Breyerfest, as you may know, began in 1990, at which point I'd only been collecting Breyers for two or three years. From the very beginning it sounded amazing, but I really wasn't dreaming that I'd ever be able to go. What I was dreaming of was being able to afford to buy the Breyerfest Celebration model, which, aside from the raffle and auction pieces, was pretty much the only special model to come out of the earliest Breyerfests.
I still remember ads in Just About Horses offering horses like Dr. Peaches and Turbo for upwards of $100 U.S. each. At that time, that was much more than I was prepared to (or could afford to) pay for a plastic model horse. Needless to say, the prices of the auction models blew me away -- for years my definition of a ridiculous price to pay for a model horse was "a glossy charcoal Buckshot" (1994 live auction price: $1650 U.S.) It seemed all the more ridiculous to me because it wasn't a one-of-a-kind (OOAK) since it was also a raffle model that year, because it was an old-fashioned colour (vintage colours weren't much in vogue back then), and because it was Buckshot, a notoriously tippy model.
Still, I yearned for a Mustang Lady (1991), Bright Zip (1994), or Mego (1995) -- all hopelessly beyond my price range on the secondary market. I kind of understood the pricing: after all, one had to pay for travel and admission to Breyerfest in order to get the Celebration horse at all. But still, Breyerfest and Breyerfest models remained something I felt myself shut out of.
But here's where the virtue of patience came into play. Time passed, and I got a better job and began to make more money and to earn vacation leave. By the time the year 2000 rolled around, I found myself in the position of finally being able to afford both the time and the money for a pilgrimage to Breyerfest.
Image courtesy of Identify Your Breyer
By that time, Breyer was putting about 4-5 special run or SR models out for Breyerfest, along with the pretty much unattainable volunteer, prize, raffle, and auction models. In 2000, the SRs were four different Stablemate keychains, a walking Hereford bull (Buford), a calico kitten (Patches), Leah's Fancy Breyer (patterned after the foal of the Celebration horse Leah's Fancy Chick), a bay appaloosa Lonesome Glory (Mardi Gras), and a glossy bay semi-rearing mustang (Sarsparilla).
I spent a lot of money at that Breyerfest, but probably more at room sales than in the Breyerfest tent itself. I don't really collect the non-equines, so the bull and kitten had no appeal for me, the semi-rearing mustang is not one of my favourite molds, and I disliked both the look and the name of Leah's Fancy Breyer (which seemed to me to be an odd thing to name a real live horse). I would have purchased Mardi Gras, the appy Lonesome Glory, had he ever been available during my tours through the tent, but I missed him each time. All I did end up buying in the tent was a set or two of the keychains as gifts for friends back home, and a polo shirt for myself. And all I really regret from that trip was not buying a set of keychains for myself.
I did, of course, pick up that year's Celebration horse, but I have since sold her on with little or no regret. I did not want to start a Lady Phase conga line and I already had Breezing Dixie, which is my favourite Lady Phase of all time. So the only value Leah's Fancy Chick had for me was as a Breyerfest souvenir, and I had the polo shirt with her picture on it as an equally acceptable piece of memorabilia.
I have never been back to Breyerfest, but through sales and trades I have subsequently acquired two more Celebration horses -- Rejoice (1998) and Atlantis Bey V (2001). For historical purposes I would like to have one sample of a Breyerfest Celebration horse in my collection. As neither one of the two I own falls into the category of a shelf-stable model, I've decided to try to sell one of the two, but I am still having a difficult time determining which one.
Rejoice and Atlantis Bey V -- who should stay and who should go?
The semi-glossy chestnut on Atlantis Bey V is a really beautiful colour on the Huck Bey mold. If I had to keep only one Huck Bey, this would be the one. On the other hand, Rejoice is a little piece of Breyer history in that her release marked the first time a brand new mold had its debut at Breyerfest. It would be even more historic if she was the only one, but Alborozo (2008), Roxy (2009), and Imperador (2016) also made their first appearances at Breyerfest, making her just the first of many. Still, Rejoice is the one I'm leaning towards keeping -- though not standing, she is more stable than Atlantis Bey V, who requires a disc to stand.
Today, with so many more SRs of known quantities for sale at Breyerfest, it's often much easier to find reasonably-priced Celebration models on the secondary market than it is to find any of the special runs, especially those released in more limited quantities. The Celebration models I once dreamed of owning I can now buy -- in that sense, again, patience has paid off as over time the prices being asked have lowered. The fact that I no longer crave them is simply a consequence of that same passage of time.
If I was a collector who speculated in model horses as an investment and I could go back in time to my Breyerfest in 2000, I'd probably make a greater effort to get my hands on more of the SRs in the tent, rather than being focused on the Celebration model as the number one horse to get, given that the SRs now generally command higher prices.
I would argue, however, that speculating in model horses is probably not a good investment overall and not necessarily a great way to enjoy the hobby either. In my next blog post, I'll discuss why.
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