Hey all, I haven’t been in the forum in quite some time and had to take a break from the reptile hobby but I am coming back into ball pythons pretty soon. I was wanting to know what are hottest things out there right now in terms of projects or new combos? I was pretty speechless when some of the combos that were out of my budget just two years ago are completely affordable for me now. I’m seeing dreamsicles, clown pieds, Batman’s and others like it in terms of price range all around the 1k mark or less for the cheapest individuals!!! So that must mean hotter things are out there right? Am I not up to date on what’s hot?
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It seems clown and DG are the most popular and highest priced. However even they seem to have drastically reduced in price.
Also the reason every seems so cheap is because there is a recession with the reptile industry right now. If you are going to invest, now would be the best time.
Also it is great to see you back!
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Hey Nathan! I dont really have any insight since ball pythons aren’t really my thing but I just wanted to say its great to see you back here and hope to see you post regularly 
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Welcome back!
I think the easiest way to catch up is probably look at Kinova’s Youtube vids. Justin is still one of the top players and has some beautiful looking animals. Typically any new project he reveals becomes the top seller for a bit. Like the ‘Batman’ or the ‘Kraken’ combos of clown.
Mutation Creation is another good one for catching up on I think. Though I haven’t checked their page in a bit.
Double recessives are starting to drop, but a lot of breeders are looking towards triple and quad recessives now.
As mentioned, definitely a good time to buy. Selling may be another matter since it’s so oversaturated.
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You’ll always get different opinions on ‘what’s hot now’ because everyone has a different view.
Aim for double to quad recessives though. That’s where the market is going.
Check out my youtube videos late at night if you need a laugh lol
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Welcome back! Not really answering your question per se, but I used to filter Morphmarket searches to show some of my family who i don’t see often. I do $10000+ with pricing. All of the answers before mine are absolutely correct with very sound advice. I’m sure Monsoon and Stranger will come down in price very soon, just like Sunset prices took a dive.
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This is the most true answer I have heard lol 
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Hey welcome back! Hope everything’s good!
I think right now is a great time to get into some diamond in the rough kind of projects. Things that could be the next White Lace with the right vision, breeding, and marketing. But that aren’t the current shiny thing that everyone is going to have thousands to unload in 2-3 years. Of course there’s risk in that approach too, that it never gets attention. But for me it’s more fun to be working at the bleeding edge of some esoteric project than having the stress of beating the current mainstream morph depreciation curve that has huge numbers competing on it.
I guess my full approach actually is getting one project with mainstream attention and still lots of new combos to be made (e.g. Paint, Sunset, Monsoon) and working it into a couple of niche projects that I think will merge into great new bases for others to build off of.
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We can post gifs now?! Damn how much have I missed? Lol
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As far as recessive projects go I was actually wanting to shoot for something Justin created which was the vpi dg clown. What do you think of that as a project? I also wanted to shoot for a quad project which would be a clown pied with dg and vpi in the mix.
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My main goal is although I am going to get into the projects I truly enjoy I do also want the morphs I work with to hold a strong market value. I would hate to get into something and invest and just have the market crash for that particular project or morph.
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Axanthic DG Clowns are a project many are shooting for, and if that’s something that interest you then go for it. I expect to see the quad Ax DG Clown Pied in 2024, so once it comes out, if that’s still a direction you want to go - the all steam ahead! 
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I wanna make something few will have 
But seems like everyone is always 10 steps ahead! Lol
I had planned on buying a clown pied, clown het dg, and a clown het vpi
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That might make your project a bit difficult though… unless you already have axanthic and DG in your collection. You would have to run shed tests to ID who inherited the hets.
At the least, getting a visual recessive from the breeding is what I hope to gain in a project. For example I picked up a couple expansion females for my panda pied project:
-Vpi het pied
-Albino pied
My current male is a pewter het pied so I can easily hold back a pied from either female go further with guaranteed hets…Eventually working towards pied double het snow
Unless you enjoy the challenge! I totally get that.
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In your opinion let’s say I want to go through with a vpi dg clown project what would be good starting females? As stated above I thought the lineup I had would be a good start but I’d appreciate input!
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Most would tell you to buy het females and get visual males, so you can plug the male into more females. If you wanted to go the DG VPI Clown route, I’d go with a double visual and het for most of the pairings.
Example:
DG Clown het VPI
VPI Clown het DG
DG VPI het Clown
mix and match
However - I’d advise making your DG side visual. That way you can do any shed testing with other companies if you do not want to use RGI and can get quicker turn around results.
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I say whatever you go for, plan for what’s next and what can set you apart. Meaning when you get that breeding group get some extra genes that you’re going to build into the project. For DG VPI Clown probably think about pattern mutations you could add since color/clean will be maxed out with the triple visual.
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Definitely this! the rest of her suggestion is also good. I just lucked out and found some good prices on females that could work with the group I already had.
Definitely the added bonus to consider
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Personally feel like there are too many new combos out there to pick just a few out but i do agree with one of the reply check up on youtube i know [
@leviathansnakes (https://www.youtube.com/@LeviathanSnakes) They are working with some cool new gene Furrow and Nyla Then you have all these other cool genes such as some kinda newish genes that not many are working with or that people are starting to jump into are Monsoon,Furrow,Gorrila(NBKReptiles/DPRColdBlood), Trident, Puzzle, and the list goes one But then again this is ONLY our second year breeding we just been doing tons of research and watching videos prior to Jumping into the Breeding process . Then even though its really Pricey there is the cool gene we noticed roaming through the Social is the Sandstorm and Tornado not many working with this gene but we did learn that there is few people working with this gene and that there is a waitlist for the next clutch… Last But not least i say since you getting back into it Pick up a few That you like want work with them also the other commentors were not joking that the hobby is heading towards the Triple And Quad recessives and some are jaw droppers. Find the Gene You Would Not Mind Looking At Every Feed And Have Fun With It …
Also idk if you been paying attention to the morph news but Now there are talks and genetic testing to support the idea that Desert Ghost is sort of a Polygenic morph so there is DGa DGb DGc Being ( Desert Ghost {a}, Desert Ghost {b}, Desert Ghost {c} ) with One being the Desert Ghost that Brightens everything up, One that gives the animal That Axanthic Look Then There is The Other desert Ghost Which i believe might be the Enhancer or a different version of de besides the Enhancer …
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