• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Unopened bags

D

David Reid

EmberBall
Joined
Feb 22, 2002
Messages
1,652
Reaction score
145
Points
0
Age
57
Location
Temecula, CA
Anyone have any pics of what they got? Did you get anything other than cool normals? Any stunning Granites, YB's, Het Black Eyed Lucies, Vanillas?

I love CH time, but if all you get is nice normals, is it worth paying $200 for 10 normals? I know, some will say it is like playing the lotto, a gamble. But, if the top prize is only a high gold normal, is it worth it? I have never gotten an upopend bag, looking for some input from those who have. For $200, you could probably get a pair of Pastels?

Dave
 
I highly doubt you would find known or probable morphs in so called un-opened bags. The African exporters are pretty aware of what is and what isn't a morph. Someone I know purchased a so called un-opened bag and got a very high rate of average run of the mill males.
 
I was thinking about getting one of these grab bags myself but I dont believe for a second that they aren't sorted through A) at the farms/breeders in africa and B)at the distributors here. As mentioned earlier, the farmers and collectors know what they are looking at by now. Also, they are sold as "unopened" but again, dont tell me that when they arrive here, the bags or whatever they are in aren't at least opened to see if they are alive. My doubts were pretty much confirmed, at least in my mind, when the breeder I was going to get them from all of a sudden was selling "captive hatched specials/oddballs".....so I decided against it. I'm not paying $200 for 10 normal males lol
 
I've seen a few pictures of what look like run of the mill normals to me, but no one has mentioned so far what their sex ratio has been. I'm betting it's mostly males.

I think the unopened bags are geared toward the same group of people who probably will buy imported gravid females thinking they're gonna win the lottery. Myself, I won't ever buy any of that crap. And now that my favorite CH seller is out of the picture, it's doubtful I'll ever purchase CH again.
 
MagickalMorphs said:
I've seen a few pictures of what look like run of the mill normals to me, but no one has mentioned so far what their sex ratio has been. I'm betting it's mostly males.

I think the unopened bags are geared toward the same group of people who probably will buy imported gravid females thinking they're gonna win the lottery. Myself, I won't ever buy any of that crap. And now that my favorite CH seller is out of the picture, it's doubtful I'll ever purchase CH again.
Click to expand...


For the cost of a CH you can purchase true captive bred, perhaps a few dollars more for females. The only CH worth purchasing are the odd balls which are always sorted out and priced accordingly.
 
serpentsden said:
For the cost of a CH you can purchase true captive bred, perhaps a few dollars more for females. The only CH worth purchasing are the odd balls which are always sorted out and priced accordingly.
Click to expand...

And those are the ones I have. :thumbsup:
 
I do not think unopened equals not sorted through. Someone places the snakes in the bag, and I think they know what they are doing. I think all the Balls at the CH facility fall into several catagories: obvious morphs, new morphs, specials, and bulk. I would bet at some point, the picked thorough balls that are not morphs, and not special cool dinker quality Balls are then bulked together for the quantity bags.

Dave
 
Unopened bags are basically another clever marketing scheme to help move some of the thousands of CH balls imported every year. It's pure profit for the sellers. They don't have to feed or clean them for even a day. Pull the bag from one box and put it in another. Add to that the fact they are making more per snake than they would if they opened the bags and it's a perfect plan. More profit for less time and effort.

Those selling them like to talk about the chances of getting this or that but the fact is very little is going to get by the people who are actually putting the snakes in the bag in Africa. You'd have better odds playing roulette in Vegas than getting a morph from an unopened bag.
Sure, you might be the one in a hundred that gets lucky and finds a yellow belly, but you could just buy one for less than the bag costs and not have 9 other normals to take care of or try to sell.

I too equate it to the selling of gravid imported females. Neither practice is what I consider a proud part of our hobby.
 
The comparison of selling WC gravid females and unopened bags is somewhat fair, but as far as I know, selling WC GRAVID females is illegal.

Dave
 
I don't know if selling them, once they are here, is illegal...but I think the process of getting them here is. I'm not sure whether the blame would fall on the exporter, or importer, though.
 
I think, based on a thread I read last year, that shipping Gravid snakes from the country of origin is illegal. Not 100% sure though...

Dave
 
That is my understanding, as well, David...I just wasn't sure where the finger got pointed.
 
Here is what an unopened bag looks like.

6 males
4 females
ALL normal

DSCF0121.jpg
 
Is that your "now opened" bag Steve? Anything slightly cool or pretty much run of the mill normals. Lousy sex ratio too. I wonder if anyone has hit the jackpot in 2010, or, if there even is a jackpot to be hit?

Dave
 
David Reid said:
Is that your "now opened" bag Steve? Anything slightly cool or pretty much run of the mill normals. Lousy sex ratio too. I wonder if anyone has hit the jackpot in 2010, or, if there even is a jackpot to be hit?

Dave
Click to expand...

This is from a few years ago. I snapped a photo when I opened the bag.
I wouldn't bother with one again.
The ratios sucked but there were a few with cool patterns.

Here is when I hydrated them after arriving.

DSCF0122.jpg


DSCF0127.jpg



These had their first shed in transit and you need to start them just like any new hatchling since they hadn't been offered a meal yet. Basically out of the egg and into the bag to ship. I would NOT recommend these to a newbie. Unless you are familiar with starting stressed fresh hatchlings, forget about buying these. I was able to get all started and after about 6 months, gave away the males to people for free as pets and traded the females.
 
David Reid said:
I think, based on a thread I read last year, that shipping Gravid snakes from the country of origin is illegal. Not 100% sure though...

Dave
Click to expand...

Thats interesting to know. I'm gonna have to try and research that. I know its been a long time since I have seen gravid WC ball pythons at shows but I also know that just recently, a ton of gravid (and subsequently no longer gravid) wc other things have hit the market, being season and all.......hmmmmm
 
It's illegal. You need to declare every animal and there needs to be vet certificates. Since you cannot know exactly how many babies are in the gravid female and sign off on a vet certificate for each one, you are not allowed to import them. They are not listed as being gravid on the import paperwork to "get around" the law.
 
Are you not allowed to IMPORT them into any country, or just the US, or are you not allowed to EXPORT them from Africa?

Dave
 
David Reid said:
Are you not allowed to IMPORT them into any country, or just the US, or are you not allowed to EXPORT them from Africa?

Dave
Click to expand...

Not allowed to bring them into the US (not declared) and not allowed to take them out of Africa (quotas).
 
Back
Top