It's Friday, I'm a Judge! Traditional Collectability

 Welcome back to It's Friday, I'm a Judge! This week, we'll be dipping our toes into the world of OF Breyer Traditional Collectability. 

As a reminder, my credentials for a judge are as follows: I've been collecting since 2008. My collection focuses on OF Breyer. I've been around horses in some capacity since roughly 2001. I was in 4-H for seven years, showed in IHSA in college, and was a working student at an eventing barn. I've photo shown model horses on and off since 2015, and have been live showing since 2022. I have had multiple overall champions in breed and collectability in both OF Breyer and OF Mini divisions. I started judging in a small capacity in 2022, and since fall 2024 I have judged at several shows, including Are You Kitten Me, the Happy Kamper Classic, the Big Orange Bash, and the River City Classic. I have also volunteered for NAN in 2022 and 2024, and did additional volunteer work for NAMHSA for BreyerFest 2025.

Unlike our last collectability judging clinic, where we examined judging collectability in a double judged class, we're judging a specific collectability class today. In this case, we're looking at a class of BreyerFest Special Runs. 

The Entries: 

Horse A: Glossy Benelli - BreyerFest Preordered Special Run - 2020 - 2,675 made

 

Horse B: Gwendolyn - BreyerFest Special Run - 2005 - 550 made

Horse C: Stagecoach Surprise - BreyerFest Special Run - Decorator variation - 2023 - 625 made

Take a minute, evaluate how you'd personally pin this class. Okay, you ready? Scroll down for how I'd pin it ↓

The Placings:

🥇1st: Horse C: Stagecoach Surprise

The Stagecoach Surprise is a pretty easy pin for first. He's on the wildly popular Hamilton mold, and though he is a decorator (which can be polarizing), his color is a new one. With 625 made of him, he was the midpoint number between the glossy and matte variations. The desirability is the factor that makes me pin him first - of the three horses in this class, he is the one that most people would want. 

🥈2nd: Horse B: Gwendolyn

In second place, I've pinned Gwendolyn. Based on numbers, there are fewer of her than the Stagecoach Surprise, but as mentioned, he is the more desirable piece. The National Show Horse is a less popular mold, owing to its age and tippy nature (my conga lives in a curio). Gwendolyn also has her COA. Because of her age, it's likely that several of this run have become separated from it, so for me it's bonus points if a model has one. If I had two equally nice Gwendolyns on a table, but one had a COA and the other didn't, I would pin the one with the COA over the one without in collectability. Depending on the judge, extras don't always matter in collectability, but they can set an entry apart if you have them.   

🥉3rd: Horse A: Glossy Benelli

Glossy Benelli could have easily pinned second in collectability. Glossy Benelli is without a doubt on the more popular mold. However, in this case, age and numbers took precedence. Gwendolyn is about 15 years older than glossy Benelli, and there are 550 of her made to glossy Benelli's 2,675. I also took into account the production of the models. Gwendolyn was a flat run of 550 in an age where BreyerFest was a much smaller event. Glossy Benelli was a special run for BreyerFest 2020, which was the first year BreyerFest was entirely online due to the pandemic. Glossy Benelli was made as an open-ended preorder, so anyone who wanted one could order him and he would be shipped at the end of the year. To me, this made him a more easily obtainable run, and therefore he's placed under Gwendolyn. For the same reason, if matte Benelli was the horse on the table instead, he would be pinned second. There were only 1,250 made of the matte variation, and because of cart sellouts he was much more difficult to obtain. 

How did you place this class? As always, judging is subjective, and your placings do not have to align with mine. Judges weigh criteria differently, and that's why we show! You pay for one judge's opinion on a given day.