O is for Oops!

One of those slightly admissive parables today, most of us have been there once or twice, making a mistake, whether because there's one born every minute, or because we were all born one, and of course, these things happen, in the pressed time of a toy fair, or under poor 'village hall' lighting, or, in the case of evilBay lots, because scale or background are unfamiliar, or colours skewed by lighting or flash, but, this was one of my recent boo-boos, which, as it was not inexpensive, I was lucky to escape a few hours later, with nowt but my pride dented!

 

I saw these in the poor light of a winter morning at the February Sandown Park pre-show car-booty rumage, on the terraces of the main stand, and thinking they were the plastic ones, asked the seller what he wanted for them, a price was floated, which I'm not disclosing, but suffice to say it was in three figures, and I thought "Well, the whole point of comming to a show is to find a couple of stand-out or rare pieces, so; what the hell?", handed over the required shekels, and reached for them, only to realise, instantly, from the weight, that they were the lead ones!

 

But the seller was already busy with another punter, and the argument (about shows and rareities) remained valid, so I thought "What the hell?" and slid them in my jacket pocket. Adrian thought I'd done OK when I showed them to him, and he knows more about the lead stuff, than I do, but he thought it was 'all the money', so a profit was never going to be in there!

 

Interestingly, though, they are not the same sculpts as the Harbuts set, we saw a while ago (https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2023/06/b-is-for-best-show-on-earth-11.html), and which I had mentioned at the time, but nice to have them in front of me, if you know what I mean!

 

Fortunately, a well known metal dealer, who can remain nameless, came round while I was holding the fort for Ade' and chatting with one of the Paul's, and in conversation, because we're happy to admit our errors among friends, I explained the over-exuberant nature of my commercial faux-pas, and he offered to give me what I'd paid for them!

 

So in the end, I got four nice images of some pretty rare figures, in even rarer packaging, and it didn't cost me anything, beyond that bit of dented pride . . . Phew! . . . Doh!