- This video is sponsored by Skill share.
Today's topic is money and snakes.
Two things that are pretty cool.
I recently did a video
where I talked about the most expensive lizards,
I've ever sold.
Because I had taken and re home and sell reptiles,
as you probably know,
and it's very hard to actually make money doing it.
And that's where these individual, not so common,
very expensive animals come in to save the day.
So I'm going to start at the 10th of the,
the cheapest of the 10,
up to the most expensive of the 10,
and talk about each one.
Starting at number 10.
Yeah, 10.
A male Hypomelanistic Boa constrictor or imperator.
Boa, Imperator, whatever, I really don't care.
It's an adult male,
and although they don't get as large as
the adult female BCI's,
they're still very hefty snakes.
And he sold for $400 plus shipping,
which is $50 flat rate for however many animals you order.
Usually people just buy one.
Sometimes people will get two or three though,
which is cool.
I think he came with a few Juvenile boas,
but because he's larger, he's gonna sell for more,
More resources have gone into him, when it comes to food,
energy, time, space, everything.
He's been on the planet longer.
And so he's taking up more energy,
which means that he is valued more
because it's also harder to find them.
Do you get what I'm saying?
Yeah, you probably understand.
Okay. Let's just move on to number 9,
a female Blue Eyed Leucistic Ball Python, or BEL's,
whatever you wanna call them,
completely white Ball Pythons.
They are not rare, rare.
Like it's not crazy weird to see one.
This one's a bit more rare though,
because you might be able to tell her eye is not too normal.
I haven't looked too much into this,
but there seems to be a lot of connections
with white animals or white reptiles specifically,
and issues with their eyes or vision.
For example, Blizzard Leopard Geckos,
I have gotten a lot of them, but they oftentimes,
have the most difficulty eating,
Like they can't spot their food properly,
and they miss a lot and it was kinda weird.
And I've gotten actually emails of people
that have white animals,
specifically Blizzard Leopard Geckos with the same issues.
They also seemed to be more susceptible to blindness,
based on what blizzard owners have told me.
And in the case of Blue Eyed Leucistics,
it's possible that they can have these deformed eyes.
She was still a pretty good eater,
'cause luckily Ball Pythons use those heat pits
around their mouth, and they don't rely too much on vision.
So it's not as big of a deal.
And they adapt pretty well.
She sold for $400 plus shipping,
which although that's kind of a lot of money,
it's a lot cheaper than I normally sell, a Blue Eyed for,
about two thirds to a half of the price
because, well, she looks like this,
and also this is not something that I want to be bred.
I don't have a problem selling to breeders.
As long as they set up an enclosure,
just as good as a pet keeper would wear,
like, animals aren't allowed to be stuck in racks
basically if you buy from Emerald Scales.
And so yeah, you can breed an animal,
if they are safe to breed.
But this is an example where we try to seek out people,
that are not going to breed.
And yes, there is this little red disclaimer
that says, "By purchasing,
you're saying not gonna breed it."
Of course this is not a legal agreement.
We can't actually stop them,
but pretty easy to tell after talking to so many people,
if they're breeder or not.
So, I'm really not concerned that she went to a breeder.
It also wouldn't make much sense anyway,
like you're not saving that much money
and you're increasing the risk of something happening
to your juvenile.
So, it's not something to worry about,
but I still price them lower because they're not as
picture perfect as a normal Blue Eyed,
but they're still really cool,
and other than that, she is totally healthy.
At number 8, another Ball Python.
I think it's mostly Ball Pythons on the list,
but there's a lot of other species as well.
It's a female Het Pied Ringer Ball Python,
which again is now I probably should have said
female Ringer Het Pied Ball Python,
but whoever bought it understood
what I was trying to saying,
The Het Pied means that it has the piebald trait,
which is why they have white splotches,
but they don't actually show it
because it's a recessive gene.
So, if this one were to be bred
with the appropriate male,
then you might actually get a piebald result.
And so, yeah, again,
I don't actually know if this one's sold to a breeder.
I don't think it did.
They at least didn't mention that, like,
we're always happy to talk about them with that,
but she's still sold of $450 plus shipping
to someone that wasn't even gonna breed,
which was a little weird
because you're paying that extra amount
for a trait that it's never gonna affect
your ownership experience, but it's still like
undoubtedly, a very pretty Ball Python.
It almost looks normal,
but you can just tell it's not quite normal
and that's the ringer that you're seen.
And although she doesn't look too different from a normal,
even though I still think she stands out,
she's a lot more expensive.
Normally, you can find a normal Ball Python
for like 50 bucks, maybe even cheaper.
I feel weird selling any animal for like $50 or less.
I mean I do, especially when I have to,
if I can't profit off an animal.
So normally, the Ball Pythons start
about like a hundred on Emerald Scales,
10, 9, 8, 7. I have to count every time.
This is a unique snake
that I've only gotten one of, which was
An adult male Mexican Black King snake.
I actually did a full video on him.
Because he's very pretty jet black.
In my opinion, that's the only cool thing about them.
But a lot of other people like him,
and he was $450 plus shipping.
