Quote Originally Posted by Misha View Post
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I think if breeders stood their ground on normal's prices, people would buy them at the same price as private reptile stores sell them. What happens is people just start flooding the market and underselling their animals because they're trying to so over time, it becomes the norm and everyone expects to buy a normal for 10 bucks.

They'll always going to be a demand for normals as a beginner snake/pet snake so as long as we stop selling them for next to nothing, there's a slight chance they might be worth more than a couple of bucks.
thats wishful thinking, thats the first problem i see. the second problem is that if made a reality, it would indeed be price fixing / the formation of a cartel. the third problem is that if there is overproduction, and you cannot go down with the price, you end up having to keep them or to cull them. the fourth problem is that you cannot get around the fact that there are african breeders that sell them for 5-10 dollars per hatchling, and they regularly put together shipments of 1000 or 2000 hatchlings, and they wont stop because they actually still make a profit doing this, and petco and petsmart and other big chains wont stop buying from them.

so, dreaming about the formation of a cartel to set a lower price limit is nice, but for that you need to change a few laws to allow for cartels, you need an import ban, and you need to somehow get rid of people like these two fellow forum members: (no offense, just making a point)

KING JAMES
The problem with the stand your ground thing is that there are always people who simply do not want to deal with raising up normal males, myself included, that will sell them for cheap to get them gone. The joy of the free market. If all the breeders got together and agreed on certain prices for normals you would all go out of business for price fixing and I would still sell my normals for low prices
MarkS
I personally have quite a few normal females that I use for breeding. Which means I usually end up with plenty of normal offspring. These babies are useless to me, (as in I personally have no use for them) that doesn't mean they are without value. I'll feed them up (not too much, just maintenence feeding, and I try to get them on frozen thawed as fast as possible) and generally sell them off to a pet store or wholesale them. It usually cost me more (especially in time) then they are worth. It's a good thing I'm not in this for the money.

so its not going to happen. same goes for morphs. as long as the market is free, and people can freely decide to breed, and can freely decide when and how to sell their stuff, and as long as people are free to import from Ghana and Benin, there is no lower limit on price. you need to take these freedoms away, get rid of imports, get rid of small independent breeders and hobby breeders, get a cartel legalized, and form a cartel. once you have done all that and have a closed market cornered off, you can set a minimum price.

i prefer a free market, EVEN IF it means normals sometimes go for 10 dollars. thats a small price to pay, if the alternative would mean to go for a closed and cornered-off market. the freedoms you have, and that includes setting your own prices and deciding who to sell to and how, are part of what makes breeding attractive in the first place.