Monday, February 7, 2011

Here We Go, Again

A sellout in less than five minutes for Be Mine? Looks like the online ordering mode for Web Specials might not be the solution we were hoping for. At least it’s taking the scalpers a couple of hours longer to get them to eBay this time around.

It was kinda nice though, sitting out this round. Even if I really had little choice in the matter.

I totally skipped out on all the Super Bowl brouhaha, too. We don’t "do" football postseasons around here. When your hometown team is the Detroit Lions, well, you know…

I did watch a couple of the commercials. The Chrysler one with Eminem was spot on: no talking smack about the "D," if you ain’t from around here! (They did anyway - I couldn’t believe that folks on some of the forums I lurk were claiming that the shots of Detroit in the commercial were "Photoshopped" to make Detroit look better than it is. Dudes, seriously, "Robocop" was a movie.)

Other than that, I had a nice, quiet weekend. Tried - and failed - to make some cookies (ate the leftover dough.) Finished up a couple of old quilt projects, and figured out how to draft another (a complicated Grandmother’s Fan variation.) I haven’t paid much attention to the horses, other than some board lurking.

I did make one recent acquisition I’ll talk about in much greater detail in a week or so; I want to spend a little more quality time with it before I post anything about it. (And the follow up to the molded-on tack discussion. I haven't forgotten, I just keep getting sidetracked!)

For no reason whatsoever, here’s a picture of one of my oldest and dearest test colors, a Classic Black Ruffian:


I got her at Model Horse Congress in 1986; Bentley Sales Company was having a silent auction for her at their sales booth. My winning bid was $40 - not a huge sum today but back then, and for me, that was a considerable chunk of change.

Yes, I was truly, madly and deeply in love with her. Still am, even if she isn’t all that different from a regular run Ruffian of the same vintage.

In comparison, the Special Run light flaxen chestnut Proud Arabian Mare that the Bentleys sold at Congress the year before went for $11.99. (I should have taken a picture of the box they were literally dumped in. Scary! Thank goodness they were totally cool with handpicking.)

If you did some digging in their factory-fresh dump bins, you could have lucked out and got some tests and recent SRs for even less - $6.00 Traditionals, $3.00 Classics, and $1.00 Stablemates. Most of them were a little dinged - they were straight from the factory, wrapped in a plastic bag and literally tossed in a box - so you really couldn’t complain.

4 comments:

GWR said...

What a lovely Ruffian! I don't care if tan hooves are only supposed to occur with white leg markings, tan hooves on an all-black body looks spiffy! :D

Oh, for a time machine so I could take some money back in time and go through Bentley's sale bins. That sounds like heaven.

Anonymous said...

They're going to have to figure out something to do if/when the Connoisseurs become online-only. This is RIDICULOUS.

Little Black Car said...

Oh, I'd take a vintage test over any Connoisseur, ever. I love that Ruffian!

dizzijoi said...

The last year I went to Congress we went to Marneys house and in her garage were several big cardboard barrels (you know,the brown kind w/metal rims) LOADED with models for the cheap! What fun it was digging through those. And yes, I got some out of the boxes too.

As for the online sales, may work for Breyer but I won't be there. I have better things to do than wait for a time to order a horse I may or may not get.

Personally I think this is going to ruin the fun of collecting for some, including me. At least when one mailed in for a horse there was the anticipation of getting chosen.