I was not selected for Montana, which amuses me, but not as much as all the people who were selected who are trying to flip them, without much success.
I wasn’t selected for the Woodgrain Pig Hawthorn either, but I eventually got one four or five waitlist pulls later. (No, really – it was like two weeks after the initial drawing!) And they made only 350 pieces of him.
I’m not going to worry about it, either way. They made 490 of this goofball SR: there’s going to be plenty for everyone who seriously (or unseriously!) needs one. I am not sure if I fall into either the former category, or the latter. If it happens, it happens.
Besides, I am still mad about Bunyan, and my well of rage is not bottomless. Priorities, people.
On a slightly more cheerful holiday note, I got the Smarty Jones Chase Piece as my CCA Glossy:
I wasn’t able to track a Matte one down locally, and I wasn’t willing to pay the $125 they were charging for them on the web site at the end of last year, so this is a win-win for me. (The Omega Fahim is also pretty spiff, with no box rubs or obvious seams, so it’s all good here.)
Well technically he was the Chase piece: it appears that this year’s CCA models were not Glossed leftovers, but made specifically for the promotion, and probably in more or less equal quantities. (What those quantities were, I don’t know either, sorry.)
Though if they had been really smart, they would have doubled the quantity of the Palomino Hamilton relative to all the other pieces in the promotion. Contrary to what some folks think, Reeves is very aware of the Hamilton mold’s popularity.
What’s going on in the secondary market is mostly beyond their control, though, and they have no real obligation to do anything about it anyway. While they can mitigate it somewhat with open-ended runs and backordering, even those options are not entirely trouble-free. Every solution comes with its own set of problems.
In this case it would have been a variation of “They devalued it by producing so many!” argument pushed mostly by people who see their collection as their retirement fund. It doesn’t make much sense to me if they all easily and quickly find homes. Quantity is only one component of this thing we call “Collectibility” and probably not the most important one.
Since it’s unclear if the promotion actually “sold out”, I am curious if there are any Gloss Leftovers, and if so, where they are going to go. I wouldn’t mind snagging a Chalky variation of the Andalusian – boy, those sure look way nicer than I imagined! – but I’m not sure if I want to take a chance on a Gambler’s Choice of the leftovers if it was offered.
I already have way too much stuff to sell as it is, and I’d rather not take a chance on a duplicate, even if it would be a relatively easy sale.
2 comments:
I got the Chase too! He was my 2nd choice. My first, was of course, Hamilton. I still would love to find a glossy Hamilton. I wouldn't care if they doubled or tripled the quantity, I just think he's the most beautiful of the bunch. :) But I do adore my Chase, and while I'm aware I probably could have traded him for a Hamilton, he's not going anywhere. Bird in hand and all. And I try to be grateful. But every time I see someone post a glossy Hamilton, (especially if it's not the one they wanted) I am just a little bit sad.
Well, I'm no seller, just a buyer...and I haven't been doing that at all, lately.
I hate to think people are counting on their collections as investments.
To a collector more like myself, who has no inclination to sell, the idea of a collectibles value in cash must take on a magical or religious quality: "I sacrificed $200 to have this one." Perhaps these collectibles function more like a trophy- something that one worked for or sacrificed for, and is really only valuable to it's owner.
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