Pricing - Ball Python Market

[ctrlfreq]

My take on the relationship between the prices of combos and single gene mutations is that the higher prices of the combos encourage buyers to purchase the ingredients to them instead of the combo itself.

This can only be within reason though. I can very easily justify buying say, a creamsicle (pied x lav albino) instead of producing it, because even if I started with a visual morph of each, it would take a minimum of 2-3 years, to produce one with double-het offspring. Even then, my chances of popping one out on the first try are fairly slim mathematically speaking, and I have to house, feed, and otherwise care for all the offspring during this time.

On one hand it encourages buyers to purchase stock to begin producing snakes themselves, and on the other hand you now have a situation where everyone and their brother are shooting for crosses

Yes, but this is where the business sense comes into the equation. People who are making dominant crosses are obviously looking for short-term gains, and are comparable to day-traders. Those who are planning for the long term will be investing more in recessive genetics, which will hold their prices much better due to supply.

Moreover, the fact of the matter is that the buyers that will support the ball market in its maturity phase don't care that it took 1 in 16 odds

This point I disagree with completely. The 1 in 16, 32, or 2048 odds are exactly what will keep the market up in it's "mature" phase, just like it's kept the price of Ferraris well above their Ford counterparts.

If anything, one only needs to look into the markets for purebreed dogs, cats, horses, or any other animal for which the market would be considered mature to see that rare animals will continue to bring in the big bucks well after the markets drop for the common breeds.