The $30k ball python morph is back!

[Ernie Mccracken]

why not?

Primarily because there is virtually no new money coming for "high end" BP morphs. It's a dead market. Look at this site. 99.9% people have a few pet ball pythons. No one is spending thousands anymore.

you're trying to say that breeders were manipulating prices of a market before any type of market was even established? you don't think breeders negotiated with the importers on the best price? i have to disagree. importers set the OG price, not breeders; new morphs aren't just pulled out of thin air.

I'm saying that all the major breeders know and depend on each other. Pricing brand new morphs at anything below ludicrous price is a good way to get ostracized from the group since the perception is that having $30k+ price tags on new stuff somehow elevates the rest of the market strictly from a marketing standpoint. It's not because anyone is actually paying those prices.

also, non-big breeders have been buying up het Scaleless like crazy these days; supply and demand!

This is believable. A few years back, a name brand BP breeder told me his actual cash revenue was "only" about $55k that year, almost all from hets because that's all people could afford. All the high end stuff sat unsold or was traded between other breeders, often multiple times.

the albino was the first beep morph - recessive - and a pair sold for ~30K in today's US dollar worth. why is that not a relevant note, especially with Scaleless being the new big deal? someone had to decide those Albinos were worth the $krilla, and put their money where their mouth is. same is true today with new genes: yes breeders usually trade within, but that does not diminish the risk on the investment, nor the cost of raising animals, OR the other breeders who spend their fortune on them. people buy these animals. at that price or p darn close. that's a fact.

Yes people USED to do that, but almost all of them lost money and aren't around anymore. People are smarter now and realize it's very difficult to make money in the middle of the market because it's so small. Big breeders aren't buying from little guys (they mostly trade with each other) and the pet crowd doesn't want to spend more than $200.

would you drop 7k on a new gene imported from Africa from some nobody breeder?? would you trust the price of $100 from them? that's why new morphs stay within reputable and big breeder circles.

breeders rarely choose a realistic price point on these new/rare morphs, and often overprice them specifically to stop tire-kickers and work towards something realistic, but you can't tell me the actual sale price isn't close to what the breeder offers.

people pay those prices, or at least something close. that's just how it is.

Agree to disagree. I hear whispers of it happening on very rare occasions. I have heard of a few monster $50k orders coming in from Europe since the market there is still less mature, but that's rare and almost no big US deals seem to be happening. If those deals were still going down, I feel like we'd be hearing about them and the mid-tier breeders wouldn't have crashed so hard.