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Why would somebody...?

maggie22195

maggie22195

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Ok, so I have seen some ads for a pastel. This is a 2010, 400 +/- gram female and the asking price is $400! Is it just me, or is that a pretty ridiculous price? Why would you ask the price of a super pastel, albino, or bumblebee when it is just a pastel?
What is your input?
 
There aren't a lot of facts here for input, but...Could it be a typo? Afirst time seller starting out a bit high in hopes of negotiating?
If it is a really nice snake and you want it, no harm in sending a note admiring the snake and diplomatically saying that you noticed that the price was a little bit higher than others of the same kind you have seen for sale, and see what the seller comes back with.
 
lucille said:
There isn't a lot of facts here for input, but...Could it be a typo? Afirst time seller starting out a little high in hopes of negotiating? If it is a really nice snake and you want it, no harm in sending a little note admiring the snake and diplmatically saying that you noticed that the price was a little bit higher than others, and see what the seller comes back with.
Click to expand...

Nope, there is no typo here. He sells all his snakes at extremely high prices... especially if they are female. I inquired about a pastel a feww months back and he was asking $300 for he an she was probably only 300 or so grams.
I'm not sure why, but I don't understand why somebody would try to sell a pastel at that price...
 
If he lists them high that's one thing, but if they are actually selling high then it would seem they are priced right.
 
Yeah, that sounds kinda steep to me too. Now if we were talking a high quality breeding sized female, fair enough, but I personally wouldn't pay that much for a 400g female pastel. I got a late 2010 male pastel from Tim Koppenhofer (Special K Reptiles) a couple months ago and he is one of the best looking pastels I've ever seen. I paid $80 for him. We went to the Cleveland Reptile Expo today, actually, and most of the 400g +/- female pastels were in $125-150 range. There was a 2009 that was closer to 700g that was going for $400, but she was an exceptional pastel, not your run of the mill pastel. I would have loved to have taken her home!

To add to your fuel, there was a guy on CL recently trying to sell a normal ball for $800. Haha!
 
AK907 said:
Yeah, that sounds kinda steep to me too. Now if we were talking a high quality breeding sized female, fair enough, but I personally wouldn't pay that much for a 400g female pastel. I got a late 2010 male pastel from Tim Koppenhofer (Special K Reptiles) a couple months ago and he is one of the best looking pastels I've ever seen. I paid $80 for him. We went to the Cleveland Reptile Expo today, actually, and most of the 400g +/- female pastels were in $125-150 range. There was a 2009 that was closer to 700g that was going for $400, but she was an exceptional pastel, not your run of the mill pastel. I would have loved to have taken her home!

To add to your fuel, there was a guy on CL recently trying to sell a normal ball for $800. Haha!
Click to expand...

Wow! $800??? That is ridiculous!
But to me it is pretty steep also... Yes she is a very beautiful pastel with *some* blushing... but Other than that I see nicer ones on Garrick Demeyer's royalconstrictordesigns.com going for $100-200 but then again they are smaller... but still way less than what this guy is selling them for
 
The poster is a great guy and has helped me alot in ball python keeping when I first started out, but his prices are always high. He hasn't sold that female in awhile. She's been on craigslist as well. I have no idea why he's got her priced so dang high. I've heard high orange pastels brown out quicker but I'm not sure if it's true. :eek: Maybe try and talk him down a little.

Oh and I live in Peoria and I'll have some snakes available soon. :thumbsup:
 
Then I suggest that you remember that the discussion forums are not the place to discuss sales.....


Regarding the original question - people can advertise/sell their animals for whatever price they want to put on them. If they sell, does it really matter if a third party thinks that price is too high? If they don't sell.....well, then that is for the seller to contemplate.
 
hhmoore said:
Then I suggest that you remember that the discussion forums are not the place to discuss sales.....


Regarding the original question - people can advertise/sell their animals for whatever price they want to put on them. If they sell, does it really matter if a third party thinks that price is too high? If they don't sell.....well, then that is for the seller to contemplate.
Click to expand...

I am fully aware that anybody can post an animal for whatever ridiculous or reasonable price they want. As I said 2 times before in this thread, I was just wanting the feedback of others. Nothing more, nothing less. Thank you, you bring up a good point also. :yesnod:
 
swalters said:
The poster is a great guy and has helped me alot in ball python keeping when I first started out, but his prices are always high. He hasn't sold that female in awhile. She's been on craigslist as well. I have no idea why he's got her priced so dang high. I've heard high orange pastels brown out quicker but I'm not sure if it's true. :eek: Maybe try and talk him down a little.

Oh and I live in Peoria and I'll have some snakes available soon. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Thanks Samantha! I understand that people can try to sell a snake for as much as they want, but the brutal reality is the market just isn't in the right spot for a pastel to be marked up so high... I mean, a pastel is a pastel.
I will definitely check into your ads! When are you expecting?
 
maggie22195 said:
Ok, so I have seen some ads for a pastel. This is a 2010, 400 +/- gram female and the asking price is $400! Is it just me, or is that a pretty ridiculous price? Why would you ask the price of a super pastel, albino, or bumblebee when it is just a pastel?
What is your input?
Click to expand...

Why not? IMO grade A pastels are worth their weight in gold. I havent seen the snake you talked about but usually the cheaper the pastel the uglier they are. Most people dont care about selective breeding anymore. I personally wouldnt buy a 3K gram ugly pastel for 150 bucks
 
Playballp said:
Why not? IMO grade A pastels are worth their weight in gold. I havent seen the snake you talked about but usually the cheaper the pastel the uglier they are. Most people dont care about selective breeding anymore. I personally wouldnt buy a 3K gram ugly pastel for 150 bucks
Click to expand...

