saturated market

[captaincaveman]

Without this becoming an argument, and not to affect peoples livelyhood, can anyone else see a saturation of the market of certain species in the future?

Without going into a list of species, i just notice certain trends for people buying certain species/morphs solely for the purpose of breeding, it seems like a follow the leader thing, of course its good for future prices, i can just see a future saturated market on the horizon

whats your views, hopefully this will be kept friendly

[madaboutreptiles]

Hi CC...nice to see you back

Well for sure the Royal and cornsnake market is completely saturated.......Lots of people are now breeding in the UK as well as cheap imports coming in all the time is driving the market prices down....

To be honest as I see it if UK breeders dont sell at the same prices that the US importers are selling for they will stuck with a lot of snakes they just cant sell......

[Lisasgeckonursery]

I can see what you mean, Leopard Geckos, Cresties, Corns, Royals etc are readily available now which is great for buyers but the market is saturated.
Hopefully if people have lots of choice, they will go for breeders who have healthy and well looked after stock. The people doing worst at the moment are the ones who somehow thought they'd make a fortune breeding reps only to find they can't offload their hatchlings quick enough for their liking and didn't have space for them all in the first place.

[captaincaveman]

Originally Posted by madaboutreptiles

Hi CC...nice to see you back

Well for sure the Royal and cornsnake market is completely saturated.......Lots of people are now breeding in the UK as well as cheap imports coming in all the time is driving the market prices down....

To be honest as I see it if UK breeders dont sell at the same prices that the US importers are selling for they will stuck with a lot of snakes they just cant sell......

hiya, i was thinking about many breeders/keepers being stuck with animals that they cant find a buyer for at all

[captaincaveman]

Originally Posted by about_a_girluk

I can see what you mean, Leopard Geckos, Cresties, Corns, Royals etc are readily available now which is great for buyers but the market is saturated.
Hopefully if people have lots of choice, they will go for breeders who have healthy and well looked after stock. The people doing worst at the moment are the ones who somehow thought they'd make a fortune breeding reps only to find they can't offload their hatchlings quick enough for their liking and didn't have space for them all in the first place.

I dont think the market is fully saturated yet, i think it hasn't even started yet with respect to certain species, i think thats something for the future

[Athravan]

The market is saturated to be honest in some areas.

This year I purchased around 50 corn snakes at £4-5 - not normals, amels, anerys, snows & ghosts, okay low end corn snakes but still that's even cheaper than the "cheap" prices advertised at Hamm and Houten and I had them brought right to my door. Healthy animals, all at 5feeds+

I also had people phoning up and asking £20-25 and being insulted when I say well no, sorry..I really only pay £5 max for them these days. Kudos if you can get those prices but if you're looking to shift them in bulk and immediately you have to hit rock bottom prices. I have seen some ridiculously slashed prices on hatchling corns in the classifieds this year.

10 years ago I was selling between 100 and 200 low end single or at most double recessive animals for £20 each wholesale to shops who sold them at £60-80 with no problems at all. Now as a shop I wouldn't touch a low end corn snake for £20 ever, it's just not financially viable to me - I retail them starting at £15-20!

I'll sell every single one of them of course, but some maybe not until next year. My rack will always be bulging, there won't be a downtime. It's economical for me as I have heated racks anyway, I buy wholesale equipment & food and the costs are lower for me as a shop to keep them for a year if necessary. I personally didn't breed any normals, amels, anerys, snows etc. this year. I only bred the higher end things I knew would sell reasonabley quickly, because I knew I'd be able to buy in the very low end stuff at next to nothing so I cut down a lot of my adults - and it's been cheaper for me to buy in all the low end stuff than it was to keep feeding my normals and amels etc.

Breeders who don't want to spend the time, money and space feeding the animals for potentially 6 months+ whilst waiting for buyers to contact them in dribs and drabs end up offering them to shops in bulk at silly, next to nothing prices.

