Dark Chocolate Kelso

I was reviewing the spreadsheets of all my purchases and sales earlier this week, and I was a little amazed at how many of my eBay purchases were box lots.

Judging from my recent bidding history, I don’t think this year will be any different.

Aside from the bargain of it, it’s the excitement of opening the box and seeing what you actually have, compared to the sometimes small, sometimes blurry, and usually insufficient number of photographs you had to go on when you made that decision to bid in the first place.

I’m usually pretty good about bidding up to my max, and no higher, and making that bid on the assumption that whatever I see is in slightly worse condition than it appears. So even if I lose, I don’t lose much, other than time and a bit of enthusiasm.

(Want to lose some enthusiasm real quick? Try rinsing out petrified bugs from a sticky and heavily smoke-encrusted Marx horse’s back end. Ah, the glamorous life of a box lot reseller...)

The box lot that arrived at the house today was filled with many surprises, most of them of the happier variety. Even after I factor out the pieces I’ll be keeping – and I’ll be keeping several – I should be able to break even, at minimum.

It’ll take me two or three additional posts to discuss some of these treasures within. Since time is short today (most of was spent on the road for work), I’ll give you a photo of one of the loveliest of them all. Just look at this stunning, first-year, no-mold-mark Kelso:

Hubba hubba! The photo can’t quite convey just how deep and dark-chocolaty he is in person. In an era when there was a lot of color variations, the original runs of the Classic Racehorses (except for their markings) were relatively stable. Kelsos did get lighter and more traditionally bay-like as time went on, but finding the dark chocolate variation is not difficult.

Finding one this well-executed, however, is another matter. Even if the rest of the lot he came in had been bodies, it would have been worth it for him alone.

But they weren’t, as I’ll show you next time.

Judgment Calls

I got lucky on eBay last week a scored a good - and cheap! - body box lot. When I mean good, I mean it included (a) better than average Classics, and (b) a couple of bodies I could use. Also included in this lot were these two pieces:

The Running Foal is a very loved and abused Chalky from the 1970s; it was the most damaged item in the lot, naturally. Yet in today’s superheated Chalky market, even a model in this condition is worth something.

That wasn’t the case even a few years ago, when I found myself selling a very sad-looking Chalky Adios to someone who fully intended on customizing it. I really didn’t have much of a choice in that matter; I needed the money, and no one else seemed interested in him.

As far as other models that fit this equation - rare, but trashed - I really don’t have a firm opinion on what should be done with them. Of course I’d rather have someone keep them Original Finish, but body quality is body quality: sometimes you have to let a few go.

In regards to the question of restoration, I am neither for it, nor against it. My personal preference is for minimal restoration: repair the breaks, unyellow it, clean it up, stabilize it (add a leg to stand on, if necessary). I might do a few touch ups, as long as they’re not obtrusive.

But if someone wants to do a full restore on him, I’m good with that, too. Which is why this guy is going on the regular portion of my sales list, and not being tossed in the body box like the rest of the lot will be. Might as well minimize any further damage, right?

The Kelso is a little better - rough, but in a less breathtaking way. What’s interesting about him is that he’s an early Classics Racehorse without the mold mark; the first batch or two of the Racehorses didn’t get the mold stamp.

We’re not sure why the mold marks happened later - either it was forgotten in the rush to get them to market, or (my theory) they were still hammering out the legal details of the leasing contracts. This lack of a mold mark sometimes works in our favor at the flea market or yard sale: no mold mark = not a Breyer!

He has the beautiful body shading typical of the early Classics, but he also has the rough seams, burrs, fuzzy gray overspray, and sloppy detail work that was also part of the package back then.

He’s going straight to the body box, though: he’s not someone I need right now, and he’s just common enough that he doesn’t merit shelf space. He’s got excellent mold detail, and is a Love Classic, so I doubt he’ll stay in there long.

The Leavings

That’s very nice of Reeves to offer leftover Connoisseurs to Premier Club members; I would have loved a Pandora or a Swirling Sky, but with BreyerFest right around the corner, I wouldn’t have been able to even if I was a member of that club.

A few less things for the Ninja Pit, I guess. As for what I actually think is going to be in there this year, I am not even going to speculate. Not that I don’t have some interesting ideas on the subject, but I don’t want to stir the pot anymore than that silly "When are you getting in line for the NPOD?" thread on Blab already has.

I know, it’s mostly talk, but still. Nothing against amateurs or noobs - we all were, once - but if you don’t know what you’re doing, or what to look for, your odds of finding something "good" are utterly random, regardless of your position in line.

Naturally, right after I posted how everything was going so swimmingly, everything came crashing down. The computer lost its mind, the printer jammed up so badly that I had to disassemble it, I discovered that a component of one of the costumes I was thinking about doesn’t fit, and the power went out for most of a day. Oh, and a groundhog ate all of our tomato plants (which is somehow my fault, because everything is my fault.)

I’ve managed to recover from the bulk of the catastrophes; on the costume front I will probably go with one of the other ideas I have if I can’t take the weight off in time. And the universe gave me a small token for my trouble: a Beswick Beatrix Potter "Cousin Ribby"!

At a Salvation Army - in a less ritzy neighborhood than I usually frequent, no less. Not sure if I’m keeping her or not; it’s been a while since I picked up a Beswick of any kind, but it’s not a horse, and I will be needing some serious cash after BreyerFest to pay for all the things I need to pay for.

Other than the SRs, and the NPOD, I’m hoping to hold on to most of the money I manage to make this year. There are a few things I’m still eyeing (like a really nice Yellow Mount!) but if I buy anything, it’ll be the usual reference materials and stray oddities.

Among the things I’ll be selling this year - besides the usual assortment of flea market finds and book sale leavings - will be these Allen F. Brewer Jr. prints I picked up a few weeks ago at my local flea market. If you haven’t already seen them, here they are:

(In order; Kauai King, Man o' War, Round Table, Your Host, Swaps, Silky Sullivan. Your Host was Kelso's sire, sort of the Barbaro of the 1950s.)

They’re not all in the bestest shape, but they’re (mostly) signed, and (to put it bluntly) they had to be rescued. I wanted to keep a couple of them - like the Man o’ War and the Silky Sullivan (for research purposes, right?) but I’ll probably have to let them all go, because of the money. I don’t have a lot of wall space to spare, either.

Cutting it short today; lots of odds and ends to deal with.