I had been hearing stories, but this one takes the cake: the Special Runs chosen for me involved my first choice, and my last choice? That is… some messed up selection process you’ve got going on this year, Reeves:
I have a hard time believing everything else I selected before Marzipan was sold out during my theoretical time slot before they got to me. That would have included, by the way: the Surprise, Landler, Brahms, Rapunzel, and Elbe and Spree.
(I already had the Bears and Franz coming via the VIP, so I can’t even remember if I had them on my All-Access selection list at all.)
While I think the Marzipan is a leading contender for the Gloss/Matte split, it’s still not enough for me to actually want him, and my luck is not so good with the Gloss/Matte split models anyway.
So yeah, I’ll need to trade that one for literally… anything else. Even one of those Rando/Choose Your Own Adventure tickets they’re sending out to folks who didn’t get a chance to make tiered selections, or who only made limited selections that were sold out prior to their position in line. Otherwise I may end up giving it away, especially if space is already tight in the car.
Ugh, another thing to worry about. This whole week, I swear.
To show you how it’s been going so far: I was researching cargo van rentals yesterday. The vehicle is fine, but the service I wanted to get done before the trip (regularly scheduled maintenance type stuff) may not be possible until after the trip, and if I can’t find another place to do it, I’m renting a van.
Not necessarily because of the space, but because – believe it or not – it’s probably my cheapest rental option. I hope it won’t come to that, because I have enough to deal with between now and then, and I do not want to add “driving a rental van through Ohio” to my list of worries.
But anyway, enough about my woes. I have about six pages of the Sampler written, and I’m hoping for another two or three by tomorrow. I’m aiming to have it mostly written and illustrated by the end of the three-day weekend, and save next week for formatting, proofreading and printing.
Barring another day like today, which was rough. (Much cussing was involved, as was the occasional “Serenity Now!”)
12 comments:
Oupside of my VIP selections, I got almost everything I wanted for special runs. I ended up with an Elbe & Spree, though I did manage to find someone to trade them for the gummy bears as they wound up with duplicates too and really wanted Elbe & Spree. So it at least worked out for me in the end. Also breyer announced some got a “wild card” to redeem for an left over special run, minus Stein as hes spoken for. I found that very interesting. No one know why they changed the selection process form the past two years as it seemed to work out well the past two years, especially for me. Hopefully next year they go back to the regular special run line system, though I get why they didn’t for this year, but still.
Don't feel bad Andrea! I had my 3 tickets sent to my pickup person's house (not my personal choice but I was one of those who ordered my tickets in APRIL*before* BREYER decided to make all these freakin' changes--pardon my french--and at the time, the only way to guarantee your models was have the actual attendees order them!!GRRRR!!
Anyway , the tickets arrived yesterday and instead of her waiting until I could come to her house to see what I got for myself, she took it upon herself to remove ALL the tickets from the booklets--threw the booklets away(before I could see what they looked like ) and then proceeded to CALL me to tell me which Special Run models that I would be getting!! Uhhhhh---NOOOO!! How about since I PAID for the models and tickets, I get to choose for myself???!!!(By the way, she said that I had gotten 3 ELBE's, 2 of the BRAHMS, and LANDLER!! She asked if I wanted the MARZIPAN even tho he was on my list *before* the LANDLER!!) OOOOOO!!!
Fortunately, for her, out of my 6 choices, I ended up with 5 of them(I'm only missing the Surprise ticket option!) but with talk being of variations within the group, l'm not sure that I trust her NOT to open up the bags(even tho I told her not to open mine!) And switch them out!!(Believe me, she'd do it and LIE about it because she's already hinted that that's what she was going to do--and you think you've got issues??
I hope things work out that you can either get your van serviced or you'll be able to rent one!!
Some pick-up people pool tickets & others do not but they need to tell the ticket holders which they do before tickets are sent to them. The 2 yrs I did pick-ups (2001 & 2002) I did not pool tickets & if the ticket got a bad draw & was at the end of the line then the ticket hold was SOL. And they complained! They wanted to know why I didn’t pool the tickets & then distributed the SR models to people according to their preferences. They claimed that would help people get their top choices instead of getting stuck with the ones they wanted least. I didn’t think that was fair to those whose tickets were drawn for the front of the line. Why should they get their 3rd or 4th choices when their ticket was in the first 50 of the line. I just quit doing pick-ups instead of dealing with people who couldn’t deal with bad draws in the line & felt they were entitled to models obtained on another’s ticket.
I've heard that renting just about any kind of vehicle right about now is next to impossible. Best of luck with either the repairs to your van, or getting a rental!
The dealership called today and can get me in at the end of the week, whew! (FWIW, I don't have a van, I have a Kia Soul, but I have three years of stuff instead of one and it ain't gonna fit.)
If the van wasn't possible, my last resort would be the family truck.
As far as the Marzipan goes, if I can't swing a trade by then, I'll see what's going on in terms of early pickups and play it by ear. I just hope the Surprise isn't something I really like - like the Cleveland Bay - because then I'll be really annoyed.
Shoot Marzipan was my favorite run this year.
At least appreciate that you are lucky enough to get to go to Breyerfest.
And yup some pickup people open and go through everything to get all the models THEY want first.
Gracious! I've never gotten to attend a BreyerFest, so I had no idea there was such drama and intrigue involved with the SR models.
I knoq you're not on FaceBook, but apparently there has been a heightened amount of randomness with All-Access pics, including those with multiple tickets receiving the same two picks, and people who submitted preference lists receiving "wild cards" for whatever models are left.
Since I am online-only, I figured I'd see if Brahms came within budget range in the next 6-9 months, although since Breyer opened up the Random SR option for Online holders, I may only need a little bit of luck.
I don't know what to think about pick ups; I'm sure most are wonderful and dedicated people, but I'd hate if someone opened my model first.
This year is going to be a total cluster****. The past two were bad enough without them ruining our year back. They need to put everything back to the way it was in previous live years, nothing was “broken” in the first place. They are trying to reinvent the wheel and it’s getting more square with every passing day. And virtual should go right in the dumpster. If they want to sell online, then have more web specials. Leave Breyerfest being an EVENT.
Reeves is really changing things up for the worse. I thought the online BF in 2021 went well all things considered. These new systems for selection, purchase and pick-up are a little tragic. It's like they are trying to make the experience of BF for an ever growing crowd better and only end up making it more confusing and stressful.
Quite fitting for the theme, there is a German phraee for that: verschlimmbessern (roughly translates to "worsenbettering").
The shady pick-up persons are just the icing on the cake. Breyer should have offered an additional service for that. Add shipment or pick-up of SRs to the VIP ticket or something.
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