Oversaturation Of Market

[rlditmars]

I don't know why, but almost everyone wants to become a "hobby breeder" on the second day of owning their first BP. I don't know how many threads i've seen that start with "not sure what im doing but want to breed!" I personally don't understand it.

I think I can offer one possible scenario, since it is mine. I have always loved snakes and so the first time my daughter and I visited Repticon, we saw all of these wonderful looking ball pythons. Unfortunately many were priced completely out of our reach, or at least more than I could justify paying for a snake. (I believe this may be true for many ordinary folks.) Then as you walk around you start talking to the various breeders and one explains that a "Yellowbelly isn't vary expensive, but if you breed two together, you can produce an Ivory." At that time Ivories were going for about $800 or more. Yellowbellies were running around $125 to $200. So it was the idea that we could get two affordable snakes, grow them up, and breed for the snake we hoped to obtain, but couldn't justify buying at the current price. Not only that but it was a project my daughter and I could share, so that was cool too. Now the kicker, my daughter will actually be breeding the pair for an Ivory this year because she bought the male the first year and the female the second year and it has taken almost four years to get them to this point. Ivories are pretty inexpensive now but she still wants to produce one because that was the initial goal. As for me, I am just hooked into it because of the possibility of producing something I want to make. It's never been about the sales. All I ever hoped for is that the production would support the hobby eventually. I'm not sure that's the case anymore, but it isn't discouraging me yet.

Now that may not be everybody else's reason for being a Hobby Breeder, but that's how we started. And I still see the breeders at the show out their pitching the wares and explaining how someone can breed X to Y and get Z. Let's face it, that is how they make a sale and that is what they are there to do. However, every sale they make using that tactic and results in another person being a hobby breeder, almost ensures that their product will be worth less in the future.