The funny thing is that he’s not my first MIB Chalky; my first was a Chestnut Belgian – which I bought primarily because he looked like a pretty nice MIB Belgian, not because I hoped he was a Chalky. I thought he might be, but at the price I was getting him at it didn’t matter. That he was was just a bonus.
The Clydesdale I did buy under the assumption that he was – which is not something I do very often, because judging Chalkies by slightly blurry online photos is an always-iffy proposition. I shelled out the little bit extra cash (for me) because I figured he was at least a semi-safe bet: in every other regard, he was a premium, high-end piece.
This is where the market is now going with Vintage pieces, anyway: the more bells and whistles, the better. White Picture Box? Check. Original Collector's Manual? Check. Original Bag? Check. Near mint condition? Check.
Chalky? BINGO!
Even the roughest of Chalkies will always have a value – just as beat-up, coverless copies of key Golden Age comic books still have a greater-than-nominal value. But as with many collectibles from the modern era, better is better.
Model horse collectors aren’t big on the concept of “patina”, outside of exceptions that fall either into the category of amusing (the heavily bloated, the heavily yellowed, or the disturbingly warped) or the exceptionally precious (Decorators, Test Colors, our childhood carpet herds).
It’s always funny whenever an antiquer tries to sell a body-quality Breyer that way. Luckily for me, it doesn’t happen too much around here any more; if it does, it’s usually someone new to the area who has not yet been schooled by the locals.
Now to dig out the Chalky Clydesdale I upgraded from – who is not too shabby himself, but Mint In Box he’s not.
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