Show off your thrift store ponies & stories!

[Sanadaookami]

Hear are a few of my favorite thrifting finds.

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Found her at one of my favorite flea markets- I've never left without at least one pony! I didn't get all her stuff in the picture but she was complete- the person who sold her to me found her in someones old barn that was about to get torn down!

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Dark body Bowtie! I looked for a long time before finding this variation- its so hard to spot her in any auction pictures. she has a few flaws but for .50 I'm not complaining.

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Skippity Doo- found her at the same place as the Pretty Pony but form a different seller. I have loads of other thrifted ponys but those are some of the highlights. lol, I love my job- who else gets payed to go to every flea market within 100miles and look for ponys *cough* I mean pass out fliers...

[relcelestia]

I basically never find ponies at thrift stores.. and if i do, they are G3s... maybe every once in a while a manky G1. i usually dont even try those places anymore.
the best finds at thrift stores were an Anchors Away one time and a Steamer another time.


on the otherhand i have found LOADS of ponies at the swap meet, craigslist/garage sales!!

[tulagirl]

All of my G3s except maybe 20 or so came from the thrift store. I have over 100 G3's.  I have found G2's at the thrift and G3.5 and very rarely I find G1 which is my favorite of all finds.  I have found Cotton Candy, Bow T., Lullabye Nursery items, and a Little Whiskers I think it is.  She was my favorite find even though her symbol is really rubbed on one side.  I have seen the cases but they are always in terrible condition with torn clasps, missing handles and the inside is all cracked.

[DazzleKitty]

I've found so much from thrift stores and flea markets over the years that I am starting to forget all the stories. I've been LUCKY.

Let's see....

Several years ago I found Tux N' Tails at a flea market for only 50 cents. He was a bit squished but is still lovely.

I got MO Mommy Pony from a toy dealer for only $30. She isn't perfect by any means but has great curl to her hair. I thought she was a steal.

I also found from the very same flea market as the two ponies above a whole basket of G1s a few years ago. I think each pony was $2.   I cannot remember all the ones I got (I bought most of what they had) but one of them was SS Angel.

From a different flea market I found a whole ziploc baggie full of the original G1 McDonalds toys/booksmarks. That was pretty awesome too.

From a thrift store I acquire tons of near mint SS ponies...Magic Star, Posey, Lickety Split, etc along with some others. The lady brought them there specifically for me. They were part of her daughters collection. I got a great deal on them and they are some of the most gorgeous SS ponies in my collection.

I wish I could remember more but I can't.

[Saber-Toothed Crow]

I don't have pics at the moment, but my best finds were G1 Seashell, mint for 7 cents, and my most recent find, Hollywood for 23 cents. She needs rehairing though, so she's currently disassembled on my bathtub.

Otherwise I mainly find doubles of G3s I already have so I buy them up for custom baits.

[DoctorMowinckel]

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I don't know a lot about G1s, so when I got her in a bag along with eight other G3s for $10, I wrote her off as a fakie. When I asked who the fakie was, the Arenas reaction was as follows;

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I now know better.

[scarletjul]

Oh, I love this thread! 

Most of my g3s are from the thrift store and probably about 75% of my g1s are from there, as well.  I've actually been very lucky.  Two of my best trips was one time, a few months when I started collecting, and I found 36 g1 ponies, many of them mint, including these girls:

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And then, a few years ago, I hit the g1 jackpot - 106 g1 ponies, including Nightglider, Lemon Treats and Baby Crumpet (my mom and I actually split the lot of them.)

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On other trips, I've found a dream beauty, Cha Cha with her skirt and Princess Taffeta.  Unfortunately, I haven't found much lately but I keep hoping; I found my most recent g1 about 6 weeks ago. 

I hope you have great pony luck! 

[Jocelyn]

It's pretty strange...Back home, I can always find G3s all over the one second hand store we have in town, Goodwill. But here, in one of the largest cities in the country, I have gone to numerous thrift stores, but not a single pony :') I've only ever found one G1 at Goodwill though, and that was my first time going there for ponies...Which got me thinking that finding G1s wasn't that big a deal, if I could find one easily the first time I tried Oh, how wrong I was!

