More a Lark than a Hope

My first reaction to the Test Color Purchase-Raffle was: I guess that means we can rule out the Ranch Horse as a BreyerFest Special Run, maybe? The mold was on my short list as a potential candidate for either the Samba Surprise or the Volunteer Model.

My second reaction was: good for Reeves for trying to spread the wealth as far as Test Colors go. Test Colors shouldn’t only be available to the highest bidder: charge a premium for them, sure, but as is the case with other scarce models, there should be multiple ways of distributing them.

On the other hand, that price.

I understood how they arrived at that price – $850 is near the low baseline for BreyerFest auction models, and hobbyist speculation on the more desirable Micro Runs also didn’t help much.

But it still made me wince. That … doesn’t really “improve” availability by a lot.

While it’s true that most of my Test Colors are older paint jobs on older molds and mostly not live show quality, the price I paid for all of my Test Colors wasn’t that much, combined. (I don’t know the exact number I have, but it’s more than a few.)

Not all Tests are primo show pieces, nor should they be priced as such. Some of us don’t necessarily want a show horse anyway, just a little piece of history to call our own.

But I don’t know how they’d go about making it a little easier for more budget-minded collectors to get in on the action, too. Classic or Stablemate Tests? A Gambler’s Choice/Mystery Sample Sale (a random Traditional Sample sent to you for X dollars)? A “Chipped and Dinged” Sale?

I did enter a couple of times, by the way, but knowing my recent luck on these things, it was more as a lark than in hope.

If I had won (Ha!) I would have found a way, somehow. I loved the color on him, and his provenance? Impeccable.