Quote Originally Posted by SnakeySnakeSnake
In my opinion there are two main circumstances. 1) Everything goes right 2) Something goes wrong. I can safely say it won't matter much who you got the snake from if #1 is true (unless you are re-selling babies based on name), but when #2 is true, who you got the snake from almost always matters.
Well said, Bryan. I think we're on the same page, but I think you may have misunderstood my post. The circumstances I was referring to had more to do with specific issues in the Ball biz such as questionable morphs, double hets, and other circumstances that the big breeders can handle much more reliably. My point was that people shouldn't flock to the big breeders because they had that "big breeder" status, but rather they should do their homework on any breeder they decided to do business with and shouldn't discount the small breeder just because they don't deal with thousands of snakes.

You bring up a good point about large breeders being able to hold back snakes in case something goes wrong, but that should be only one factor in determining who you select to do business with. If I found a small breeder selling a killer morph I was looking for, say a reduced clown, it might not matter to me if the snake was sexed right or not. I might want to get the genetics and work around the gender issue.

BTW, the questions you stated shouldn't be exclusive to small breeders, but to all breeders that you do business with. As I mentioned in my previous message, many people perceive certain breeders as "Big" when in fact they are either small or untrustworthy.