What is the Rarest/Most Valuable Scorpion Species Available?

[Hornets inverts]

oh if someone was able to photograph a live or even a preserved specimen i'm sure they would hit no1. From the description and telson drawing they sounds like a very interesting urodacus

 

[Galapoheros]

I think it might be an individual want or rarity...Some of the species mentioned I could care less about (i.e. H. Swammerdami-just another Heterometrus IMO) ...However I would love to get and sucessfully breed a pair of Apistobuthus pterygocercus. I would love to get legal Hottentotta arenaceus like I photographed in Namibia on my honeymoon.

John
];')

That is the way I think also, depends on a person's personal interest. Somebody might be willing to pay $100 for something while another person will pay $500 or more. Sometimes the supply isn't enough to reflect a general demand price. There are freaks out there that will pay up. While swammerdami might be just another Heterometrus to people that aren't interested in the genus, since I kind of like Heterometrus, swammerdami looks like the freakiest Heterometrus I've ever seen so far. Going by a glance, it's almost hard to believe it is a Heterometrus after looking at other species. I'm getting less and less interested in the hot stuff, but I'd still like to have Parabuthus villosus. So I guess "value" changes to what ever the interest trend is.

 

[2nscorpx]

I really want Isometrus brachycentrus...or Tityus fasciolatus...or T. argentinus...or...

 

[Kaiser Scorpion]

I asked around in the show today, the price for females were around 100 to 140 Swiss Franks depending on the size. So they are still very pricey in Switzerland.

In continental Europe there are not the lowest price. You could buy them from England where there are the lowest prices for Indian species.

 

[Hendersoniana]

That is the way I think also, depends on a person's personal interest. Somebody might be willing to pay $100 for something while another person will pay $500 or more. Sometimes the supply isn't enough to reflect a general demand price. There are freaks out there that will pay up. While swammerdami might be just another Heterometrus to people that aren't interested in the genus, since I kind of like Heterometrus, swammerdami looks like the freakiest Heterometrus I've ever seen so far. Going by a glance, it's almost hard to believe it is a Heterometrus after looking at other species. I'm getting less and less interested in the hot stuff, but I'd still like to have Parabuthus villosus. So I guess "value" changes to what ever the interest trend is.

Well said! It is ultimately the person him/herself who defines what they find rare. Like you, im interested in hets! I have to agree on the swamm being freaky, my sling has a very faint tinge of blue and red on its chela, or my eyes could be broken :}.

 

[Nomadinexile]

Hey

Its all about location for available species. The unavailable have unknown value without a recent sale.

There are also affluent buyers who will pay very high prices for one of the special species that are typically unavailable.

Also, your examples are not as valuable as some other species. For example a breeding group of S. h. "az" banded in eu would fetch a fortune. And there is Aphonopelma (something) from the mx side of the border that could go high.

For scorpions, 200 is about max, unless you have something extremely rare and unique, like a.p., which I would expect could go for twice that.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

H Swammerdami maybe

 

[Chrome69]

Leiurus jordanensis hands down.

 

[Nomadinexile]

If not travelling, I would pay the most for a.p., n eyeless species, or c. Bicolor.

 

[Galapoheros]

I'd pay some $ for a pair of Pandinus gambiensis and a pair of Pandinus dictator, but normally not available. I suspect there might be some other very interesting stuff out there in protected areas that isn't made so public, for it's protection:unsure:.

 

[Hendersoniana]

I'd too pay a lot for an AP or a pair of AA Hector morph.

 

[Galapoheros]

I'd too pay a lot for an AP or a pair of AA Hector morph.

Oooooh yeah, I like those too, I think I'd pay up on those.

 

[Kaiser Scorpion]

Please, don't write genus and species with the only first letter. It is wrong to write the species with the only first letter and also it is difficult to understand.


About H. swammerdami, I think that it is not so rare and expensive. In England you can find them at 20-30 £. Very good price!


About P. gambiensis and P. dictator, ufficially they are not exported. I have a dried P. dictator from 1996 in my private collection and it was collected in 1992. In the last 15 years the trade about these species is not permitted. I found in Germany a sale-message about alive P. dictator at 15 € but I don't know if they are real P. dictator.



