I've been asked many times by collectors which do I prefer: Breyers or Stones? I've been waiting for the right moment to write about this on my blog, and since a few close hobby friends asked if I was going to be attending Equilocity while at Breyerfest this year, I think now is that time. Before I begin, I do want to say that I've been a Breyer collector for many, many years now and have always been solely a Breyer collector up until I branched out to Stones during Equilocity last year (mostly because of Breyer's shipping issues to satisfy my need for a new pony) so my history with Stones is pretty limited. Due to the pricing of Stone models, I have never attended Equilocity before in the past, although I regret it. While Peter Stone originally made a line of regular runs, as Breyer did, as the years went on, the PS company scaled down drastically to a lot more limited runs and one of a kinds. We all know that Peter Stones are expensive, much more so than Breyer. The pricing aside, what most collectors want to know is if they are worth the money? Considering that every PS model is made by a single artist and not a series of artists like Breyers are, it depends if you value art for what it's worth. PS artists have to make a living wage, and many hours are put into each model each artist creates, yet each model is a true work of art since it was made specifically for you by a specific artist. The DAH comes signed by the artist while the runs get a hang tag with the artist's number on it so you know who made it. Stone models therefore are more personal than Breyers. Another reason Stones are high priced is to attract serious collectors rather than flippers. Stone frowns upon people buying their models just to profit on. With the high initial prices, Stones seem to be harder to sell at original price, let alone to make a profit on. I found this out when I dispersed a few of my initial Stones to concentrate mostly on DAHs. Therefore, if you purchase a Stone model, I highly recommend only purchasing if you plan on keeping it yourself. With most Breyer models, regular run prices tend to go up by $10-20 after a few years of being retired, and more with the limited edition or special run models. Not so with most Stones. Unfortunately, because they are so limited, the biggest issue is supply and demand. You can never get your heart set on something because chances are you won't ever be able to get it if it sells out upon its release. However, they make so many different colors and designs of horses that there is always another if the one you want is gone, and every model is so limited that you have the satisfaction of knowing you and possibly only a handful of others are the only ones in the world that own that particular model. The PS company only has a small highly skilled selection of artists that work at the factory and, as most customizers know, an artist can only do so much, so runs tend to be less than 50. Breyer does have an edge over Stone in the number of molds they make. By far the realism of their molds is far and above everyone else. With new molds being released every year on the regular, each getting more and more detailed, it is hard to not find a breed of horse that Breyer hasn't made yet. Stone only has a handful of different molds but many different mane/tail combinations for each mold. I'm always surprised with Stone artists how they can take the Arabian Mare and turn it into a Marwari, or the Andalusian and make a caribou. The molds for Stone horses aren't as detailed as Breyer's as far as muscle tone and most of them are in simple poses, however the PS traditional molds - or Stone sized - are monsters compared to Breyers. I couldn't believe the size of them and how heavy they are. On the contrary, the Pebbles were a bit smaller than Breyer's Classics scale. Breyer also has a slight edge over Stone in the durability of their models. The paint on Stones is pretty fragile, as PS models are meant to be collectibles only while Breyer tends to focus more on making their models suitable to play (although we all know that they are also fun to collect) minus the Collector Club models, of course. They therefore hold up better to accidents. While the early regular run Stones of the 1990s and early 2000s were similar to Breyer, lately they are getting much more realistic and detailed. Their appaloosas in particular are phenomenal, and they offer so many more colors than Breyer does. The biggest seller for me though were the eyes. PS artists definitely puts a lot of time into their models' eyes and you can tell by the depth of them. Stone's biggest attraction to collectors is their Design A Horse feature - or DAH for short - in which you can make a model to your liking, with limitations of course. They have quite a few colors and markings to choose from, and molds as well as colors change regularly. Breyer did something like this a few times, giving people the opportunity to create a horse of their dreams for $4,000, but for some reason it didn't take off like the Stone DAH did. Not Breyer no longer offers it except for one lucky person at Breyerfest who wins the lot in the live auction to design their own Breyer. Stone has limited their DAH program recently to only once a month, although they said they're trying to get back into offering it full time again. We shall see.
I don't have a favorite of either company. I like both for various reasons, and neither more than the other. I will always be a Breyer fan since I grew up with them, although Stones are definitely unique with all the themes they make. Breyer, for example, has never yet made a reindeer horse or pony with bat wings. I assume the majority of readers that come to my website are Breyer collectors since, after all, that's what my website revolves around. However, if you're thinking about opening up to Stones, all I can say is if you want to know if you like them or not is to buy one for yourself. You'll never know unless you try. As to Equilocity (the reason for the creation of this post) I will try to attend for the first time this year but unfortunately I won't be making it to the dinner. We are ONE MONTH AWAY from Breyerfest now! Can you believe it???
L. Robinson
6/15/2022 08:08:17 am
I will never buy a Stone. Never. Several years ago at BF when Peter Stone had a room in the 500 block at the CHIN (then Holiday Inn North) I personally heard him make a crude & disparaging remark about his customers while standing in the middle of them. There was a big crowd waiting in the hallway to enter his room & my friend & I were trying to thread our way through them when Peter Sone & another man pushed their way out of the room. My friend & I had to stop or be run over by them. I was standing within arms reach of Stone when he looked around at all the women standing around hoping to get into his room & he said “These stupid b*tches will buy anything”. All talk in the hall stopped because he spoke quite loudly & everyone heard him. He smirked at the reaction he got then pushed his way through the crowd & went out the metal door toward the ballrooms. Many in the crowd walked away & my friend & I were finally able to get through to continue our shopping. We were both stunned by his words & the contempt in his tone. I will never give him one cent of my hard earned money. I will never give my business to someone who looks down on his customers with such arrogance & contempt.
Ashley
6/15/2022 10:39:47 am
I am Super-duper excited about Breyerfest. For some reason, the guest horses are super popular this year. I understand because I'm super excited about meeting all the different horses. I'm comin' for you Dani! Comments are closed.
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