Devaluing problem within selling kittycats

[Ivy Norsk]

I've been trying to think of a way to respond to this thread that's useful. I agree with many of the points here, so just a few comments.

I think there are de facto such things as "utility cats" in the market. These are those workhorse overbred recessives that are useful for pulling traits in the LEs. Some people specialize in producing these "utility cats". They do this because there is money in it until the inevitable saturation point. And people buy them because they are useful. I have purchased "utility cats" for specific breeding purposes. I have not sold them unless I have changed a trait. I would be embarrassed to sell them. Churning is not what my cattery is about. Also, producing them requires ramped up numbers of production kitties and a constant trait-chasing that I would find to be stressful and not creatively satisfying. I think there will always be such cats and such breeders because these cats are useful. They have their place in the market eco-system.

What bugs me is the way SO Many people aim just for those cats. Really, there is a far greater variety of cats that can be created (and bought). Also, I think treating certain furs as merely workhorses until people are just sick of them is kind of a shame. I was thrilled to see that foxie salt and pepper has finally been retired. I think it's a sharp-looking fur. Maybe with luck in a few years it can be rehabilitated as a boutique cat that people will look at with fresh eyes, with some new traits (or maybe not - we'll see).

However, I can also see why many people don't breed just traits that they like. It's a very uncertain thing that any given cat will sell at all, for any price. Part of this is just that there are so many breeders and so many cats, and people may not need/want that cat that I've spent months working on or that has been an offshoot of a line that I'm working on. That's just reality and numbers. Also, many's been the time when I've not bought a perfectly good cat at auction because I already own that cat or better within my own cattery. You breed for awhile, you do end up with a lot of boxes and your need for retro cats may go down. New traits sell because, well, people - even experienced breeders - don't have them yet.

Regarding selling pairs: I sometimes get male/female couples from a breeding that weren't what I was going for, but which I think would make a nice project that I don't have the time or cattery space to concentrate on. I set those out as couples because I think those cats could do well together and other people are welcome to buy them and pick them up as a project. I certainly expect that whomever buys them under those circumstances can make a line of them. My cattery being boutiquey as it is, these aren't the "perfect" recessive cats, but still very nice kitties to my eye.

The bottom line is that if you put a cat out for sale, people will do with that cat as they please, and such is life.