The Model Trading Post Insurance Guide - a Review

Determining just how much a model horse is worth, or even a whole collection, is difficult. Market prices can fluctuate wildly and be driven by seasonal events such as BreyerFest and the holidays. There are places on Facebook for help (What is My Original Finish Breyer Worth? is one) and there are a few published books with price guidelines. The problem with books, though, is that they are static and unchanging, unlike the market for model horses. (Ever run into an antique dealer who has one of those books and argues with you about the price of the dinged up palomino Family Arabian Stallion that you are holding?)

Longtime collector and Breyer dealer, Lynn Anderson has quietly published an annual insurance guide for years and years. She updates it at the end of every year, for new models as well as values, and publishes the new guide every January.

I had not bought one for a long time, but decided I wanted to see how it had changed in the intervening years and to see if I might find it useful for documenting my collection's worth, so I purchased one earlier this month.

 I just finished recording every one of my models in the guide and am pleased with how well it met my needs.

Lynn includes information in the beginning of her guide as to how she comes up with the values she assigns each piece. (Tracking eBay prices and other model sales sources plus asking for information from well known and experienced hobbyists.)

 The guide is broken into sections; I added tabs to make finding what I needed easier.

 I also used highlighters to color code my collection's information - blue was for the section title (i.e. Cattle), yellow for the mold name (Grazing Mare, Mold #141), and then orange to indicate the pieces that I had in my collection.

Since the guide is updated annually, the 2018 models are not yet in there. I just penciled those in next to the mold name and drew an orange box around them. (Lynn has a note that her guide cannot be reproduced or xeroxed, so in order to respect that, I am only putting in this one page and have clipped off the values assigned to each piece. She has also given me permission to post the photos from her guide.)

It took me a while to get all the traditionals and classics on the shelves marked, then I had to dig through my Christmas ornaments to pull out the Breyer ones. Finally I took photos of my Stablemate shelves because those models are so tiny that I could not see them from my desk and got tired of getting up and walking back and forth to my shelves.

 My Vintage Club Stablemate pieces.

My Horse Crazy sets - I wish Breyer would do more of these. I am not a Stablemate collector, but I do love their colors and would buy more.

It took me about a week of working every day to get my entire collection recorded in the guide, and I am glad I took the time to document everything. As for the values, Lynn makes it very clear that they are for absolutely mint pieces, and a table is included in the guide for deductions if there are flaws, rubs, breaks, and more.

For me, I am finding it to be a useful tool to know the value of what I have as well as to pop into my car when I head out to do the rounds of the local antique shops and flea markets.