small breeders + market price for morphs

I have noticed a dramatic drop in spiders this year but ghost on the other hand have seemed to increase in value to me. Havent been hearing much about albinos this year.
Do people that breed these lower class morphs sell there hatchlings easy at market price of do you feel as a small breeding you have to charge less then the bigger breeders? Investing in ball ptyhons is very costly.Do you really see a profit in lower class morphs or does the price drop every year?

Simple recessive morphs (albino, ghosts, clowns etc.) will hold their value much longer. Ghosts will because you can match them up with just about all other morphs. They also take longer, meaning you would first have to produce (for example) a pastel het ghost, then you have breed it to a ghost and hope for the odds so they are more difficult to mass produce. As far as co-dom morphs like spiders they will drop probably the most dramatically because there is no super form of the spider like there is of pastels, cinny's and spot noses. They are much easier to mass produce and I thought I heard somewhere that with some lines of spiders there was a genetic defect but I could be wrong about that. Hope that helps.
Mark Westberg

I forgot to add I think that when spiders have been available to the public as long as pastels have you will see a them being offered at lower prices than pastels. The cheaper they get the more people will be able to afford them and the more that will be produced making people lower their prices to unload them. In the previous post I said I thought different lines had some genetic problems. I retract that as I have heard of genetic problems with spiders. I am not aware of specific lines of spiders like there are for pastels. Ghosts in general I think will hold their value well because there is still a lot of tinkering to be done with them.

There is a huge spread of variables that go into sales which make it impossible to say whether a certain morph or species is an easy sale, especially when you are looking long term (ie next year etc). Things such as your ability to present animals (ad copy, quality photos, nice booth etc), your ability to communicate with potential customers either online or in person, the amount of time you can put towards making sales (having another job will take away from this) are examples of things that will influence whether you personally will be able to sell something rapidly or not. Being able to predict what is going to be "hot" as a morph or species is nearly impossible. I've noticed differences just week to week on what is the most popular (some weeks we'll move a ton of bearded dragons and no one looks twice at the corns, and then the following week just the opposite happens) and what is easy to sell.

Here is my take:

1) The simple recessives will hold market value longer than dominants/codominants.

2) Morphs are divided into two categories -- base morphs (clown, piebald, genetic stripe, etc) and mixer morphs (pastel, hypo, axanthic, etc).

(NOTE: Albino may be included in either category.)

3) The mixer morphs will always be more in demand, because all breeders need them regardless of which base morph the breeder prefers.

4) Therefore, the best investment is a simple recessive mixer morph.

Of course, this is just my opinion...


Chris

how long do you think it will take before you can get these great morphs below $1000? i think it will be in the next 5-8 years

when i first starting into the hobbie which was about 4 years ago. pastels were about $2,000 and albinos were about $3,000.
this year i have noticed almost all male pastels are $1,000 and below an albinos are going for $1,900. If the price keeps going at this rate then albinos will be below the $1,000 mark at or around 4 more years and pastels will be between around $500.00.
I just recently purchased a 100% het albino male from crestedgeckos.com. Next year i plan on purchaseing a pastel male and i will be expecting very few albinos and a good bit of pastels for 2007. Me being a late bloomer in the ball world i have to worry about catching up to the rest of the breeders and meeting the demand for each years morph. I dont see pastels and albinos sales expanding very rapidly in 2007. I have quickly learned if you wanna go somewhere with this you have to sacrifice an arm and a leg!!!! wc females sound very tempting LOL!

Sorry for the type'o above!!!

To the reply above. All the morphs being under $1,000 also depends on the new morphs being produced.
The banana clown was produced by ralpgh davis and i peronally thing that clowns will hold there price a whole lot longer because of this.

Seems to me that Ball Python morphs are the Dot Com market of the reptile industry. Kind of a tremendously over inflated, hype generated market. Breeders who have a good head start in the market or have a big nut to spend now, will continue to make a killing, until the bottom falls out. The masses trying to nickle and dime their way to their dreams of making big bucks are by this time too late. If you have been breeding ball morphs or have breeding balls down to a science and you have 50,000 to 100,000 to drop on stock, go for it. The future is bright. If you are trying to work your way into the market, you are what the industry is counting on to keep the train rolling. The only problem is your too late. The track is going to run out before you reach your destination.

Originally Posted by Ophis

Seems to me that Ball Python morphs are the Dot Com market of the reptile industry.

True. If you are breeding to make a fortune, then you'd better invest a fortune...immediately.

However, if you are breeding as a part-time hobby or to one day make a modest living, you would do fine with little investment. A single Pastel and a few normal females is a good start. It may take several years to build a solid breeding colony of various morphs, but it is by no means impossible.

And as the prices drop, you may invest in more animals.

Many people are concerned with the one morph that could yield the $50,000 profit. You may still yield the $50,000 profit once the market has dropped dramatically, it would just take more animals in your colony than a single morph.

This is how we distinguish between those breeding for the money versus those breeding for the pure enjoyment.

The people breeding out of pure enjoyment will never concern themselves with a market drop. More animals for them!

Again...this is just my opinion.


Chris