actually think about it no famous breeder need craiglist or even a unknown one would use it to sell them
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Exactly. Someone like Justin at JKR is world renowned and a house hold name in the ball python community and I can guarantee that he sells more snakes than he has listed at any given time since he may do package/group deals. If I hadn’t known about Justin or the fact that these were his snakes I still would say it is a scam because someone who produces quality animal such as this would never sell on CL. Most people buying reptiles on CL are looking for deals. Not snakes worth 3-5k.
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In general I think most ball pythons on craiglist are wildly overpriced normals, mislabeled overpriced morphs and the few that aren’t are usually scams. While I’m guilty of using craigslist now and again to try find a good deal, I’d never recommend it to someone who’s new to the ball python scene, you’re far more likely to end up getting a sick animal or get ripped off (probably both).
If you’re looking to get your first ball python, I would either start with a Facebook group for local breeders or Morph Market, and still do due diligence on each breeder you consider buying from.
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This is the most important input in this thread.
You want quality animals, buy from quality breeders who are known for producing such.
CL will rarely if ever offer that.
I agree with famous breeders would never use CL to sell their animals. But it is completely false that unknown breeders won’t, there are many unknown breeders who sell on CL. The correct question would be would you want to invest in it compared to a known or respected breeder.
If Justin posted on CL we are all in trouble, because his stuff is so sick he probably gets pulled over by ambulances.
That is a scam a mile away like others have mentioned.
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Although I agree and would never recommend a newcomer to buy from CL I think as long as you know what to look for it is acceptable because some people are genuine good people and just trying to rehome a snake as soon as possible. A good example of this are people trying to rehome pets because of the fires here in California. In the last week alone I have seen maybe over 30 ads of people trying to rehome reptiles specifically because of the fires.
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Although there are some honest people on CL truly trying to rehome animals due to tragedy, this is also the time when you will see an uptake in scams. Not only from people trying to take advantage of people needing to rehome, but trying to scam those that feel this is the time to “get a good deal”
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Oh I agree, the key phrase being “as long as you know what to look for”. There are some new breeders who aren’t fully established yet who use craigslist to sell their animals, or people who have to quickly rehome a pet in an emergency, but you have to be able to weed out all the scams. Which means you need a good working knowledge of the different morphs, what each is worth, male vs female, ball python health. and what questions to ask. Which is why it’s a dangerous game to play for someone who’s relatively new to ball pythons.
My pied girl is a perfect example of a good craigslist find, but I would have never taken the chance if I hadn’t been able to verify that she was everything the seller claimed
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I can second that. I browse CL weekly just to see if there are any cages I can use( since I go with Animal Plastics I don’t want to wait 6+ months for a cage). I constantly see scams for dog adds, and probably 95% of them are scams. It’s a horrible time where people will jump on the less knowledgeable individual.
Definitely have to tread lightly in CL adds.
But like @chesterhf mentioned, you can find good deals like her Pied female. I too found a group of 1.4 Pieds over 5 years ago for 1k, but that was not the time we live in now and CL has gotten worse over the years.
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Yes like the breeders I got my dogs from, they would never sell their puppies on craigslist and most of the puppies are spoken for before they are even born. Not to mention the pedigrees go back many years, health testing done prior to breeding, working or show titles on sire and dam, ect. So I’m glad to learn today that responsible reptile breeders are similar! I’m very happy I found morph market and very satisfied with my first purchase from this site and plan to make a second one this weekend 
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I hope you know that everyone here on the forum charges each person that gets a new reptile a picture tax! So when you get your new scaly buddy you better show him off!
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Yes sir ok!
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I’ll pop in and say that I’ve used Craigslist to sell my animals before. I’m not a known breeder yet, so using Craigslist does help get more eyes on my animals that I have for sale.
However, I’ve only done it for snakes that I’ve bought and then decided to sell for whatever reason. I haven’t and likely won’t with snakes that I’ve produced myself. I’ve had some pretty good luck selling my own babies on MorphMarket 
I’ve also seen another breeder local to me that I’ve bought from post on there… though I don’t think she does anymore.
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There are a few thing I would like to point as far as selling on CL
1# It’s against their TOS
2# How do you want to be perceived as a breeder, and if you want to be perceived as a professional (and everything it involves) you do not want to list animals on CL
The “I am not known and this helps or this is what I have to do” is not accurate, when I started there was no MM and yet I still sold my animals doing so on proper platform where I could promote myself. (Not talking about social media either)
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Not meaning to go off topic but how did you sell your animals at a time where sites like MM didn’t exist? I’m still not a veteran breeder like you or some of the other mods and users and when I started getting serious about breeding MM in the early stages of the site existed.
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Back than it was Fauna Classifieds and Kingsnake Classifieds
Since MM was created I have exclusively sold on MM
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Only one way to find out.
I live in Virginia and that add was on my craigslist as well.
Funny you should ask because I was thinking about this. I used to sell to pet stores in the early 90’s and I would actually take hatchlings in a custom portable rack I made. I also used to go in and probe their snakes and help them with health issues so that they knew and trusted me when it was time to sell. I also had phone and snail mail correspondence with a few wholesalers like Glades Herp (before the controversy) and others, N.E.R.D. was around back then and I used to get their price list hard copy in the mail along with others. Computers and the web really changed the scene.
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I had found something i thought was too good to be true and the timing was perfect. I had recently got my new AP enclosures and was going to go to AP cages to buy 5 more T8s. For whatever reason i decided to look on Craigslist just on the off chance i might find some. Well, i found an ad for 5 AP T8s at $150 each. Text the person and they told me they are brand new never used. She was going to get some snakes, but apparently they recently became illegal. They have just been sitting in her shed covered in spider webs. All assembled and bottom sealed. I jumped on it and went to her place the next day with a coworker who has a truck. She was extremely nice, but i was more in shock at the fact she had her own private zoo. She had camels, zebra, horses, macaws, and giraffes. Was a great and unexpected purchase to say the least. Now to spend the rest of my evening cleaning the enclosures of spiderwebs and hoping nothing alive came with.
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