the wait was helpful in some ways. I think sometimes people who get into this hobby move too quickly buying breeder sized animals and trying to breed as soon as possible.

I think what you said makes a lot of sense. I'm probably somewhere in the small breeder/hobbyist. I think it is important to have breeders/hobbyists at all levels to balance the market. While some people might say that there are way too many plain old pastels and spiders, I still think there is a demand for those animals among the newbies and people just looking for a pet. I think as a breeder/hobbyist it is our duty to provide the highest quality animals possible.

This is my first breeding season and I don't expect to make any profit at all for this season. Next season I should have some really fun combos and hopefully I will see a little bit more money from that, but profit? not likely. I think when you have some really good single gene breeding stock, it paves the way to produce some really nice combos and allows you to invest in some more expensive projects.

[Mike41793]

Hmmm ok, i think i get it after reading steffe's response. One thing that was confusing me:
Are you talking about JUST pricing or are you also talking about quantity and quality of animals?

[Kaorte]

Hmmm ok, i think i get it after reading steffe's response. One thing that was confusing me:
Are you talking about JUST pricing or are you also talking about quantity and quality of animals?

If he didn't mention, it means you may mention it. It is relavent to the discussion so why not!

I think this is a good discussion to have. It always worries me a little when I see very expensive morphs drop so dramatically in price over the course of a couple years, but at the same time I remember how eventually the morph sort of "plateaus" and keeps steady. Some of the basic recessives, doms, and codoms have stayed relatively steady in recent years, and I've seen a lot of basic 2 gene combos filling the space where those single genes were.

[Mike41793]

Well im just thinking like... If i had unlimited funds, id be doing this as a full time job so that would make me a professional breeder. But i don't have unlimited funds so that makes me a hobbyist. But just because i only have 8 bps, does that mean im a low range hobbyist? By "high end hobbyist" are we talking about; number of snakes, value of the snakes, number of genes the snakes have...?

I don't see myself ever becoming more than a hobbyist breeder. I just want to make lots of hot snakes to use to make more hot snakes. Like i said, if i win the lotto or something, THEN id retire and just breed snakes. But i dont see the whole "unlimited funds" thing happening anytime soon lmao

[Kaorte]

Haha I think we all wish we would just hit the lotto and breed snakes for the rest of our lives. I know I totally would!!! I am actually even seriously considering it if things go well over the next 5 years or so.

I think that is a clarification that needs to be made. Do your dollar amounts mean total value of the collection? Or value of an individual animal? I assume its for an individual animal. But that also assumes that whoever is breeding said animals only has that type of animal. I have many single genes, but also a few high end double and triples.

[Mike41793]

Idk, i was sorta just ranting, steffe. Lol.

I don't have any multi gene snakes yet but id consider all my snakes to be pretty good examples of their morphs. Does that mean im low range hobbyist? Or since i have nice snakes, does that make me high end lol?