Price:Quality

[Seraph27]

I've been investigating breeders for cresties lately as part of my preparations to get one and have found a wide range of prices for them. As with everything I'm sure some of them are over or under priced, but what I'm wondering is why the price range is so large. Is there a quantifiable quality difference with the geckos themselves, or is it more the popularity of different morphs? As a related question, how do you determine the quality of a crestie before purchasing, especially from a breeder online, where you can't see or handle the gecko first?

 

[robin]

i think it has to do with a breeders name (how well known they are) and 2 the popularity of the morph and the rarity, also color and age and sex. so several things i think play a role in the price. as far as quality sometimes you do get what you pay for but sometimes not, it can be a crap shot sometimes

 

[rubym]

I have found also that different areas mean different pricing too. We go to a show further south and the cresteds are alot more expensive then the local show further up north. Not sure why. Females are alot higher then males also. As Robin said the morph and breeder name can play a big part in pricing also. I actually only padi $25 for my Harlequin female(she was 3 weeks old) and $15 for my red tiger female ( she was 2 weeks old)from the same breeder. I got super lucky that both were females and they are big and healthy now.

 

[robin]

also you can generally get better prices at the reptile shows

 

[darkridder]

There is a large difference, and as one stated breeder name plays a role. Breeder XX can sell their geckos at such a high market up because they are who they are. It is like you are paying for a designer gecko (think of like why some purses cost more then others). Although I dont exactly agree with that, some portions of it I do. Some morphs have taken breeder XX a long time to perfect, which explains some of their prices. But in regards to breeder XX, there are other breeders out there with as nice, if not nicer quality of animals who actually sell for cheaper, you just dont find them on the first few pages of a google search, nor are they banners of any reptile forum that I know of. or in the case of one you do find him on a search and on forums, sooo much cheaper then XX but he doesnt really deal with the same colors as XX does.

In case of something like LLreptile, their prices are pretty nice and why is it their red flame costs more then lets say my red flame (I dont have any for sale, using me as a point of reference)? LLLreptile is a wholesaler, they dont breed crested geckos, they buy them super cheap then resell them. The red flame pic they have posted isnt even a red flame, flame yes, but not a red flame, it is like a general term for them. And there is no guarentee what color morph it will turn out to be, you might get lucky, you might not, it is just a guessing game. Now vs an online breeder like myself I know where my stock is from and I know what to expect they will produce from previous season clutches. So I can accurately say red flame, or red tiger without it being a general term.

And you will even find some smaller breeders do cost more then others. Again that is based on time put into the particular morph, the quality of the geckos, and the quality of the parents. Remember you need to look past the color and look at the crests and head structure (yes there is a difference inbetween those) and find the hidden value worth of the gecko. A red with average to nice crests will always cost more then the exact same looking gecko with no crests to the well aware buyer.

And yes shows are almost always cheaper, but cheaper doesnt mean better quality, and you do fall into the no name breeder area then. THe nice thing about online breeders is that there is the BOI you can search for info on, and if they belong to the forum, odds are someone there has one of their geckos, so you can get background info from there. But you can occasionally find great deals at shows, I found an outstanding blonde possible female for $75 there and I really wish that breeder would bring more geckos like that to the show!!

 

[goReptiles]

Like darkridder explained, sometimes some breeders perfect a morph and they feel they can charge more because of their time and effort put into the morph. Some feel because of their longer and wider reputation they can charge more, and people will buy.

But, there are almost always the same or better quality with smaller breeders for less money.

You just have to look around. Becuase the bigger breeders have been around longer, their sites come up first in searches in most cases, and it's a quick search so people buy what they see first in a lot of cases.

Shows can be cheaper, but when buying online, definitely search around and through many pages on a search because you can usually find something better or equal for less.

 

[darkridder]

this is the case of where you as a buyer really need to educate yourself in the morphs, what the morph standards are, and what makes the same morph geckos more valuable from one another. The best way to do that is search crested gecko forums to learn more about morphs, hit up reptile classifieds like the one here, or KS, and when you do go to shows, look at the geckos, dont buy, but really look at them and see what qualities you can see when you compair it to other geckos.

 

[Franks_Geckos]

Shows are almost always cheaper, especially if someone is really looking to sell what they have on their table and even more so closer to the end of the show. Body Structure is very important and color is as well. If the gecko isn't fired up, you may not be able to compare apples to apples. In my personal experience, when you pay more from someone with a bigger name, you may not necessarily get a better gecko, but you usually have more recourse if you are not satisified after the purchase because reputable breeders will be more willing to help out to maintain their good name and reputation. Females are usually more valuable and that could be because they are just not as abundant in the market as well as the fact that Crested females take longer to raise than Leos for example, and there are no real recessive genes out there to make a male any more valuable because of the genes he can pass on. Producing top quality Cresteds is a little more of a crap shoot than with Leos and good lines can take years to develop. Outstanding females are more likely to produce better looking babies than an average female when paired with a nice male.

 

[thegeckoguy23]

shows r wicked good it also depends what morph how munch does it way proven breed or not who is selling it depends on a ton of ifferent stuff ok get it got it good