T sling price?? a Major rise

I was wondering why sling prices have gone up soo much, older keepers said until 1995-2000 slings were much cheaper(no demand). Now days of some species a sling can cost 1/4 price of an female adult or more,. How can non wealthy T owners buy enough to breed????

If strongest survive & smaller slings usually do not even survive captivity ? why are prices so high , 10% might not even survive.
To all owners who lost a runt spider.


Thanks:biggrin:

With environmentalism on steroids in recent years, and in the years to come imo, pushed by the UN, prices for many animals like these are likely to rise, unless and until it swings the other way as it may later, as with other trends. Nobody knows for sure.

Ultum4Spiderz said:

If strongest survive & smaller slings usually do not even survive captivity ? why are prices so high , 10% might not even survive.
To all owners who lost a runt spider.

Click to expand...

Whoa is this really an issue? I had no idea it was such a big problem

Cavedweller said:

Whoa is this really an issue? I had no idea it was such a big problem

Click to expand...

I prefer watching Ts grow than buying at a adult size , Its not much of a issue.Being punished by way too high sling prices, will not help this. Causing me to buy way less, and other keepers.

I meant the weak sling die off. I mean I've heard of people losing slings to bad molts, but for some reason I just kinda assumed the weak ones mostly get eaten around 1i stage.

Cavedweller said:

I meant the weak sling die off. I mean I've heard of people losing slings to bad molts, but for some reason I just kinda assumed the weak ones mostly get eaten around 1i stage.

Click to expand...

nowadays most Ts are..

the strong survive is a nice try, im all for Darwinism myself. but thats why alot of people will leave T's together a little longer imo. the weak get prayed apon by 2i-3i and the rest shall thrive so long as the caretaker uses proper husbandry..

iv been given 2 maybe 3 T's myself. and a scorp deemed the runt "im not sure how long he will live but i have an X. xxxxx if you want it, its not the strongest guy.." and its now one of my strongest feeders. heck iv had the same with snakes and lizards.. sure a few will get a bad molt early in life, and then are screwed.. ei the bad molt resulting in 3 or more crooked legs [which comes down to husbandry again]

but imo its just a rant. i mean prices arnt that bad.. the only T's who are realy a bad fraction is like P.mets and rare T's sure you may get a WC fem for lets say $400 and a sling is 75. but i believe the rares are mainly priced so high as for making up money. and because the demand is so high, sure the wc fem may cost $400 but they may have payed 350 for her and are trying to make up a little from shipping costs, to where those not selling the female they have to make up that price in babies, plus they dont know if the fem will die soon.. how would you feel if you payed 400 for a female to breed. and had babies sold them all for like 40 bucks. kept almost none for yourself and she died within months of a sack...

Ultum4Spiderz said:

I was wondering why sling prices have gone up soo much, older keepers said until 1995-2000 slings were much cheaper(no demand). Now days of some species a sling can cost 1/4 price of an female adult or more,. How can non wealthy T owners buy enough to breed?

Click to expand...

It's demand. The hobby's grown significantly since the 1990's, especially in the last 10 years. That's brought in many new species never available before, most noticeable are those from (formerly) remote tropical areas. As someone in the hobby since 1973, I saw a big increase in collectors in the 1990's with a wave of new w/c species form South America, Africa, and a few from Asia. NW's dominated then, and there was little interest or demand for OW's, except for Poecs. Captive breeding began and a market for slings developed. The internet allowed people from all over the country, and the world, to talk about spiders and exchange info and specimens.

The hobby stayed at a plateau more or less until the mid 2000's, then came a tidal wave of new species from Europe, in the form of CBB slings. There's been great new introductions every year. Prior to this the average person couldn't get spiders from Madagascar, Indonesia, Philippines, China, Australia, etc. That in turn fueled the popularity of OW's. As the tastes of the hobby mature, many people consider OW's to be as desirable as NW's, and a growing percentage of people aren't handling their spiders (finally!).

With this surge in new species came higher price tags, many very high, but as more are imported and more are being bred in the US, supplies are starting to catch up with demand. Prices on most species have fallen over the last several years. There are still w/c's being imported, but not as many species and not from as many countries as their used to be, as many countries have shut down exports partially or totally due to political pressure.

In Europe there are more species available than in the US, and prices are much lower. That allows more Europeans to collect spiders. The average animal collector is not going to pay $50 to $100+ for a 1/2 spiderling that takes several years, or more to mature. That's what's held back the hobby in the US. Dealers and breeders love those kinds of prices, but that's limited the number of potential customers. We're gradually heading to European prices, and many more Americans will be able to afford to join the hobby. I've heard an occasional dire prediction that low prices are 'ruining the hobby' but all you have to do is look at Europe to see that's not true. The future of dealers will be in volume, not high unit prices.

What the Europeans, especially Germans, have done is figured out how to breed all these species. The US is playing catch up. New introductions will always be expensive, as it has to be worthwhile for people to travel across the world to jungles and stay there for weeks catching spiders. The first people to buy the CBB slings are paying high prices and taking risks. They can spend thousands of dollars on a species and not get an egg sac. Gradually sacs are hatched out, slings are exported to the US; prices are high initially and then start to moderate. Americans either figure out how to breed them or just keep bringing in exports. That's the cycle.

