# Bear Market in Boas: Proposed Laws Strangle Sales of Mutant Snakes



## krefft (Feb 13, 2010)

*Published On:* 2-12-2010
*Source:* Wall Street Journal

CHICO, Calif.—The stock market is back on track, and bond markets are open for business. But now, another inflated financial market is facing collapse: mutant pythons and boa constrictors. 

Early in 2009, "investment grade" big snakes—critters with genetic mutations that create rare colorings—still held their premium values. But since last spring, the mutant-snake bubble has burst.

Snake Market Crash
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Max Whittaker for The Wall Street Journal

A ghost boa bred by Ron Greenberg at Ron's Reptiles in Chico, Calif.
.More photos and interactive graphics 
.Premium pythons that could fetch $40,000 in 2007 now go for half that sum, breeders report. The price for a hypomelanistic boa constrictor, one with a mutation that lightens its skin tone, was $99 on Feb. 1, down from $5,000 in 2007, on Kingsnake.com, a classified-ad site that acts as a market-maker for snakes.

*Go to Original Article*


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## spongebob (Feb 13, 2010)

Interesting read. However they put the collapse down to the proposed laws whereas any pyramid selling system will collapse of it's own accord anyway..


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## naledge (Feb 13, 2010)

$99 for a hypo boa... I'm moving to the U.S.


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## ryanvinnroyal (Feb 13, 2010)

that is not cool, but all those people that have wanted an animal and couldnt afford it for years can now do so...


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## Chris1 (Feb 15, 2010)

aww, gotta feel sorry for those poor greedy souls who exploit animals purely for profit, NOT!!

Time some of them went out and got a real job,..!!


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## Jonno from ERD (Feb 15, 2010)

spongebob said:


> Interesting read. However they put the collapse down to the proposed laws whereas any pyramid selling system will collapse of it's own accord anyway..



The only difference with this Pyramid Scheme is that the product is continually changing, in the form of new morphs. Each individual morph has a limited shelf life as an investment, but the industry as a whole has the potential to sustain itself as long as new, desirable traits keep popping up as they have in the past.


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