I have some child-free time, so I hit a flea market I hadn't been to before. I didn't buy any horse-shaped objects, but I did find a Sam Savitt book, the Big Book of Favorite Horse Stories. Savitt didn't edit it, but he did do the illustrations, foreword, and a bit of info on all the writers. It has some stories I haven't' seen before, which is always fun.
Horse-wise, I finally saw my first Hagen-Renaker in a flea market. It was the small "Running Mare"and was grossly overpriced IMO at $22, when I think it's still a current release. I also saw one Schleich, a current horse, for $12.95. I bought mine for $6.49 at Target last month.
Breyers were similarly overpriced. $56 each for a very-yellowed Alabaster Fighting Stallion and bog-common Clydesdale Stallion (although the Clyde looked in good shape, and all the bobs were still there). $10 for the Simmental bull missing both ears and both horns. $24 for Jasper the Market Hog, $10 each for old G1 Stablemates in crap shape. The only realistically-priced Breyer was a Little Bits ASB for $4.95, probably because his mold mark says B.M.C. and they didn't realize it was an ultra-rare (LOL) Breyer.
Every now and then, I find something worth buying at a fleamarket, but lately I've had better luck online. The dealers seem to think that all Breyers are 50+ years old and scarcer than hens' teeth.
Best thrift-store deal I ever found was a black pinto Western Horse with the snap-on saddle. I paid $12 for him in pretty good condition, although he later lost an eartip in a fall. Mom had better luck for me when I was in school - a glossy grey appy Running Foal for a quarter and a palomino Standing Stock Foal for a couple bucks.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
On an oldies kick
It must be all the reading I've been doing at Breyer History Diva's blog, but I'm on a kick of buying older Breyers lately. Plus, most of them have been cheap. I've gotten at least 4 Family Arabian Mares recently - glossy grey App, glossy Alabaster, woodgrain, and glossy charcoal. Plus a matching Family Arabian Stallion and Foal in glossy grey App - these two are a pair, with very similar blankets, from the same seller. The Mare was a separate seller, and has fewer spots with the belly-stripe style blanket.
Two of the mares survived some pretty crap packing, too. The seller used two Priority shoebox-size boxes - okay, one and a half boxes - taped together. The packing material was two plastic shopping bags and a square of white foam, maybe 8 inches square, half-inch thick. Amazingly, they arrived with no broken parts, and no serious rubs, although it's hard to tell which rubs happened en route.
Two of the mares survived some pretty crap packing, too. The seller used two Priority shoebox-size boxes - okay, one and a half boxes - taped together. The packing material was two plastic shopping bags and a square of white foam, maybe 8 inches square, half-inch thick. Amazingly, they arrived with no broken parts, and no serious rubs, although it's hard to tell which rubs happened en route.
My neat find of the month
I browse occasionally at a couple of online auction/sales sites, including Ebay and MHSP. Last month, I had some luck. I found an auction listing for "3 brown Breyers" with this slightly fuzzy picture:
I've been a fan of the Breyer/Hagen-Renaker Kelso for a long time, so the picture caught my eye. And after a closer look, I thought the model just might be the Sears special run from the early 1990s, which was sold with Sam Savitt's How to Draw Horses book. I didn't have one - it was a run of 900, according to Nancy Young's Breyer book, and I kept getting outbid online.
The seller was selling a bunch of odds and ends, not a collector, so it was kind of a crap shoot, but I took a chance on bidding without any other pictures.
So I kept an eye on the auction, put in an early bid to remind myself about the auction, and managed to park myself in front of the PC as the auction closed to put in a higher bid. My luck was good, and I was the high bidder. A few days later, UPS delivered a box of 3 well-wrapped horses. Two were in kind of scruffy shape, but the Kelso was the Sears Savitt SR, and he's in darned good shape, all things considered.
Ear rubs, of course, a small flaw on his face (which I didn't notice until DH pointed it out, somehow), and a small faint rub or two. Otherwise, for a 20-year-old donation, not bad.
Of the other two, the Proud Arabian Stallion was also a Sears SR, and the Family Arabian Stallion was a short-release from the 80s or 90s. Both are pretty rubbed up, more than you could tell from the pictures, but they'll be good toys for my little boy if he wants them.
Kelso, on the other hand, is mine. I can mark something off the grail list, finally. And maybe, someday, I'll be able to afford a Hagen-Renaker Kelso to sit on the shelf beside him. For right now, though, he's sitting on the printer by the PC.
I've been a fan of the Breyer/Hagen-Renaker Kelso for a long time, so the picture caught my eye. And after a closer look, I thought the model just might be the Sears special run from the early 1990s, which was sold with Sam Savitt's How to Draw Horses book. I didn't have one - it was a run of 900, according to Nancy Young's Breyer book, and I kept getting outbid online.
The seller was selling a bunch of odds and ends, not a collector, so it was kind of a crap shoot, but I took a chance on bidding without any other pictures.
So I kept an eye on the auction, put in an early bid to remind myself about the auction, and managed to park myself in front of the PC as the auction closed to put in a higher bid. My luck was good, and I was the high bidder. A few days later, UPS delivered a box of 3 well-wrapped horses. Two were in kind of scruffy shape, but the Kelso was the Sears Savitt SR, and he's in darned good shape, all things considered.
Ear rubs, of course, a small flaw on his face (which I didn't notice until DH pointed it out, somehow), and a small faint rub or two. Otherwise, for a 20-year-old donation, not bad.
Of the other two, the Proud Arabian Stallion was also a Sears SR, and the Family Arabian Stallion was a short-release from the 80s or 90s. Both are pretty rubbed up, more than you could tell from the pictures, but they'll be good toys for my little boy if he wants them.
Kelso, on the other hand, is mine. I can mark something off the grail list, finally. And maybe, someday, I'll be able to afford a Hagen-Renaker Kelso to sit on the shelf beside him. For right now, though, he's sitting on the printer by the PC.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)