Buying a 4 Figure snake

[dakski]

Sounds like you reached a conclusion. However, I'll give my two cents anyway and for the benefit of others.

If you can afford it is the first question. If the answer is no, then it doesn't matter. If the answer is yes, then you have to ask yourself the following questions and amortize that amount over the life of the animal, say 20 years, and look at it that way:

1. Will I be okay with a similar animal costing much less in several years, or be angry I didn't wait? In other words, is the price worth the cost of being an early owner of a morph, or in some cases, owning a rare animal?

2. How many animals can I add to my collection and how selective should I be at this point? In other words, should I get what I really, really, want and is available now, or hold off, and wait for something else or to see if this is what I really want, and risk getting something else?

In my case, I spent 4 figures on 3 of my last 4 animals. I can pretty safely say I thought they were all my "last" animal, (all unusual, strikingly beautiful, rare, or some combo), justifying the cost to me. Now, with the collection I have, and a full reptile area, and a good amount of time spent with them and maintenance, but not quite too much, they very well may have been.

I bought a Scaleless Sunglow Motely Red Factor Corn (Solana), the only one in the world with those visual traits currently (at least until next breeding season). I've always wanted a scaleless corn and Solana is stunning and a remarkably personable and cool snake. NO REGRETS. I also remember to tell Figment, my Hypo-Lavender adult male corn that I don't love him any less even though he cost $75 (his shipping was almost as much as he was).

Then Katie/SunshineWalker bought Esmeralda/Ezzy, a Bayonaisse Leachie, the most expensive animal I've ever bought, of any kind. What justified that? Katie loved her and wanted her and was willing to take care of her. Given how far she's come, and how rare and incredibly awesome Ezzy is, I couldn't say no. Also, in her case, her tank setup was pretty inexpensive as it's not too big and she lives at room temp, so caging costs were low, offsetting her costs. No regrets.

Then I decided I needed an arboreal snake and got Yafe, the Albino Irian Jaya (50%)/Darwin (50%) Carpet Python hybrid. Rare, beautiful, and the tamest carpet the breeder had. He was 4 figures as well. No regrets.

I did add a very rare BCC, Feliz, as the last, but he was not 4 figures, but I would have paid that for him, he is so cool.