A change in direction on selling animals....

You know, every snake I've purchased was for the hets except two. One of those happens to be an awesome Lavender Motley from Rich, and is also the only one I didn't get to hand pick in person or by picture... and he's still my favorite of the collection. I think there's a market for both, Morphs and hets, which I'm sure Morphs move much faster as opposed to waiting for someone who wants a project...
Now, on the flip side, for those that want a project... Will someone be able to purchase pairs from the same clutch? I know when I wholesaled some to the local shops I mix matched the sexes so anyone getting a pair can't produce what I am.

Originally Posted by Roy Munson

I can see WHY you'd decide to do this, Rich. But I think you'll be re-thinking this with some project animals. Caramel het Amel? Yeah, who cares. It's not worth the $5 - $10 het surcharge. But Lavender het Hypo, Blood, Stripe? I dunno. Those hets could double (or more) the cost of the animal. And I'm sure there's demand for those hets. Are you going to wholesale Keys het Hypo, Ashy as $10 normals?

I'm sure you've given the whole thing CONSIDERABLE thought. And there are marketing advantages to your new system too (as I'm sure you're aware). But you'll sure be at a disadvantage when it comes to the "roll-your-own" bargain-hunter market. But with your numbers, I guess there's a distinct trade-off between your time and the bottom line, so maybe this will be good for you. Time will tell. Good luck!

man i hope not, i got those for $1000 last year

I agree with KJ and Dean about the higher end stuff. I can see not labeling caramels het amel and such, as those are just run of the mill type things. Buying a butter isn't that much more if it means that much to someone.

Seems to me that it would still be good to label hets with the higher end stuff (or at least prioritize that). Are you really going to possibly sell a normal for $15 that is actually het for hypo cinder bloodred? But I can definitely see where you're coming from with the work load involved...

Originally Posted by Maize411

but so far once I do get into breeding I'll hopefully have some nice normals het for anery and some nice anerys het for zig zag, motley, and stripe...

There's no such thing as het for Zig Zag.



Rich, you do what you need to do. I don't think anyone will truly fault you for having to decrease your work load. You've done this a LONG time and have given us all many exciting new morphs to work with.

For what it's worth from someone who stricly is a pet snake owner...no breeding down the road...
I think it would be kind of neat...like going to a party and getting a grab bag of goodies that you get to be surprised by. Or like when you go to your Cmas stocking as a kid-no coal expected-so then everything is great!

It is the Rich Z Heinz 57 Grab Bag Morph

And as long as you are upfront...as you are...no harm done...

Take care...glad to hear corn snake breeders have a life outside of their rack rooms

Originally Posted by blueapplepaste

Are you really going to possibly sell a normal for $15 that is actually het for hypo cinder bloodred?

No. They would get thrown in a bag and bulked out to a wholesaler for $10 a head along with all the other bulk animals.

Actually, thinking about it, I don't recall really selling many hets from something brand new. With the Ashy line, I sold off a few that were hets, but as far as the more interesting combos, very rarely. I just don't do it that way. For one thing, I take a long time to grow up my animals, so why sell off a bunch of multi-hets involving a brand new gene to people who will certainly get them to market before I will? Holding them back till I'm producing fully multi homozygous animals to sell seems the most effective way to do something like that to me. We've all seen what selling hets with wild abandon did for the ball python market. Why no one could predict that, or could but just didn't care, astounds me. In the rush to be competitive they killed the goose that literally was laying the golden eggs.

Would you take requests for specific hets if you had them? Ie someone wanted to pay you $500 for a pair of het hypo ashy's. Would you accept that?

But then if you did, you would probably be inundated with other requests so I guess I know the answer to this question lol.

Originally Posted by Rich Z

No. They would get thrown in a bag and bulked out to a wholesaler for $10 a head along with all the other bulk animals.

Maybe I should buy some 'normals' off you this year and hope for the best!

Originally Posted by blueapplepaste

Maybe I should buy some 'normals' off you this year and hope for the best!

I have a feeling serpenco normals will fly off the shelf in the future. Perhaps Rich is clever man indeed

Originally Posted by blueapplepaste

Maybe I should buy some 'normals' off you this year and hope for the best!

I'll leave that up to you I don't have the room currently to hope for the best, which is why I have to choose carefully what I get... and why I only have six snakes currently and one will always just be a pet.. unless I can find a really, really hot Ghost before my pet gets too old