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Ball Prices

Chromatic Corns

Chromatic Corns

Just one more
When I came back to the world of reptiles and started attending the expos again I noticed ALOT of ball pythons but since I wasn't interested in them and was searching for corns I never took notice of the prices. Well I happened to stumble across Ben Siegel's auctions on Facebook and then I took a look at kingsnake out of curiousity. Holy COW, I had no idea ball pythons were up into the thousands for some of these morphs (and I'm still not convinced there are that many morphs, at least half of them look identical). and I'm not trying to be mean, rude etc... to any of the ball breeders, "I" just can't see the differences but I'm sure those deeply involved can spot them.
 
They are insanely expensive! I am hoping to get one this summer, and I'm lucky enough to think normals are the prettiest anyway :p 30 bucks, here I come!


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So, what exactly is your question/concern? :p

Ball pythons are all the rage right now. Even if you check out ball python-specific forums, you can see the excitement in breeding and morphs. It's a fun hobby, I bet. I only have one, but know people who are really into them. Just like with corns, if you aren't all up in the craze, it's hard to tell a difference with many of the different morphs. To each their own!
 
I think it depends on what you are looking for.

If I want a pet dog, I'm going to go for a mixed breed of about the size that I want, because there are many of them available who need homes. If I have a herd of sheep that I need help with, I want a herding dog who has been bred for that herding instinct and who knows what I want with little work on my part.

Similarly, if I want a nice, fairly calm, easily handled pet snake, a normal corn or BP will do. If I want to breed spider BPs or tessera corns (or if I just love the look of those specific patterns enough to make them worth it for me), normals aren't going to do it.

As far as I'm concerned, it's good that there are people to buy the $2000 BPs. Without those higher value morphs, the price of normals would have to go up, possibly putting those "beginner snakes" out of range for those who just want a nice pet. A
 
I think the BP rage is on the down turn. All those people who bought 4 digit mutations over the last ten years have produced more than the market can bear at anywhere close to those prices. I see a lot of people sitting on the same stuff in the classifieds and my friends who breed them have been moaning about the market for several years now. A few things like scaleless will hold value for a while, but not everyone who buys a ball python wants to be a breeder.

As for mutations looking alike, well, BP's have a smaller palate of colors to work with. They aren't my favorite snake, but BP folks get sensitive to saying they all look the same, I've learned!
 
I totally agree with Chip. I would like to have a high white pied some day, but I will wait until the prices settle a bit more.
 
As Chip said, the prices of ball morphs are WAY down from what it was several years ago. I used to go to some of the bigger shows and see plenty of ball morphs marked at $25K OR MORE! Not sure how often they got those prices in cash. Lots were probably traded for other morphs. But I know that some actually did fetch those (or higher) cash prices. Now it is obvious that balls are subject to the same supply and demand market that everything else is priced by. And supply is WAY UP on most morphs these days.

I agree that many of the morphs don't look enough different to me that I would find them interesting. I keep a few that I like - albino, pied, bumblebee. A few others appeal to me, but most don't.

BUT - you've got to admit that some of our corn morphs, such as the various types of hypos, and some types of anerys (especially when combined with some other genes), don't look all that different from each other, either - especially to somebody who is not a corn breeder / keeper. Of course, only a few corn morphs have ever reached above the $1,000 price. And because of how prolific they are, corn prices usually drop much more quickly than ball prices. Again, supply and demand sets the price.
 
On a side note, I have heard from a few ball breeders that when they price things extremely high (thinking like $25,000 etc.) they actually aren't "worth" that much and they don't intend to sell those animals. They just want to showcase them to let people know they can produce beautiful animals that are valued in the hobby. Which makes sense... I personally don't know anyone who would be willing to spend that much money on a ball python, regardless of if they actually had that kind of money to spend! (Maybe in a fantasy world...) ;)
 
I TOTALLY agree with you!!! I think that most ball python "morphs" are just regular variation. It's like if my normal cornsnake is a little lighter than that normal cornsnake, oh! New morph!

I don't get the ball python craze. There are very few and far between ball python morphs I really like. I like the normals, lucies, pieds, and a few others.
 
I saw one on the auction that was beautiful and she was only a few hundred. (I was REALLY tempted but I'd need to do more reading on their care before I added one to the collection). Oddly enough, my 5 yr old somehow managed to add a ball python book to my kindle a while back, lol.
Some of them though said $1200 retail but auctioned out for $400-$600 and that's when I started browsing Kingsnake to see the $1200 retail snakes and saw many for a lot more. I'm not saying it's wrong or looking down on it, I just couldn't believe it.
 
I would love an albino, I just don't know that I can justify the 300+ without saving up for a year lol. But they live like...forever...so I guess it's a good idea to just wait the extra time and spend the extra money and get a morph you find extra attractive.


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If interested in something older, a good friend of mine I will vouch for has 2 albino male yearlings right now, I think he wants $250 each.
 
Judging from what I've seen online, that is a really good price. Unfortunately there are some things I have to take care of first so I can't even think about acquiring another snake until summer. (That's a lie, I THINK about it all the time, just can't do it) Thanks for the info!
 
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