The Trakehner, Again

Well, the review of the Midyears will have to wait, because apparently my Magic Breyer Summoning Powers have manifested themselves again: there’s what appears to be a Black Trakehner in a box lot on eBay.

I’m not going to link to it because I’m assuming everyone already knows about it. It’s already at a higher-than-I’m-comfortable-with price, so it’s not like it needs the pageviews. 

Also, it’s fairly obvious that it’s not the identical model in my photograph: the hooves of the one in the auction are a different color. 

Because the hooves are even different colors from the front to the back, I gave it a passing thought that it might be a repainted Hanover, and possibly not even Original Finish. 

(And as if the matter wasn’t already confusing and fraught enough, there is also the possibility that it was a Hanover but it was repainted at factory, which can be a thing. Yeah, I know.)

Black paint jobs, like Gloss Finishes, are incredibly easy things to fake, and they can sometimes be difficult to distinguish from the real thing, even in person. I have a hard time investing a lot time or effort into something that has a nonzero chance of not being authentic.

This is, of course, all rationalization: something I tell myself when I know something is probably out of my reach.

Look, you know I’ll put in a good faith effort, but you also know that I am cheap and many other people in the hobby have legit lost their minds moneywise, so my odds of getting him are about the same as me finding an authentic dollar Rolex watch at the local Salvation Army for five bucks.

Not impossible, but it might as well be.