L. parahybana Adult Female Cost

[zeeman]

I'm looking for some input from the board as I know a lot of you own and have purchased hundreds of different T's over the years. Factoring the current pricing climate of tarantulas, what would you view as a fair or acceptable price for an adult female L. parahybana Salmon Pink Bird Eater? My local exotic pet shop has one there, but strangely it doesn't have a price on it. I would have thought it was on hold for someone, but its been there for several weeks, and I speak with the owners regularly (like back room, open and honest talk), so we have a good relationship. With that open talk, I know that reptiles and birds are their specialty, so I doubt he wants to breed an LP. They have several other adult T species for sale ranging in price from $225 to $350, they also have the B. Hamorii adult female that was in the skit with Kevin Hart at something like $500. I originally thought these prices were high, but looking online at breeders or distributors, that seems pretty on par now (maybe not 6 months to a year or more ago) for an adult T.

I have no idea what a fair price would be for this species. I know its one of the largest species in the trade, after the Theraphosa's, and produce a couple thousand slings on average when they breed, so they are readily available and would expect price to not be as high as say a rarer species or T. stirmi, blondi, or apophysis. I personally find the LP the most attractive as an adult compared to the other 3 giants, to each their own, and am aware they don't get to the legendary 10" DLS, 8, 8.5, 9 works plenty for me. I recently purchased a 3-3.5" female A chalcodes for $120 and thought that was a fair price since they are such slow growers. LP's grow pretty fast and reach adult within 1-2 years as I understand it. Factoring that and their prevalence in the hobby, I'd like some input on what I should offer or be willing to accept.

Note: I realize some of you guys have bought these T's for like $50 as adults back before things inflated to where they are now. I also realize that there may be someone out there who has an adult female LP for sale, sadly I don't know whom that is, and when counting a $50-80 overnight shipping cost, will the end result be about the same. Factoring all of that, please help to give me an idea of fair market price, as of today, for this species at this life stage. I tried looking around at various T sellers I've bought from before, and did not find any adult females of this species currently available or still showing a record of the price one sold at.

Thanks so much!

 

[Tarantuland]

Was that A chalcodes captive bred? Because you can get $50 females WC all day. I’ve had an LP for over two years and it’s barely 3”. They don’t grow that fast. But since they’re so common I’d say $60-80 for an adult female. $100 or so for a breeding pair, but they have too many babies to be worth breeding much. I saw two about a month ago for $60 and $75, one was around 6” the other 7”

I'm looking for some input from the board as I know a lot of you own and have purchased hundreds of different T's over the years. Factoring the current pricing climate of tarantulas, what would you view as a fair or acceptable price for an adult female L. parahybana Salmon Pink Bird Eater? My local exotic pet shop has one there, but strangely it doesn't have a price on it. I would have thought it was on hold for someone, but its been there for several weeks, and I speak with the owners regularly (like back room, open and honest talk), so we have a good relationship. With that open talk, I know that reptiles and birds are their specialty, so I doubt he wants to breed an LP. They have several other adult T species for sale ranging in price from $225 to $350, they also have the B. Hamorii adult female that was in the skit with Kevin Hart at something like $500. I originally thought these prices were high, but looking online at breeders or distributors, that seems pretty on par now (maybe not 6 months to a year or more ago) for an adult T.

I have no idea what a fair price would be for this species. I know its one of the largest species in the trade, after the Theraphosa's, and produce a couple thousand slings on average when they breed, so they are readily available and would expect price to not be as high as say a rarer species or T. stirmi, blondi, or apophysis. I personally find the LP the most attractive as an adult compared to the other 3 giants, to each their own, and am aware they don't get to the legendary 10" DLS, 8, 8.5, 9 works plenty for me. I recently purchased a 3-3.5" female A chalcodes for $120 and thought that was a fair price since they are such slow growers. LP's grow pretty fast and reach adult within 1-2 years as I understand it. Factoring that and their prevalence in the hobby, I'd like some input on what I should offer or be willing to accept.

Note: I realize some of you guys have bought these T's for like $50 as adults back before things inflated to where they are now. I also realize that there may be someone out there who has an adult female LP for sale, sadly I don't know whom that is, and when counting a $50-80 overnight shipping cost, will the end result be about the same. Factoring all of that, please help to give me an idea of fair market price, as of today, for this species at this life stage. I tried looking around at various T sellers I've bought from before, and did not find any adult females of this species currently available or still showing a record of the price one sold at.

Thanks so much!

 

[Wolfram1]

When i friend of mine offerd me 5 adult female LPs for free i took in 2 of them, they are awesome, back then i would have said i would have payed 10-20EUR max maaaaybe 30$ considering you are in the US and the inflated prices there but i hadn't really been interested in them as they were so common. Considering how much i enjoyed owning them i would say around 30-40 EUR would be a fair price to me now, 50-70$ maybe.

Its inexpensive to keep/raise them but the time to grow them up is invaluable. If the ones raising them just do it for profit it lowers the value for me but if someone is attached to their 10 year old spider and treats it well its like a fine wine getting better with age, thus more valuable. That's how i see it.

Anyhow, you cant go wrong with a Lasiodora parahybana

 

[zeeman]

When i friend of mine offerd me 5 adult female LPs for free i took in 2 of them, they are awesome, back then i would have said i would have payed 10-20EUR max maaaaybe 30$ considering you are in the US and the inflated prices there but i hadn't really been interested in them as they were so common. Considering how much i enjoyed owning them i would say around 30-40 EUR would be a fair price to me now, 50-70$ maybe.

