As I prepare for Breyerfest (in essence is still a bit less than three months away but will be here before we know it) around this time to help quell not only my sanity, but yours I'm sure as well, I do a part of my blog called Random Ramblings where I talk about other aspects of the hobby than just new releases. It could really be about anything as far as the hobby goes, which is why I call it "random" ramblings. Today, for instance, I finally finished unpacking all of my collection. I have a lot more horses than I last counted, apparently, and finding shelf space was... agonizing to say the least. I couldn't bring my shelves with me from Ohio, as they were built into our walls and ripping them out wouldn't have made the new owners happy to find the damage they'd leave. When we purchased our Kentucky house, I did ask how much shelf space they'd be willing to put into the house, and they kind of looked at me like I was crazy when I told them I'd probably need a whole room full. They were only willing to put in a closet full of shelves so I still had to buy a couple bookshelves. I finally found a place for everyone, and now I'm happy to have my models on display again. Yes, it took me this long. Don't even ask how our new barn and real horse pasture are coming along... Going through my collection made me stop and think. I've been concentrating so hard on limited editions and special runs that my regular runs are quite limited in my collection. My question to myself is... why? After all, when I first started collecting - and I'm sure a lot of others started this way to - the very first horse I bought myself (not including the Misty/Stormy set gifted to me at Christmas) was regular run Barbaro, and I was happy with him. I liked his color, the slight metallic sheen, the expression in his eyes. He was just a plain bay, but so what? He was the portrait model of a real horse I'd never own but could have in my bedroom. I remember mine even had a slight variation in the form of a sock on his hind leg. Sadly, I no longer have him in my collection, as I sold him off when I let go of my racehorses, but I do still have Treasured Move, another regular run that is sentimental to me. Her buddies on the same mold, the grulla overo mare from the mare/foal gift set that I named "Third Times a Charm" back when I still showed Breyers and Truly Unsurpassed, are also regular runs that I can't seem to part with. If flashy horses are your thing: Adiah HP, the Gangsters and Spordur fra Bergi are today must-haves. These guys have complicated patterns similar to a lot of the lottery run models Breyer makes that goes for $150+. Bluegrass Bandit, when she came out, had a coat color and dappling similar to the connoisseur series, yet she was a regular run. Today she is still relatively reasonable in price, and I'm thankful that Breyer makes these beauties in the regular run line for us to enjoy without breaking the bank.
I always love the eye candy I get from seeing the super rare Breyerfest volunteer models, raffle models or show prize models. However, at the same time, if I received one myself I'd honestly take the money over the model and live with the regret of selling it because if I kept it, I'd always be afraid of something happening to it to depreciate its value. A horse worth a couple hundred I'd probably keep, but not thousands. One little bump off the shelf and that $1000 would go down to $500 easily. At least with regular runs, if anything happened to them, you know you could easily replace them. I ended up selling the majority of my Stone collection because I felt like I was spending too much money for the risk of something happening to them. I had no idea before I sold my Stones how hard they were to sell. Even in perfect condition, I ended up having to sell each of them for far less than what I paid in order to get them sold. A couple of them had been sitting for a few months with no serious takers. Can you imagine how little I would've gotten if they had any kind of flaws? From now on, I'm going to be a bit more picky about what I add to my Stone collection because apparently I'm only going to be collecting for keeps when it comes to them. I decided to focus on DAHs instead, not only because they're less costly than the runs. The DAHs are now only being offered once a month, but hey ya gotta fight for the runs too, right?
Ashley
4/23/2022 06:09:07 pm
I soo agree with everything you said!!! Comments are closed.
|
Archives
May 2024
Categories
All
|