They are another species that
you can find lots of videos on.
You're not gonna see him on every single website.
If you go to a reptile show, you might see one,
you might not, who knows.
It's like not too surprising either way.
They're just down the middle of like,
a not too difficult snake, not too rare,
but really cool,
and undoubtedly, undoubtedly, not doubt.
I was gonna say something about how it looks cool,
so you get what I'm saying.
He was also pretty chill as well.
At first he was a little finicky
like when I first unboxed him,
but he was also just in a box,
so kind of understandable.
Oftentimes certain species are more susceptible
to not be as happy with being messed with or handled,
but he really wasn't too bad.
And I tried to be as transparent
about their personality as possible,
which generally affects
the lizard sales more than the snakes,
but there's still some other examples I'll show.
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And now back to the money.
Moving on to 10, 9, 8, 7, 6.
So this is literally just a female.
Albino Ball Python,
but she's large, and she's healthy.
And she went for $450 as well.
For some reason Albino snakes,
but especially Albino Ball Pythons,
almost every single one that's ever, like, contacted me.
Well, the Ball Python didn't contact me,
but the owner, is always unhealthy.
I don't see hundreds and thousands of reptiles.
I can't make any statistics,
but based on my personal experiences,
there seems to be this weird co-relation
with Albino Ball Python, being unhealthy,
and refusing food, not eating could be total coincidence,
but it's just, it's very weird.
And this was like the first time
I ever got a healthy Albino Ball Python, which was cool.
The reason it's pretty expensive is
because she's big and a female.
Female snakes are pretty much,
always more expensive for breeding purposes,
'cause you compare one male up with multiple females,
but you need, it's more important to have a lot of females.
If you're gonna be breeding and stuff.
Again, I don't even think this one's sold to a breeder,
but it does simply increase the value.
And I think the splotches are just extremely cool looking,
and it's not too easy to find
many adult female Albino Ball Python.
So, $450, not complaining.
That's a lot of 450's because the next one 450,
460, for a male Arctic Conda Hognose.
Hognoses are one that people always ask me,
"When there's gonna be the next one?"
They stay pretty small.
They're cute, they're easy to set up.
They're easy to like heat and everything,
but it can be, they're known to be hard in two areas.
One is handling, they're not always the biggest fan.
They also are technically rear fanged,
and some people have allergic reactions,
and yeah, they can be pretty picky.
Some people can only get them to eat the most bizarre foods.
Where they won't eat mice or rats, it's a huge pain.
You have to source these weird animals for them to eat.
In my experience, they've usually been fine,
but there's something people really love.
And this one I know nothing about genetics
in regards to Hognose snakes.
I just based it on other websites
like same Morphmarket.com.
I just type in Arctic Conda Hognose.
And I only do this if I actually have the confirmed,
like, information on the snake to make sure,
oh, it actually is,
'cause if I just saw a picture of this,
I'd have no idea what it was, honestly.
It just looks like a Hognosed snake to me.
It's not something that I specialize in at all.
And yeah, they're simply more expensive,
and that was proven by selling for $460.
I don't know why I added $10 on this snake,
but paid for what?
10 adult mice to feed.
So, works for me.
At number 4, this
I think is one of the coolest looking Ball Pythons,
I've ever seen in person.
There's a couple actually in the top of the list,
but the female Pastel Fire Calico Ball Python.
Yeah, There's she's got three traits.
The Pastel, The Fire and The Calico,
they're all separate,
but they all come together to make her.
And she actually came with
a couple of the other Ball Pythons,
that you've already seen in this video.
Someone had to send me like five or six.
I think they had a bunch.
I think they're going to breed the snakes.
Sometimes people are about to do these breeding projects,
and they invest all this money,
and then all of sudden something happens,
and they just can't.
And so yeah, I was sent a handful of these Ball Pythons.
None of them were proven breeders,
where it's like,
if people can literally prove this Ball Python
produced an animal, it's worth even more
because not every animal is necessarily going to be able
to produce, but this one, although it was not proven,
it's still worth $500 on Emerald Scales.
And that's what it sold for.
Super pretty, again, I don't think any of the animals
on this list went to breeders, but I liked her.
And number 3, back to the Hognoses.
This is the tiniest snake on the list.
He is a Snow Hognose, that's it just to know.
A Western Hog,
I can't sell Eastern since I'm in North Carolina,
for one, it was kind of stressful having her,
'cause she was so small.
I purposely just did like an undersized enclosure,
'cause I knew it was going to be temporary.
But the thing about her is she sold,
he, why do I keep saying she?
He sold three or four times five.
I think he sold four times total.
Where someone would purchase,
and then, either change their mind,
or they had a poor enclosure or whatever.
I mean kind of just those two,
either they don't want it anymore.
Their circumstances change.
They see the $550 leave their bank account,
and they're like, "I regret this."
Whatever reason, I refund before it's shipped,
because you don't want someone to be stuck with an animal
that they regret buying.
It takes a few weeks to finish the whole process.
