This is DAMN scary !!!

[Walter Smith]

It's really scary how bad sales are going right now.
Is it really that bad out there?? :eek1:

Walter,
:crazy02: BOUT' CORNS !!

 

[Michael823]

Sales for your business?

 

[Walter Smith]

Sales for your business?

Well, my snakes are not a business, THANK GOODNESS, so I guess no.
I was thinking about breeding on a larger scale as a business, but I DEFIANTLY have second thoughts.
Just talking about snake sales in general.

Walter,
:crazy02: BOUT' CORNS !!

 

[Michael823]

Well, my snakes are not a business, THANK GOODNESS, so I guess no.
I was thinking about breeding on a larger scale as a business, but I DEFIANTLY have second thoughts.
Just talking about snake sales in general.

Walter,
:crazy02: BOUT' CORNS !!

I'm surprised, because I honestly think you have some of the nicest snakes I've seen. I know it's very cliche', but if I had the money I would have definitely purchased some of the snakes that you've posted in the classifieds section. Good Luck though, I'm sure things will pick up!

 

[Rich Z]

Heck, actually I have a couple of nice sales in the works right now, so I'm not complaining one bit..... :cheers:

 

[wade]

We're too early in the season to have a problem yet.

 

[Walter Smith]

Heck, actually I have a couple of nice sales in the works right now, so I'm not complaining one bit..... :cheers:

Well, I don't doubt you are having problems with sales Rich, considering you produce the high numbers that you do.
I'm sure the sales you are talking about are wholesale groups???

I'm not complaining.........just makes me wonder what the future holds.

Walter,
:crazy02: BOUT' CORNS !!

 

[Walter Smith]

We're too early in the season to have a problem yet.

Yeah, but considering, I posted a list of 10 breeder adults, of which only two are males and they are MID-HIGH end producers at resonable prices..............and nothing.

I just don't get it.........:shrugs:

Walter,
:crazy02: BOUT' CORNS !!

 

[Walter Smith]

I'm surprised, because I honestly think you have some of the nicest snakes I've seen. I know it's very cliche', but if I had the money I would have definitely purchased some of the snakes that you've posted in the classifieds section. Good Luck though, I'm sure things will pick up!

Thanks for the comments, I appreciate it.

Walter,
:crazy02: BOUT' CORNS !!

 

[Ricky87]

It's really scary how bad sales are going right now.
Is it really that bad out there?? :eek1:

Walter,
:crazy02: BOUT' CORNS !!

Well, one positive is that it will pick back up sooner or later. I'm sure it won't last, because if I could buy some of them I definitely would, and I'm sure is the case for a lot of people as well. Good luck with them, though, and I hope everything works out.

 

[kathylove]

"Yeah, but considering, I posted a list of 10 breeder adults, of which only two are males and they are MID-HIGH end producers at reasonable prices..............and nothing."

I think it COULD be at least partially because people don't really have the money to spend on a relatively expensive adult that will give them back their money (and more) NEXT YEAR. They need to budget their dollars NOW. But they may still be able to afford a few babies on limited budgets. Guess we will all know in a couple of months!

 

[Jenstar]

I know I can't spend as much on snakes this year as I did last year. I'm really sad I've missed out on some great deals already. I'm hoping to save up some money so I can buy some babies this season for future projects.

I hope business isn't too bad this year for the breeders that do this as a living.

 

[Rich Z]

Well, I don't doubt you are having problems with sales Rich, considering you produce the high numbers that you do.
I'm sure the sales you are talking about are wholesale groups???

I'm not complaining.........just makes me wonder what the future holds.

Walter,
:crazy02: BOUT' CORNS !!

I have indicated in the past that I may go completely to wholesale and drop retail sales. Sometimes you just have to change your business plan in order to come to terms with what it takes to keep your business healthy. If sales are slow, you have limited choices in how to handle that problem, and all tend to revolve around pricing. Lowering the price to sell something at retail will hang you when you want to price similar items next year. Selling wholesale will probably get you the same pricing, but it is more hidden from public view and tends to help preserve higher prices in the long run.

