Final Accountings

I had every intention of going to a farm auction Saturday morning, but I got up and said to myself “Do you really need another adventure this weekend?” We had received an insane amount of rain over the past couple of days, so I had a wee bit of concern about roads and bridges not being driveable, too. 

So I finally (FINALLY!) got around to starting my post-BreyerFest inventory. It’s not completely done because there are a few things I need to make some decisions on. (Keep all three Stagecoach Surprises, or surrender one? Does Nemea stay, or go?) 

Hopefully I’ll be able to get to those remainders dealt with next weekend, and get my online sales started in earnest shortly after that. This week I need to focus on cleaning up the garden, since the rains (and the several hundred pounds of debris that came with them – long story!) did quite a number on it.

I also did the final accounting of my BreyerFest Live placings: 

• Fifth in the Stablemates Collector’s Class
• Sectional Champ: Unrealistic Color, Section 2 (!!!)
• 4 NAN Cards: 1 Breed, 3 Collectibility
• 23 total Flats: at least one of every color!

The flats total is a little deceiving, because some of those ribbons were what I call “pity placings”: low placings in classes with a low number of entries. BF Live is also one of the few shows that still does placings to tenth. Most only do to sixth nowadays. 

If you just counted the placings to sixth, I still got 14, which is still pretty decent, all things considered. Certainly far better than I expected, and better than that show I did last September that still occasionally keeps me up at night. 

I am most pleased by my Gloss Silver Bay Stoneleigh Surprise, who earned me the NAN Breed Card with a Second in a fairly large Morgan class of 45 entries! 

I sometimes take my Collectibility placings for granted, but never Breed. I don’t know if it’s just me and a consequence of my focus and buying preferences, but the judging standards for Collectibility feel less subjective than the ones for Breed. 

Oh, and if it is any consolation to anyone out there about my current run of luck, it’s worth noting that (a) it is highly unlikely I’ll see either one of the Tractor Supply Stablemates Chase Pieces, and (b) my luck on biddable eBay auctions continues to suck. 

What kind of crazy market is this that even box lots of busted up and otherwise undesirable bodies still go for a premium? Gah!

About that: since I was planning on doing some serious customizing soon, I was looking to add a few less desirable bodies to the stash to experiment with. Since I have a rather high rate of failure, I feel a lot less guilty tossing three-legged Hess Classics and Rugged Larks into my free box. Until recently, those kinds of bodies to be cheap, bordering on free...

It looks like I’ll have to make do with what I have, which is probably plenty. Should do an inventory of what I do have, while I’m at it.