Hrm.
Codominant morph, noteable, desired and heavily propogated.
Let's say... the source animal was a female (I have no clue, this is a bit hypothetical anyway from this point on) and that the average ball clutch is eh... six eggs. It's a little high, but the even number is easier to work with, feel free to pick whatever numbers you like and do the same thing I am about to. Similarly, let's assume an even ratio of males to females in the offspring and nice mendelian production numbers.
Year One-
Bred to a male, produces six offspring, three expressing the trait two females and a male. (I'm being generous and slow)
Total population- one breeder, three neonates
Year two-
Bred to a male, produces six offspring, three expressing the trait, two males and a female.
Total population: 1 breeder, 3 yearlings, 3 neonates
Year three-
Those two year olds are able to reproduce, the male is bred to five different females, the female to a male each.
Female production- Nine offspring
Male Production- Fifteen offspring
Total population- Four breeders, three yearlings, twenty four neonates.
Year four-
Four females producing twelve offspring
Three males producing forty five offspring
Total population- seven breeders, twenty four yearlings, fifty seven neonates
Year five-
Sixteen females producing forty eight offspring
Fifteen males producing two hundred twenty five offspring
Total Population- thirty one breeders, fifty seven yearlings, two hundred seventy three neonates
Year Six-
Forty five females producing one hundred thirty five neonates
Forty three males producing six hundred forty five offspring
Total Population- eighty eight breeders, two hundred seventy three yearlings, seven hundred eighty neonates
And so on... and so on... and so on... The animals produce exponentially, not as a strict addition of the same number every year. The population of avaliable animals doesn't double from year to year, it's going to be expressed as a number that's about eight-ten times the number produced the year before when the emphasis to breed an investment morph is present. Obviously that's using very clinical numbers that disregard all the potential ways a breeding can be unsuccessful and using mendelian averages as an explaination but I think the *point* can be seen.
If there are ten times the animals produced this year that there were last year, AND the morph has become established enough to be avaliable for sale to the general public, why *wouldn't* the price drop by a factor of ten? As you get further down the price scale and the number of avaliable animals starts to line up with the demand for the morph, you have a lot more potential customers but a lot more competition from other sellers too. The prices MKR offered were simply logical given the volume of animals they had to move. I had seen ads they posted (in passing) for several weeks prior to dropping their price more substantially where the morph wasn't selling at 1200 or even 1000 dollars; I don't think the price they arrived at was an arbitrary number I believe it was one that was acchieved by slowing dropping the prices on their animals until they found the selling point. Doing so immediately prior to a major show was a logical choice as well, many consumers would have purchased animals at the show and would no longer be interested in buying from online sources, the demand would have been met by the show supply, leaving a smaller demand post-show. From a business standpoint, their actions are perfectly logical.
All the arguments about motivation and the allusions to some ulterior motive don't change the reality of the market or the quality of the business decisions.
