Monday Markets: Feb 24 2025

With the success of the Bonnie Ellis estate auctions, several hobbyists have decided to use them to sell large portions of their collections. The first of those, Mary's colllection, is currently live and ending on Wednesday:

https://doslandauctionservice.hibid.com/catalog/620709/marys-breyer-horse-collection

You can certainly see the appeal. Yes, the auction house takes a big cut but having them handle all the photographs, listings, packing, shipping... and having it all done at once? That is definitely worth the price of admission. Because of all the interest and traffic they have also been getting top end prices for the models they are selling - it will be interesting to see if that holds up for the non-Bonnie auctions as well.

I used to love selling on eBay but they charge relatively high fees and the effort of selling and shipping is definitely not as fun as it used to be. If I lived closed to Iowa I'd certainly be giving a chunk of my collection a big side eye myself. But instead I've added 57 lots from this auction to my watchlist LOL.

But what other interesting things happened this week?

This absolutely gorgeous alabaster Mustang went for $896. This is probably the nicest one I have ever seen with such extensive and well done shading and he looks to be the rarer "red eye" variation (which is really more of a red-brown). A lot of the vintage shaded Mustangs (mine included) have basically lines drawn on them in the muscle grooves, but I love how this one is more realistically but heavily shaded. Really stunning.

In fact here is a "red eye" Five Gaiter that I was also watching that has the more typical muscle groove shading. This one had some paint rubs in the grey areas but still goes to show you what a difference a little condition and shading can make.

Another particularly nice vintage model that brought a higher-than-usual price was this beautiful Running Mare. She is a very nice early 1960s example with rich color, great shading, and eyewhites. She is probably also semi-gloss although this seller appears to have photographed all their models while still wet from cleaning them, so it's hard to say, but many in this shade of bay are semi-gloss. I'm thinking I'll do a post tomorrow on bay running mare variations in honor of this one.

A Cornelius was up for sale and I am big time kicking myself for not getting one of these when they were going for half this price. He's so cool and unique and everything Halloween themed just continue to go up and up in value and popularity, so I was both surprised and not surprised to see him hit this price.

Because on the other side of things I was surprised this Olympia only went for $1100 - at 40 made she is even more rare and this color on Marabella is gorgeous. I'll probably be kicking myself in a few years for not buying this one, too! I'm always surprised that Marabella isn't more popular - she is a favorite of mine.

Over on Amazon prices for new models are still going down (on average) and this week's pick is Zorah Belle currently at $32.10. She's a popular new mold and a lot of people were bummed they missed out on Hot Cocoa - this is a great price if you've been waiting to get a Zorah Belle.