As for selling adults, most people want to sell them after the females have dropped eggs. Most people want to BUY them as close to breeding the animals themselves and turning their expense over as quickly as possible. Personally I feel that buying perspective is dangerous in that it leaves little, if any leeway for quarantine. Anyone who gets a new animal in and immediately puts it in with their other breeding stock is just playing Russian roulette with ALL of their animals at stake.

So people need to be smart about this. Buy the animals at least 3 months in advance, and the longer amount of time you can put them in quarantine the better. This just is not the kind of business to be in if you want to take shortcuts to get to where you want to be.

 

[El Jefe]

It's really scary how bad sales are going right now.
Is it really that bad out there?? :eek1:

Walter,
:crazy02: BOUT' CORNS !!

Heck, actually I have a couple of nice sales in the works right now, so I'm not complaining one bit..... :cheers:

I'm with Rich. I've had some good sales recently and completely sold out at my last show. (However, can't get my ball pythons to move for anything....but corns and kings are going fine.)

Yeah, but considering, I posted a list of 10 breeder adults, of which only two are males and they are MID-HIGH end producers at reasonable prices..............and nothing.

I just don't get it.........:shrugs:

Walter,
:crazy02: BOUT' CORNS !!

Don't forget...reasonable to you and reasonable to a customer can be entirely different. As has been said already, adults are a tricky subject....many people want them to breed NOW and if they have to wait until next year they are less appealing. In fact, if they are not going to breed until next year, why buy now....if no one is buying now there is a good chance the prices will lower before then anyway.

Case in point...that lavender het sunkissed adult male you had listed recently. A GEM of an animal! However, the true awesomeness of the genetics can probably only be used by a handful of people and therefore you need that select few to have money and need. Last year when I had the need, I didn't have that kind of money....and now my breedings are done and I have money but no longer the need.

 

[KJUN]

I've always had a slump in sales for the "better stuff" when other people are begging to sit on eggs. (Retail talking here - not wholesale.) it's almost as if everyone starts thinking, "Let me make money from my babies before I buy something new from someone else." It SEEMS to me that everyone just sees a coming source of extra money, and they just decide to wait on that instead of spending their "budget money" today. That's how it has always seemed to me, anyway.

On adults, I believe a lot of people DO think, "Let me wait and buy them cheaper after they lay eggs instead of getting them now and maybe only producing a clutch of slugs due to the stress of shipping." Maybe? Shrug?

On a side topic, I was quoting prices for a 40x30 snake building. That stopped about 2 months ago because I'm not sure the market CAN recover to the state it was in 3 years ago. With that said, I am reconsidering exactly what it is I want to do.......and it likely won't be that big any longer. Maybe 60% that size instead? I don't know, but the economy is going to take a long time to improve, and the coming inflation rates m,ean people are going to be spending $20 on a gallon of milk instead of $20 on a snake...and mice price go up with inflation, but when have SNAKE PRICES kept up with the rate of inflation? Ha! That's a funny thought!

 

[Walter Smith]

On a side topic, I was quoting prices for a 40x30 snake building. That stopped about 2 months ago because I'm not sure the market CAN recover to the state it was in 3 years ago. With that said, I am reconsidering exactly what it is I want to do.......and it likely won't be that big any longer. Maybe 60% that size instead? I don't know, but the economy is going to take a long time to improve, and the coming inflation rates m,ean people are going to be spending $20 on a gallon of milk instead of $20 on a snake...and mice price go up with inflation, but when have SNAKE PRICES kept up with the rate of inflation? Ha! That's a funny thought!

This is what I was talking about..................what does the future actually hold for snake sales???

At least someone can see.......Thanks KJ

Walter,
:crazy02: BOUT' CORNS !!

