What's with the price crashing?

Oh, I'm all for capitalism, and letting people set their own prices, etc--it's just totally inexplicable to me when people chop their own feet off at the ankle, though. It doesn't make sense to ask a lower price for something than you can get. Past a certain point, it won't even speed sales further (and might even hurt them--those in the know will be leery of prices that are TOO low).

I think it depends on what animals we are talking about here. Lets say albino boas, they are a staple morph, and their selling price is known and should not be significantly dropped. Harald mentioned above that some boas were 1/3rd the price of last year, but were they new morphs trying to find their price points or staple morphs? Lets take albino motleys and sunglow motleys for example. They are new and breathtaking, everyone wants them so a huge price tag follows, they started at i think $4,500, and within months i see them at $2,500-$3000. Why the drop? because no one will pay that, the value is not there and we all know by the time they are breedable they will be worth a small fraction of that.. Albino motleys started at $1300-1500 and are now at $800 or so and that was all within a year. I fully expect that come 2011 albino mots will be $600-800 and sunglow mots will be 1500-1800 or so. Like it or not people are going to want to sell these things eventually.. BUT I would be VERY disappointed if in 2012 the prices move from there. At that point i believe they will find their price point. I think those prices are fair and reasonable for those morphs and I wouldn't be upset paying that for them. And that is what its all about, finding the sweet spot in pricing where you are getting a fair amount for your animals and your customers dont have buyers remorse the next season.

So my 1 cent opinion sums up to... Finding price points is fine in my book, we are here to sell things not sit on them.. but slashing prices on morphs we all know are worth last years prices should not be slashed just to kick the competition (and yourself) in the groin. SO QUIT DROPPING ALBINO BOAS THEY WERE FINE AT $300 LOL

I wonder if part of it is just people being slow to catch on to the way the season starts. They expect their first clutches to fly out the door, but they're not going to.

Remember, the primary buyers of morphs are other breeders. Those breeders are waiting for their own clutches to appear so, they can sell them to get money to buy YOUR clutches.

I think some folks just don't understand this--every season starts out slow, and then peaks, then drops off some and rolls along into the start of the winter breeding season. It's just the start of the season now, but people are dropping prices as if they expected sales to be the way they are at the peak.

Agreed, In the case of boas i fully expect it to take a full year to sell everything produced, you have to be prepared to house and feed everything you produce. I think Harald mentioned that earlier as well, a lot of these people slashing prices may be doing so because they didnt prepare with proper caging for the long haul..

Originally Posted by bear

I think it depends on what animals we are talking about here. Lets say albino boas, they are a staple morph, and their selling price is known and should not be significantly dropped. Harald mentioned above that some boas were 1/3rd the price of last year, but were they new morphs trying to find their price points or staple morphs? Lets take albino motleys and sunglow motleys for example. They are new and breathtaking, everyone wants them so a huge price tag follows, they started at i think $4,500, and within months i see them at $2,500-$3000. Why the drop? because no one will pay that, the value is not there and we all know by the time they are breedable they will be worth a small fraction of that.. Albino motleys started at $1300-1500 and are now at $800 or so and that was all within a year. I fully expect that come 2011 albino mots will be $600-800 and sunglow mots will be 1500-1800 or so. Like it or not people are going to want to sell these things eventually.. BUT I would be VERY disappointed if in 2012 the prices move from there. At that point i believe they will find their price point. I think those prices are fair and reasonable for those morphs and I wouldn't be upset paying that for them. And that is what its all about, finding the sweet spot in pricing where you are getting a fair amount for your animals and your customers dont have buyers remorse the next season.

I wonder also if some price drops are due to the latest and greatest mentality everyone has, particularly with ball pythons. A lot of breeders and collectors want to work with the latest and greatest gene to hit the market. Breeders think they need the latest and greatest to make their mark, so they think they need to sell off everything quick so they can buy the new gene and make their mark. Granted little do they realize they are setting up the fall of that new morph they forked out big dollars for. I also sometimes wonder if the over abundance of morphs is more of a hinderence to holding prices than a true help. Corns have tons of morphs and I just can't seem to get myself wrapped around them (granted I really have not tried). Could excessive choice be the fall of other animals as well?

Originally Posted by bear

I fully expect that come 2011 albino mots will be $600-800 and sunglow mots will be 1500-1800 or so. Like it or not people are going to want to sell these things eventually.. BUT I would be VERY disappointed if in 2012 the prices move from there. At that point i believe they will find their price point. I think those prices are fair and reasonable for those morphs and I wouldn't be upset paying that for them. And that is what its all about, finding the sweet spot in pricing where you are getting a fair amount for your animals and your customers dont have buyers remorse the next season.

Actually i just saw sunglow motleys at $2000 shipped from shane kinney.. those mot morphs might reach that price point before next season..

I think I've seen this discussion annually since maybe 2005?
Some animals crash and burn in price (albino retics from 2000 to now..woah!). Some hold their value better--albino balls are still 400-600 bucks and they've been around since what, the mid 90s?
Some species seem more prone to rapid fluctuations. Species with tons of morphs (balls, corns) and species with very limited markets (hots, giants) seem to have that happen to them.

It makes sense though...there's only so many people out there that want a purple tiger retic or an albino cobra. And with balls and corns and leopard geckos...how many morphs are out there now? There's an overwhelming number and I suspect they're eating into each other's market--i.e. a guy wants to get 2 or 3 morph ball pythons, and instead of having 3-5 morphs to choose from he's got 50!

What puzzles me is that locality markets seem to be more stable over the long run than morph markets. Of course they don't usually start out hyper-expensive either so they've got less far to fall.

I'm not talking about the natural declines in market prices--I'm talking about the few odd individuals who dramatically underprice.

Donna, I also want to point out that the true enthusiasts will always still pay for quality. Like the pied I will be buying from you. At a show I went to in February, I found some female pieds for several hundreds of dollars left, that were not of the same quality as the girl I'm getting from you, and did not "speak" to me the way yours did. Same with many of the boas I've gotten. For the animals of good quality, that I recognize as good quality, I'm personally willing to pay the price difference. Harald put a mojave ball python (08 female) up for sale a while back that I paid for, that many people might have felt was priced a bit high. Let me tell you she is worth every single freaking penny. Quality is ALWAYS worth the extra money. I personally feel that way when I price my animals. The right buyers do come by, and I have no problem housing the animals until that buyer shows up.

We're out there, have faith, k?

Thanks, km.