r/ballpython • u/JackOfAllMemes • May 10 '25

Question Why is this snake so expensive?

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My best guess is they just want to show it off but the expo requires all animals to be for sale

4.6k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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1.5k

u/MoralityInGray May 10 '25

From what I’ve read and see online apparently when it comes to morphs it goes like this:

Morph new or very rare, so morph is initially expensive.

Morph slowly becomes more common because people see cool morph and try their best to breed more to make money while morph is worth a lot.

Morph gets overbred and becomes more common which makes morph less valuable.

Morph is $500 on a reptile expo table a few years down the road.

This is apparently the morph pipeline 😂

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u/[deleted] May 10 '25

You could’ve made your user name “morphalityingray”

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u/[deleted] May 10 '25

Supply and demand, baby!

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u/Visiting-Dragon May 10 '25

100% I remember when all palmetto corns were 3k+. Saw one on morph market that was ~$200 recently.

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u/PrometheusVIII May 10 '25

This was also the case with piebalds about 20 years ago. When they first hit the market, they were going for 20k each and now i just got mine 6 months ago for $300.

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u/Jennifer_Pennifer May 10 '25

100% correct.
Back in the late '90s - early 2000s I remember seeing a pied BP for sale for like $10,000. It had two white spots on its back that were the size of quarters, The rest of it was just normal. Coloration.
Now you can get a clown enchi pastel banana pied for like $200 - 300 ? 🤷‍♀️

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u/MoralityInGray May 10 '25

Yep, it’s crazy how fast things change and how much!

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u/M3alw0rms May 10 '25

That's so sad wtf 😭

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u/Fryste1 May 10 '25

The difference is this animal is made of 3 recessive genes. Itll take significantly longer in this instance to reproduce since youll need a copy of the gene to pass on from each parent. Also, ball python breeders are insane and some are willing to spend this much on a single snake.

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u/Dragonraja May 11 '25

I think this is the "Storm Trooper" morph? I could be mistaken, but I believe there is one person who has the genetics to breed it, right now hence the high cost. Last I heard he wasn't selling his females. I think at one point they were 50k for the first batch.

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u/Daspineapplee May 11 '25

I do want this one bad lol

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u/schmielsVee May 11 '25

You’re a morph!

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u/MoralityInGray May 11 '25

Shhh, don’t tell 😊

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u/McDrazzin May 11 '25

Let’s just speed up the process and make em’ all cheap right off the bat

They all end up cheap anyways 🤷‍♂️

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u/MulberryAlert9891 May 11 '25

No one? Ok

It’s Morphin time

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u/MoralityInGray May 11 '25

A real one right here 😂

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u/Random_Digit May 11 '25

While yes, true. This is not correct here. The snake above has triple active recessive genes. That's a winner of the morph lottery.

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u/Sad_Explanation276 May 12 '25

Off topic kinda but same thing happens with new plant cultivars. Everyone scrambles to get new phenotypes and pay top dollar for them. A year or two down the line, they become cheap and every collector that wants them, ends up having them eventually

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u/NatesAquatics May 12 '25

For nearly all pets it's like this. However this isnt 100% because say an animal has a certain trait, that trait may not be easily passed down to offspring whicb could either increase the price or keep it the same. The biology goes much deeper than "If I breed A with B I'll get C" there are many factors rhat go into it like what Alleles and animals does or doesnt have.

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u/InevitableYak5764 May 12 '25

It's this way with plants, too.

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u/lil___swallow May 13 '25

You’re forgetting about paradoxes, and that shit can’t be bred

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u/Lyriith May 13 '25

Also how complicated the morph is the duplicate affects the price. If a morph has multiple recesive genes, it makes it more expensive as it takes more breeding to prove out which snakes have the gene and cross it with the other recessive one they want. And more time growing up the babies before proving them out, which after all those years could prove they don't have it which means they breeder has to start over again.

As well as there are some line bred traits that are not genetic that can make other genes look widely different. They can only carry on the trait if their parent(s) had it visually. Those also make them more expensive, and also risk inbreeding to exaggerate the trait.