Chip
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒ&
I thought there was a thread about this here, but couldn't find it. Unless the spelling of tessera was wrong, I guess it was removed. :shrugs:
I don't know anyone who bought more of these in year one than I did, with a total of five animals. Here are my thoughts on the issue.
I hatched 10 tesseras from a large yearling male's copulation. I bred him to five females, but one fertile clutch was all I got, outside of a waterbowl lay. At any rate, I got 22 good eggs and produced 3 males (one I intend to keep to breed back to the mother) and 7 female tesseras. I sold one female for 60% of market price for her irregular patten, and traded another. I loaned one male out to a friend, leaving me with 1.6 to sell. I've advertised them here, on ks.com, and brought them to shows. They got a lot of attention, but not one person bought at full price and most trade offers were simply not of interest. It was clear the asking price was too high. Whether it was the economy, or any other factor that has been suggested did not matter. I was willing to go down substantially behind the scenes, but I didn't want to be "that guy" for everyone else who also invested a large chunk of money to get into these year one. So all my ads said 1,200 for males/1000 for females. Not one inquiry on ks.
My take: the reduced price is the best thing that could have happened for those of us who bought early. Yes, it stings to see your investment animals worth half of what it had been overnight. But now you can actually SELL their offspring! I am thrilled! If you aren't, bear with me and let's do some math.
Let's say you bought one pair for $2,200.
Now I'm going to be really conservative. Let's even say that you had nothing to breed them to! So you pair those up and get only one modest clutch of 20 eggs, and 10 tesseras. An average gender ratio of 5.5 would be an average sale price of $450. That's $4,500 from one animal, one clutch, first or second year, which could have been duplicated with a single $1,200 male. Not a bad return, I've never gotten that lucky in the stock market! And lest we forget, this hobby isn't all about the cash return. We're breeding reptiles! The excitement of that tessera clutch hatching was a feeling I haven't had in a decade. When I have tessera morphs coming out that (hopefully) no one has seen yet, it will be even more thrilling! There's no doubt in my mind the investment will be more than covered, even if that takes 2-3 years.
Imagine you went as crazy as I did and bought five (2.3) tesseras. That's a $5,400 investment. With Murphy's law (waterbowl lay, 3 infertile clutches), and the terrible ratio I had (3.7), that's still $5,300 if I sold them all for half the original price. 100 bucks away from my investment in one clutch!
By all accounts, the reptile market stinks right now. I just vended the Hickory NC show, and left with every single animal I brought. Very few people are investing in high end reptiles, let alone four digit colubrids. At the 1/2 price point, WE CAN SELL THEM NOW! Tesseras are becoming in reach for average hobbyists. That equals more demand and more interest. While it might feel bad to own "a snake" worth half what it was yesterday, I believe it's better for everyone -including us full price early buyers -in the long haul.
I don't know anyone who bought more of these in year one than I did, with a total of five animals. Here are my thoughts on the issue.
I hatched 10 tesseras from a large yearling male's copulation. I bred him to five females, but one fertile clutch was all I got, outside of a waterbowl lay. At any rate, I got 22 good eggs and produced 3 males (one I intend to keep to breed back to the mother) and 7 female tesseras. I sold one female for 60% of market price for her irregular patten, and traded another. I loaned one male out to a friend, leaving me with 1.6 to sell. I've advertised them here, on ks.com, and brought them to shows. They got a lot of attention, but not one person bought at full price and most trade offers were simply not of interest. It was clear the asking price was too high. Whether it was the economy, or any other factor that has been suggested did not matter. I was willing to go down substantially behind the scenes, but I didn't want to be "that guy" for everyone else who also invested a large chunk of money to get into these year one. So all my ads said 1,200 for males/1000 for females. Not one inquiry on ks.
My take: the reduced price is the best thing that could have happened for those of us who bought early. Yes, it stings to see your investment animals worth half of what it had been overnight. But now you can actually SELL their offspring! I am thrilled! If you aren't, bear with me and let's do some math.
Let's say you bought one pair for $2,200.
Now I'm going to be really conservative. Let's even say that you had nothing to breed them to! So you pair those up and get only one modest clutch of 20 eggs, and 10 tesseras. An average gender ratio of 5.5 would be an average sale price of $450. That's $4,500 from one animal, one clutch, first or second year, which could have been duplicated with a single $1,200 male. Not a bad return, I've never gotten that lucky in the stock market! And lest we forget, this hobby isn't all about the cash return. We're breeding reptiles! The excitement of that tessera clutch hatching was a feeling I haven't had in a decade. When I have tessera morphs coming out that (hopefully) no one has seen yet, it will be even more thrilling! There's no doubt in my mind the investment will be more than covered, even if that takes 2-3 years.
Imagine you went as crazy as I did and bought five (2.3) tesseras. That's a $5,400 investment. With Murphy's law (waterbowl lay, 3 infertile clutches), and the terrible ratio I had (3.7), that's still $5,300 if I sold them all for half the original price. 100 bucks away from my investment in one clutch!
By all accounts, the reptile market stinks right now. I just vended the Hickory NC show, and left with every single animal I brought. Very few people are investing in high end reptiles, let alone four digit colubrids. At the 1/2 price point, WE CAN SELL THEM NOW! Tesseras are becoming in reach for average hobbyists. That equals more demand and more interest. While it might feel bad to own "a snake" worth half what it was yesterday, I believe it's better for everyone -including us full price early buyers -in the long haul.
