Nice vs. Need vs. Reality

No Hawthorn, either, but I am neither surprised nor mad.

Annoyed, maybe. This is the third year in a row that the Holiday Animal has been unavailable to me, regardless of my feelings on the matter.

Generally these runs haven’t been hard to find in the aftermarket for a whole lot more than the original asking price; so I will do what I did with the previous two, which is wait for the prices to drop and/or my interest to increase.

At this point he’s more of a “nice to have” than a “need to have” kind of model. “Nice” can wait.

I was just thinking that my luck on drawings was especially bad this year, but I made a quick list of all the purchase raffles that took place this year, and I managed to win two of the eight: Kaibab, and Rialto.

The two Gambler’s Choices were a draw: I had a chance to get a Koh-i-noor, but hesitated, and I did get the Silver Filigree I wanted of the Callahan, where I didn’t. And I did get the Rare Matte (the Black) of the Dark Horse Surprise at BreyerFest, too.

Yet I had to basically give away the Rialto (wasn’t a good moment for me financially; things are better now); the Scottsdale Stampede was a bit of a bummer because I had a whole slew of people who wanted to go with me, and amazingly nobody among us was selected; while I love my Dark Horse Surprise Black, I haven’t gotten a Gloss in the BreyerFest Gambler’s Choice since 2012 when the buggers were actually rare-rare, and that’s really starting to annoy me; and let’s not get started with the Blind Bag Stablemates nonsense….

I know, I know, it’s all relative. There are people who literally get drawn for nothing ever, and me with my one measly account does okay.

Yet… I look online and am reminded that while luck may be random, it is also unevenly distributed. And makes me wish that maybe there were less Darwinian ways of selling or distributing some of these niche Special Runs.

Back to the Stablemates thing for a bit, before I high-tail it to bed.

Apparently many – if not most – of the folks who took the opportunity to purchase two Fruitcake Fillies per order, rather than one, are finding themselves with doubles of the same color.

And are assuming that this is either a display of something devious, or incompetent (or both!) on the part of Reeves.

I think it is just a somewhat awkwardly executed holiday joke, involving the immortally questionable status of fruitcake.

(For the record: I am not a fan. But I do like dried and candied fruit in general, so I consider myself persuadable, given the right recipe.)

Knowing that most hobbyists would take the bait and order two, maybe they saw giving us two of the same meant that we’d have the opportunity to choose the better of the two, and pass along/swap the duplicate?

Hey, it’s the holiday season, I’m trying to think charitably here!

It doesn’t feel like something worth getting worked up about, regardless.

My two arrived yesterday, and I still haven’t changed my plans to open them on XMAS Eve. If I get two of the same, I'll deal with it then, the same way I deal with other awkward Christmas gifts.