I've decided to get a Ball Python. My problem is this.. I don't know where

When I went to a local store, they had 1, kept it housed only with a log and bowl of water.. and some kind of green sand. Didn't like that but I asked to take a look at it anyway. The girl says she "doesn't do snakes" and handed me the key! She told me to keep it away from where she was in the store. HA! So like an idiot, not knowing how long its been there or anything else about it, I reach in and grab it. Pretty tame (or didn't bite me!) but I didn't like the way it didn't complete a shed in 1 piece and didn't like their lack of information on it. They want $90. I left it. There's another store with 2 BPs, they also have employees that shouldn't even be in a pet store. They can never tell me anything I want to know. They want $60.

I want a female, how can I determine the sex at the store? Since they obviously have no idea. They don't even know if they're CB or WC.

That brings me to my final question. Does anyone know where I can find a normal female BP at a decent price, a price one would pay for a normal? ..with some pictures and information.

I've been looking at a lot of sites/forums/classifieds(KS).. and I can find a lot of morphs with pictures and info, however most normals don't have pics/info and sell in lots of 10+. Am I supposed to just e-mail them and have them ship me a random snake?

Thanks,
Mike