Amazing Amazon
<span style="font-weight:bold;color:#B200FF;">Amaz
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2008
- Messages
- 692
- Reaction score
- 2
"Todays reptile hobbyists have no business sense"So did everyone else then Gordo, my point is, would PK (and others) spend the money getting drop bears now if he couldn't get any return on them?
It seems that many people think the old days were fantastic because money didn't change hands, only reptiles were swapped or given. We had bugger all to swap most of the times because we didn't breed anything. Even in the early eighties, I had to collect reptiles from the wild for the Zoo because there was no stock available even amongst the Zoos. When breeding started, breeders put prices on their reptiles because they realised how much effort it takes. The "money for snakes" is not a bad thing, it's a natural progression ... and a good one as valuable things (of any kind) are best protected. Just look at the history of crocodiles. Once near extinction, listed on CITES - now they're the best protected species, we have booming wild populations and a healthy crocodile industry along the side of it. Why did it happen? Because a handful of enterprising individuals could see $$$$ in croc farming and that's how it all started. It took them 20 years but who is the winner now? Both the farmers and the crocs. The difference is, those original croc farmers had business sense and money to invest as well as serious interest in crocodiles. Today's reptile hobbyists have no business sense, some don't even have much common sense, just love for their animals. God bless them and the hobby.
This is why prices drop so much. If people ran businesses with the same attitude "he is doing it for $100 so I will do it for $80" everyone would go broke. Being a shop I hear it alot " I can by xxxx snake for xxxx $$$ from xxx" It is not like buying dry goods where it is exactly the same product (usually anyway), it is livestock and they are all different. Why would you price match or beat a price for something that could be potentially be far from the same thing!
Paul