Which of the retired figures are the hardest to find?

I have perusing ebay ALOT...and just thought I'd ask which of the retired figures are hardest to find? I realize that there are many to choose from. I have even found some people listing animals by calling them the wrong thing! A marten when it's a ferret. A badger when it isn't. From reading some of this forum I understand that the Beluga is HTF as well as the brown llama. How about the Musk ox? I have let some figures go that I wondered if I shouldn't have because who knows when they will "come around again". And then if an item has a Buy It Now! price what may seem high to me may not be. Are the Brown Swiss Bull and cow and calf, HTF (Hard to Find) items ~ to name a few. Maybe this isn't a good question to ask but I'd like to tap into others knowledge and experience. Sue :)

The Swiss cattle are hard to find now I think. But I don't collect retired models really, so I don't know about many others.

Not sure but I've seen those Swiss cattle. I'd love to have them but £30 each for the adult and £20 for the calf is too much !

Rio wrote:

Not sure but I've seen those Swiss cattle. I'd love to have them but £30 each for the adult and £20 for the calf is too much !

Really they're that much! That's good for me but bad for those who don't own them

That's just one seller I have seen on eBay.com.

The same person also has a Schleich Oryx without tag and is quite badly rubbed for £30. I wonder how much my mint with tag one would fetch

Rio wrote:

That's just one seller I have seen on eBay.com.

The same person also has a Schleich Oryx without tag and is quite badly rubbed for £30. I wonder how much my mint with tag one would fetch

Yeah!

calf

In Germany you pay 5 Euro for a figure.
The are not rare

But pretty scratched!

Wildheart wrote:

But pretty scratched!

And it's bidding, it might go up alot.

It is not only rare or not, but in what condition as we saw before on the Swiss calf, and with or without the tag.

The rarest in my years of expertise are the next, in order of hard to get them, but not all in the exact order.
In the eyes of some people they might not be hard to get, but it is my opinion after hunting 5 years of Schleich.

Horses:

13241 Pintohorse, old version(rare)
13210 White Darley Arabian completely white, and the one with grey spots a little bit easier
13103 Brown foal
13222 Shirehorse manes upright
13209 Haflinger grazing in several versions
13215 Brown pony
13216 Running brown horse
13225 Chestnut Mare
13232 Shetland pony darker version
13249 Icelandpony darker version, after that the lighter version 13264
13250 Fjordpony, version with and without eelstripe
13273 English Thoroughbred
The rest of the horses is quit available, depending on the state they are in.

Dogs:

16302 Beagle, dark version(very rare!)
16306 Schnauzer, grey
16305 Poodle, darkbrown/black
16302 Beagle, light version
16306 Schnauzer, black
16303 Boxer, darkbrown
16312 Basset
16303 Boxer lightbrown
16305 Poodle, white
16322 New Foundlander
16310 Fox Terrier, first version
16314 Bobtail
16318 Dobermann
16324 German Pointer
16325 Rottweiler
16326 Münsterländer
16336 Airdale Terrier
16337 Giant Schnauzer

Remember, they are not always hard to get, but it is a matter of the moment, and the right time, the right condition, and then the right price.
When you have enough money to spend, you can get everything you want, isn't it???
Later more...

It's much easier, of course, to get value for money by not prioritizing one's targets. If, instead of searching for one or a few items immediately, one merely looks for the best deals, regardless of the identity of the figurine, then a buyer can be more "efficient." Of course, there is an emotional and a psychological compenent to collecting, so we all do some prioritizing, I would imagine.

Suebeedo wrote:

I have perusing ebay ALOT...and just thought I'd ask which of the retired figures are hardest to find? I realize that there are many to choose from. I have even found some people listing animals by calling them the wrong thing! A marten when it's a ferret. A badger when it isn't. From reading some of this forum I understand that the Beluga is HTF as well as the brown llama. How about the Musk ox? I have let some figures go that I wondered if I shouldn't have because who knows when they will "come around again". And then if an item has a Buy It Now! price what may seem high to me may not be. Are the Brown Swiss Bull and cow and calf, HTF (Hard to Find) items ~ to name a few. Maybe this isn't a good question to ask but I'd like to tap into others knowledge and experience. Sue :)

The special edition brown Llama is a likeness of "Horst" who is a famous llama at the Leipzig Zoo. I don't know if one can still order them from their website shop for 5 euros apiece, but maybe.