If that's not saturated already I don't know what is. Perhaps a few more years and people will be giving away entire clutches.

[madaboutreptiles]

Originally Posted by captaincaveman

hiya, i was thinking about many breeders/keepers being stuck with animals that they cant find a buyer for at all

Im sure thats going to happen...then breeders will sell soo cheap that snakes become disposable pets

Its not good for the hobby at all

[captaincaveman]

Originally Posted by Athravan

The market is saturated to be honest in some areas.

This year I purchased around 50 corn snakes at £4-5 - not normals, amels, anerys, snows & ghosts, okay low end corn snakes but still that's even cheaper than the "cheap" prices advertised at Hamm and Houten and I had them brought right to my door. Healthy animals, all at 5feeds+

I also had people phoning up and asking £20-25 and being insulted when I say well no, sorry..I really only pay £5 max for them these days. Kudos if you can get those prices but if you're looking to shift them in bulk and immediately you have to hit rock bottom prices. I have seen some ridiculously slashed prices on hatchling corns in the classifieds this year.

10 years ago I was selling between 100 and 200 low end single or at most double recessive animals for £20 each wholesale to shops who sold them at £60-80 with no problems at all. Now as a shop I wouldn't touch a low end corn snake for £20 ever, it's just not financially viable to me - I retail them starting at £15-20!

I'll sell every single one of them of course, but some maybe not until next year. My rack will always be bulging, there won't be a downtime. It's economical for me as I have heated racks anyway, I buy wholesale equipment & food and the costs are lower for me as a shop to keep them for a year if necessary. I personally didn't breed any normals, amels, anerys, snows etc. this year. I only bred the higher end things I knew would sell reasonabley quickly, because I knew I'd be able to buy in the very low end stuff at next to nothing so I cut down a lot of my adults - and it's been cheaper for me to buy in all the low end stuff than it was to keep feeding my normals and amels etc.

Breeders who don't want to spend the time, money and space feeding the animals for potentially 6 months+ whilst waiting for buyers to contact them in dribs and drabs end up offering them to shops in bulk at silly, next to nothing prices.

If that's not saturated already I don't know what is. Perhaps a few more years and people will be giving away entire clutches.

Thanks for that, really interesting seeing it from the retail angle, whats your views on the royal and retic explosion?, where the market isn't quite as broad as with corns ands leos?

[purpleskyes]

Leos and beardies have become completely saturated, there were beardies on the classifieds for £5 each Enigma leopard geckos cost hundreds just last year, now you can get snow engimas for under £200. It is insane how quickly the price has dropped on these animals in just a year. For example I have an enigma het bell leopard gecko that was £250 last year you can now purchase an engima het bell for £50???

I was having a conversation with the OH about this just last week you think of how many members are on this forum and I would say the majority breed at least one species. It is hard to come across someone in the reptile world that doesn't breed, people are always asking me why I have 20 lizards when I don't intend on breeding any of them? Why because I like them, because I enjoy owning them, watching them, looking after them. You dont need to breed anything you can just have the animals to enjoy.

At the minute royals arent as bad, because they lay small clutches and you have to wait usually 3 years to get the female up to size and there are so many many morphs with more being created all the time. But who knows how long before the royals go the same way as the beardies, leos and corns.

[Kerriebaby]

I have two Leos, and I do plan on having more ( of different species, Gargs, Royal P and Corn )

But I dont ever see myself breeding, mainly because I wouldnt have the first clue, and it doesnt interest me.

what does strike me, is the amount of people breeding for the sheer hell of it ( how many people buy animals simply to breed, and im not talking breeders, i mean novices like myself ) then as has already been pointed out, they dont sell as quick as they'd hoped, need rid, (mum will kill me otherwise) so they sell for £5. Whereas the genuine breeders (SleepyD is a good eg) will keep the animal at the price it was meant to be. I know where Id rather buy an animal