Pricing - Ball Python Market

[FL0OD]

I was wanting to get everyones take on where they think the ball python market is going over the net 5 years. I have my own theory. Its that animals will be priced according to how many genes they have. Single gene animals, regardless of pattern, will be from $25-350, two gene animals will be $350-700, three gene $700-1500, and so on. There will always be that one or two animals that hit the market and are initially very pricey but I think that the prices are starting to level off and should over the next two years or so but that is my take on it. I know that is some thing that has to cross peoples mind that are just starting with a small collection and I am sure is even larger breeders try to predict the market a little. What do you think?

[Rapture]

It's all about supply and demand. You're right, combo morphs will be higher priced than single morphs, but there will also be a variance between dominant morphs and recessive. I think that the combo morphs should hold good value due to the odds of 3+ morphs showing up on one snake. Also, I am hoping that with the multiple reptile television projects out there, that hopefully we can raise understanding and demand for these animals as pets.

[Gloryhound]

I think a lot of possibilities exist. Government legislation, hobby breeders, expansion of knowledge of snakes,... To early to make any predictions. Once some morphs reach a certain price level new breeders will not have an interest. Also a lot of current breeders will drop them from their programs thus possibly increasing the price back up slightly. Also as the demand for double and triple morphs increase single morph breeding adults will be shifted to those projects possibly causing a reduction in the availability of single morphs. If larger snakes gain additional national regulation as we have in Florida it could shift a lot of people into a smaller non-regulated species such as the Ball Python creating further demand. If any Government action is taken to ban or regulate the importation of wild caught ball pythons it could cause a shift in the price upwards of captive bred normal ball pythons. This would cause an upward shift in morphs as well. Too much happening and I don't have a crystal ball unfortunately. Hey that might be an interesting project, a crystal ball python! How would you make a ball python clear?

[FL0OD]

Thanks to Exotic's By Nature's photo's from Daytona 2007 and Brian from BHB you can have a crystal ball, look about half way down the page, haha

[BChambers]

The only safe bet is that rarer balls will be more expensive than common morphs, and more striking morphs and combos will be pricier than less attractive ones. Also, when a new combo is produced that is umusually attractive, it will raise the price of its constituent morphs as well as its own value. Remember what happened to FIRE prices after the "FIREfly" (Pastel FIRE) was unveiled? Also the "Spied" after Roussis reptiles posted the first pics....

[ScubaTim]

ahhh......i think that you under estimate the ball python market. Yes prices will come down but it may be a lot slower than you think. when you consider all the possible combinations and new genetic lines proving out each year (not to mention the ones some breeders won't even release or tell anyone about), select genes will increase value as that gene may be looked into for a new combination of genetics. Dom and Co-Dom genes drop fast but as you can see with pastel, once they hit a certain point it hasn't moved much. And with new people coming into ball python genetics, there will always be demand for these "lower end" genes.

[monk90222]

Why sweat the market?.....You should be into Ball Pythons because you LOVE Ball Pythons, and then everything else will fall into place....

[ScubaTim]

The market makes your hobby more affordable. Even if all the snakes you buy cost $1.....there is still food and supplies etc.....

[FL0OD]

Why sweat the market?.....You should be into Ball Pythons because you LOVE Ball Pythons, and then everything else will fall into place....

I think everyone here loves there balls but if you plan on selling them at any point it really does not make any sense not to have some kind of business model / forecast. If you are just a hobbyist and sell them on the side then your comment makes sense. The question was posted as that, a question just to see where peoples heads were at in regards to what was asked.

[muddoc]

Single gene animals, regardless of pattern, will be from $25-350, two gene animals will be $350-700, three gene $700-1500, and so on.

You mean to tell me that you think a Caramel Albino Hypo Clown will be $1500 in 5 years. I think not. So many people have put so much stock into the dominant mutations, they all too often remember how the corn snake market as aged in the past 30 years. There are still way too many things to be done with ball pythons to make that kind of prediction.

My opinion only, but we have barely scratched the surface on Double Homozygous Recessives.