Tarantula prices when first introduced

[BoyFromLA]

For me, it’s only just been a year being part of this tarantula keeping hobby, but many of you tarantula keepers out there were/are around for decades in this hobby.

Most of my tarantulas were bought, and traded with, as slings. So I am pretty much adapted with recent or current or nowadays prices of them.

This makes me so curious.

When any new tarantulas first introduced into hobby, how much were they back then?

 

[Nightstalker47]

They are always more expensive if they are new, and in high demand.

 

[BoyFromLA]

They are always more expensive if they are new, and in high demand.

That is indeed true, but I was curious about the prices.

 

[Nightstalker47]

That is indeed true, but I was curious about the prices.

That will depend on the species. G.rosea for example, were being imported in drones, so they were always relatively cheap.

 

[BoyFromLA]

That will depend on the species. G.rosea for example, were being imported in drones, so they were always relatively cheap.

Drones?! Oh wow...

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

I'm pretty sure he meant "droves". Either that or there is a shipping method that I'm totally unaware of.

 

[viper69]

For me, it’s only just been a year being part of this tarantula keeping hobby, but many of you tarantula keepers out there were/are around for decades in this hobby.

Most of my tarantulas were bought, and traded with, as slings. So I am pretty much adapted with recent or current or nowadays prices of them.

This makes me so curious.

When any new tarantulas first introduced into hobby, how much were they back then?

Some species are still the same spice when I first started. I haven't seen GBB slings change at all, same with versicolor.

However, if you want an eye opener

Kelly Swift was the first person to crack P. metallica for breeding here in the USA. He was charging 400$ a sling. I saw those blue jewels right in front of me at a show once from Kelly. Private breeders would sell sacs for thousands of dollars, like 5,000$ in one person's case.

I was one of the first to get H sp Columbia Large (when they were bred here), they ran 65$ , that was a pretty high price for a TINY sling. Most slings were 5-40$

Now, take a look around at how many slings are $50+, and how many slings are well over 100-200$, there's a lot. Far more now than ever before.

H. pulchripes a recent species, was 400$ initially.

I. mira was 3 figure T when it was brand new if I recall correctly. I waited on that one as well.

The prices have climbed considerably in the past few years...too high.

For example, E. sp Red AFs used to be only 50-65$!! Now, can't be had for less than 150$ usually. That's a recent price change of only a few years.


Of course people doing this longer than myself, like 4 decades, have even more amazing stories.

 

[BoyFromLA]

H. pulchripes a recent species, was 400$ initially.

Wow.

 

[RezonantVoid]

Wow.

Down Under Ive noticed Selenotypus sp prices drop this year. A bit like the OP Ive only been in the hobby for a year but have been avidly watching T sales and at the start of the year I payed $60 for a Selenotypus Wallace sling but now there's been a pretty big influx of slings put up for sale so the price is less than half that in some cases. Not sure if theres just an annual fluctuation or something with the prices though

 

[Nightstalker47]

I'm pretty sure he meant "droves". Either that or there is a shipping method that I'm totally unaware of.

Thank you, at this point I could've said we were importing these in F-22's and some people would've bought it.

Some species are still the same spice when I first started.

You and I seem to have the same problem.

 

[SonsofArachne]

In the 90's I bought a Emperor scorpion for $10 and a (supposedly) female Zebra leg T (A. seemanni, I'm using common names because that's what was done then, at least in pet stores and pet store care literature) for the huge sum of $20.

 

[Formerphobe]

In the 1970s, Euathlus smithi (now Brachypelma hamorii) were $5 -$10 for a juvenile, a large female might go for $25. "Pink toes" ran about $20. Most all were wild caught.
Pandinus imperator were $3 to $5. A female with babies on her back might go for $15.
Minimum wage was less than $5/hour. A new car was about $6500, gas less than $1/gallon.
US prices

 

[Chris LXXIX]

Keep in mind that doesn't exist only the U.S and those quite insane U.S prices, but Europe as well so it's not possible to answer this in a complete, total way.

For instance, with the price of a 0.1 P.muticus in the U.S I can buy almost four of those, here.

C.cyaneopubescens, the 'GBB', here isn't exactly priced like in the U.S, and 'GBB' is as well a kinda 'priced' spider, here.

Another example... waaay back then, when arrived the 'blue T's' mania (with Haplopelma lividum - that was the scientific name - as most wanted) still the prices weren't nowhere near U.S ones (absurdities like $200, $300 etc).

Same for M.balfouri. And so forth.

The only species (better, genus) I've always saw skyrocketing, price talking, here, is Theraphosa species. Probably the only spider that costs more in Italy than in the U.S, today like yesterday.

Overall I can say that, when I've started to buy T's, of course, we didn't have Euro as currency but the Lira... prices are more or less the same of those early '90s era. I mean, it's not that a G.rosea turned more priced, what ruined a bit everything was the 2003 arachnid ban law... when those crappy laws enter, unfortunately, prices turns higher -- but it's related to the fact that something that was legal, now is not legal anymore, more than T's related.