BreyerFest Recap Pt 4: CHIN Shopping and More Loot!

Shopping at the CHIN is easily one of the top highlights of Breyerfest - you absolutely must experience it in person to believe it. I suppose it is also going to be time to stop calling it the CHIN and start calling it the Clarion - It has been a Clarion for probably over 10 years... maybe even more? I can't keep track! But us old timers still remember it is the Holiday Inn North, which we used to call the HIN. When it was rebranded as a Clarion it was too confusing for us at first so we just added the C and it lovingly became the CHIN. But I think this year for the first time I heard most people simply referring to it as the Clarion, so maybe it is officially time to retire the moniker.

But let's get back to the ponies! Starting as early as Sunday night before Breyerfest, hobbyists start opening their hotel room doors and selling models out of their rooms. We arrived on Tuesday this year and Tuesday night it was already busy in the halls! Lots of people were selling and shopping and the crowds continue to build every night. By Friday and Saturday it is nearly impossible to walk through the hallways because of all the people - so I usually try to get my own shopping in by Thursday. Also this year with all the parties and dinners and shows I did not get to do nearly as much room shopping as I usually do.

The other quirkiness of this particular hotel is the weird layout and unusual room numbering system. If you are new to Breyerfest and the Clarion it is very easy to get lost and not be sure exactly what rooms you have already been through. There are flyers all over the walls of the hotel advertising different rooms and their wares and it can be a challenge to find that specific room 342 or 612 because the halls are not sequential and the hotel is only two stories - but once you get a map and get the hang of it, you'll know where to find things.

Pro Tip: I usually go outside and walk around the perimeter of the hotel if I need to get to a specific room - much easier than trying to navigate the crowded hallways! Especially if you do need to go from the 600s to the 300s.

The entire hotel becomes a giant flea market and Breyerfest would absolutely not be the same if this element ever disappeared. You can find everything from people liquidating their entire collection of vintage models, people selling duplicates or recent parts of their collection, to actual dealers with rooms selling all new stock. Like a flea market, prices are also all over the place and most people are more than happy to haggle or take offers, especially as the weekend goes on and the prospect of having to pack all the models up again starts to set in.

You would think there were no deals to be had because everyone selling is a knowledgeable hobbyist, but that is not the case at all. There have been legendary rooms, like last year someone came in to liquidate an entire collection and she just wanted it gone so EVERY model was $20 - and this included things like Connoisseurs and Premier Models and all manner of vintage special runs. I missed it but I heard it was absolutely EPIC. If you know what you're looking for you can also find overlooked variations or oddities. I was able to find a chalky Swaps in 2023 just sitting on a shelf like any other vintage classic and one of my roommates found a mint chalky QH Gelding this year for cheap - if you follow this blog you know the struggles I had trying to find one of those for years!

Plenty of people (cough*me*cough) also just want to clear out space and duplicates so they price things to move while others might not necessarily want to sell unless the price is right. It is always wise to have that target price in mind and shop around. A friend of mine who was looking for a recent web special found one in a room for $150 and just a few doors down there was another one priced at $400! That is the sort of range you can see on all kinds of models.

I did not do much room shopping myself this year but I did still find a few cool things that I was looking for! As you know one of my favorite sub-hobbies is picking out regular runs. In one of the dealer rooms I was able to get this really nice Theo for my Georg conga. I've been looking for one that isn't that sort of yellow/greenish that a lot of them are and this one stood out in a stack of them. When I got him home to compare to my current one, who I thought was already pretty nice, you can really see the difference! He still has a little bit of yellowish on his topline but nothing like what most of them are.

New one is on the left and old one is on the right - look how yellow/green he looks in comparison! Most of the rest of the ones that dealer had also looked like my gold boy, so I was happy to find this one.

I also scored this chalky Adios - a model that has been on my outstanding chalky list for awhile! I have had two in the past but one I traded for something else I needed more and the second one wasn't in the best shape so I sold it (and then regretted it because it has been so hard to find another one). This one also isn't perfect but he is quite nice and will certainly happily be my placeholder example until I can find a perfect one! I should be able to touch up a lot of this too.

I only got over to the swap meet when it was about to close, but there were some really nice G1 stablemates there and I picked out these - a few that I was missing for congas and I can never resist a nice bay morgan stallion.

Speaking of Stablemates, Breyer really hit it out of the park this year with their minis. Even though I am ostensibly cutting back on my stablemates, I had to get both new sets this year because every single one is outstanding. It was no surprise at all that both the BoB set and the GA ticket 4-pack both sold out quickly this year.

I've been collecting the Breyerfest minis since the very first anniversary set came out, but this year's set is easily one of my favorites in the series. The fjord is the stand out but I really love this entire set. I ordered this as one of the LEs on my VIP ticket along with the crystal (also an excellent piece this year) and I didn't even have to handpick another one because I was very happy with all the examples in my set.

The general admission set is also the best set I can remember for awhile. I absolutely love all four of these - I keep trying to think which one is my favorite but I can't. They are all so good. I was glad I had this set with my VIP ticket too because they sold out fast both online and in the store.

And of course I can't forget my Phish! I picked out this one for myself because he had the darkest shading and most fleabites among the ones I received. I love that he came with an anniversary blanket too and I appreciated the way they packed it separately in the box (no stains!!) I've been trying to reduce my collection of "long things" because my shelves are not very deep, but Cigar is a sentimental favorite for me and I love how this one turned out.