- Messages
- 381
- Location
- Atlanta, GA
Hi All,
When I got into the species in 2009, GTs were ~$250 and white collar PIs were ~$350. Some days, I wish that was still the case! Now it's not uncommon to see high white animals with price tags in the realm of many thousand dollars. As the saying goes, "What's it worth? What someone else is willing to pay for it." But there still feels like a lot of gray area.
I recently posted two high white animals on facebook and received a number of inquiries about their cost, or what I would charge if I decided to sell them. Each season, I generally get a flurry of these messages and the reactions to my responses are always interesting. I would say that looking back, prices steadily rose from like 2013 - 2016, and seem to have been relatively stable over the last few years. But prices can still be high for high end animals. When I price unsexable PI animals, I have a baseline that is something like:
$500 - $550: No white, not seeing much base color
$550 - $700: No white, some nice base color coming through
$700 - $800: No white, strong base color
$900 - $1,100: "White wings" or some white pattern around the neck and base of tail with decent base color
$1,350 - $1,550: "White collar" with some tail white and nice base color
$1,750 - $2,250: "White collar with side white" Solid white collar with some side white, white on the tail and nice base color
$2,500 - $3,500: "High white" Solid white collar, chunks of side white, white on the tail, nice base color
$4,000+: "Super High White" Large, extended solid white collar, large chunks of side white, white on the tail, nice base color, good pattern, good base color
Prices can vary from the above based on lineage, male or female, size or animals that exhibit extreme traits (super high white, super saturated color, etc).
However, I think that moving into high white/super high white sexable animals is a bit of a different ballgame and that very much becomes "What does someone want to sell that animal for?" If you consider that a high white female can have even just four "white collar with side white" babies in a year, that can be $8k in itself, in one season. The prices only go up when you include more offspring or babies with more white. So offers of $5k, $7k or $9k suddenly don't make much sense if you're looking to keep and breed this species over time. This logic applied to males can be even more mind boggling. A nice high white male could be studded to several females, resulting in numerous high white offspring. How do you quantify the real worth of an animal like that?
On the flip side, that is some serious cash and you start to hit a market where very few people can pay prices over $3k or so. But still, is it really worth selling high end animals for that much? If you look at the numbers... not really. I am still not able to meet demand with the number of requests I get for geckos, but as white becomes more common, I think prices will come down a bit. But even if we got back to selling them for $400 - $600/each, this is still a fun hobby that I'll stick around for.
I'd love to hear others' perspectives on pricing and value.
When I got into the species in 2009, GTs were ~$250 and white collar PIs were ~$350. Some days, I wish that was still the case! Now it's not uncommon to see high white animals with price tags in the realm of many thousand dollars. As the saying goes, "What's it worth? What someone else is willing to pay for it." But there still feels like a lot of gray area.
I recently posted two high white animals on facebook and received a number of inquiries about their cost, or what I would charge if I decided to sell them. Each season, I generally get a flurry of these messages and the reactions to my responses are always interesting. I would say that looking back, prices steadily rose from like 2013 - 2016, and seem to have been relatively stable over the last few years. But prices can still be high for high end animals. When I price unsexable PI animals, I have a baseline that is something like:
$500 - $550: No white, not seeing much base color
$550 - $700: No white, some nice base color coming through
$700 - $800: No white, strong base color
$900 - $1,100: "White wings" or some white pattern around the neck and base of tail with decent base color
$1,350 - $1,550: "White collar" with some tail white and nice base color
$1,750 - $2,250: "White collar with side white" Solid white collar with some side white, white on the tail and nice base color
$2,500 - $3,500: "High white" Solid white collar, chunks of side white, white on the tail, nice base color
$4,000+: "Super High White" Large, extended solid white collar, large chunks of side white, white on the tail, nice base color, good pattern, good base color
Prices can vary from the above based on lineage, male or female, size or animals that exhibit extreme traits (super high white, super saturated color, etc).
However, I think that moving into high white/super high white sexable animals is a bit of a different ballgame and that very much becomes "What does someone want to sell that animal for?" If you consider that a high white female can have even just four "white collar with side white" babies in a year, that can be $8k in itself, in one season. The prices only go up when you include more offspring or babies with more white. So offers of $5k, $7k or $9k suddenly don't make much sense if you're looking to keep and breed this species over time. This logic applied to males can be even more mind boggling. A nice high white male could be studded to several females, resulting in numerous high white offspring. How do you quantify the real worth of an animal like that?
On the flip side, that is some serious cash and you start to hit a market where very few people can pay prices over $3k or so. But still, is it really worth selling high end animals for that much? If you look at the numbers... not really. I am still not able to meet demand with the number of requests I get for geckos, but as white becomes more common, I think prices will come down a bit. But even if we got back to selling them for $400 - $600/each, this is still a fun hobby that I'll stick around for.
I'd love to hear others' perspectives on pricing and value.
