Thursday, February 14, 2013

Affording to Wait

I was going to write a little more about the Classic Hobo - the recent archive acquisition has quite a bit of material relating to him - but apparently a good portion of model horse land has lost their minds over the goodies Reeves was handing out at Toy Fair this week.

In case you missed the hubbub, among the usual goodies they handed out - magnets, pens, catalogs, pins and all that - there was also a "very limited" G3 Highland Pony keychain. An attendee to the Toy Fair got a hold of a rather substantial number of these trinkets: over 20 have been listed so far, thus explaining my rather pointed use of scare quotes.

The more keychains that have come out, the higher the prices have become. They started out around $15.00 - in a lot that included all the other goodies mentioned above - and the last few have been going for $59.99 - for just the keychain alone.

There’s really no other way to get around the fact that this entire situation is nuts. And not in the cutesy-adorable way.

For Pete’s sake, people, it only takes a few seconds to (a) do a teeny-tiny bit of research and (b) apply a small portion of logic to this situation. If some one person was able to get a couple dozen of these items, they simply cannot be all that rare. (And shipped in bubble mailers, too? I don’t think so.)

Remember the "cash cow" incident a few years back? Lots and lots of hobbyists flew into a rage over a situation where we may have been referred to as "cash cows": in other words, easily milked for money.

The whole situation struck me as ridiculous - not because of the incident itself, but because many hobbyists were basing their opinions of it on third-, fourth-, and fifth-hand knowledge of the situation, wildly different versions of the story, and opinions that were mistaken for facts.

(Sound depressingly familiar?)

I think the main reason it got as much traction as it did was because it hit a nerve: way too many people in the hobby really are "cash cows" - especially when it comes to things like Gloss Finishes. We all know - or at some point, been - that person.

(I can think of several situations where I did not acquit myself in the most dignified of fashions.)

I’m not expecting people to be entirely rational when it comes to anything they are passionate about, but you’d think some would learn from experience, eventually.

Do I want one of those keychains? Of course I do. But I also know how these things go: I think I can afford to wait. 

8 comments:

plastiqueponi said...

I was first hand present for one of the "Cash Cow" comments, and I know what turned me off completely towards to company/person making the comment was the condescension displayed by the speaker. It wasn't being said as a joke, it was a completely derogatory comment towards collectors.

To hell with him, I've got far better places to spend my hobby money.

Pony Collector said...

I've always considered the source of the cash cow rumour and have chosen to believe it is not as big a deal as it has been made out to be. Some people aren't as important in the hobby as they think they are.

Amy Faith said...

If these keychains turn out to be rare or hard to find still remains to be seen -but if you look up the event itself it was something that was not open to the general public. You had to be a buyer, media or something along those lines to register to attend. I don't believe the seller at first knew what she had. As they began sell quickly and I'm sure as the requests of if they will be listing more rolled in - the prices went up. Which I feel is fine, because the price will always be what a buyer is willing to pay. The funny this is if you look on ebay for items linked to this event this is one of the cheaper things you'll find.

Amy Faith said...

If these keychains turn out to be rare or hard to find still remains to be seen -but if you look up the event itself it was something that was not open to the general public. You had to be a buyer, media or something along those lines to register to attend. I don't believe the seller at first knew what she had. As they began sell quickly and I'm sure as the requests of if they will be listing more rolled in - the prices went up. Which I feel is fine, because the price will always be what a buyer is willing to pay. The funny thing is if you look on ebay for items linked to this event this is one of the cheaper things you'll find.

Evelyn L. said...

I don't know anything about the "Cash Cow" comments (or is it an incident). Maybe because I'm too new to the hobby to know about it??

I saw some posts about the Toy Fair keychains on Blab, after they started surfacing on eBay for $15.99 (and of course, didn't get one.)
Would I like one of these Keychains, sure!
Would I pay $59.99 for one - Not on your life!!!

plastiqueponi said...

I believe that there have been more than one Cash Cow comment out of Stone. I know I heard him say it at a live show in southern IL in 1997/98 (I'd have to pull one of my horse's show records to check for sure on the exact year, since that was the one and only live show champ he's won.)

We were at breakfast day 2 of a 2 day show, and Stone was sitting behind me when I heard him say "If I ever need money, all I have to do is throw together a special run and these cash cows will buy anything!" chuckle chuckle, snort ha ha.

If Stone's fans want to think everyone who heard comments like this are liars, feel free to. All I know is what I heard completely turned me off the man and his product--I sold 90% of my Stones right after that incident, and only have a very few in a 1500+ piece collection. I have no use for him and his business practices.

Anonymous said...

I can't imagine that the keychains were exclusive to the toy fair. I suppose it's possible. It just seems like stablemates are usually made in higher quantities and now that production has moved to China, I have a hard time believing that Breyer wouldn't order more than a small amount. At least this is what I'm hoping since I'm not planning to spend $60 on it but wouldn't mind purchasing for around $15 :)

Anonymous said...

Interesting read. I have one of these dun highland pony keychains and can find next to no information on them, nor can I find many others who have them, so my guess is that they are at least as limited as the Connoisseurs. I don't do Blab, so if that's where all this has been discussed, I'm in the dark. I paid $75 for mine, and considering how many I've seen for sale since (none!) I'm fine with that. I'm just looking for information on them, production numbers, model number, release country/event...pretty much anything. All I know is that they were exclusive to Breyer reps and trade fairs. Any assistance appreciated!