$80.00 for a cobalt!!!!!!!

[skadiwolf]

the most i've spent so far in my month of T love was $30 for a 3" A. avic.

i'm actually pretty happy with that seeing as i've spent hellish amounts on reptiles!

 

[caligulathegod]

$50 for a B. smithi. Also, $300 for a Spider Baby (1964) poster (my alltime favorite movie).

 

[rosehaired1979]

The most i have spent is $35 for the T.Blondi we have. Its 2.5"

 

[vulpina]

Let's see, about 9 years ago I paid $125 for an X. immanis at the reptile show in Columbus, Oh. In my collection at the moment, $55 for my blondi, she was about 5" at the time.

Andy

 

[nocturnalpulsem]

$80 for juvie (supposedly female) B. smithi. Doesn't seem too bad for what I've seen them go for online. I also saw a H. lividum for $90. It's not even an adult. Maybe 3 in. or so.

N.

 

[TheSpiderHouse]

Originally posted by lam
Ok, what's the point of your respond? So, you paid $40 for your juvie lividum and $40 for juvie t. blondi. Am I right that the reasoning is that $40blondi(juvie) + $40lividum(juvie) = $80lividum(unknown--probably adult).

I think the point was $40 was the most they paid for a T. And they had 2 T's they paid $40 for. Wasn't that the question of the post? What is the most you've paid for a T, or any invert?

 

[Mendi]

I recently spent a total $105 for a female B.smithi... And think It was a pretty good deal, as most prices I've seen this species for a mature female are quite a bit higher without the shipping. I believe the most I've paid for a sling has been my $45 T.apophysis

 

[willywonka]

I can't believe that someone would pay $80 for a H. lividum. I just did a quick check online and found a females for $35 and with shipping it would be $55 (that's just to have 1 shipped. If you got more the total you paid would go down). The most that I have ever paid for a tarantula was $75 for a female B. smithi (got 2 for $75 each). Wife was with me and thought that I was crazy but she is a real trooper for putting up with me and my T's. God do I love her.:}

 

[invertepet]

I should point out here that it wasn't until recently that H. lividum became so 'cheap'. They've historically been $60.00+ spiders, much prized for their nice blue coloration. Honestly, I think $20.00 is actually too cheap. That might not be a popular opinion, but I feel a higher value/price on some spiders helps the hobby. Not everything should be G. rosea price.

Also, 'super cheap' tarantulas sometimes *are* cheap, if you know what I mean. I've seen some pretty dehydrated, poorly-packed WC imports. Cheap? Sure. Worth it? Not really.

BTW - always check WC H. lividum for big mites, even visible on their carapace (affixed - they don't move much). I've seen some arrive with these, and before I do *anything* with them they get dosed with predatory Hypoaspis sp. mites (which work like a charm).

bill

 

[Lopez]

Originally posted by invertepet
I should point out here that it wasn't until recently that H. lividum became so 'cheap'. They've historically been $60.00+ spiders, much prized for their nice blue coloration. Honestly, I think $20.00 is actually too cheap. That might not be a popular opinion, but I feel a higher value/price on some spiders helps the hobby. Not everything should be G. rosea price.
bill

In a way I agree with you there Bill.
Go to a reptile store in the UK and you will pay £80 for a healthy CB subadult, or the same for a probably not so healthy WC adult. That's well in excess of $100....

Online dealers tend to retail Cobalts at around the £40 mark ($70 or so) and even at the BTS show adults were fetching £20-£40 ($35-$70)

 

[Static_69]

Originally posted by lam
Ok, what's the point of your respond? So, you paid $40 for your juvie lividum and $40 for juvie t. blondi. Am I right that the reasoning is that $40blondi(juvie) + $40lividum(juvie) = $80lividum(unknown--probably adult).

i bought them separately...you know..meaning not at the same time..which means the most i paid for one tarantula is $40...do i have to say it slower for you? or did you finally get it?



Risto

 

[conipto]

Originally posted by invertepet
Honestly, I think $20.00 is actually too cheap. That might not be a popular opinion, but I feel a higher value/price on some spiders helps the hobby. Not everything should be G. rosea price.

Agree.. and disagree. In circles like this community, I think the price is appropriate given the number and frequency of imports. In pet shops, I'd only like to see them more expensive to not have as many inexperienced people buying them on a whim. Still, I don't see how lowering prices from dealers hurts the hobby. Please explain your statement?

Bill

 

[D-Man]

Originally posted by invertepet
Honestly, I think $20.00 is actually too cheap. That might not be a popular opinion, but I feel a higher value/price on some spiders helps the hobby. Not everything should be G. rosea price.

