The Real cost of selling a gecko

I want to go over some of the costs of being a breeder because I know personally I have undersold myself before and when you start out you may feel like you are unsure about how to price your geckos. I would recommend establishing a good reputation, once people know who you are and are more comfortable with you, it gets easier to put those real prices on what you are selling. Even so if you start too low people will expect you to continue to offer low prices even when your quality goes up! If you nip it in the bud in the beginning you can avoid those kind of problems in the future.

Personally I look at crested geckos being real subjective for the most part which is why I do not feel comfortable pricing other people's geckos. People will pay any price for the gecko they really want. If you don't like working with for example bicolors, then it might blow your mind someone else is selling then for X amount of money. If you must have a base line I would gauge it using morphmarket, look at well known breeder websites, keep an eye on the groups and see what everyone seems to be going crazy for and go from there! At the end of the day, the gecko is worth what you think its worth.

Having said that, certain morphs such as Axanthics, Hets, Lilly whites ( these do have a low, medium, and high expression pricing), Super capps ect. seem to have a certain level they stick around so educate yourself. Again morph market is a great place to see what is going on there or ask someone who is working with those type of morphs if they seem approachable. Lets dive into typical costs of breeding these animals.

Every year since 2015 when I started, shipping costs have kept going up and up! I bet you all seasoned breeders miss those 45$ shipping costs, because I know I sure do!

Last years average was roughly around 60-65$, but recently the biggest quote I came up with was 79$! Do that math, that is realllly rough. I implemented shipping into the price to keep things simpler, it keeps me from having to do individual quotes which as a mother of four, can be real time consuming. Now I am back at square one trying to figure out if quoting might be safer. Keep in mind it might be hard for a new buyer to justify dropping 100$ on a gecko with 79$ shipping. I would suggest to try your best to locally sell geckos that you value 100$ or lower, or grow them out and charge more for them as juvies or adults!

As a seller if you break down the cost of a gecko it really goes like this:

* money to cover geckos/housing: feeding costs( crested gecko diet, crickets), water, electricity, tub supplies, caps, fake plants, insultation tubing, racks, lighting, substrate, cost of breeders to produce said gecko ect.)

* money to cover shipping supplies/labels : deli cup, boxes ( I get mine shipped in so it has to also cover the cost to get them to me), paper towels, business cards/stickers, packing supplies, printer, printing paper, ink, phase 22s, cold packs, heat packs ect.

* money to cover the drop off: gas ( depending on how far you live from the hub can add up), or you can do fed ex pick up from your house for 5$

* Time is a huge one! Many many breeders do not work 9 to 5, they work 24/7 on their projects, working on the colony, and if you happen to vend, well that's a whole other thing altogether!

These are all things you should be thinking of when you price those geckos. Also if you are getting money through paypal it will take a cut of your total. Now you can offset this by taking into account that fee and slapping it on, or some people try to avoid fees altogether and will take Friends and Family instead. Now with F&F you run the risk of your paypal being flagged or people may not trust you as a seller.

Just a side note for people who do not report this gecko money at income tax time because they "forget", a law passed that states this year in 2022 paypal's guidelines are changing from 20k goods/service + 200 transactions to just making over 600$ ( this applies to cash app and venmo). Granted I am seeing people stating it must be business account, but I haven't seen this in writing so accept money at your own risk! The cool part about reporting this money is you can write off so many things. I suggest researching in your state to see how this works for you. As long as your side hustle swings a profit 3 out of 5 years you can take advantage of those write offs!

In conclusion I hope this helps you have a better idea of what those gecko costs really cover and makes you feel more confident in your pricing!