Selling all tarantulas at low prices, regardless of the T's current "status", are against natural norms and just plainly unrealistic and brain-dead.

Unfortunately (fortunately?) ALL types of hobbies, live stock and beyond, work like this - one will find a brought spectrum of affordability... And this is so vital for that specific hobby's survival!

Personally I am of the opinion that the hobby of tarantula-keeping (and breeding) is in a very good place for growth, due to the brought spectrum of specimens that are available at different levels of affordability - cheap to very expensive! This is perfect, and this is how things should be to ensure future development and growth.

"Expensive" is very subjective... The obtain the TOP OF THE MARKET tarantula for just R1400 a sling? Come on!!! I was in the parrot breeding business for many years, and there one may pay beyond a FEW hundred grand for top notch specimens. Now that is expensive!

The price-range ensure that EVERYONE will be able to afford to keep a tarantula, from poor people to stinking rich. How wonderful it is to be part of a hobby where EVERYONE may share common grounds, regardless of financial status!

If you can't afford a Ferrari, then settle for BMW or a Merc... You won't have the BEST on the market, but you will still drive a very nice car! Same with tarantulas...

I guess I must be brain dead then. I used to sell any slings I bred for £1 each (about 13 rand) regardless of what species it was. Of course people used to try and take the piss by asking to buy them all so they could sell them on for profit. These requests were suitably ignored and I'd limit the numbers that people could buy from 3-10 depending on the size of the sac. If I caught anyone selling these on other forums then I wouldn't deal with them again. Nowadays I just give away any slings I breed to friends for free.
As far as I can tell the prices on any species I've bred haven't dropped any, the hobby hasn't gone to ruin, people haven't stopped breeding spiders because there is no profit in it however, it seems I have made some people very happy by giving them a good deal on a spider they wouldn't normally get. I just see it all as a bit of fun. I keep spiders for my own amusement and if I happen to get lucky and breed any then its just a bonus. I can't get my head around this idea that these spiders are somehow an investment and that I should expect some sort of return from them. That's not a hobby to me.

DocMorrie wrote: Selling all tarantulas at low prices, regardless of the T's current "status", are against natural norms and just plainly unrealistic and brain-dead.

Unfortunately (fortunately?) ALL types of hobbies, live stock and beyond, work like this - one will find a brought spectrum of affordability... And this is so vital for that specific hobby's survival!

Personally I am of the opinion that the hobby of tarantula-keeping (and breeding) is in a very good place for growth, due to the brought spectrum of specimens that are available at different levels of affordability - cheap to very expensive! This is perfect, and this is how things should be to ensure future development and growth.

"Expensive" is very subjective... The obtain the TOP OF THE MARKET tarantula for just R1400 a sling? Come on!!! I was in the parrot breeding business for many years, and there one may pay beyond a FEW hundred grand for top notch specimens. Now that is expensive!

The price-range ensure that EVERYONE will be able to afford to keep a tarantula, from poor people to stinking rich. How wonderful it is to be part of a hobby where EVERYONE may share common grounds, regardless of financial status!

If you can't afford a Ferrari, then settle for BMW or a Merc... You won't have the BEST on the market, but you will still drive a very nice car! Same with tarantulas...

Just curious as to how expensive t's ensure future developement and growth.
R1400 is expensive to most of us. If they were cheaper then EVERYBODY could afford one if they were available. Guess thats another topic for another day

To be honest I didn't read everyones posts, no time, but I think that some Ts should be expensive (not too expensive) but reasonable. That's a hobby, you save up and you collect the ones that you really want. Personally I breed for the money, but I also try keep the prices cheap, I wouldn't make really rare Ts cheap because I think that kind of ruins the hobby. I think that is the point of the hobby in the end, it makes it exciting I just disagree to make the prices stupidly high. An example would be a T. blondi (don't think anyone is busy breeding them) A person might want to sell a sling for R1400 but a reasonable price would be about R500, still a lot of money to spend on a sling, but not overly expensive, and still exciting when you manage to save up and buy one

Well, I'm convinced that the price (and lack of common availability) of certain tarantula species is what keeps the hobby ticking for a good part of our local community.

How come otherwise that many keepers don't even own a Curly or sold most of the more commonly available species once they "advanced" to the "more desirable" species?

I really understand your point Magnificent Duke and it is a great way to expand the hobby by giving spiders away. The hobby is very different in SA though compared to Europe. If you had to give a balfouri sling away to 70 people on your side, it would probably have no effect. The hobby on our side is MUCH smaller. Not saying it cant be done, as I have given away plenty a free spider, but it just works differently here as the hobby is probably 100 - 250 times smaller.