What's up with Albino Ball pricing???

[klsl]

Could someone explain what's up with Albino Ball prices? I cannot believe how much prices have dropped for the 06'. Is it market saturation or what? I have a beautiful 05' male on here. I've gotten tons of "lookers", but I think people want him at the 06' price. I guess I'll be keeping him because I can't take a $1000.00 loss!!!

[joshdhensley]

Prices on dominate traits have hit the dirt and it seems that simple recessive are beginning to drop substantially. If you plan on ever selling him, don't look to make what you paid any time soon.

[LadyOhh]

Sonya,

Prices are what you as the owner of the animal think they are. You should price it as what you feel it is worth, and just let the lookers look.

Market prices fluctuate.. This is the game that we play.

[catawhat]

I can only give you what my reason would be as far as a male. In my case I don't usually buy the recessive visuals, I buy hets but if I were going to buy a male visual and could get one from a well known breeder (or someone that I trusted- I know there are lots of lesser know breeders who are wonderful!) that was not ready to breed for at least a year, that wouldn't bother me. I like raising mine up and getting to know them and since males don't take as long to raise to breeding size I would go for the younger one if the price difference was that much. As much as I don't like to say it, price can be an issue for me b/c I don't have the extra $1000 to put into a male that is ready now.
Also, I don't think keeping him is a bad idea, then again I am going to have a hard time parting with any of mine when I am ready to start breeding. I don't care about market price, taking a loss etc. I am fully aware that prices on what I have WILL drop in the future and if I come out with extra $ that is great, if not that is fine also. I just want to be able to have some of these beautiful morphs out there.

[Cat_72]

It's also that time of year when some folks will try to move their leftover babies from last year at a lower price, to make room for this year's babies. And I know there's folks waiting to make their bigger purchases until after tax time as well.

The market is going to fluctuate.....set the price of the animal at what it is worth to you and be patient.

[SPJ]

Prices drop every year.
Albinos are actually holding their prices fairly well.

Try having some of the doms and co-doms and watch what happened to them this year. Worth a fraction of what I originally paid. :ack2:

Albinos are still a good investment since they cannot be produced as quickly as something like a pastel so you still can make back what you paid just by producing a few female 100% hets.

[Clay Davenport]

Could someone explain what's up with Albino Ball prices? I cannot believe how much prices have dropped for the 06'. Is it market saturation or what? I have a beautiful 05' male on here. I've gotten tons of "lookers", but I think people want him at the 06' price. I guess I'll be keeping him because I can't take a $1000.00 loss!!!You've got a couple of things working against you in this case. First, you paid a little more than you should have in the first place.
Then there's the fact it's a male. Your current asking price for the 05 is more than twice what an 06 is selling for. If it were a female it would be different, but males become sexually mature a lot faster, so the extra year of age isn't worth that degree of price difference. Someone looking to start an albino project would be better off buying an 06 male and using the rest of the money to purchase 3 het girls.
It's also getting a little late in the breeding season to be having a male shipped in and expect to get him in breeding mode, so the ability to breed him this season isn't as strong a factor as it would have been 2-3 months ago.
Price your snake at what you want to get out of it, but the fact is your chances of getting $2400 out of him are slim to none to be honest. You're more likely to recoup your investment from his offspring.

[ravensgait]

Interesting thread,,,
You can set your price at whatever you want too but it is really only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Sucks I know but it's like this I can say I have a $2500.00 oh say Jag baby (that or more is what they sold for a year ago) Yet lately Jags have been going for around 1500.00 and by summer I bet they get under a grand. Point being that it may have been worth 2500 but no one is going to pay that now.

As Clay said your best bet is to makes some babies and sell them, that's where his real value is... Randy

[klsl]

So, should I just purchase a normal adult female (Het females have gone up in price) and breed him to her and get 100% hets to sell..if all goes well with the breeding?

[Cat_72]

I should have looked at the ad.....Clay is right, the price you were asking seems pretty steep for an 05 male. You could purchase a normal female and produce 100% hets, or you could buy a het female (I don't see them as having gone up any in price?) and produce both albinos and hets.

As far as purchasing an adult female.....keep in mind that any new animals you bring in should be quarantined from your male, so as not to risk the spread of disease and parasites. If you really want to breed, you may want to consider buying a nice female now that will be ready to breed next year.....she will be less expensive than an adult, and you won't have to worry about risking the health of the male as well.

Just my $.02 ...........

[Clay Davenport]

So, should I just purchase a normal adult female (Het females have gone up in price) and breed him to her and get 100% hets to sell..if all goes well with the breeding?With this question, I have to wonder what were your plans when you first bought him?
Normally people don't spend the money for a visual male until they already have females at least within a year of being breeding size. The reason is the females take longer than a male to become sexually mature so they can use that to their advantage by waiting a year to get the male at a better price and not sacrifice any time on getting eggs.

Anyway, if your hope is to breed him this season you're really waiting late in the season to get started. Breeder size females are not common this time of year, sine those who might have had them for sale earlier have now went ahead and bred them.
I have seen a few females here and there of breeding size lately, but the odds of getting one to sucessfully reproduce at this point are against you, having to ship her and with the possibility she hasn't been cycled yet.

What I would do is pick up a breeding size het female in the spring, I would bet you could get one for $800 or so, and breed them in the fall. The other alternative is to buy a couple of normal adult females and just produce hets. Hets this year were going for $450 a pair or so and next year will probably be $350-400. In the end you'll do better with one clutch that should be half visual than you would with two clutches of hets. Especially when hets are so common people are even less interested in buying them from someone unknown.

[joshdhensley]

I'm with you, Ingrid. I do my thing just for myself and the love of herps. If I make a dollar, great! If not, I have the beautiful herps that I produced, not someone else! I'm O.K. with that!

[LadyOhh]

:iagree:

[Melinda]

due to the difficulty in selling hets, I am limiting the amount of hets I produce this year.

[Pink Lady Exotics]

And I know there's folks waiting to make their bigger purchases until after tax time as well.

:wavey:

I think albinos have held their price very well considering that they're the oldest and longest-known morph. Like mentioned above, prices are going down because people are trying to clear up the last remaining stock from last season. This year was a big drop for a lot of morphs, so it's not unexpected.