pede market question

snappleWhiteTea

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 13, 2009
Messages
780
hey guys im from southern Arizona (tucson), and when i was scorp hunting a few nights ago i saw about 9 what it looks to be Scolopendra polymorpha. about 3-4 inches. i was just wandering how the market is for these guys. I'm not trying to make money off them Because i do it for the hobby. you know, so I'll probably give them out for the cost of shipping or a trade. i just want to know if any one would be interested, so in the near future i will catch some. (i dont want to catch a bunch then keep them(im not that into them))

o ye, if theres a more common sp. that i may be mistaken for lemme know :)

ty
 

cacoseraph

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 5, 2005
Messages
8,325
bear in mind i am not a professional market analyst or even have any degrees in math or econ or whatever


but


[big breath, i am feeling kinda wordy tonight, apparently]


i figure it roughly breaks down like this:

you are talking wild caught (WC)... in pede world that makes up oh... 90+% of stock in trade... maybe more like 95+% so it isn't inherently a bad thing from market perspective

now, poly morpha come in a delightful array of colors and sizes (and shapes, to a consternation creating but still relatively small extent). when considering the market value of polymorpha color and size are critical! polymorpha can range from less than 1" bodylength (not counting legs or antenna) white ~nymph babies to something around 6.5-7-8"BL GIANTS. smaller adult size specimens also come in a pretty impressive range of body and leg colors (which sometimes to usually don't match, ime). i have seen a pretty close to brick red tergite color on a pede that had yellow legs, iirc. variations of blue are not unusual legs, but more unusual in body color, especially when it is anything more than a faint blue. other possible body and/or leg colors are blue-green, green, orange, tan, yellow. polymorpha often possess a barred or "striped" dark coloration on top of the basic colors that they are. it seems like a decent range of opacity is available to the different body tergite colorations. opacity is a somewhat important consideration as it's specific instance can make for some wicked looking pedes. i think their pleural membrane (like skin the legs attach to and the breathing holes are in on the side of the pede) is typically a sort of range tan or "white person" skin color.

i am sure there are other appearance and specimen attributes that i didn't mention or forgot... and beyond those concerns price is heavily affected by what class is doing the buying and what class is doing the selling! in general...
- dealers don't pay hobbyists all that much per animal... BUT hobbyists pay dealers a premium per animal.
- hobbyist pay hobbyist a staggering range. individual hobbyist buyers and sellers could be zero, one, more, or other than on this list: greedy, stupid, cunning, in a rush, very patient, generous, etc. i suppose dealers can and are those things too, but when dealing with hobbyists you run into way more different situations

as a sort of example: a greedy, sort of stupid dealer with a fair degree of patience could get a very pretty penny for a very rare species by jacking the price up and waiting until some hobbyist who is looking to get special breeding stock, wants to impress, always ALWAYS wanted that one and has the money now... or whatever

so, i could write a program's pseudo-code to carefully define the effect all those different attributes would have on the price or i could just give examples on a like, spectrum, partially tongue in cheek =P




if you had little ~2"BL WC (all examples are WC unless otherwise stated) standard tan body color with black stripes and tannish legs those would probably be worth ~$2-maybe4 if you sold them to a dealer... and the dealer might probably take all 7 at that size that you found. but you might be able to get ~$5-7or even10 if you sold them essentially one at a time to other hobbyists. you just have more overhead in packing materials, probably trips to the store. a US2009 dealer should probably charge somewhere in the $7-10 for something that size, though some might try to charge quite a bit more!