So, some people get time to think about it,
and they regret it, kind of annoying,
but better than them getting stuck with an animal
that they don't want.
So yeah, I had to refund like $1,500 worth of money,
but eventually he did sell,
and he took quite a few months because of that.
He's one that I've never seen since.
I've never seen another one in person.
I'm sure you can find pictures.
I haven't personally looked,
but they're not too cheap either.
Despite him being super small and super young,
five hundy fifty plus fifty shipping.
And number 2, one of the biggest on the list,
I guess second biggest after the Boa is,
this boa, the Male Dumeril's Boa.
Again, they get smaller than the female.
I've done a handful of Dumeril's videos,
I think, or maybe just two.
That's a handful still one, two handful.
He originally was listed for $700.
Nobody bought him, so I dropped it to $650, still nothing.
A couple of weeks later dropped it to $600.
Basically, if they don't sell within like two weeks,
I dropped the price, and then after that
I drop it like every week or so.
So if you do see an animal that you're like,
"Ah, it's too expensive."
You can just wait a couple of weeks,
and the price will drop,
but you're also risking someone else changing their mind
to buying it before you soon.
It's hard, it's kind of like eBay bidding,
but in reverse because I dropped the price,
and I had to drop it all the way down to $550
before someone purchased.
I'm not sure if that was someone watching this price drop,
and being like, "All right, that's within my budget."
Or if someone just didn't see him until
he was marked a $550.
It's simply not too easy to
find male Dumeril's Boas for sale,
and I really wanted to see
just how much he would go for him.
I guess on a lot of these prices,
I put a lot of time into the prices,
but other times, I just have no idea what to list them at.
So, I just take a guess, and I usually over overdo it
because what's the worst that happens.
He doesn't sell, and I lower the price,
and that's what I did with him.
So, now I know if I get another male Dumeril's Boa,
that's big and a friendly, he was also chill,
which was quite nice
because bigger snakes can be a bit more intimidating,
if they're not a big fan of being messed with.
And a lot of people don't want to get an animal
that's gonna be upset, defensive and possibly not dangerous,
but like still get a pretty bad bite from.
So that was nice in his regard.
And at number 1,
was a Ball Python, that actually did sell for $700.
Also, extremely pretty.
It's right in line with the one that
sold for like 500 something.
This female Pastel Calico Ball Python,
came from the same person.
So, there's a lot of Ball Pythons on this list,
and I guess it was a few Ball Pythons,
a couple boas, and then a bunch of Hognose snakes,
or two, three Hognose, I already forgotten.
Why didn't she go for 700?
Well, she's an adult,
she's got a cool morph, she's very healthy,
and she's a female,
and a Ball Python that a lot of people look for.
$700, I really don't have much to say
about the most expensive on the site,
but those are the top 10
on my top 10 list, which is complete,
which equals a total of $5,410,
and that's including the shipping price.
So, after all the shipping,
that's like $600 or $700 to ship all these out.
So, like say, this Hognose, he just ships in a
little 6 inch box.
I think he sold pretty nearby too.
So, like say, he just ships to Virginia, one state up.
That's like 30 bucks,
but then this BCI goes in a huge box.
Maybe it goes to Washington state all the way across,
and that's like 115 bucks or so.
So overall it was between 500 and $1000,
to ship them all.
And then of course,
any other expenses that come along with them.
So, I don't make $5,400,
but this made a huge difference in the revenue
and the profit.
Most of these animals sold in 2020.
Yeah. I mean, I'm still selling animals.
Things are a bit slow right now
just 'cause there's so much else happening,
but I'm getting there, and I'm going to do
another year in review video for Emerald Scales,
at the end of this year,
where I break down every single number,
every single month, every event that happened
in about an hour or two hour long video.
I've already done two of them,
if wanna go check those out.
I'll link them in the description.
And hopefully these videos don't come off as look at
how filthy rich I got off these 10 animals that
people had to give up.
If you look in Emerald Scales more,
I would like to think that's not how it comes off,
'cause so many unexpected expenses come up,
anything from a vet bill to an animal
that has to be here for like a year,
and takes tons of time,
to whatever else.
It's been interesting,
and I'm still learning,
and to hopefully I 100% wanna make money off this project,
and it's something that looks a lot more realistic now.
So, I don't wanna spoil anything,
but things are looking better.
So, if you purchase animal for me,
I appreciate it makes a big difference.
I mean, I have to get rid of the animals,
they have to go somewhere.
So I'm glad that someone has always come up,
and been like, "This is the right animal for me."
And set up a great enclosure.
I've never gotten stuck with an animal.
Any animal that's been on Emerald Scales
eventually found an owner,
even if it took a bit longer.
And most of these snakes went pretty quickly,
and I'm satisfied with that.
So, thanks again to Skillshare for sponsoring this video,
you can check everything out in the link below for them.
Yeah, If you enjoyed the video,
I can do the same with turtles, Amphibians, whatever.
You can watch the one that I did on lizards,
or I could even do like the cheapest animals I've sold
or a top 10 all time, but that's it for this video.
So, thanks for watching.
And I'm Alex.
(upbeat music)