Hello, and welcome to the community! The advice I have is mostly just personal opinion. If you haven’t been to morphmarket.com, I suggest you have a look there at the ball pythons listed there. Just in the United States, there are over 37,000 ball pythons for sale.
I suggest finding morphs that you REALLY, REALLY like based on your price range, and go from there. In the “ball pythons for sale” pages, there is a “filter” option where you can specify the sex, price range, traits, age, etc. Once you find some morphs you like, I suggest using the filter again. There is a place in the filter to select “maturity.” I think it’s a good idea to select “baby” and “adult” within that maturity section. The reason for this is so you can see how ball pythons change in appearance color-wise, because there are some morphs that are super bright and colorful, but as they age they kind of lose their color. This isn’t the case for all ball pythons by any means. In fact, adults may look even prettier as adults. It’s just something to be aware of.
Since you mention an upcoming reptile show, and because you know you want a baby, having an enclosure set up beforehand is a must.
To keep myself from rambling any further, please have a look at these links below. Read them thoroughly, because these are pretty comprehensive guides to ball python keeping, and they do a great job of covering enclosure needs, feeding, possible health issues, etc. Youtube videos are good to watch too, and there are some good ones to watch that are posted within the links below.
You’ve already made a great first step in becoming a responsible keeper! Feel free to come here to ask questions, post pictures of youur new baby when you get him/her, and converse with other members here!
Beginner’s Guide to Ball Python Care?
Take care!