Before buying a kingsnake, there's a few thing you must be aware of. This industry, just like any other, is full of scammers. This is more likely to come into play when ordering online. Many things can happen when making deals online. You always have to pay first, which gives the seller the opportunity to scam you. Sometimes they don't send your snake, or send you an unhealthy snake. Sometimes they ship the snake in bad weather without heat or cold packs, depending on what is best used at the time, and the snake could arrive dead. This can happen with any seller, and often they will replace the snake, but sometimes they are just happy they got the money and try to blame you for the loss. Sometimes they don't honor their health guarantee. This is more common with the high end snakes that cost thousands of dollars, but it can just as easily happen with a single kingsnake. One way to help avoid buying from a breeder with a bad reputation, is to do a search on them on the B.O.I. That stands for The Board of Inquiry on Fauna Classifieds. Here is a direct link to the B.O.I. Just scroll down about 6 inches, and on the right side you'll see a little box that says "Search this Forum". Click on that and a little box will open. Type in the breeders name or his business, before clicking go, it also gives you a choice to show threads or show posts. I like to show threads, that way you can look for a bad guy thread on the guy. If you find bad guy threads, chances are, you don't want to deal with that person. You might want to read the thread before making that judgment. If you find good guy threads, chances are you are safe. If there is nothing at all, then you are taking a 50/50 chance of getting a good experience with that person. That's how I see it, although, I think most sellers are not out to rip you off, that doesn't mean they will make the right choice if something is to go wrong with the snake. Please don't let this discourage you from shopping online. There are some very good honest breeders out there with very good reputations. Don Shores is a good person to buy from and so are a lot of other breeders.
Photo's of a snake can also be deceiving. A lot of times the flash can make a snake look brighter colored or lighter colored than it really is. A king that is a yellowish white, can look pure white because of the flash. Even the yellow on a king might not be as rich yellow in the photo as it is in person. If you are very particular about how you want your king to look, ask questions or go to a reptile expo and hand pick your snake in person.
Another thing to remember is very often, a baby kingsnake will change a bit in color as it matures into an adult. Baby Cal kings often look black, but that black very often turns into some shade of brown. A coastal phase will change to light or dark brown. Its bands could be yellow from the get go, or they can be an off white color that will change to yellow as an adult. A desert phase can also change from black to a medium brown. The term black and white is very misleading, as most of those kings are a really dark brown that doesn't show up in photographs. And I'm not even sure if there is any adult Cal king that is truly black. They are often a very dark brown that appears black. Some breeders selectively breed for the whitest white and the blackest black. I've seen these kings in person and the white is incredible. Most of the time, a desert phase king will not have pure snow white bands and the belly is always a cream/yellowish color. It may not be evident in juveniles, but it will be in adults. Then there are high white Cal kings that might look white as juveniles, but become slightly yellowish as adults. Not all high whites turn out that way. The only way to know what your baby will look like as an adult is by seeing both of its parents in person, or buying from a reputable breeder that will not lie to you and knows exactly what he/she is talking about.