Tarantula Size/price Question

Xanzo

Arachnoknight
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Aug 18, 2004
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Can someone explain why Tarantulas go up so much in price as they get bigger? I have been thinking about this for awhile, but it's not clearly apparent to me. Thanks.
 

Jakob

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May 11, 2003
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Xanzo said:
Can someone explain why Tarantulas go up so much in price as they get bigger? I have been thinking about this for awhile, but it's not clearly apparent to me. Thanks.
Well...the longer one has kept a particular specimen, the more food and time have been spent on it. Also, if you have a rare species, it becomes twice as rare every time it molts (or at least the price tells us so ;) )

Later,

Jake
 

fyic

Arachnoknight
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Sep 1, 2004
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I guess it's like cars
the small is cheaper and the big car is more
VW $15,000 Truck $30,000..............lol

Xanzo said:
Can someone explain why Tarantulas go up so much in price as they get bigger? I have been thinking about this for awhile, but it's not clearly apparent to me. Thanks.
 

Tony

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Aug 7, 2002
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yea in some cases its readily justified..but not for genics for me....a $10 spiderling will be big enough in short order..so why pay $30 for something 3-4 motls bigger?A species with a high mortality rate might justify it as well, like mesomelas (though I've had good luck)
T
 

Code Monkey

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Jul 22, 2002
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Xanzo said:
Can someone explain why Tarantulas go up so much in price as they get bigger? I have been thinking about this for awhile, but it's not clearly apparent to me. Thanks.
Ever raised one of these things from a sling? When you have 200 2nd instar slings they take up a small plastic shoebox full of vials and you send them out the door to your customer for a sling's cost. As they get bigger it takes more and more room to contain them and the time, particularly for many species, is nuts. Raise them same 200 slings to a mid-sized sub adult and you've now filled an entire wall shelving unit with containers and spent anywhere from 2 to 10 years of time.

I've got some G. pulchra that I got as 2nd or 3rd instars that I've been raising now for over 2 years. By this time next year, I *might* be able to call them juveniles. I've got some Aphonopelma species that I've been raising even longer, they might reach adulthood by the time my 2 month old daughter is having children of her own. Adult costs reflect that time. Something fast growing like a P. murinus or A. geniculata *don't* go up that much as they get bigger because you can raise them to adulthood in just a year or two if you put the effort into it, but something like a B. smithi female, there are years of care invested into each and every one and the costs they fetch aren't close to representing their true value in terms of time spent.

Further, some percentage of slings just die for no obvious reason that we can tell. When you buy the really small ones, you're essentially getting a discount based on the fact that there's a lot of them, but not all will make it. The bigger they get, the better the odds it's going to keep on living and you pay for that certainty.

Last, as they get bigger, they are sexable and you can demand more money based on the notion of allowing people to purchase the sex they want (and when people aren't too bright and the seller isn't too scrupulous you can even sell the "unsexed" males at higher rates than you would get by declaring them male - but that's a whole other issue).
 

TRowe

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Jul 30, 2004
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I think it's because you can't breed a spiderling. Spiderlings also have a higher mortality rate. You can buy an adult and breed it immediately, or buy a spiderling, take your chances for a couple of years (or months, or decades, depending on the species) and then breed it. Also, though not in all cases, most people desire the "adult colors" in a spider.

Instant gratification, my friends.

Tim
 

TRowe

Arachnoknight
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Ahhh... beaten by Code by a mere matter of seconds. :)
 

Mattyb

Arachnoking
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Jun 28, 2004
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this boggles my mind as well...i mean the bigger and more mature it is then the closer it is to death...so why pay more for a T that is closer to death? On the other hand spiderlings may be cheap for the simple fact that you have no idea what sex they are....thats just my opinion.



-Mattyb
 

chique

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Sep 17, 2004
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I asked exactly the same question to a local exotic pet shop, simple answer......overheads, wages, elec, water, time, supplies etc. Like someone said earlier the younger the t, i.e. spiderling, the more risk of loosing one, as they get to adulthood they become more likely to be snapped up by kids, beginners, and breeders. So for example the shop above is retailing a L.Parahybana around 3 1/2" dia, female for £120.00 (bargain, yeh), n I just got mine (same age period, female) from a breeder I know for £8....why? cos he breeds them n wants to shift them so he doesn't have 1000+ baby t's running around.
The same shop (little off track here) has a starburst babboon (sorry can't remember the name off hand), male that is on deaths door, not mis treated but looking very frail and shrinking. THEY'RE STILL TRYING TO SELL IT ANYWAY! £45. Greed! I offered to take it off their hands since I could'nt see anyone wanting the poor thing, but nooooo, they're gonna keep tryin. I know peopple do rescue buys but there would'nt be anypoint with this one cos he's not in bad conditions or anything just too old. Bless it
 
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