An Estate Sale Story

The area is up to 3, I think, people who hold estate sales, and they all put pictures online, and I try to remember to check them out weekly.  Last week, one of them had a couple of Marx horses in the ad (not a big draw for me), but also the Gabriel jointed Silver and Lone Ranger.  I have, or used to have (I assume I still have him somewhere) a Silver, but thought I'd go see if the Lone R
anger doll was cheap enough to come home with me. 

Unfortunately, not so much. 

Somehow, the sale runners had mixed and matched the sets, in spite of doing enough research to know that the dolls and horses were from Gabriel, but that the wagons were by Marx.  The wagons actually go with the Marx horses on the other side.  Not to mention, Silver never struck me as a wagon-pulling sort of horse.  The Lone Ranger set was $175, the Butch Cavendish set (which I'd never heard of) was $150.  And the Marx horses were $15 each.  So, didn't buy those.  I didn't even go back the second day for 75%-off time to see if they'd split the sets. 

On the other hand, as I walked in and saw the Marx/Gabriel sets, I spotted this guy on the top of a handful of small critters. 

Only $1, and he's probably my favorite SM mold ever.  Original bay, and aside from someone getting overzealous with the dremel along his crest at the factory, only a couple of rubs.  Found a little Britains horse too, and two Hartland 7-inch TBs.  Although I just realized that the Hartlands have a distinct odor of something, I'm afraid it's cat pee, so they are in a plastic tub with some baking soda at the moment. 

And then there was the cute Josef Original cat for $1.

I also remembered that where there are horse shaped objects, there may also be horse books, and looked at all the bookshelves.  Scored a pair of C.W. Anderson books, although neither have the dustjacket, and Heads Up - Heels Down is one I'm pretty sure I didn't have. 

 There were also a lot of ceramic deer, and after thinking about it over lunch, and being "deer pressured" by the Clinky Connection and Model Horse Liberation Front people on Facebook LOL, I went back for these.   These two are Lomonosov, made in the USSR. 

And this little guy I thought was a donkey when I bought him.  By R. W. Midwinter of Benslem England.  After much consultation, consensus is that it's also a deer, although a donkey-colored one.  Other possibilities were a rabbit, or half of a pushmepullyou. 

Amazing once-a-year luck

Last Friday, I had my big once-a-year estate sale luck.

Seriously - I'm on the mailing lists for both estate sale organizers in town, search Craigslist regularly, and have decided that I live in a No Breyer Or Other Horse-shaped Object Zone.  Sort of the reverse of a black hole.  But, about once a year, the luck changes.

Last week, the estate sale organizer announcement had 2 sales, and one mentioned Breyers.  Actually, I knew before I read the announcement, because one of the pictures on Facebook had the clearly-visible hind leg of a Breyer Racehorse, next to a silverplate wine bucket.  Then there were a couple of other pictures with Breyers and even, shock of shocks, Hartlands.  (Which are also rare around here, even though the company was headquartered about two hours from here for a while.)  There was a Fury, Fighting Stallions, Family Arabians, and woodcut Hartlands, among others.  I was really after the black Fury and Racehorse, and Hartlands.

So, the sale started at 8, on the other side of town, which mean dealing with the lousy morning traffic.  And, I managed to lose the checkbook on Wednesday, leading to panic.  I rounded up all the cash in the house, and kicked the rest of the family off to work/school early on Friday.  Got to the sale around 15 minutes after it opened and was the first Breyer buyer.  There were a few things that weren't in the pictures - like an alabaster Old Timer and a grey appy Diablo.  The Breyers were in great condition, and the newest ones there were a bay Running Mare and Bay Jumper.  The rest were all from the 60s, mostly glossy, and not played with a lot.  There was a woman there shopping for her horse-mad granddaughter, who asked my advice.  I recommended the bay Running Mare, she's sweet and a classic.