If you have questions about the relative scarcity of specific figurines, you might simply ask here for feedback, as there are surely zillions of rare retired Schleich. One way of approximating relative scarcity for a particular piece is to see when it was offered for sale, in other words, for how long and how long ago. Another consideration is that not all figurines sell in the same amount. Some of the rarest figurines of all are accessories, "stoff" human figurines with real-fabric clothing, and one-off figurines made by other firms but licensed by Schleich (AAA, Maia + Borges, Safari, Ltd.). Then there are some one-year variants such as the black-and-white beagle, special pinto, original farmer and farmwife variants, etc., not to mention specialty items like the stuffed dinos and Minis Ark ("die Arche").

WILLYBACOMAN wrote:

Remember, they are not always hard to get, but it is a matter of the moment, and the right time, the right condition, and then the right price.
When you have enough money to spend, you can get everything you want, isn't it???

So true Willy. There is fun in the "hunt" when looking for special figures, and the $ amount plays the biggest part in the final outcome especially if you are wanting to build a collection of quality. So I have to be patient and look at presently having fewer figures that may cost me a little more...I was excited to find at a local feed store a half a dozen retired figures that were about 4 years old. I felt like I'd won a lottery! Needless to say I hit up every feed store in town to see if I could find any more. I don't expect that happens very often. I do appreciate the list you offered. It is helpful to be given even a partial list when searching. Sue

What Phil said before is true of course.
It depends how much you want a particular figurine, and what you are able to pay for it, or what you want to spend on it.

I forgot to say indeed, that you can see which figurines are rare, by knowing how many years they are produced, how shorter the period of producing, how rarer it will be normally.

It is like Phil said too, if they pop up not very regular on e-bay or so, you know the figurine is quit rare, or made in little numbers.

But from the old version of the pinto horse is said, that there were only 200 produced or so, but the Schleich company couldn't confirm that to me, and said that there were much more then that number.

Phil mentiones already the Llama "Horst", the promotional figurine from the Leipzig Zoo, and then there are the Schwarzwalder horse with brandmark, and the dressage-horse "Satchmo" in several versions from this year.
These are all limited editions, so they will be scarce over the years of course.
But if you are on time, and do some research, you can get these kind of limited figurines for the normal price at the beginning.
The Llama "Horst" was very available at the zoo's shop, and in the internet-shop of the zoo, for just 4,80 euro's, and maybe even now, if they still have some of them.
For the Schwarzwalder horse, i immediatly searched for the company that sold them after the horse-show, and you could order them directly from them.
I just needed one phonecall to the organisation of the horse-show for that.
The news about "Satchmo" i got from MPV myself.
So just keep your eyes open, thats what we all do, and when you get the news of a special model, please inform your fellow-collectors soon as possible, so we can all have at least one of those models too.

The other special series that Schleich sold under their name, or under license, can be very hard to find too.
In that case people like Torben can inform you about them.
Even when Phil doesn't show from his collections , i know he has many rare items, and a big collection.
And Amy is another person who has a huge Schleich, and Schleich-related collection too.

Sometimes it is better, to buy bigger lots, because that brings the price down for every figurine, even when there are just 2 figurines that you want in a group of 10 for example.
Because most of the time, the other figurines are easy to sell again, or very usuable for trades.

You just need some luck and patience, and you will find what you want.
I had to sell my whole Schleich collection some time ago, and had to start from almost scrap again.
With my knowledge from before, i managed to get some rare items again, because i was searching for them in the first place, and waited with the figurines that are less rare.
But i always have a price in my head, for what i want to pay maximum for an item, and i manage to get it for less most of the times.
I would only pay much for the old dark beagle, old version of the pinto and the brown pelican, and only then when they are in good condition.
It has no use to buy one in a worse condition, because you have to buy it again then anyway...

WILLYBACOMAN wrote:

Even when Phil doesn't show from his collections , i know he has many rare items, and a big collection.
And Amy is another person who has a huge Schleich, and Schleich-related collection too.

Okay, okay, Willy, fair play. You're absolutely correct, of course, in that I have fallen badly behind in the process of exhibiting my collection pieces. I've been very ill the last two months, but have improved in the last few days, so I've returned to the task of finishing the cataloging of my figurines in a spreadsheet and reorganizing them into a container retrieval system. I am working on a new blog post tonight and hope to post regularly there. That being said, my collection is actually not that large, but it has a high proportion of "very rare" and "extremely rare" pieces. Amy is, of course, the reigning "Queen of Schleich" and she has almost everything - simply amazing!