a 3.5-4"BL standard color or yellow or orange body color (but not too extreme of a yellow or orange)
dealer give you ~$5-7or8 and charge around $20-25
you could probably charge hobbyists ~$12.50-20

a 3"BL blue body color of any legs
dealer: give $5-10 charge:$15-25
you charge hobbyist ~$15-20

a 6"BL standard color
dealer: give $7-15 charge: $20-35
you/hobbyist: $15-25

a 4" red body with blue legs (washed out colors)
d:g $10-20 c $25-50maaybe60
hobbyist: $20-35

a 4" red body with blue legs (colors vibrant and rather fancy/attractive looking)
d: g$10-30 c $30-75
h: $30-50maybe60

a 5" red body with blue legs (washed out but clearly definable colors)
d: g$10-30 c $30-75
h: $30-50maybe60

a 5" red body with blue legs (colors vibrant and rather fancy/attractive looking)
d: g$15-40 c $35-100
h: $40-60maaaybe75maybe

oops, it ended up looking like some kinda psuedocode after all =P

the low end of d:g is the hard reality of our current economy, and might even be *kind* to you in some cases. the high end of d:g is how good of a bargainer you are (i.e. stick to a higher price on a sweet pede and throw in decent prices on the common ones)

the low end of d:c is the operating overhead + profits etc limiting how much they have to charge to not lose money. the high end of d:c is their greed, increased operating expenses, drug habits, etc =P

the low end of what you can get from hobbyists is determined by what you feel like you are unwilling to sell for less than (the numbers are a rough guesstimate of what you could sell with decent success in one to two months. the high end could possibly involve waiting for someone who will see your ad and act on it in the order of once every 6-24 months

whew. my fingers are tired now =P
 
Last edited:

cacoseraph

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 5, 2005
Messages
8,325
hey guys im from southern Arizona (tucson), and when i was scorp hunting a few nights ago i saw about 9 what it looks to be Scolopendra polymorpha. about 3-4 inches. i was just wandering how the market is for these guys. I'm not trying to make money off them Because i do it for the hobby. you know, so I'll probably give them out for the cost of shipping or a trade. i just want to know if any one would be interested, so in the near future i will catch some. (i dont want to catch a bunch then keep them(im not that into them))

o ye, if theres a more common sp. that i may be mistaken for lemme know :)

ty
what color? is 3-4" BL or counting legs and/or ants?

trading is generally a much better way to go! consider their value as things that are anywhere from ~3-10 years old that have survived that long by scavenging or killing everything they ate while avoiding dehydrating... and they are the result of two such creatures finding each other and mating... they are not so very valueless. but truly, in trading (and really, in most of life despite what ad agencies and other corps might try to make you think) value is relative to each hobbyist

you *could* find someone who has just bred a Poecilotheria metallica sack and is willing to trade you a sling for like 5 of "your" pedes (because that particular person wants to do a breeding project or whatever... who knows)... making their "apparent market value" something like $30-50 each. that is not very likely... but getting some nice Brachypelma slings or maybe a couple WC Hadogenes sp. flatrock scorps (i don't know what bugs you like =P ) is not that unlikely at all.



as for possible other species: S. viridis for sure could be one... maybe Hemiscolopendra marginata... but that is probably not as likely as viridis and might not be in range, either. S. heros is poooosible, but less likely (imo) than the previous two species mentioned by a fair amount. i suppose other species could be possible, but not likely. polymorpha as currently described and understood is a very widespread and common pede in the US, found like 20-30 states i would guess
 

snappleWhiteTea

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 13, 2009
Messages
780
whoa cacoseraph, thanks for the info. I had to print it out, my eyes were killin' me :}

& ye I'm looking to trade more then sell,(im interested in T's & Scorpions) but I'll Still sell to some one if there interested enough. u interested ones can pm me here or reply on the thread, I'm goin' Saturday to "hunt" so I'll reply to my messages then.

ty
 

german shepard

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 17, 2007
Messages
82
Okay gave a few weeks to collect

I am continuing the thread you started about the Polymorpha's. Sure would be interested in buying some nice sized blue's & red's if you were able to hunt any down? Let me know if you did go collecting and had any luck? Or if you are gonna go hit the collecting again...Thanks, Marty
Hey if you collect any Heros family members interested in them as well!
 
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