Ball pythons. When do the odds and ends hit the market?

I remember less than 10 years ago you could get a shipment of ball pythons and have 8-10 different current morphs/patterns/colors included. We thought many of these were ugly!!! LOL's!!!

You bet! A ghost would probably be called a pigmentation defect and you couldn't even sell it if you tried.

In talking with some vendors locally (we're in southern california) they stated that the Florida market is very different than other places. The "wal mart" towards reptiles mentality thrives there for some reason.

Isn't the reason to that because of the accesibility to fresh imports? Florida is probably the main port of entry for everything that comes from overseas. In my opinion there is less shipping and exchanging of hands between the cargo area and the consumer. The turn around of animals is fast. Margins are low and the public expects "cheap" animals. It doesn't really matter because another shipment is just around the corner. Isn't that supply and demand working at its fullest extent?

Regards.

Isn't that supply and demand working at its fullest extent?

Yes that is part of it. Problem is the quality sometimes can take a hit in that climate. If there wasn't a quality issue then I'd have no problem with it and just consider it part of the playing field in our industry of choice. Like Ray said, a customer that gets a poor animal is lost future sales for all of us.

Curious if you think public awareness of possible genetic scams (what you see on the BOI) has erased some of the market for "unique-looking" fresh imports? I'm new to balls (just got my first group) so just throughing this idea out there.

Curious if you think public awareness of possible genetic scams (what you see on the BOI) has erased some of the market for "unique-looking" fresh imports?

Maybe. But by unique looking I just understand the uniqueness of the "looks" (phenotype). A CH or WC ghost is a ghost (e.g. shed with no pattern), and a WC albino is an albino, there is no need to prove them out through breeding. Now there are other morphs which need to be proven before attempting to label them as the real thing.

In my opinion the more "unique" balls end-up in the hands of the big breeders directly. If a person in Ghana has an unusual ball python he will more than likely make a few phone calls to the US or Europe and e-mail some pictures before sending it with a group of 1,000 baby balls. They know that animal alone can be worth probably the whole shipment.

Regards.

Dan,

Well I personally am mainly selling off the normals and am waiting to see what a few animals shed out. I have a few that might be Ghost, a few that might be Pastels, and 2 that might be Cinnamon Pastels. As for the stripes, ringers, and those types of odddities I am not really even pulling them out. I have been selling them in lots with the other normals. The interest in those other oddities seemed to have dropped quite a bit.

Rob,

Yes, I was figuring something like that was happening with most of the importers. So far I have seen very few "different" animals. A very dark baby ball, a really nice looking ringer, and a few others. I agree with you with regards to the stripes, black backs, etc. The interest of a couple of years ago seems to have faded away.

Regards.