I ended up with three woodcut Hartlands, the Diablo, a charcoal Fighting Stallion, and the Racehorse.  Not sure why I passed on the Fury, except that I'd just gotten an email from an auction, and I'd won a lot with a Fury and a palomino FAF.  That used most of my cash.  Then I drove over to the pool where the kid takes lessons, and found the checkbook.  Yay!!  So I drove back to the sale and got Fury, the glossy palomino Fighting Stallion, and a cheap bedsheet to use for sewing projects.

And then I came home and said Wow.

Went back the next day for half-price, but the rest of the Breyers were gone.  I kind of wish I'd gotten the alabaster FAS, he was glossy and had a ribbon sticker.  Oh well.

And then I realized that I'd gotten an appy Diablo on eBay over the summer.  This one is much nicer, though, not as yellowed.  And, of course, the Fighting Stallions are both the 3rd copies of each, and now I've got 2 Furys.  But the Hartlands aren't dupes - there are a cherry and ebony 3-gaiter, and an ebony Tennessee Walker to go with the cherry one I already had, but they're different mane versions.

The Fury even has a price tag on his belly, $1.49. 

Finally, some flea market luck

No pictures (yet) but I finally had some decent luck at one of the local flea market/antique malls last week.  I found a white Western Horse with o-ring reins and a snap saddle,  an Appy FAS, and a small Hartland family.  The Western Horse is missing one side of the girth and an eartip, but should clean up nicely, and the Hartland foal is minus half a leg, but still stands. 

These were reasonably priced, all from the same dealer.  Said dealer, however, still wants $19 for a Stretch Morgan who's missing a leg, and $20 (firm) for a Snowball pony that has so many marks I don't think he'd ever look decent.  It's missing the accessories, too.  Everything else was 20% off, and if Snowball had been included in the discount, I might have bought him.  He's been there for over a year now, no budging on the price.  This is the same dealer I got my charcoal Fighting Stallion from - there was a black pinto Western Horse in the same booth for the longest time, I think priced at $60 firm.  It's gone, so I guess someone finally bought it. 

The oddest thing is how rare it is to see Hartlands around here, since they were semi-local.  This set is the only the second time that I've seen any around here, at least that I recognize - I tend to skip over the Styrene and other cheap-plastic horses, and almost missed the Hartland mark on this set.

My first Hartlands

Technically, my very first Hartland is a grey grazing mare that I found at a flea market this summer.



Then I got this bunch on Ebay. The alabaster FAS is glossy but could use a sun bath and is missing an eartip. The ASB is Tenite (cellulose acetate), same as Breyers, but the Morgan family is the Styrene. That explains why I probably saw Hartlands earlier and didn't know it - the plastic just screams "cheap Hong Kong toy" to me for some reason.

The Hartlands are all in pretty good shape, considering their age. Not bad for about $20. I like the metallic chestnut, too.

I'd really like to have one of the Regal-size prancing QHs, but that'll have to wait until I find one in my price range. Thrill of the hunt and all that.

Flea Market Finds

I got to go to a couple of flea market/antique malls this week, and actually (for a change) found something worth buying. Usually, all I find are bashed-around Breyers with astronomical price tags: $35 for a Misty with missing paint and large Crayon decorations, $50 for a "vintage Breyer" that was actually a common-as-dirt lemon-yellow FAS, and so on.

I still found a good population of overpriced Breyers this time, but I also found, and bought, a Hartland grazing mare and a dapple grey "Noble Jumper" (Halla mold). The Hartland is the first one I've seen in real life that I know of, and the first I've bought. She's a nice dapple grey, and other than a slightly bent foreleg, there are only a few small rubs. Considering that she was just stuck on a shelf and not in a glass case, she's in lovely shape. The Halla is also grey, Breyer's lovely splatter dapples, but again, in lovely condition. She was in a glass case, and I thought worth the $15 price. Also in the case were two old SMs, missing large amounts of paint, for $5 each, and the stallion from the Classic Andalusian family, for $10 I think.