Good news - it's time for another New Arrivals post! I'll start with Black Forest:
I think Black Forest is one of my favorite of this year's models - I love his mane and tail, despite the unpainted ribbons. I also love the crispness of his white lower body against the darker upper body. Love him! I wonder if Breyer would let someone do a Design Your Own Breyer of this pattern on a Shire B for a matched pair. Ha!
Next, here's Stein:
Next, here's Stein:
After the variations on Marzipan and Landler started showing up on Friday, Stein was the subject of some intense strategizing - if a variation showed up on him, buy as many as possible (I had tickets for six), with the possibility of trading Rotating Draft tickets for more Stein tickets, if necessary. Fortunately, no Stein variations showed up, so I wound up with a lot of Rotating Draft models (most of which I sold during the event). Anyway, Stein is a handsome guy, but I can't help but wonder what a variation on him would have looked like - even if only a matte/gloss split. Ah, well.
Lastly, here's Rapunzel!
Lastly, here's Rapunzel!
Speaking of variations, I'm still a bit bewildered that they didn't do an alternate mane on Rapunzel. It seemed like the obvious choice, so it's still a little confusing. Probably for the best, though, because I only had two Rapunzel tickets and probably wouldn't have had the luck to get them both. Anyway, I love the flowing tail on this girl, and was pleased to notice this girl even has a little braid in her mane. I like how there's a little bit of pearly in her hair too; it helps keep her from looking like a regular run. Apparently there is an unofficial lighter roan variation of her out there, which I wouldn't have minded getting, but it's not a deal-breaker. Maybe I'll find one down the road.
That brings me to the end for today - check back soon for more New Arrivals!
That brings me to the end for today - check back soon for more New Arrivals!
As a recent returner to the hobby, and a newcomer to Breyerfest (via digital option), I was shocked to find that buying multiple tickets (to ensure the SR you wanted) was not only common and widely accepted, but was allowed by Breyer. It's mind-boggling to me because of how it favors those with more money. It also ironically skews things in favor of those who could probably afford the after-market prices anyway. Last year, when I had access to SRs, I only bought one ticket, partly for financial reasons but also because buying more than one ticket to favour myself in the SR lottery felt so wrong. Are we really all ok with this? Am I missing something?
ReplyDeleteI can't speak for others, but I always buy a lot of tickets every year in case the surprise model is a mold I collect, because I'm naturally going to want as many colors and finishes as I can get, at as close to cost as possible. Take this year's Rotating Draft - I believe there were four glossy possibilities. I don't think the prices on those have come down as much, but even if people were only charging $250 each on the secondary market, that's still $1,000 to buy all four of them. Then allow maybe $100 (and some are selling for more than that) for the six matte variations and you're up to $1600 just for the surprise models on the secondary market, when the tickets to buy or trade for them cost $850 from Breyer. I suppose a person could pay those prices, but why do that when the tickets are cheaper? Then there's all the other stuff you might want to buy, the cost of the hotel + gas to get there, food and other costs. Breyerfest is expensive to attend, and people save up all year to be able to afford it.
DeleteFortunately I ended up not wanting this year's surprise model, so I was able to resell almost all of my Rotating Draft models for a modest markup.
If I have the money to buy the tickets, I see no reason to limit myself to one or two tickets (especially when I'm going to all the cost and time to travel to Kentucky) when in a year like this one the tickets showed no sign of selling out and everyone who wanted one could get one (and even in busy years they don't always sell out). Until or unless Breyer decides to let one ticket get more than two models, people that want more chances at the special runs will have to buy more tickets. I only bought two tickets for our first Breyerfest back in 2012 and wasn't able to get much of what I wanted, and I don't want that to happen again, so now I buy more tickets.
Also, I don't really see how Breyer could police how many tickets people buy, because a lot of people do pickups and will buy 20-30 tickets, if not more, to make sure they get all the models they need for pickups.
It's true, I don't know how they could police it, but it's a shame that others could be missing out on the horse they really want simply because they can't invest as much. It might help if Breyer at least tried to police it. I mean it would suck for more people, but at least the distribution might be a bit more even and fair. People buying up a lot of tickets is likely the reason you had such an unpleasant experience back in 2012. Lucky for you, you could fix the frustration by buying more tickets. But while that's great for you, it only adds to the overall problem.
DeleteI don't really blame you or anyone else doing it, though. I blame the people buying up a lot of tickets solely to resell at jacked up prices on eBay. THAT is the likely source of the panic everyone now has to buy as much as they can to avoid the ridiculous secondary market prices. And I blame Breyer for going along with it, likely because money is money to them so they don't care.
