"Regrets" In the Hobby...Or...the Horse Not Purchased...

I try not to have any (or many) regrets in life, let alone the model horse hobby, but every now and then, it happens.  I hear it often on the famous podcast and the model horse message boards, but usually about a resin that was missed out on.  I can't imagine collecting something that is such a limited production that you'll likely miss out on it more often than you'll get it, but sometimes that happens with Original Finish models as well.  And I'm not talking about models that were gone before you could buy one or didn't know of its existence until it was too late.  No, I'm talking about ones that you had your hot little hands on, but for whatever reason, ended up not buying.

A perfect example of that would be the Lady Phase Mother Lode model from 2013...

Mother Lode was released as a Collectors Club special offer on the Breyer Website.  It came in the 3 different color patterns shown above and each one had a different run number.    The solid gold one had the highest run of 80, followed by 10 each of the other 2.  I think they were $80 each and it was luck of the draw which one you got...you couldn't pick which one you wanted.  I don't think the number of each color was known initially.  I actually had one in my cart, as I collect / conga the mold, but I decided NOT to buy it.  When I first saw the sale, I thought it was $80 (or was the price $70?) for all three, not per and I thought that was too expensive.  I didn't know much about micro runs at the time and even though I now better understand the value of them, I don't buy them just because they're such short production.  I still only buy if I like the model / mold.  In the months following the epic release, many were put on the secondary market for usually around $400.  If you found one for less than that, you were lucky.  Now, 7 years later, they aren't often put up for sale.  There is one currently on MH$P, but the asking price is $800.  So yeah, I totally regret not buying one back then.  Not because of the value, but because I wish I had gotten one.  I especially would've liked the paint.  Not because it's a run of 10, thus making it more valuable than the solid, but because it's my favorite of the 3.  I would've been happy with any of the 3.

My only other "regret" is Rialto.  Rialto was a web special from 2018 with a run of 350 pieces.   I entered daily for the chance to buy one and actually ended up being one of the winners, but when the time came to actually buy him, I found myself a little short on money.  I had the money, but it would've left me a bit empty in the wallet so I passed him on to someone else for cost.  I have been trying to find one ever since, but keep running into the same problem:  either there's none for sale or...

Cost.  Eeek!  I'm not sure why some people think they're worth that much money, but that's their choice to try to sell them for that amount.  I will keep looking and hopefully, one day, I will find one for a price I'm willing to pay.  I'm still looking for an Acadia and the only one I've seen for sale currently has a very large price tag as well.

I did manage to snag a "web special" of sorts and thus starts my test of showcasing a model in my collection.  I don't remember all the details, but in 2014, Vintage Club members received a Stablemate named Sonny...

Sonny is on the Draft Horse mold and is gold florentine with white points.  I wasn't a member of the Vintage Club but for Christmas of either 2015 or 2016, Breyer offered some random models up on their website and I managed to get this one.  I know, I know.  I need a better background, but it's what I have to work with at the moment.  I'm surprised I still have him in my collection.  I think a couple of people offered to buy him off of me, but that was quite awhile ago, when he first became available to non-Vintage Club members.  He's cute.

There's a popular thread on Model Horse Blab where you can share models you have recently bought.  I don't check it very often.  I rarely participate other than to say how much I like a recent acquisition.  It's been awhile since I've boughten anything and I usually share it here anyway.  The thread sometimes reminds me to look for the models I am wanting, like it did today.  But someone also posted a photo of a Companion Animal that I didn't even know existed and said she got it from a website I didn't realize had Breyers on it so I went over to look and got excited when I saw there was another...until I saw it had already sold...likely to the Blabber who posted about it...

So cool!  I think Breyer needs to bring the Companion Animals back as a stand-alone purchase rather than as part of a set with a horse, but I guess I should take what I can get, huh?   I  wish I had known about the existence of this dog before and that Mercari had people that sold Breyers sooner.  Oh well.  That's not really a "Hobby Regret" since I didn't know about it's existence until today. 

Anyway back to buying models.    I've been wanting Paint Me A Pepto since he came out, but with BF being just a few weeks away, I should probably save my pennies for that, huh?  But I should also keep an eye out for one of my want list models such as Rocket, Acadia and Rialto.

Well, I guess that's it for now.  I hope everyone is doing well.  Til next time...