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Unopened bags

the owner of a pet shop that I use to frequent a few years ago told me that years back before the ball python craze, all sorts of crazy stuff would come in the "unopened" bags because people didn't know what they were. Wouldn't you love to go back in time?
 
What news?? I have many snakes from David and have been wondering where he has vanished off too
 
Well I did it, and I knew what I was getting into. I was told there would be no morphs, only fancy looking CH balls, and that's what I got. I think I had 4 males and 6 females but I can't remember for sure. Only a couple of mine were boring, the others have some blushing and pastel-like coloring on them. I'm keeping some for breeding stock, may sell some as normals. They were $150/10
 

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My wife and I got 2 bags last weekend for $75 each. About half just normals and some with very nice markings/coloration. The only identifiable possibles were a granite and blackback. One or two have white that goes nearly half way up their sides and from the side look like flames. Overall, not bad and we should get our money back.
 
Agreed with the WC gravid females. I was horrified to see the new posts by Outback Reptiles on the classifieds section. Don't mind some imports, but taking gravid females? That not only takes away a mature beeding female from the local area but also all of her potential offspring for many years to come.

Just curious, does anyone know how the current wild ball python populations are? Seems like they are getting hit pretty hard, especially with the new gravid female market supplied by Outback.
 
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 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.
 
So, it seems to me the Unopened bag is a marketing scheme to move/sell a large number of CH normals to people hoping to get something they probably are not going to get. I would save my money and get a nice CH dinker instead, one I can see a picture of.

Dave
 
I agree with David on this. I wouldn't take my chances on the unopened bags. I am not saying the people who sell them are dishonest but how do you know for sure they weren't opened and picked through. No guarantees, taking a big gamble on these deals. Save your money and buy something you really want. This is just my opinion so please don't jump my case, it is just an opinion.
 
Think how hard it is to sell normals to begin with, by doing this they move all those unwanted normals without having to touch them and make more money than they would selling them individually and without the hassles.
 
Found the pics I was looking for. In 2008, I bought an unopened bag of 25 babies from a well-known importer/breeder. They all arrived healthy albeit a bit thin, all were alive. I ended up getting a handful of really cool dinkers/pretty normals that I was very pleased with. As mentioned, the unopened bag thing isn't the way to hit the ball python lottery, unless you get REALLY lucky and happen to get a slightly unique baby that ends up being part of the leucistic complex (like a mystic) or something along those lines. Otherwise maybe some genetic granites, yellowbellies, genetic reduced patterns, etc. are your most likely finds. I kept all of the ones in the pics below, and sold off the rest as pets to make back more than what I spent on the bag including shipping. So I got some neat babies for essentially no cost at all, which was why I did it. I wish I still had these, they were really awesome.

This was one of the best ones, I had a strong feeling this boy was a genetic granite or similar:

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Then also a really clean, pretty reduced pattern female:

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This one had some very nice yellowbelly traits:

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Another potential genetic granite:

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And an interesting dinker:

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Buyer bags beware?

No buyer beware here, all the details are listed so its up to the buyer to decide if they want to take a chance or not.
Normals sell for $10-$12ea in the sorted 10 lots, so baby bags for a few $ more are a nice way to take a chance at getting something different, and worst case scenario you can sell them for what you paid.

Its about the safest gamble you can take for the money.
 
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