Out of curiosity - since your past experience with reptiles includes a pretty good variety - is there any reason you're aiming to breed ball pythons in particular? I ask this because I'd like to offer a perspective as a consumer. (I am definitely not a breeder and do not claim to have any experience in that realm.) In the current reptile hobby, BPs are pretty much the most popular species of snake, but this also means the BP market is by far the most saturated and competitive. You can see how evident this is just by visiting any reptile show/expo or taking a look at the sheer number of animals available on Morph Market. This competitive pressure also means it is seeing (and will likely continue to see) some of the most rapid shifts when it comes to what morphs are considered trendy, "cutting edge," and worth investing into - especially since many of the major BP breeders also have strong social media presences that keep the consumer base regularly up-to-date on what is new and exciting.
If your goal is to gradually get into snake-breeding as a hobby that can eventually self-sustain and possibly generate some net profit by 10 years down the line when you retire, I think it's important to consider that you're going to be periodically investing into animals with new morphs/genes in order to keep your breeding collection current to what is marketable at a given point in time in the future. While this does apply to any reptile species that boasts a decent variety of morphs, I'd guess that the shifts will occur the most rapidly in BPs given the already mind-boggling number of genes and gene combinations that are available.
Where am I going with this? I suppose ultimately I'm asking if you would also be interested in breeding any reptile species other than BPs (assuming a similar level of difficulty for the breeding process itself). If BPs are your favorite and that is why they are your top choice, then certainly I can't argue with that (I have two myself, and absolutely adore them), and I'm not here to talk you out of them. But if there are other snake or lizard species that you might also have an interest in breeding, then I wonder if others on this site with experience in breeding these species would be able to chime in with more advice and perspectives.
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