 

[Walter Smith]

Don't forget...reasonable to you and reasonable to a customer can be entirely different.

HMMMMMMMM, something to think about.
So I'm guessing ALOT of people didn't think $1000 was "reasonable" for a Sunkissed Caramel last year.........sooooooooo

Maybe this year I'll try pricing them at $500 ea. or maybe even $400 ea. and see if anyone thinks that's "reasonable".....:shrugs:

Walter,
:crazy02: BOUT' CORNS !!

 

[Rich Z]

This is what I was talking about..................what does the future actually hold for snake sales???

At least someone can see.......Thanks KJ

Walter,
:crazy02: BOUT' CORNS !!

I think one thing that a lot of breeders have overlooked is that the real market and final outlet of nearly all animal sales is the pet trade. It sounds good in theory when you work it out on a spreadsheet that if instead of wasting your time on cheap animals, your resources are better directed to working ONLY with higher dollar cultivars to try to get as much return as possible on those more expensive animals. Unfortunately, reality doesn't work that way. There is a very limited number of people who will buy those higher priced animals and the saturation point for anything *new* happens pretty quickly as increasing numbers of people are producing them and now competing against you in price.

In my opinion, you have to produce a large number of "bread and butter" animals while the sales of the higher dollar animals be the icing to the cake when you can sell them. Bear in mind that every year, another level of once high dollar animals will ratchet down in price to where they become pet level sales. This is inevitable unless you are the sole source for them, which is impossible to do if you intend to sell any of them. People will ONLY buy high dollar animals because they intend to breed them and sell them as soon as they can. And what they will do is to offer them for sale below YOUR price, which causes the obvious spiral down in pricing.

From what I have seen, you can sell any corn snake at any time you want if you are willing to lower the price low enough to where someone feels they are willing to spend that amount of money for it. At the shows I have attended, I found it interesting to note that the few slightly kinked but otherwise healthy animals I would bring along that I offered at a fraction of the price of non-kinked animals ALWAYS sold out before the rest of the stuff.

And yes, as has been mentioned, there is often a disconnect between what the seller feels is a reasonable price for their animals and what a prospective buyer may think. Quite honestly, everyone these days is looking for a bargain. In most cases, I would venture many people are not willing to buy anything unless they can find it at a bargain price. The thing is, that if I am going to have to sell my animals at bargain prices, I would rather sell 100 of them at a shot to a wholesaler than 100 individual sales at the same price. The labor difference between packing up a single shipment of 100 snakes and 100 individual shipments is quite substantial and in my case a no brainer as to which I prefer to do.

 

[wade]

Seems pretty plain and simple when you spell it out in monosyllabic words. And it makes perfect sense. The problem is I don’t really want to raise hundreds of normals, snows, and amels. So I guess the next decision to make is why am I doing this? For me it’s a hobby that pays for itself. I would rather produce a couple dozen striped butters and take all year to sell them. If they don’t sell it won’t be the end of the world, my wife has a good job.

 

[KJUN]

In my opinion, you have to produce a large number of "bread and butter" animals while the sales of the higher dollar animals be the icing to the cake when you can sell them.

I'm laughing because I've always used a similar idea here. If I can produce enough of the "pet store fodder" to wholesale and pay the bills, then the higher end stuff (which is usually new and "more fun" to produce) is profit. If I can't sell the higher end stuff, then I pay the bills but don't make a profit. Anything high end that does sell, in this scenario, is pure profit.

A hobbyist would say that the profit pays for his labor. A businessman would say his time is part of the costs (meaning he has to cover his time to stay in business) and anything about that is bonus (i.e., more than he'd make getting out of snakes and getting a real job). The term "cost" and "profit," therefore, is relative. A crashing market ultimately does mean a decrease in profit by either definition, though. It all depends on HOW MUCH iof a decrease in profit one can stand and survive from the standpoint of being "in business."

KJ