Presenting Itself

I just happened to be in That part of town where That farm store is, and what’s sitting on the shelf waiting for me? I swear, I was there just to see if they might have one of those Rocky Mountain Horses!


A glossy Valentine and Heartbreaker set. Sigh. I couldn’t just leave them there, either. Who knows whose hands they’d have fallen into? I had to rescue them! Such a quandary - keep, or sell to one of my regular customers, who’s still looking?

Argh! Time to futilely list more items on MHSP while I decide. (If any of you are interested in a cheap thrill or two, all my listings include postage, just to simplify things. Sometimes when you start dickering about postage, it slows the process down. Money’s great, but I want ‘em gone, too.)

(BTW, that store still had a couple of older Zenyattas from last year, if anyone’s still looking, and any deal needs sweetening.)

To clarify the book scanner thing: book dealers go to used book sales with handheld devices that can tell them how much a book’s current resale value is; if it’s greater than what the book sale is charging, they’ll buy it for their inventory.

I go to used book sales for (a) cheap/obscure reads, (b) to add to my collection, and (c) to stock my BreyerFest sales stash with fun little extras. I don’t make enough to justify buying a scanner, plus I think it’s tacky and a buzzkill. There are some sales that ban the use of scanners outright, though the local sale is not one of them, unfortunately.

I might be listing a few of my better sale books on MHSP too, once I run out of horses to list. Nothing expensive there, either. (Sorry, no Paul Browns - those are keepers!)

So yeah, I saw the Presentation Man o’ War on eBay; I didn’t even bother bookmarking it for later. It went for well over double what I could theoretically pay. Paying for my teeth and my tires take priority right now.

You know, it wasn’t that long ago that Presentation Series pieces were considered … well, not all that big a thing. A lot of collectors then (as now) weren’t too keen on the whole attached base thing. Why spend extra for one with a base, when you could get a freestanding one cheaper? It was nerdy-cool to have a few in your collection - especially if you were a completist - but they weren’t the high demand budget-busters they are now.

Some have been found in this area - mostly Adios, which is not a surprise: there used to be a number of Standardbred farms in the area. The Adios model itself is a fairly easy find around here. I’ve come close: I’ve found a few mounted trophy-like things, but no true Presentation pieces, yet.

I’d be happy with any of them. I’m not particular; I only "need" one for the collection. Aside from cost and rarity, those bases take up an ungodly amount of shelf space: it just wouldn't be practical. Now, I wouldn't turn down a nice-sized collection of them if they did happen to fall in my lap somehow, but what are the odds of that?

(Yeah, I know, it's me we're talking about. When, not if, etc.)