I would have to agree with Phran, Saffa's do have a status obsession and theres no bragging rights on a Curly. Gotta love the animals to get bitten and stay hooked (if you'll forgive the mixed metaphor)... Also, we seem to like to farm stuff, for a quick buck or the kudo's.

Im relaxed, just laying back and waiting for all the cool spiders I reeeeaaaallly want to drop in price enough for me to afford more than one at a time, I keep them for the joy of it, not to breed or brag. Circles I usually move in think I'm a freak for wanting to keep spiders in the first place!

I dont think much more can be said on the topic, besides

STOP CHASING THE MONEY PEOPLE!!

Get a t ONLY if YOU want it, and NOT because someone said they worth alot, or are super rare!!


2 examples

I own a nice sized Nhandu coloratovilosus, yeah they cheap now, but I think it is a very under-rated t!!


And

for the breeders or WANT TO BE breeders

Just because u have a mature male, DOES NOT mean that u have to breed him - this floods the market, killing the price of that species
Rather let him live out his days as a virgin and APPRECIATE him for what he is NOT HIS VALUE
- If its a rare male, by all means help the hobby out

The reason for this whole problem is that I stopped buying spiders, I just buy palm peat now noob . shocked

To true I have experienced both sides of the field, I have been lucky enough to move stock super fast and then I have not been so lucky to end up looking after a couple of left overs.

But if you love the hobby and your spiders and you not out to get rich then spending an extra R60 a month to feed the left over stock till you have a buyer or they die should not be a problem.

Bearing this in mind, we have 1000+ members and maybe 3000(guessing) other members outside of the forum
What we all need to think about is the growth rate of spiders and how many spiders do people keep in there collection, how many new members join the tarantula keeping hobby daily and how many people leave the hobby over night.
Not every one in the hobby goes out and keeps 100's of spider, there is maybe a handful of people out there that keep over a 100 spiders in their collections. Space is another issue or the partner does not allow more spiders into the house.

Most males mature within 2 years of receiving the spider and dies 2 to 3 years after maturing so in 5 years people will only be looking at getting themselves replacement spiders.
Some people only keep a handful of spiders and don't buy any more.
Some species just do not have that hobby sexiness.
Then you get members that only buy larger spiders, which in turn means the smaller version does not get that much attention.
Also breeding tarantulas has become easy as making pre-mixed muffins, just add oil, eggs, water and the mixture, stir and into oven, 30mins you have desert.
So breeding has become like this.
Meaning people who have no experience or fore thought just breed.

When I started in the hobby all those years ago, I bought smaller slings with the intention to breed after waiting for the required amount of years to do so.
Another example, in my area there were 4 guys, including myself that breed P.cambrdgei out of the 4 of us, all sacks where successful and out of those 4 spiders all of them double clutched, I think only one person had success with that doubled clutch sack.

I had 178-/+ (can't remember the exact amount)
another member had 150
I had a breeding loan so half went to the males owner.

But if every one that had breed the spiders had average of 150 spiders each then you looking at 600 spiders in circulation just in my area alone and that is the people I know of in my area.
So one can understand how the hobby gets saturated with curtain species.
So just do the maths, if 20 people breed P.cambridgei, then you can just see the amount of spiders that will be in the market.

Next to be flooded is GBB!

Yeah, I'm super sad about the GBB's. I couldn't even find one when I started the hobby. Only PienkT had bred them and they were always sold out before I could get hold of one. I was like cascade and waited a good few years before attempting breeding. I have now bred them, but they are all over the place and their prices are already dropping like crazy.

Profiteers targeted the species that were in short supply and that had high prices, and bred the crap out of them. They are probably reading this on a beach in Barbados laughing their asses off. Making R50,000 from a good egg sac was very possible and still is with certain species.

What's ticking me off is that these profiteers don't even like tarantulas. They come in breed, make money, sell their T's and leave the real hobbyists to clean up the mess and try convince people that, money aside, this is still a cool hobby to be in.

Okay so I am new,I am reading all over the place. I can actually sympathize in what's happening,since it happens with most real breeders no matter what they chose to breed. I started breeding a certain type breed of dog for the love of the animals history,very soon saw more people calling themselves breeders. I am sorry to say it was the opposite,since like with anything you breed I believe in quality not quantity. Also do it for the love of the animal/insect/reptile whichever you decide. As time goes by people start to join in as so called breeders,then you would find them selling to any potential customer if they are fit or not to care for the pet. I know it might be from another point of view since it was dogs,but I think no matter what the market they all suffer some way. So I just hope I may learn and enjoy my life long love for spiders,started with love at first bite (baboon spider bite was 20 at the time)

Well there is a simple solution to this situation, that will make things more difficult for these "so called breeders" and hopefully curb the current events. But we as the community need to enforce this otherwise it would be useless.

Ok so we are all bitching about the situation, so here is an option.

We regulate breeding by issuing permits to breeders. so we would have : a: Quality stock and not crossbred spidies that harm the hobby. Such as the case with lasiodora....

B: We would be able to see who is breeding what and then also curb limit the supply of spiders to a certain extent.

C: if there was a decision to add a fee to these permits that could be used to fund competitions and shows to grow the hobby....

The restrictions should be a time limit spent in the hobby as well as a identification test at minimum...

My suggestion.