Ron's Ball Python Blog

Ball Python Mutations or Morphs
The ball python market is arguably the strongest and most prolific market when compared to the reptile and amphibian market as a whole. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of people becoming interested in ball pythons every day. What lures many people to ball pythons is due in part to their docile temperaments and the fact that they don't get really big like other pythons such as the African Rock Python, the Burmese Python and the Reticulated Python, just to name a few.

Another factor that lures people to wanting to purchase and own ball pythons are the number of ball python morph mutations available. I've actually lost count of how many ball python morphs there are in existence today because there's always something new "created" every year in addition to new morphs discovered in the wild. These are definitely fascinating times for keepers of ball pythons as well as for those who are in the market to purchase their first ball python.

Due to the demand for ball python morphs and because they are rare and beautiful, they command prices that often go into the three, four, five and sometimes six-figure price range. The asking price for the Banana Ball Python for example is rumored to be $100,000.00 for females only.

Banana Ball Python

An Alternative Investment Vehicle
When we think of investing or investment vehicles, the first thing that comes to many of our minds are stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real-estate, antiques, rare coins, precious metals, collectors items, etc. The last things that may come to most people's minds are snakes, primarily ball pythons. However, more and more people are becoming aware of the profit potential in the ball python market as well as the "mind boggling" ROI (return on investment) that can be obtained by investing or purchasing ball pythons. Forbes, a well-known and respected financial magazine wrote an articled entitled America's Priciest Pets that makes note of a pair of ball pythons valued at $100,000.00.

In the world of investing, you're doing pretty well if you can achieve 15% or more on your money. Most savings and money market institutional accounts will give you 5% on your money (if you're lucky). Many Wall Street fund managers yield an impressive 25% or more on the accounts they manage. That's nice and all but let me share a secret with you that will probably make you fall out of your chair!

Let's say you took $75.00 and purchased a nice captive born and bred female ball python hatchling and cared for it for just one year. You've fed her well, took excellent care of her and now she's growing fast and getting bigger. Let's say she weights 600 grams after one year in your care. You could easily sell her in today's market for $200.00 or more if you wanted to do so. If you run the numbers on your $75.00 investment (excluding food and maintenance costs), you're looking at a return of 166.67% on your money or a profit of $125.00!!!

It's sad to say but the fact is that many of your "traditional" investment vehicles can't come close to the profit potential of ball pythons. We just made a 167% profit on our money in a years time frame by simply raising, feeding and caring for the ball python. You could actually make excellent returns on your money by simply buying hatchling female ball pythons, raising them up and selling them in a year! If you chose to hold the female and sell her in three years as an adult instead of one year, you could easily sell her for $1,000.00 or more closer to breeding season. Let's run the numbers again and we'll see that instead of making 167% profit in the first year, you've earned a mind numbing profit of 1,233.33% just by hold her two extra years!!!

Can you see now why ball pythons have become attractive to investors? This buy, hold and sell strategy is just one of many strategies. The PAY DIRT strategy is of course breeding ball pythons.

Breeding Ball Pythons for Profit
To maximize your profit with ball pythons is to breed them. This is where you walk over that rainbow and slide down into the pot of gold! When breeding ball pythons, it's best to maximize your return so five females should be the minimum number of females to have in a breeding program.

Let's say you're ready to start investing in ball pythons and decide to purchase a Mojave, Spider, Pastel or any male ball python morph you really like. You invest $2,000.00 into a male Mojave and breed him to your five females. Your females should give you at least six eggs on average. That's a total of thirty eggs, half carrying the Mojave trait because he's a co-dom morph. If the babies are worth $1,500.00 a piece when you hatch them, you'll have fifteen Mojave's available for sale. If you run the numbers, you can expect to sell them all for $22,500.00. You invested $2,000.00 into the male Mojave and you've sold the hatchling Mojave ball pythons for $1,500.00 a piece. You've just made an eye popping 1,025% return on your money!!! We're not including the fifteen normal ball pythons you have for sale and the fact that you still OWN the Mojave male as a breeder that will do the same thing year after year!

Can you see how investing in ball pythons can return HUGE returns on your investment? I don't know of any other legal investment that comes close to what you can make in the ball python market. Run the numbers on your own and I'm sure you will be amazed at the results.

Meet the Ball Python Broker
Another strategy that some investors take is the broker route. They follow the simple tried and true strategies of buying low and selling high. Instead of buying ball pythons with the intent of breeding them, they cut through the chase and buy several animals at one time at a wholesale price. They in turn take the animals, mark up the price to retail or market prices and resell them for a profit. Brokering animals requires a large investment of capital because many breeders will only sell below market if the broker is prepared to purchase a lot of ball pythons at one time.

A broker might purchase, say, 10 Spider ball pythons at a wholesale price from a breeder and put them on the market at retail. A broker doesn't reap the massive profit potential of breeding ball pythons but they do make a handsome return on their investment nonetheless. The plus side of brokering is that they don't have to raise, feed, care for and go through the breeding ordeals that ball python breeders like myself have to undertake. They leave the hard work to us breeders and reap the spoils through buying low and selling high.

I've shared just a few strategies with you on how to profit from the ball python market as a business. I hope I've been able to show you how ball pythons can actually be a very profitable investment alternative for your portfolio.

Ready to Invest in Ball Pythons?
Feel free to phone or email me at anytime when you're ready to move forward with investing in ball pythons. I'll share more information with you and help you in your buying decision. In the meantime, take a look at some ball python morphs I have available.