Poec54 said:

It's demand. The hobby's grown significantly since the 1990's, especially in the last 10 years. That's brought in many new species never available before, most noticeable are those from (formerly) remote tropical areas. As someone in the hobby since 1973, I saw a big increase in collectors in the 1990's with a wave of new w/c species form South America, Africa, and a few from Asia. NW's dominated then, and there was little interest or demand for OW's, except for Poecs. Captive breeding began and a market for slings developed. The internet allowed people from all over the country, and the world, to talk about spiders and exchange info and specimens.

What the Europeans, especially Germans, have done is figured out how to breed all these species. The US is playing catch up. New introductions will always be expensive, as it has to be worthwhile for people to travel across the world to jungles and stay there for weeks catching spiders. The first people to buy the CBB slings are paying high prices and taking risks. They can spend thousands of dollars on a species and not get an egg sac. Gradually sacs are hatched out, slings are exported to the US; prices are high initially and then start to moderate. Americans either figure out how to breed them or just keep bringing in exports. That's the cycle.

Click to expand...

Yeah If USA sling prices were more affordable like Germany I would breed much more species & buy many more multiples. USA education system also is in the shadow of Europe they generally get things done better. Not saying our citizens who self educate themselves aren't just as smart as Europeans they are.

Sling prices don't seem high to me. As was already said depends what you are looking at tho.There are some such as (p.metallica)
I wouldn't even consider an option.
But I have a rule, more than 20$ I won't buy it.

skar said:

Sling prices don't seem high to me. As was already said depends what you are looking at tho.There are some such as (p.metallica)
I wouldn't even consider an option.
But I have a rule, more than 20$ I won't buy it.

Click to expand...

Maybe I should stick to this rule, Germany has way better deals shame I don't live there.

skar said:

Sling prices don't seem high to me. As was already said depends what you are looking at tho.There are some such as (p.metallica)
I wouldn't even consider an option.
But I have a rule, more than 20$ I won't buy it.

Click to expand...

with that rule tho you wont get alot of species unless a dealer has a holiday sale o.0 or a person got a huge sack they just want gone

pyro fiend said:

with that rule tho you wont get alot of species unless a dealer has a holiday sale o.0 or a person got a huge sack they just want gone

Click to expand...

True my GBB were like double that price rule about $40ea, it would never work too well. We need to breed alot more in america so availability is way higher , Europe clearly is superior to our current breeding numbers. P met still commands a very high price despite being much, more common lately.

Ultum4Spiderz said:

True my GBB were like double that price rule about $40ea, it would never work too well. We need to breed alot more in america so availability is way higher , Europe clearly is superior to our current breeding numbers. P met still commands a very high price despite being much, more common lately.

Click to expand...

yes but you gota think when they are sold its 1 sack at a time not a whole lot of people buy 15 slings to get more fems to breed later down the road.. usually people buy 2-5 in my experience..

but yes bad rule i payed 45 for my gbbs and aprox 100 for my 5" fem if you count my overnight shipping was $5 plus got a free $30 sling [priced 200 tho and payed 65 for shipping from them before] very few of mine where under 20 anymore XD

skar said:

I have a rule, more than 20$ I won't buy it.

Click to expand...

Looking at most dealer's lists, that rules out the majority of what they carry.

---------- Post added 11-19-2014 at 06:18 AM ----------

pyro fiend said:

yes but you gota think when they are sold its 1 sack at a time not a whole lot of people buy 15 slings to get more fems to breed later down the road..

Click to expand...

Actually, most people buy 1 sling of a species at a time, which is foolish. A lot wind up with males. Male or female, the vast majority of T's in the country die as virgins, which has helped keep prices high.

Poec54 said:

Looking at most dealer's lists, that rules out the majority of what they carry.

---------- Post added 11-19-2014 at 06:18 AM ----------



Actually, most people buy 1 sling of a species at a time, which is foolish. A lot wind up with males. Male or female, the vast majority of T's in the country die as virgins, which has helped keep prices high.

Click to expand...

I ment people in the hobby who want to breed the sp.. i talked to someone and(not so) surprizingly most would only buy 3-5 not 10-20 like they probably should.

I dont think P. metallica prices are expenisive. They can be gotten super cheap, it all depends on who you know. And when it comes to breeding, it actually has to be done, not just talked about alot. Sling prices arent that bad. I just spent $4K on 49 spiders. Thats a average of $81 each.

catfishrod69 said:

I dont think P. metallica prices are expenisive. They can be gotten super cheap, it all depends on who you know. And when it comes to breeding, it actually has to be done, not just talked about alot. Sling prices arent that bad. I just spent $4K on 49 spiders. Thats a average of $81 each.

Click to expand...

$80-$100 is not cheap.

Considering the species, actually the prices were great.

BobGrill said:

$80-$100 is not cheap.

Click to expand...

Lol well im still paying payments! And got only enough to raise females. All of these are in my profile, but here is a list for easy viewing.

Augacephalus breyeri x3 slings
Augacephalus junodi x4 slings
Ceratogyrus meridionalis x8 slings
Ceratogyrus sanderi x2 slings
Cyriopagopus sp. Hati Hati x6 juvies
Cyriopagopus schioedtei 2 juvies/3 slings
Encyocratella olivacea adult female
Eucratoscelus constrictus x5 slings
Harpactira pulchripes x5 sligns
Ornithoctoninae sp. Laos x5 slings
Psalmopoeus ecclesiasticus x4 slings
Sericopelma sp. Chiriqui (Freebie, and possibly the only one in the US)

Very impressive species list, those all seem like the rarer ones .