The Amazon Gamble

If you do jump on an Amazon sale, you certainly do take some risks!

When ordering new models from any online retailer you never know what you will get in terms of color and shading but also factory flaws and rubs or scratches. In the old days retailers like H&H Winners Circle used to offer a hand-picking service where you could pay extra for them to select a very nice example and also remove it from the box to check the offside to. I loved this and it was absolutely worth it for models you wanted to show or otherwise get a nice copy of.

These days the best option is to handpick your regular runs in person. Unfortunately most normal retailers may only get one copy, if any at all, of a model you're looking for, so my favorite place to handpick is always Breyerfest! Unless there is a global shipping backlog, Breyer typically brings stacks and stacks of new RRs to their store at BF so you can spend as much time as you want looking through as many as you want to find that perfect one. For models I might want to show I will gladly pay the full retail price to be able to do this hand selection. If I luck in to a really nice one at a local toy store or tack shop I'll certainly grab that one at full price too!

But for those models I know are just shelf pieces I'm willing to take the Amazon gamble on a good sale price. I did jump on the $27 Gilded (and he's still at that price currently) and he is lovely! The way the blue sits on his face and legs he always reminded me of a superhero in costume so I think I'll have to give him a related name.

No major flaws on this guy, great masking, and he arrived the next day in a perfectly sized box and well packed - a box I even kept in my save stack for future use because it is a perfect model horse box. This one was a success all around!

Earlier in the week I also saw the "Spring Sale" was on so of course I checked out the Breyers. Sjoerd was in the spring sale down around $32 but I don't collect that mold even a little bit - the deal did sell quickly though and he's back up to $42. I also saw Cossaco was down under $37 so I decided to get him. He's been on my low priority list. I do really love this color on the mold - much better than the original premier dapple grey or Speos IMO.

Cossaco however arrived in a literal paper bag. Not even a padded envelope, just a straight up paper sack. And I get it - people complain about the quality of packing and shipping wayyyyy too much and it if arrives safely it was shipped just fine, and from Amazon's perspective this is just a cheap toy. Still, I couldn't help but laugh and they might as well have just popped the shipping label right on the Breyer box.

The outer box is slightly crushed, but otherwise has survived and the model looks to be fine so I can't really complain too much. I also lost the factory flaw lottery and he does have a weird one on his face that I have to decide if I can live with. I like to think I'm on the low end of picky when it comes to OF models and factory flaws - particularly shelf models like this guy will be - but my pet peeve is when it is obvious on their face. So I'm going to leave him in box for now and think about it. Maybe I'll see at Breyerfest if I happen to find a nicer (to me) one under $50 (under $40 seems a stretch) and I'm sure I'd have no trouble rehoming this one at cost.

Isn't he pretty though?! Really love this color. But anyway that's your gamble with an Amazon sale! You never know how they'll be shipped or how nice the actual model will be. Of course these days, the same can be said of ordering directly from Breyer's website.