Saturday, July 30, 2016

Elks Club

Almost caught up on the sleep, almost finished unpacking, and I just did a preliminary inventory of what I brought back.

In short: not much! My sales list was basically cut in half – and my pre-BreyerFest sales list was over six pages long!

I was genuinely surprised that I sold that much – including every single body I brought (all 43) So for the first time in a while, my trip was completely, utterly revenue-neutral. Yay me!

Other than the Man o’ War, I didn’t buy all that much beyond the Store and Line Specials. And even a few of those will probably be heading out the door soon; the only Samba Surprise Esprit I was interested in was the Decorator – Glossy or Matte, it didn’t matter – and I ended up with a Matte Palomino. Although it is actually the scarcest of the non-Decorator Mattes, it was the least interesting one for me, so he’ll get rehomed in the near future.

One of the few pieces I brought home that will be sticking around is this handsome Red Chestnut variation of the Elk, shown here with his older (no USA mold mark) and more brownish cousin:


Like my Chestnut Buffalo, this Elk is a late, probable end-of-run variation. I had been looking, half-heartedly, for this particular variation on eBay, but I was hesitant to pull the trigger and buy one due to my budget.

Until I sudden found myself at BreyerFest flush with cash, and in the presence of one nice enough to spend it on.

I was not alone in this assessment. He actually had to hide behind a curtain in our room for a while, as a stunning number of shoppers walking into our room made grabby hands in his general direction.

Vintage Breyer Elks generally sell pretty consistently online and offline, but even I was a little taken aback by how popular a fellow my guy was this year. I guess I shouldn’t have been, though – one of my first sales at BreyerFest this year was a (slightly) bloated Elk out of my Body Box. (Not the strangest thing I have ever sold at BreyerFest, but definitely up there.)

So Reeves, if you’re reading, I really hope you are considering an Elk as one of your Christmas Web Specials this year (or next – I can wait). I can personally attest that there’s definitely a market for him.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the new guy-he's gorgeous!

Did you see the Cortes C in person, by the way? Ive been hemming and hawing over him because, as much as I like the real horse, I'm unsure of the mold...

Anonymous said...

I have a chestnut elk just like that. I am his original owner. I have never seen the earlier, browner version before, so to me HE would be the special one!

It sort of reminds me of the black stretch Morgan. When I was a kid I had the star faced version from the 80's and played with him to death. At some point I sold him. Now I would love to find that version again at a cheap-ish price and the only cheap ones that I find are the old bald-faced ones from the 60's. You would think they would be harder to find, but no, they are surprisingly common. It's the one from the 80's that is harder to find.

Yvonne said...

I too, have the chestnut elk and never thought he was odd! I LOVE the brown version! A Christmas Elk SR would be awesome, but I already know I won't win it, so I hope a regular run is in the works instead.

Anonymous said...

I have two of the chestnut elk - and have had so many others come through my hands. I have never seen the brown version, well, not counting the Rocky Mountain release. Very interesting!

LostInAn80sFog said...

FWIW, all of the elks I ever owned looked like the brown one, not that pretty chestnut.

Josh said...

Andrea...do you know how common the elk with two rear socks is? Thanks!