I seen a post where a buyer was trying to talk down the price of a snake. Then get a payment plan too.. Made me think a bit, and this is what came out.... A few months ago I sold a killer looking Calico male I hatched out in June or so.. It was close to six months old.. I sold it for $150.00 shipped.. Good price, great looking snake. The buyer knew what she was getting. She knew the value of the snake. Not one time did she try and talk me down, get a better deal.. I sent a few extra pictures, current weight, and info on the snake.. She paid by paypal, fast, quick, hassle free.. Now why can’t all buyers be like that? The shipping on that calico cost me $73.29.. I didn’t make any money off that snake.. Sure it was just a single gene male.. But that got me thinking. How much did I really loose? I went ahead and took the calculator out, and attempted to figure it out.. So these numbers are not exact, but good solid estimates.. So, lets say that baby snake ate rat fuzzies for the six months. (No He didn’t eat a rat fuzzy for six months..) But It is easier to figure a cost, when working with just one price... A rat fuzzy every five days for six months is close to 36 feedings. That’s six 30 day months.. That single rat fuzzy from rodentpro cost me $1.08 each.. That’s going buy their current price of a 50 count bag of rat fuzzies, and also added that cost of shipping those fuzzies too.. So if all is going good so far.. That’s $38.88 to feed a single baby ball python a rat fuzzy from rodentpro for six months. Now, you add the cost of shipping supplies.. Bought in bulk (somewhat) from shipyourreptiles A fifteen pack of 7x7x6 boxes, a 10 pack of 8x12 bags, and a 10 pack of 40hr heat packs.. Not counting shipping that comes to $66.20. Then I’ll guess $15.00 for shipping those supplies to me. So now that’s $81.20 for the cost of shipping supplies.. Shipping supplies end up costing me $5.41 per shipment.. If you are using these supplies, SYR for supplies, and $15.00 shipping on those supplies.. Ok, so far we have $38.88 for six months of food for a baby ball python fed every 5 day, we have $5.41 for the shipping supplies needed to ship a single baby ball python the proper way. That’s a total of $44.29 that single ball python has cost me.. Now I know shipping can vary. The calico male I shipped cost me $73.29. That was with using SYR and a 40% off coupon, plus the discount SYR gives… But I think there is something screwy there.. I think its 40% off what normal shipping cost is.. Not 40% off plus the SYR discount.. But anyways it cost me $73.29 to ship. For a total of $117.58. Now remember, I sold the snake for $150.00 shipped.. So I made around $32.42. off of that snake.. Some people will say it’s not about the money.. And I agree with that 100%. As you can see, I’m not in it to make me rich, or retire early. And that’s not even counting the cost to heat the rack, or cleaning tubs for six months, substrate, caging, or any of that.. No I’m not going to even attempt to try and figure that out.. Now this isn’t really for the breeders, and the sellers out there. It’s for the buyers out there. All the people looking for the best deal, the cheapest way they can get X animal.. If you currently have snakes.. Do what I did, break it all down.. See how much these things are costing you.. See how much money you would be losing if someone offered you the amount you just offered for X animal. That may make you think twice before you make some lowball crap offer next time.. I know, I could have sold the calico for more. But could I? Sure it was a killer looking calico.. But to be honest with you, the $75.00 I thought I was actually getting for the snake. Was pretty much fair market price right now.. So if I would have had the snake listed for $200.00 + shipping.. It would have never sold.. To be honest with you again.. It wouldn’t have sold at $150.00 + shipping.. Why? Not that it was a bad looking snake.. It was very nice looking.. It is a buyer market now, and the buyer sets the price right now.. Here is the biggest difference between a breeder, and a hobbyist.. A breeder can afford to hold onto his animals until they sell for the price they deserve to get, and a hobbyist cant. If you are a hobbyist, And if you can’t afford to keep the animals on the shelves for six months, or more. You are producing to many animals, and need to cut back. You see it all over when eggs start to hatch.. Everyone is in that hurry to sell that baby snake. “Just hatched, needs to eat four times, the ready to go.” Again, back to the calico male.. It was six months old, and very well started.. As long as the buyer does what is required to care for the animal. That animal will be just fine.. Nice, fat, healthy, more than willing to eat on its own.. You can’t beat that.. I’d much rather have an older well started baby, over a fresh hatched one. Any day….. I think that has a lot to do with issues people have with babies. It was just to soon to be sending them out to new homes.. But gotta make that money, gotta get that sale before the next guy does.. I’m sure many of you out there keep better financial records that I do, and are way better with math than I am.. Some of you could probably break it down to the every last cent.. This wasn’t meant to be a math lesson, or show everyone how bad I am at it.. Again this was more directed at the buyers out there. And next time you think about low balling someone.. Think! Would you be able to sell that animal for the same price you are trying to buy it for?
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 13:04:26 +0000
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