cascade wrote:

Scarab wrote: In an effort to get these spiders into the hobby, I have GIVEN a breeding pair to an accomplished Pokie breeder to see if he has luck. I have offered a breeding pair to Mammon for the same reason, he graciously declined for reasons I fully understand. I will be giving another breeding pair to a trusted friend when I see him again, also to "spread the probability" of getting some slings.

That is kind of you, also increasing the chance of greater success across the board. .

I was very gratefull to Scarab to be offered a pair but did decline his offer as im in the process of leaving the hobby and the fact that i have a pair already.
But the fact still remains that i person breeding these overated T's will hold a monopoly on price.
2 successful egg sacs will flood the market and 2 years later the price will drop.
Then people will realise they are not all that and just a passing fad

mammon wrote:

SynergyZA wrote: I would like to get a couple as well.
For future breeding.

Maybe you should save your money so that you can get that Aston Martin
you cant afford :laugh:

If only a car was an investment I would bother more with saving for one.

mammon wrote:

Scarab wrote: After all is said and done, I still do not see the price drop in the near future.

If i have success i will offer them at R800
Price dropped already.
18 months later there will be many adults and as easy as pokies are to breed im sure many people will have success.

Our market is too small to handle all those so everybody will have to cut each others price reducing price further.

Take Europe for example 2 years back they were 120 euro now you can pick them up for 30.

Only time will tell the truth

I was thinking about that the other day, once the market gets flooded with curtain spiders and people have bought what they wanted, the breeder or seller sits with excess stock that he can't sell, and they eventually get bigger and the price goes up on he's stock and still does not get them sold!
For an example, at the end of the day the breeder/seller has 10 B smithi he cannot get sold, so the price keeps climbing. If you bring your prices down you still sale your stock and you still make money along the line.

I now my partner will diffidently be in line to buy a R800.00 P metallica, if you get success.

Now that is complete and utter K@K news... Mammon leaving the hobby? Talk about a HUGE loss...

All true, yet I must beg to differ with "overrated"... but admit it is a personal view. We can sit behind our keyboards and debate about this all year. When we have slings, we talk again...

so if they were easy to breed imo, then the market would already be flooded no? also i see them for $250 at www.tarantulacanada.ca/English/English.htm

so if they were easy to breed imo, then the market would already be flooded no?

Probably. The truth is that some breeders have a very special knack, others suffer their fannies off to get anything done. It is likely that someone would find it "a walk in the park" to breed P metallica and get the "trick" sooner than others. The fact that they are now cheaper in Europe only indicates that they are bred with greater success there, yet they are still very pricey in Canada. The price in Europe can not be used as an indicator IMO, because they are there, and not here (yet). Just as a matter of interest, I exchanged emails with the owners of that Canadian website. Because they have P metallica for sale, I presumed they bred them and requested info on their breeding methods (as I requested from RobC). They never had a P metallica egg case, the ones the have for sale were bought from another breeder, probably in the US. Needless to say, the price is high because of this.

If you look at any keepers "wishlist", you are bound to find P metallica on it. I am of the opinion that these spiders will remain highly sought after, and in reality is expensive even at R800. Only a hand full of species reach that price when compared to most other species in the hobby. A few examples might be Theraphosa blondi, Theraphosa apophysis, Theraphosa stermi, Hapalopus sp, Monocentropus balfouri, Monocentropus lambertoni, Poecilotheria subfusca and Poecilotheria smithi.

As Mommon said, time (and effort) will determine...