Yes, I agree... but when the market is NOT were it should be AND you can get a pastel just as nice for way less, why would you think about asking that much? You might as well go get a super pastel at that price. Just my opinion... Thank you for adding yours!!! :)
 
Why not price a female high?

If it doesn't sell now it only gets more valuable as it grows. I would say the opposite is true, most people give their females away for too cheap as hatchlings.

I have seen plenty of people who i thought priced things for a good bit more than I would pay, but if they can get it more power to them. It is a bit of a shock when browsing adds of cornsnakes then switching to BP's. With corns you can get the newest morphs and hot combos for under $500 usually, with BP's you're lucky to find a common double codom for that....:shrug01:
 
garweft said:
Why not price a female high?

If it doesn't sell now it only gets more valuable as it grows. I would say the opposite is true, most people give their females away for too cheap as hatchlings.

I have seen plenty of people who i thought priced things for a good bit more than I would pay, but if they can get it more power to them. It is a bit of a shock when browsing adds of cornsnakes then switching to BP's. With corns you can get the newest morphs and hot combos for under $500 usually, with BP's you're lucky to find a common double codom for that....:shrug01:
Click to expand...

You've got a good point! Thank you for adding also! I am just looking for different opinions and I think yours is one to greatly think about! :)
 
Personally its the sellers prerogative if he wants to sell whatever snake he has at whatever price he wants. I don't have to look at the ad to know who you are speaking of and happen to know he doesn't mind keeping her if she doesn't sell, so its no loss to him. I will be pricing my snakes based on what I believe they are worth. If someone tells me I can get that morph for less from somewhere else. Know what ill tell em? Good, go buy from them! Some people spend high dollar on high quality morphs, whether its a pastel, spider, mojo, etc and in return want to see the fruits of their labor. I can see where you can be frustrated at this but honestly I feel this rant is uncalled for and you are speaking about a well known and respected person in the reptile industry, especially locally. You wanna be careful about who you offend, some of the locals here are ruthless and will put you on their dnst list (do not sell to) and tell others to do the same and they will listen. Not trying to be harsh, so don't take it that way, just giving advice. Sometimes its better to keep your mouth shut than stand up on a soap box.
 
Playballp said:
Why not? IMO grade A pastels are worth their weight in gold. I havent seen the snake you talked about but usually the cheaper the pastel the uglier they are. Most people dont care about selective breeding anymore. I personally wouldnt buy a 3K gram ugly pastel for 150 bucks
Click to expand...

I would have to agree in regards to selective breeding. I am more than willing to pay more for the quality that I want.

Also, just to give you another point of view.

I haven't seen the ad and have no knowledge of the animals we are talking about here but I think it would be less important to someone who wasn't interested in purchasing the animals.

So I might take a little leeway here and assume you are probably interested or you really wouldn't care about their price. If a discerning buyer is really interested in the snakes in question for what they will add to their projects they will probably pay more to obtain certain individuals. The seller probably understands that or sees the same quality in his stock. Just another perspective.
Yes, I agree... but when the market is NOT were it should be AND you can get a pastel just as nice for way less, why would you think about asking that much? You might as well go get a super pastel at that price. Just my opinion... Thank you for adding yours!!
Click to expand...

Then get the one that you think is just as nice at the lower price. It's individual perspective and someone may believe that the other is better quality and believe the investment in that particular snake is worth the price.

Maybe not to you or me but to the person who decides to buy.
 
When I get ready to sell babies, I sometimes take a look at the classifieds to see what current pricing is....but I don't feel compelled to match or beat those prices, especially if I feel the quality of mine merits a higher price. I've priced certain males at $100-150 over the going rate, and gotten it. The market is what it is partially because so many people are striving to undercut everybody to get their sales....I, for one, tip my hat to those that are willing to take a stand for quality. If the price is more than I am willing to pay, I'll wait and watch - knowing that if it was everything I was looking for, a reasonable price difference wouldn't phase me.
 
maggie22195 said:
I am fully aware that anybody can post an animal for whatever ridiculous or reasonable price they want. As I said 2 times before in this thread, I was just wanting the feedback of others.
Click to expand...

I was curious so I looked through your past posts. I found the ad (right here on Fauna) of the pastel and a beautiful animal it is.

I gathered from your other posts that you are trying to buy and sell, don't yet know how to ship. This site a great place to learn, but starting this kind of thread about the ad of a respected seller isn't going to help. It is OK to ask about pricing, the vendor himself might give you feedback, but once you become militant with adjectives like 'ridiculous' you are going to lose out on some opportunities to learn. Just my 2 cents.
 
lucille said:
I was curious so I looked through your past posts. I found the ad (right here on Fauna) of the pastel and a beautiful animal it is.

I gathered from your other posts that you are trying to buy and sell, don't yet know how to ship. This site a great place to learn, but starting this kind of thread about the ad of a respected seller isn't going to help. It is OK to ask about pricing, the vendor himself might give you feedback, but once you become militant with adjectives like 'ridiculous' you are going to lose out on some opportunities to learn. Just my 2 cents.
Click to expand...

I have seen a couple on here for $400... so I am not asking about just one individual. Lets please keep it to what I asked please. This is the reason I don't like to post things is because people get off track and decide to evaluate the situation on their own terms. I asked a question and only want to hear about that question. Thank you for your feedback.
I am actually not interested in purchasing this animal or the other ones at this price at the moment. Just brining up a price.
 
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