So, I haven't been obsessed with nail polish for very long at all. I'd say it started in May of last year, so around 8 months I've been doing this. Additionally, I haven't been an avid collector for very long either - that probably started around October. Either way, I've become very embroiled in this hobby, going from a collection of 100-ish polishes that weren't even mine to somewhere in the ballpark of 240-250 at the time of writing (I had to buy a Helmer for them all). I have polishes from so many different brands: Essie, China Glaze, Sally Hansen, Covergirl, Maybelline, Revlon, Milani, NYC, Sinful Colors, L.A. Colors, FUN Lacquer, NYX, Brucci... the list goes on and on. One brand that I don't have a lot of, though, is OPI. Many nail fanatics seem to have a giant collection of OPI going, but I've only got 7 at the time of writing. Yes, I have your classic Big Apple Red and Lincoln Park After Dark, but I've got a couple more obscure shades like Fee Fi Fo Plum and Towel Me About It. It's not that OPI is a bad brand or anything - I quite like their polishes, it's just that they're a little expensive and many of their shades don't really grab me.
The same cannot be said for Peel Me a Gobi Grape. PMAGG (I'll just call it that for brevity's sake) comes from the 1998(!!) Painted Desert collection. The entirety of this collection is rare, but some colors pop up on eBay more than others - notably Red Rock n Roll, which I see listings for quite often. That is a beautiful red, but it's honestly nothing special. PMAGG, on the other hand... oh my gosh. It's the most beautiful medium purple color that has a copper shimmer. In the sun, this polish is DIVINE. If you know me and my polish collection, then you know that I've got a million bajillion purples already (mostly courtesy of my lovely mother, whose favorite color has always been purple and so she used to hoard purple polishes). I theoretically shouldn't want any more purple. But PMAGG is the exception. It's breathtaking. And it may be the most HTF polish of the collection.
Well... I can't say that. I wasn't even able to find a picture of Great Victorian Violet from the same collection. But PMAGG is still incredibly rare. Listings for this pop up once in a blue moon, and I haven't been able to catch any of them. Checking the "sold items" box on eBay only yields 3 results. This is a seriously VHTF polish. More than Glacier Bay Blues or La Boheme or Standing Room Only. This is for real.
So, a week-ish ago I was feeling a sudden pang for PMAGG. That little hole in my heart was suddenly a gaping pit. Why couldn't I have that beautiful purple-copper goodness for myself? Woe is me...
My random longing for the almighty Gobi Grape led me to eBay, where I've done countless searches and re-searches before. It always yields nothing. But I had a new idea: what if I contacted someone who previously sold a bottle, and see if they've got another lying around? At first it seemed a little dumb, but it slowly made more sense. Maybe some savvy long-time eBay user had an extra or two in their stash, waiting for something to do with it. That wasn't so far-fetched of an idea! I decided to apply that "sold items" filter and see what I got. 3 listings. I messaged all of the sellers.
One never replied. Thanks for the help. Harrumph! (It's not really that big of a deal. You'll see why.)
One politely told me that she did not have any more and that she had other rare OPIs I could check out if I was interested. I tried to send her a message of thanks but it wouldn't let me for some reason.
The final seller told me something I never thought I'd hear from someone.
She had 2 bottles in her inventory. She was going to take a look at them and see what she could do.
I was ecstatic! Finally, my sweet PMAGG... mine at last! I told her that sounded great. Then I didn't get a reply for a week...
I was a little bummed. Had she just forgotten? Or maybe she had remembered wrong, didn't have the polish, and didn't have the heart to tell me. I figured I'd just message her again and see how things were.
Turns out, she sent me a message but it just didn't go through! Yes, she has PMAGG and she'll give it to me at a slight discount due to the confusion. She thanked me for getting in touch and told me she'd be on it Monday.
It's Monday now. I've got the eBay listing open and I'm ready to buy it. Is this what winning the lottery feels like...?
I just bought it. Hitting that "buy now" button was just... Never in my life did I think I'd be so ecstatic about a bottle of nail polish. But I am. It says it'll be here by Friday. Unfortunately I've got a job interview Saturday so I can't wear it right away (not gonna roll up to the interview with purple nails!), but the moment I get home you KNOW I'm slapping it on my nails.
Of course, such a rare polish does come at a price. I did have to pay $40 for my Gobi Grape. But this is actually a pretty good deal considering its rarity. Others in the Painted Desert collection go for the same, if not higher. Currently there's a bottle of Kalahari Khaki on eBay for $129. HTF nail polish can get pretty pricy, so $40 is actually pretty good.
Now's the anxious wait for the shipping notification email and the constant looking at the tracking number. I get like this when I've got nail mail on the way. It'll probably ship out tomorrow. It's coming from Massachusetts so it probably won't take the full 4 days either... I recently got a shipment from MA and it came in 2 days so that's my estimate.
You know, I'm going to be anxious to even open it. It's like a time capsule. Rare 21 year old nail polish, never opened... and I'll be the one to break the seal and use it. Obviously that small act of opening the bottle will mean that the value of it will immediately plummet, and down even further once I use it. But I don't need it to have value for collectors! I'm the collector, and I'm gonna use it until the last drop! Well, maybe not the last drop. I'll probably use it until it's 25% full and then stare at it forever.
I don't know, you guys. I'm really excited. I've been wanting and searching for the polish for a couple months now and I'm so glad I'll finally have my hands on it. My collection is home to many other rare polishes, but they're not ones anyone cares about. Not that everyone is trying to get their hands on Gobi Grape, but it's definitely more significant than something like China Glaze's original Cloud Nine. There's not even a single swatch of that online (except for mine), but no one seems to care. But Gobi Grape is something people care about. Even if it's just in ancient nail blog posts, people care(d) about this polish. And now it's mine.
I should really wrap this up. Not like anyone's gonna see it anyway, but this could scare off a potential reader. The average person does not like massive walls of text. Until next time... (when I'll be reviewing Peel Me a Gobi Grape...)
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