From what I've seen quality over quantity is best if you're looking to turn a profit...that and immaculate record keeping as stated above. I know a hobbyist who has over 30 balls. When he produces this year his "holy grail" that he could personally reach if he hits the odds is maybe a 1000-1500$ dollar snake. Not bad money but most likely he'll make 50-500$ snakes. With his current inventory of breeders and soon to be hatching snakes he has to house and feed his overhead costs are significantly higher then mine will be in my first season next year. For example, my first clutch will be from a killer clown x fire clown. If I hatch(sell) a pastel clown and a single firefly clown I'll have paid for that project and made a decent lil profit. If I hit the odds and get 2 or 3 fireflies then I'm off to a great start. Only firefly clown genes I've seen for sale were firefly clown hets for 4k$; which is more then I paid for the project. I think from a "business" pov, spending 10-?k $ on a couple powerful males and a couple gf's for each boy and producing 4 and possibly 5 digit$ offspring as opposed to getting 30 or 40 cheaper more common gene snakes and making 3 and possibly 4 digit $ offspring is what you should do. My feeding costs are currently under 20$ a week if I buy live. My friends feeding costs per week live would be in excess of 100$. Lower your overhead. This is definitely one of those "it takes money to make money" situations.