Its inexpensive to keep/raise them but the time to grow them up is invaluable. If the ones raising them just do it for profit it lowers the value for me but if someone is attached to their 10 year old spider and treats it well its like a fine wine getting better with age, thus more valuable. That's how i see it.

Anyhow, you cant go wrong with a Lasiodora parahybana

Can your friend hook me up with a female? Haha, these ones here are listed for 300 and 500, no idea why the price difference.

Yea the price is far higher than I'd like to pay, especially if someone out there can sell them for 50-60. I'd happily pay $100 for a guaranteed female.

 

[Tarantuland]

Can your friend hook me up with a female? Haha, these ones here are listed for 300 and 500, no idea why the price difference.

Yea the price is far higher than I'd like to pay, especially if someone out there can sell them for 50-60. I'd happily pay $100 for a guaranteed female.

300 to 500 for an LP???

 

[Wolfram1]

Can your friend hook me up with a female? Haha, these ones here are listed for 300 and 500, no idea why the price difference.

Yea the price is far higher than I'd like to pay, especially if someone out there can sell them for 50-60. I'd happily pay $100 for a guaranteed female.

Nah that wont be passible, those were the last ones he kept from his own breeding project. Hopefully one of my females is gravid now though and he will get a few of the slings back as those will be the 4th generation in the lineage from his first pet spider which was a male at the time.

Even if she is though i don't think i will raise more than 10 to adulthood, it just takes too much space. And then i will be begging just to find people to take care of them like he did because what do you do with 10, 8" spiders?

Thats the sad part, i don't think many of the offspring that hatch every year reach maturity simply because no one has the space for that and that makes the adults expensive despite the fact that slings are given away for free.

 

[zeeman]

Was that A chalcodes captive bred? Because you can get $50 females WC all day. I’ve had an LP for over two years and it’s barely 3”. They don’t grow that fast. But since they’re so common I’d say $60-80 for an adult female. $100 or so for a breeding pair, but they have too many babies to be worth breeding much. I saw two about a month ago for $60 and $75, one was around 6” the other 7”

Thanks for the reply, and yes, my understanding it was captive bred. The guy I purchased it from deals solely in inverts and it wasn't labeled as WC.

I guess I need to shop around for my LP girl.

Yes, he has one listed at 300 and the exact same species at 500. I'll talk to him Sunday when he's in, his wife was there tonight, but I've been having the discussion with my girlfriend about whether it's worth it to try to have the conversation about his pricing versus what market price is. Ie, will he just say go pound sand I'll just wait til someone wants to pay it, or if he'll listen to what I have to say and because he respects my opinion take it to heart.

I'm willing to pay more than market for a local store. I just don't think 5x market is worth it.

 

[Tarantuland]

Just watch the classifieds here or go to a reptile show. Theres a bunch in the Pittsburgh area. There’s no reason to pay anywhere nearby that amount for an LP. You could get an adult T Seladonia for that kinda money

 

[zeeman]

Just watch the classifieds here or go to a reptile show. Theres a bunch in the Pittsburgh area. There’s no reason to pay anywhere nearby that amount for an LP. You could get an adult T Seladonia for that kinda money

Our Pittsburgh shows aren't that great. There's one, maybe two guys that sell inverts and I believe most are slings (that I've seen). There's occasional adults for sale but many times at the wholesalers tables meaning they are most likely imports like the rest of the animals at the table. I wish we had at least one well known dealer in our area.

There was one guy selling inverts with the same name as one of our forum invert photographer aficionados but turns out they were two different people

 

[zeeman]

And not trying to knock the couple guys who sell them at our shows, T's just aren't popular like snakes, geckos, or bearded dragons. Both sellers are nice guys, and I've bought from one and didn't from the other just because they didn't have specifically what I was looking for.

 

[LucN]

Up here in Canada, I'm seeing a 3" sexed female for 150$. Whether a 7+" adult is worth more is up to how badly you want it. I'd think 200$ would be reasonable enough given their prolific place in the hobby. For more than that, I'd say a much less common species, such as Xenesthis or Pamphobeteus would probably be worth that price tag. 500 for a B. hamorii that was in a skit with a TV personality ? Nope, I'd slash that price by half, then it would be somewhat reasonable.

Edit : Just looking at my fav Canadian dealer's pricelist, they have a 5" B. auratum for 250$ and a 5" female B. smithi (formerly annitha) for 300$. Given the scarcity of that species, that is more than reasonable.

 

[zeeman]

Up here in Canada, I'm seeing a 3" sexed female for 150$. Whether a 7+" adult is worth more is up to how badly you want it. I'd think 200$ would be reasonable enough given their prolific place in the hobby. For more than that, I'd say a much less common species, such as Xenesthis or Pamphobeteus would probably be worth that price tag. 500 for a B. hamorii that was in a skit with a TV personality ? Nope, I'd slash that price by half, then it would be somewhat reasonable.

Edit : Just looking at my fav Canadian dealer's pricelist, they have a 5" B. auratum for 250$ and a 5" female B. smithi (formerly annitha) for 300$. Given the scarcity of that species, that is more than reasonable.

Thanks for that price point, it's super helpful! Best I could find researching last night was $80 for 2" unsexed of the species. 1/2 slings at $25 and 1.5" at $45 from another supplier.

I was thinking $150 would be a fair offer but if a 3" female is that price then a 7" would deserve to fetch more. Not $150 more, but more nonetheless.