An other rare species, never seen on trade, is Apistobuthus pterygocercus from Saudi Arabia.
I think that it may be cost more than 100 €.

 

[Quixtar]

Iridopelma seladonium is hardly available and I've never seen it being sold in the US. Michael Scheller over in Germany's the only one I know of having them. Most expensive available T in the US would probably be either of the following: Encyocratella olivacea, Idiothele mira, Pamphobeteus ultramarinus, Xenesthis sp. Blue. All of these can fetch prices greater than Poecilotheria metallica, which is the standard "high value" T.

As far as pedes go, you're right about Scolopendra hardwickei being the most expensive pede available in the US, but over in Europe they've got S. galapogoensis and S. gigantea. Both of those would be worth more if they made their way over here.

You'd be hard pressed to find a scorp that'll go over $200 though. The highest I've seen, as already mentioned, is Heterometrus swammerdami. It's not the most elusive in the US, as there are several others I can think of, but none of them would sell for as much. Scorp prices work a bit differently and I think buthids are priced on a different scale altogether. Parabuthus villosus is somewhat available here and should by all means command a greater price than H. swammerdami in my eyes, but to dealers, it probably wouldn't.

Since most people buy buthids to keep them communally, I think we should consider "colony" price as well, for the communal species. In that case, Androctonus mauritanicus and certain Tityus species would be most expensive.

 

[Galapoheros]

Please, don't write genus and species with the only first letter. It is wrong to write the species with the only first letter and also it is difficult to understand.


About H. swammerdami, I think that it is not so rare and expensive. In England you can find them at 20-30 £. Very good price!


About P. gambiensis and P. dictator, ufficially they are not exported. I have a dried P. dictator from 1996 in my private collection and it was collected in 1992. In the last 15 years the trade about these species is not permitted. I found in Germany a sale-message about alive P. dictator at 15 € but I don't know if they are real P. dictator.



An other rare species, never seen on trade, is Apistobuthus pterygocercus from Saudi Arabia.
I think that it may be cost more than 100 €.

Could you post a pic of your P. dictator sometime?, maybe a few pics? There is just not very many pics of these and the ones on the internet aren't very good. I'd like to better see just how superficially similar they are in appearance to P. imperator. Yeah I think a person has to hope for a mistake in ID when exporting dictator and gambiensis, and the range is far from the export. I think the export gate-keepers assume there won't be any in the bunch of imperators just because of the range distance. An importer that used to go over there and watch them collect emps told me that the people that give the go-ahead to export only glance at the scorpions. He said they don't know how to ID them at all and they don't worry about it, said it's kind of a mess over there. Be recently I've heard more rumors they are getting more concerned now for the imperator.

 

[Chrome69]

Just to reiterate i've seen Leiurus jordanensis go for over 200$ each as scorplings, making it both the most expensive and the hardest to find (in my experience) since there are only a handful of people able to breed them in the world and WC specimens are even harder to come by than CB.
I've never seen any Heterometrus, Pandinus, Tityus, or Androctonus species coming close to it. It is also my grail ^_^

*edit*
Even a Leiurus quinquestriatus hebraeus is quite valuable and rare, comparable to most if not all rare species in the trade.

 

[Najakeeper]

An other rare species, never seen on trade, is Apistobuthus pterygocercus from Saudi Arabia.
I think that it may be cost more than 100 €.

That Saudi scorpion is very unique looking. I would love to have that.

 

[Nomadinexile]

Kaiser, sorry if you got.confused. You can rest assured that when we are talking about rare species here ans say ap in any format, we are talking about apistblahblah petryblahblah. Im on a phone, cant cut and paste. Now you kbow.

 

[Kaiser Scorpion]

Ok Nomadinexile, no problem!

Could you post a pic of your P. dictator sometime?

Sorry but, at the moment, I have only this old photo:




Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

[Hendersoniana]

Thats beautiful kaiser. If only it was alive. The one next to it, is it also a dictator?