Hi all!
At the moment, I'm thinking a lot about the terms "reseller" and "flipper", how I define them, and my feelings about the practices. So, what do my definitions look like?
A "reseller" to me is someone who searches for models that are currently outside of the hobby sphere- often from outlets like Craigslist, FB marketplace, antique shops, flea markets, etc, and buys more than what they plan to keep for themselves. They may typically focus on models that may be popular with the hobby and/or pieces that are excellent deals that they can make a decent profit on. Those who buy large lots will make sure the prices are good for what they may want to keep vs what can be re-sold. "Reseller" can also apply to people who buy extras of new items here and there with the intent of holding onto them and selling them later on (or trading).
On the other hand, a "flipper" is someone who deliberately buys as much as they can of a "hot" new product with the intention of immediately dumping them onto the market, usually at a high mark up that falls outside what most people would consider "cost plus modest profit" (original cost, shipping to the seller, usually shipping to the buyer unless they do local pick up, plus a small profit or offsetting other costs such as fees, shipping materials, time/travel to get the horse shipped to the buyer). Flippers may not necessarily be serious OF collectors. Flippers try to set the market high and tend to have high reserves if they do offer auctions, instead of starting at a price to recoup their investment and letting the market decide what is reasonable. They are among the first people posting their ads after a new release, sometimes going as far as doing a pre-sale before having the model(s) in hand, and even on occasion before they've made purchases. You will start to recognize the names of chronic flippers when you pay attention to eBay and sales pages.
*Edit- I would like to clarify here that I'm specifically referring to those who post ads/pre-sell PUBLICLY, I have no issue with people who do private sales this way and I've participated in a few myself. Those types of sales are usually done to help friends, whereas public sales are trying to catch anyone a flipper can get to pay them.
I will say that resellers have always been vital to the health of the hobby- to redistribute models to those who have missed out on past items, and to bring models back into the fold that ended up outside of hobbyist hands. I want to make the distinction clear between them and flippers. I believe that the uptick in popularity of the Breyer brand in general over the last decade, plus the increased visibility of sales on social sites in addition to eBay has attracted more people who are just in it to make money. Or people who think they can make a "job", be it full or part time capitalizing on the "gotta have it NOW" part of the hobby. There are plenty of ways to have a part or full time business involving the hobby that do NOT include artificially driving up the market and relying on desire to help catapult it.
I don't understand how some people either just get lucky, or are savvy enough to consistently predict which releases will sell well, and bring a large profit at that. Personally, I just don't have it in me to be that cut-throat. Everything I've ever bought with the *specific* intention to resell and actually profit more than a small amount has failed to meet those expectations, whether it's something I bought first or second hand. So, I don't do that anymore. if I'm lucky enough to get extras of something hard to find, I will pass them along close to cost, enough to get back part or all of what I spent. I enter Web Special lotteries when I have friends who are interested and I'm not and pass them along at or close to cost.
I do understand, however, that for some people, reselling things is how they're able to afford other things in the hobby, or to get extra money for bills. That's why just the act of selling a horse at a modest markup does not bother me. It's the ones that *feel* greedy, like they aren't doing it for the right reasons, who set their price points at crazy markups. The hobby has a natural flow that's developed over the years of pieces changing hands, generosity being rewarded, and people having actual good reasons to let go of items. If you want to try and get a lot of money for an item, you'd put it up for offers or auction, set the reserve at a price you're comfortable at and see where it goes. Anyone who had a reputation of overcharging for items would be avoided by most buyers in the know.
I wonder how much of our "artificial inflation" of the market has to do with new folks coming in and not knowing what is considered reasonable. There was a large influx of interest in the hobby during the pandemic, with many people starting to work from home, and/or suddenly being busier than ever at work, along with less spending on things like going out to concerts or on vacation. While many of us experienced the opposite, losing hours or jobs, don't forget that a significant chunk of the population was not in that situation. In any case, people with money to spend and time on their hands decided to either dive back into a childhood hobby, or discovered Breyers for the first time. As a result, we now have a TON of people who know very little to nothing about the hobby (hopefully a lot are willing to learn!) Flippers realized this could be taken advantage of and went for it.
This ended up affecting not only the newcomers who may have been taken for a ride, and the seasoned veterans who were astounded at the prices that things began to sell for. I've seen so many friends who I KNOW have plenty of "high end" models in their collections talk about how crazy the market is and that they feel like they can't compete or have to spend more than they'd like to to add certain new pieces these days. While I have been able to add more new releases this fall than I used to because of my job, I still feel like I'm a long way from where I hope to be someday with my ability to add to my collection. (It doesn't help that I'm trying to keep up with new releases while playing "catch up" on older things I like, but I can talk about that another time!)
Unfortunately, there is no way for Breyer to completely remove flippers from our sphere. They can put restrictions on club accounts, or BreyerFest tickets, but some of those restrictions would hinder people who have multiple accounts or tickets for genuine reasons. Frankly, unless the hobby public gets incredibly unruly, I doubt they will do all that much to address it. They have raised prices on some things accordingly- they are aware of how much things sell for, why wouldn't they want more of a cut of that profit? At the end of the day, a flipper spending money on a horse is no different than a person buying the same horse to keep is. Breyer sees profit from it. The best thing we can do as a hobby is to spread the word about the business practices of these flippers. Inform those who don't know. If they still continue to buy from flippers even after knowing, that's up to them, but at least they can make that choice well informed. If flippers aren't making as many sales as they used to, or they have to drop their prices, they may very well give up on their own. They'll either stop flipping, or if they aren't hobbyists at all, they'll move on to the next hot new item.
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