Also, 'super cheap' tarantulas sometimes *are* cheap, if you know what I mean. I've seen some pretty dehydrated, poorly-packed WC imports. Cheap? Sure. Worth it? Not really.

bill

Bill-

Do you mean, if the price goes down, quality goes down? Or, low prices across the board would saturate hobbiests with T's and diminish dealer competition?

Dario

 

[Phillip]

Part of the lower price problem...

Of course I can't speak for Bill but part of the lower price problem can be this. A given species has the price plummet over time. Then breeders of said species ( which by the way hasn't been bred regularily enough to completely satisfy the market ) start to look at it like Hmmm why bother putting the energy into breeding something that's worth almost no return when the same effort can produce a much more expensive species. Now of course I'm not saying this is always the case but it has happened before. Look at the ridiculous low price that the cobalt red rumps came in at back in the day. What were they 20 bucks or so? Sorry but a brand new species that has not only not been bred but was available for the 1st time and also looked good deserved a higher price tag than that. Another thing some people fail to see is that if everything were rosie priced then suddenly your prized rare expensive species that are cool unto themselves ( partialy because everyone and their grandma doesn't have one ) would be just plain Jane common and everyone would have them. Myself I'm glad my P subfusca cost me some coin... not only is it a way cool species but having something everyone else has is kinda nice from time to time. Something else to think of that I've kind of already touched on is this Once you take all the profit out of breeding a species then regardless of popular beliefs breeding efforts will decline. A good example of this from the herp end of the world would be the albino burmese python. When they 1st came out they were pricey but then everyone started to produce them and butchered the price so that they costed hardly any more than normals did. After a while they started to become less and less available until there was a point you could hardly find babies. Why? Because folks stopped breeding them. Now you can find them again and granted they don't cost what they did in the early days but the price has indeed gone back up on them. Just a thought from the other side of the fence that often goes unmentioned.

Phil

 

[D-Man]

Philip-

I see, there's always a need to recoup your overhead, plus some return - basic business. As your python example reveals, a cycle will prevent prices from a long-term impact - the market will correct itself.

Thanks,

D

 

[Phillip]

Most of the time yes...

In some cases though that's not the case. Look at the cobalt red rump I mentioned. Now of course no one can say for sure but there is the possibilty that if they were more expensive upon entering the hobby that only the serious hobbiests would have grabbed them up and perhaps in turn this would have resulted in more breeding efforts rather than the few males that made it over here essentialy going to waste. Now don't get me wrong I'm not against anyone having whatever species they want but sometimes for the good of the hobby it might be best for a new species with limited numbers to be in the hands of the ones with a better chance of breeding them is all. And on the removing dealer competition part.... you have to remember that with that comes a price. When dealers have no profit left in some species they will tend to focus on the ones they can still make a buck on. This in turn over the long run can and has resulted in species becoming unavailable simply because they are not worth the dealers time and effort to carry. Then we all suffer as the choices of what to buy diminish. After all why would you want to hang on to several hundred fragile Ts that your losses are higher on due to higher mortality when you can make the same money with almost no effort raising a bunch of curly hairs. Now I realize that this isn't the case but the potential is certainly there. It has happened to the bird market and the snake market as well in the past and as this hobby grows it can suffer the same problems as the others have.

And again I get back to the point of not everything should be a $5 spider. I can honestly see both sides of it and from the collector standpoint sure I would love to have a dozen of everything. Heck I wouldn't even lose any sleep if they were free. But at the same time I've been keeping exotic animals long enough to realize that if you want the top end stuff then you have to pay more to get it. Try and look at it this way would a Xenesthis still be as cool if priced the same as a rosie? And for that matter regardless of how many were available can you honestly say it doesn't deserve to be priced higher?

Again not trying to flame anyones views here just trying to open some eyes to the bigger picture.

Phil

 

[nemesis6sic6]

ok...

well any ways they higgest price I've paid for a T is: $119.0
American for an Adult female A. bicoloratum

 

[Haploman]

$1100 big ones for 3 adult female Poecilotheria Subfusca and 3 poecilotheria subfusca slings

 

[LPacker79]

The most I've paid has been $40 for a 2.5" H. lividum. I don't think it was expensive at all, since I got it at a pet shop and there was no shipping.

 

[Ultimate Instar]

I've spent about $175 for a C. crawshayi. However, I have spent more than $100 for several species. When the P. metallicas arrive, I may break down and pay a high price. I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but Todd Gearhart advertised that he was getting two new species that he claims are better-looking than P. miranda or P. metallica. Undoubtedly, there is some hype involved but I do wonder what he's talking about.

Karen N.