In the end, here is no motivation, other than kindness and empathy, to try and fix it. Heck, if I had the money and could go to in person Breyerfest, I'd probably do it too. I get that it's hard not to out of the goodness of your heart, especially when so many other people are doing it and the consequences are so expensive. For me, for now...I just have to learn to let go. :/
I don't blame other people for not being able to get what I wanted in 2012, just bad luck in the line position draw (which is now a thing of the past).
DeleteAs I said before, I don't blame you or other people for buying extra tickets to ensure you get the horses you want. But that doesn't mean that I like it or agree things should work that way. It's a problematic system. And regardless, whether or not you blame them is irrelevant. You obviously didn't enjoy the experience. And I'll admit I have no idea how it works/worked exactly. Maybe you could explain? But it seems likely that the more popular models will end up being selected more often, especially with people buying more tickets, otherwise why give your preferences at all? Even with a bad position in line, wouldn't you have had a better chance of getting what you wanted if no one was permitted to buy extra tickets? I'm not saying everyone would get exactly what they wanted if a one ticket rule was enforced, but it would even out the distribution. So maybe a kid who really wanted that one horse and dragged their disinterested parent there would have a chance against the adult collectors who can buy multiple chances at that same horse.
DeleteI don't know, as a newcomer to Breyerfest, I might have it all wrong...but it just seems to be an alarmingly unbalanced system to me. You shouldn't feel like you have to buy multiple tickets in the first place, is my point, but it's becoming clearer to me why Breyer wouldn't want to fix it....
The way the special run tickets used to work was: each ticket was numbered from 1 to 450, and a Breyer staffer would draw numbers from a basket (also 1 to 450). Whichever number was drawn was where the line started, i.e. if they drew the number 50, the line started at ticket 50 and then everyone lined up from 50-450, with 1-49 at the end. This was done for every ticket time, every hour, on Friday and Saturday (and eventually extended to Sunday morning). You got to go through the line and pick your two special runs from whatever was left by the time you went through (it was the only way to make the model handout more fair - in previous years it was first-come first-serve and in many cases people waited in line for 8+ hours only to come out empty-handed on the other side).
DeleteIn our case in 2012, neither of our ticket draws was good enough to get all the items I wanted, and I was a bit disappointed, but like...not majorly so. That's just how it was. So I started buying more tickets. In those days the surprise models sold out almost instantly, way faster than anything else. Nowadays the run numbers on those (and everything else) have been increased so much that almost nothing sells out, except for one or maybe two extremely popular sellers. This year it was possible to walk up to the gate and buy more tickets all weekend, and nothing was sold out at the SR line except the Stein models. I can't say that'll be the case every year, as attendance seemed to be down from previous years (gas prices and inflation taking their toll), but it seemed like the new system worked pretty well this year.
I don't think there's any way for Breyer to limit the number of tickets people buy, as they'd just make new accounts to buy more tickets. And limiting ticket sales would be the opposite of what Breyer wants, which is to get as much money from the customers as possible (not trying to bash them, they're a company trying to make a profit and that's how capitalism works). If people complained enough, I suppose they might change it so people could purchase more special runs with their tickets, but for whatever reason I never seem to see many people calling for that to happen. I could maybe see it happening in the future (going from 2 special runs to 3 per ticket, for instance), considering the boxes and boxes and pallets of boxes of leftover models at the event this year. Normally, on Sunday afternoon people are allowed to go through the line as many times as they want without a ticket to buy the leftover models (still only two at a time, but they could turn around and go right back through and get two more), but that didn't happen this year, apparently due to the weather (it did start raining on Sunday afternoon as things were wrapping up).
Thank you for explaining it all! :) And yeah, I agree with everything you said about Breyer having no reason to change it. They are a business, and I don't see them changing something that brings in so much more money. It's frustrating, if you can't afford to join in the ticket buying, but you are right they do seem to have leftovers. Also it must be hard for them to judge how much they need to produce and is a bit of a gamble for them too.
ReplyDeleteNot that I see them ever changing their ways, but I wonder if they could do something like the Premier Club where your membership guarantees your models. You could join the Breyerfest "Club", choose your SRs and know with certainty you will get those models. The only gamble then will be what variations you end up with. I'd love a system like that. (Especially if it included virtual ticket holders!) That way people who wanted to buy more models could do so, and those who couldn't would at least get the exact models they wanted. And Breyer might cut down on some overhead if they knew exactly how many models to make. :) I mean it probably wouldn't work because of production time, though. They'd have to cut down the selection a lot. Ah well...a girl can dream. I just hope they offer proper SRs to virtual ticket holder next Breyerfest. That SR gamble offer was pricey and unpleasant.
They're basically already doing that with the VIP tickets, which I admit are pretty overpriced, especially since they didn't seem to be limited this year. I wouldn't be opposed to seeing that price come down a bit.
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