Garter prices
 

I can't believe the prices of garters. They have trippled in the past couple of years

This should probably go in the discussion section.

Garter
 

I cant find it.

Yep... unfortunately "Snake Discovery" made everyone go crazy about them. Ive been keeping garter snakes since I was 6 years old and I'm now 30. Used to breed Easterns and Fitchii (different state) in high-school and sell them to my friends for $15 lol!

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Just observing the ads since the pandemic started, prices across the board, for the most part, have gone way up on all reptiles. All of a sudden I think people are looking to make lots of money as opposed to expanding the hobby. Perhaps trying to regain revenue that was lost as a result of COVID.

go price a sheet of plywood, lol!

The truth is guys that garters are still rare in the hobby with the exception of a few species/subspecies! If you search the classifieds you will find thousands of corns/rats, western hogs, and boas/pythons and only a small handful of garters. What's happened is people have found out how fascinating garters are and now we have way more demand than supply so naturally prices go up. I have been breeding garters for years and it's a lot of work to try and produce enough babies to supply everyone and we only have a few garter breeders in the hobby! look back through the classifieds and see how many eastern garter snake morphs are available. If you want to work with these magnificent snakes you have to get them quick because only a handful are available each year. Also keep in mind that garters were always under priced compared to other species. Just want to give my thoughts on the subject, Thanks!

Shawn is right.

Yes, prices are up across the board. I think there are a couple reasons for this.

Demand is (and was during the past year) higher than normal, possibly because many people were at home more. This is similar to the substantially increased demand in the winter up north here.

For brick and mortar stores, they have been having a substantial increase in expenses. Wages are up because of employee shortage, supply chain issues are adding a lot of cost, and the disruption of normal sales practices (can't vend at shows, can't open store showroom or have to limit capacity) add complications that motivate higher pricing to offset the trouble.

These things do trickle down to hobby breeders, too. My local source of rodent food, for example, increased pricing by 50% because of supply chain issues. Feeder insects are in crazy high demand (superworm shortage again) and prices are high.

Just to piggy back off the comments from John and Shawn... Another factor is all of the quantitative easing that we have seen in the past year is essentially making your money worth less by putting more money into the market chasing products. When paired with increased demand and all of the associated fall out from the pandemic, the prices are only going to shoot up. I suspect the increasing prices are the new norm for the foreseeable future. This is basic economics...

If you thought that price was bad, there is a two year old unproven male for sale on morph market for $700. Anywho...