Was there ever a time when WC Poecilotheria were alot cheapor?

[heyjeyniceid]

like if they were imported in abundance like G. Rosea or A. Avicularia.

Ive only been in the hobby 2 years tops and have wondered this from time to time.

for example, the cheapest Ive ever seen a full grown female P. Reglis was $150.00.

 

[St0n3y]

I have no idea if they were ever cheaper, but $150 sounds a lot!

I bought an adult female P.regalis a few months ago from a private sale. I paid £30 for her which works out about $54..

 

[heyjeyniceid]

I should clarify.

Here in the states they are expensive as hell, just wondering if ever in the states there was a time when you could buy one for like the price of a good-sized Chaco or something not too outrageous.

 

[cricket54]

I don't think the price that Swifts or Spider Shoppe sell their juvenile P. regalis for is very high. It depends on which "ornimental tarantula" you buy. They don't reproduce very easily or have as many slings in the egg sacks when you can get one I hear. So there are less of the Poe.'s to sell in the States. Thats why the price is high. Maybe the full grown ones are WC.
Probably not that many females out being sold either. Don't the grow faster then some of the New World tarantulas that are sold?

Sharon

 

[Code Monkey]

No, there are no wildcaught Pokies sold today, at least legally, and with the exception of the very high ticket Poecilotheria (metallica, subfusca, miranda) it certainly would not be worth the expense of wild collecting and smuggling unless you already had the infrastructure in place (which may be true for some European suppliers but then the price reflects that risk). They grow fast enough that it's entirely unnecessary to import if there is CB going on in sufficient number anyhow.

Someone else will have to step in with the hard dates if they know them, but Sri Lanka, where many of them come from, has been closed for ages and I'm not sure if any were ever exported legally from there. Indian Poecilotheria used to be collected and exported with permit but they've never been exported in the sort of numbers cheap spiders like G. rosea, A. seemanni, or even B. smithi (when it was legal) were.

I would also hardly consider even metallica 'expensive as hell' considering the rarity versus demand. Most Poecilotheria are cheap relatively speaking taking clutch size into consideration.There are only 3 that fetch what I would call higher than expected prices: metallica, subfusca, and miranda and all three are new(er) to the market and far rarer than the others.