My modus operandus is to attempt to acquire the rarest pieces first, which may or may not be a good overall strategy. Most other collectors, I suspect, do just the opposite. Either way, the cost to acquire ALL pieces is rising steadily, so the sooner, the better!

I don't want to blame you my friend, i am just curious as hell to see your collection of course!
And not only on your blog, but we would like to see it here too of course!
I know you are searching for rare items in the first place, and that is what i do that in the first place too, since i had to sell my old Schleich collection from before, and not only in Schleich.
But when i have the chance to get some other stuff in between, why not...
And yes, the sooner the better, as prices go up steadily indeed.

We all know that Torben is the king on this forum in Schleich and Schleich related.
Amy really surprised me, when she started to show all of her stuff on the lonely Longnecked animal-forum before, specially for someone from the USA, where most of those items are very hard to get, so she deserves the name of the Schleich-Queen of this forum indeed!

WILLYBACOMAN wrote:

I don't want to blame you my friend, i am just curious as hell to see your collection of course!
And not only on your blog, but we would like to see it here too of course!

Well, thank you. If you amble over to:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I put up a few new photos, and will post some more after I type this message. These keychain figurines are actually likenesses of actual famous buildings in Schwäbisch Gmünd, the city in which Schleich AG is headquartered.

I don't know if jpegs can be posted here without prior filehosting, which I find to be quite tedious and time-consuming, even at imgbox.de.

Ok then Phil, i went there.
How the blog/site works is not completely clear to me, or maybe i am just mistaking, because you didn't put so much there yet.
When i klick on the links, i don't see any information about you, besides your collectors-name, and the other links do give me the same pics everytime.
But what i saw, were the keyhanger-houses, which are really nice! :)
I only have one Schleich keyhanger, a sailorman.

The authentics are very nice too of course, you have quit a few of them Phil!
I love the marine-life series.
I have a few of the mammals too, although i bought them brandnew in a zoo-shop as Safari's, a few years ago, but the models are still the same, only the colours have variations like you said on your site.
I have the wolf, red fox, lynx and wapiti/elk myself.

I hope you will put much more there in the near future.

I really enjoy the title you guys have given me. When I decide I want to collect something, I do everything in my power to obtain every thing in that series possible. That is what has happened with my Schleich collection. I only have 34 classics to go, 4 authentics, 4 of the Monterey Bay, 11 of the AAA sea animals, and some of the Vanishing Wild collection. I also am missing some of the Schleich accessories and 2 plush dinos. I will eventually have all of them, but waiting and being patient is the key to some of the rarest items. My thoughts are try to get them from ebay.de if you can. Some sellers won't ship to America, but a lot will. You just have to ask them nicely. Prices there are a lot better than prices in the U.S. The Horst llama can be bought there for a good price. I paid too much for mine, but they weren't available very often on ebay.com. I bought a lot of stuff from atxguitarist (His are the swiss cow, calf and bull on ebay.com for buy it now prices) for higher prices because I didn't know they could be found cheaper on ebay.de. Even paying for the shipping it was cheaper to buy from Europe. Phil helped me figure that out and for that I am truly greatful. He has helped me get a lot of retired items and we have become great friends. If I can be of any help Sue, let me know. It is good to help each other out, especially when we can.

Well, you deserve this title Amy!
And we are proud to have you in our "club" and on our forum with us!

After seeing your artist-horses tread, i realised, that i forgot these horses to mention here, as they are rare and hard to find too!

Well I am proud to be here. Yes, the artist horses are rare and hard to find with the grazing mare being the easiest and the black horse rearing being the hardest.

The thing is, the impossible for us to find is seems very simple for you, Amy. So, I guess they is no hardest to find term in your vocabulary at all?

WWF is the hardest. I have only seen 1 for sale as long as I have been looking and my friend Phil was the lucky one to get it.

aandmkw wrote:

WWF is the hardest. I have only seen 1 for sale as long as I have been looking and my friend Phil was the lucky one to get it.

Luck had nothing to do with it; I'm afraid all it took was one big bid and a month dining on nothing but bread crusts and water...

schleich61 wrote:

aandmkw wrote:

WWF is the hardest. I have only seen 1 for sale as long as I have been looking and my friend Phil was the lucky one to get it.

Luck had nothing to do with it; I'm afraid all it took was one big bid and a month dining on nothing but bread crusts and water...

Bread crusts, water... One month ?

Congratulation Phil and... Courage