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Unopened Bags

Frankie J

Frankie J

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I've seen a few adds for unopened bags of balls straight from africa.

Has anyone ever bought any of these?

Do you really have a good chance of getting anything other than normals?
 
You have *a* chance, not a "good chance". Something neat could make it through, but most likely you'll recieve normals. (from what I've seen from others who actually have purchased bags)
 
Unopened bag means unopened *AT THIS END*

the african exporters know what they are looking for, nothing awesome is going to make it's way in there. the odd one thats worth dinking around with, the odd one with het pied markers. some examples of possible low end morphs (poss pastel, poss cinnie, poss het red axanthic etc).


It's a very, very, very small chance, just slightly higher than the 0% chance you have when ordering a CF royal off someone who's already sorted through them.
 
Generally the bags are opened for inspection so the Importer can receive credit for any DOAS. There are no unopened bags. The importer may be on the up & up and and as a bag is checked, put those animals back in without sorting himself but there are no unopened bags.
 
I've spoken w/some folks who used to get huge shipments of imports over the years and the replies above are correct. There's no such thing as an "unopened bag." They will be looked at briefly at the least. If you get lucky, you can get yellow bellies, spotnose, het reds, etc that blend in at a quick glance, along w/some dinkers here and there. Expect a bag of normals, but hey, I think I'm one of the few who still think they are beautiful too :)
 
Baby bags are unopened.
A few bags are inspected when they come in, but those bags are sold as sorted babies.

Fish and wildlife does not have the time to inspect ever bag, its not worth while for them.

On our end, we ship them out as soon as we crack the crates back here at our warehouse.
If any bags have a smell or stain on them we open them and sell the babies as sorted large lots of babies. If there is no smell or stain, chances are all the babies are alive so they are shipped out as such unopened.

We buy such a large volume of specials and ch morphs each season that picking over 1000's of baby bag babies would be a waste of time and money for us to do so, not to mention we do not have any interest in being dishonest about what we sell.

Hope this clears up any misconceptions, and he said she said that people call truth..
The mark up on baby bags is good enough that if a few doa's make it there, we are still profitable on baby bags so can sell them unopened.
 
This is what I posted in the thread about this exact same subject only about 6 topics below this one. :rolleyes:

Importing gravid females has been around at least since I got into the hobby in 2003/2004, it is nothing new. This is only the beginning -- more will be coming in and ending up on the market around March/April, that's usually when you see it. I purchased a couple of these in early 2007, they laid their eggs, and they hatched. Got some neat babies out of them, but nothing majorly crazy. Never had the chance to line-breed back to prove out the traits that the mothers showed (reduced pattern and axanthic-type). Unless the female is really obviously some new morph (like a banana or toffee), I don't think they should be taken from the wild. Many gravid girls have a pretty, light-colored look that disappears once they lay, which is what tricks people into buying them thinking they are special. However, I don't think the wild populations are being hit that hard. They aren't listed as threatened or endangered anywhere that I can find.

I did an unopened bag of 25 babies in 2006 I believe it was, and ended up with about 50/50 in terms of gender. I got some really cool dinkers out of it, some granites and reduced patterns that had all the markers of being genetic (the common ones) and a couple really pretty striped and super blushed out females that I was planning on raising up as breeders. The rest I sold as pets locally and made my money back to cover the cost of the bag plus shipping.

As far as CH babies, you can get some really neat ones. I got a few from David myself (who was actually affliated with Outback Reptiles back then and got his stock from Ian) and one was my AWESOME yellowbelly male. He was ranched, but every single person that saw him knew right off the bat that that's what he was. He had the most intense orange and yellow coloration, crazy high orange flames up the sides, and an almost orange belly. Was a really amazing looking snake. Wish I could have proved him out. So CH can be a really cool thing to dink with if you want to just have fun with it and aren't looking to win the ball python lottery.
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