Like anything new and in demand people will charge what they can get. And if you are starting a colony you might pay a little extra for something nice as soon you'll have a ton of them and the per rat allocation for the high priced founders will be nothing. I didn't word that very well... Example, I paid $60 for my first 2.6. Just by luck they are very nice ASF's (although I found out the other day will bite if restrained, but don't run up to you and bite like other's I've seen). I also paid $16 for an unrelated 1.3. The first group costing me an extra $3.50 per rat is nothing when I consider the couple hundred offspring they have already produced. I fed the $16 1.3 off yesterday and am going to see if daughters from the one and only litter they ever produced do better (maybe the male was old in that group). I did sell my first animals recently, 1.3 for a $7 massive bag of bedding and two feeder mice.

Incidentally I paid nearly $20 for a hamster for my daughter's Christmas present yesterday. Cute little girl, black with white band around the middle. At those prices I think I'm going to have to find her a yellow gene male so she can sell calicos and I can stop paying allowance.