Pricing this years babies

As we all know, baby season is upon us, especially for ball pythons. So, as always I start to check with some local breeders as well as other breeders that I know from across the country to get a feel for what the market may be. My question is this, How come everyones answer tends to be, I have checked online and their going for $?. This is what I am asking.

It has been my experience in the past several years that online pricing (with the exception of a few good deals) are almost always much higher then those of the same animal from the same breeder at my local shows. Therefore, if I am buying and selling at my local shows, prices for a certain animal online in California, will probably bear no reflection on what I should get or expect for my animal here. Also, remember the online prices are the asking prices and may not be what they are actually selling for.

Most people who have early babies also tend to try and price their animals based on the previous years selling price.

I only ask this because I recently attended a show where I saw some early 2010 babies on a vendors table and they were priced at what I thought was pretty high. When I asked why so high? The answer was, I dont mark my animals at what there selling for, but what there going for online.

I would rather wait the extra month or two when the market is saturated and get a better deal.

Now that I am done rambling, what are some of your input on pricing animals? What do you base it on?

Show prices vary depending on where you are. In this area, they are usually on par with online prices, and sometimes are actually high.

I base my pricing of animals on the MARKET. It would be entirely foolish of us to price our animals lower than the going market rates. Show prices are often under market on the last day, as some folks don't want to take the snakes back home, and are willing to give people good deals to unload them. The best way to determine the market rates is to see what other people are selling the animals for, and come up with an average. You can then price your own animals accordingly.

During the peak season, you can find a lot of 'market crashers' dumping animals for excessively low prices in order to make quick sales. You take your chances. Some of them are fine, some of them aren't so fine. Most of them aren't very high quality at all, so it depends on what you're looking for. You will never see any of the big established-name breeders doing that, because they know their animals are worth the price they ask for them.
There's a reason that it's suddenly hard to find animals at all after the peak season is over. They all got sold--including the ones that were priced reasonably. This is because experienced buyers know that paying a bit more for a GOOD animal is wiser than picking out the cheapest one you can find.

I 'quality-grade' my own animals now. I price them a bit low if they're not the greatest examples of their morph, and I price them a bit high if they're exceptional. Problem animals are highly discounted, with full disclosure. People get what they pay for. They also get exactly what I told them they would get, which is vitally important. Your market-crashers may not do the same for you. They're in a hurry, and sometimes details fall by the wayside. If someone can't even provide feeding records, or photos, be wary.

It makes no sense to sell out too cheaply--the animals will sell eventually if you hang in there, because the demand is still high.

Lol, I sold quite a few 09's at almost double what some sold them for earlier. The secret.... not many females available this time of year, and people are always looking for females. So 2-3 months of feeding and I'm selling co-dom females at double the price some sold them shortly after hatching. I can't believe how many people still haven't figured that part of the reptile market out yet.

Anyway, local show prices are usually better because the seller doesn't need to deal with shipping, and any of the live arrival and satisfaction guarantees that go with it. Since as soon as the sale is finalized you take all responsibility there after.

Oh, I figured it out--I can't wait until I'm at the point where I can afford to do it, too. At the moment, this year's proceeds are going to buying racks to house my holdbacks, general maintenance for the next year...and...FINALLY...buying a house. We are out of room--need a house to get more snakes. lol