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This is her, Rainbow Curl Ringlet...I thought she had marker marks and such all over her body, but when I left her home for the semester they seemed to have disappeared? I'm not quite sure, maybe my mom somehow magic-ed them away while I was gone. Her hair was also pretty matted and funky, so I cleaned and recurled it. It was my first pony restoration, so it was pretty fun

And I'd just like to make a slighly related "congratulations", to that person that went in to the consignment shop in Philly and bought the store's entire collection of ponies (an entire binful!) less than a week before I got there. I feel so lucky to know that all those ponies were sitting there, for all these years, just to be completely swept away a few days before I come :'D

[Rhini]

I never seem to have any luck whatsoever, apart from when I formally decided to start collecting. I found a bag with Retro Cotton Candy and Butterscotch (in my sales thread and en route to Ireland for lilcutiepie, respectively) Bumbleberry and Sno-Glo. After that...nothing. I found a large baby, not quite sure who, but she closed her eyes when her head turned and seemed to be wearing pajamas and two playsets at a Value Village near me, but didn't buy them. However, a friend of mine visited that same Value Village once and brought me back a bag with G1 Flutterwings Lily (newly up in my sales thread), G1 Rattles and Tattles and G3 Garden Glade! I was very pleasantly surprised, and quite often wish I could have similar luck!

Good luck looking- thrift stores are so touch and go.

It's probably because I'm getting there first! I check both Value Villages (Fenton and Shrewsbury) fairly religiously. That poor ugly walking pinkie has been there forever. So far I've found 6 G1's and lots of other generations between the two stores.

Almost all of my 200+ ponies are from thrift stores/flea markets, so I will spare posting them haha.

[kmlv23]

I never seem to have any luck whatsoever, apart from when I formally decided to start collecting. I found a bag with Retro Cotton Candy and Butterscotch (in my sales thread and en route to Ireland for lilcutiepie, respectively) Bumbleberry and Sno-Glo. After that...nothing. I found a large baby, not quite sure who, but she closed her eyes when her head turned and seemed to be wearing pajamas and two playsets at a Value Village near me, but didn't buy them. However, a friend of mine visited that same Value Village once and brought me back a bag with G1 Flutterwings Lily (newly up in my sales thread), G1 Rattles and Tattles and G3 Garden Glade! I was very pleasantly surprised, and quite often wish I could have similar luck!

Good luck looking- thrift stores are so touch and go.

It's probably because I'm getting there first! I check both Value Villages (Fenton and Shrewsbury) fairly religiously. That poor ugly walking pinkie has been there forever. So far I've found 6 G1's and lots of other generations between the two stores.

Almost all of my 200+ ponies are from thrift stores/flea markets, so I will spare posting them haha.

SO IT WAS YOU!!!!! lol jk. Wanna be friends? I'll prolly be there tomorrow.

[emery]

I only seem to find G3's. I went hunting at a few thrift stores and came home with one which I plan on customizing since her symbol is half-rubbed.  I also found a pinkie pie and a 3.5 Sweetie Belle. But I hate that I have to buy a bag full of junk toys in order to get one pony. ;_;

That's how they make their money unfortunately...

Yea, I always just pay for the bag and then tell them I only wanted one thing out of it and open the bag right there and give the rest back to the shop. It's just a mater of deciding if I want to pay that price for the one item.

I tend to do this too if I find a bag with just a couple ponies or other items. That way I don't have to tote a bunch of stuff home that I will just end up bringing back later to redonate!

I think I probably find more ponies at yard sales but I must have missed these! I found them each bagged separately with the accessories divided up between them. There was an obvious yard sale sticker under each Goodwill price tag!


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Most other pictures I could share are from garage sales as I tend to have better luck at those

[megt19]

I really haven't looked many times in thrift stores for ponies, but the few times I have looked I usually find something..... so many many fakies, too many to bother bringing home now...... I have found a few G3s & G3.5s & Breezies & a few plush, & Barbie horses & Bratz ponies, and recently the twist & twirl hair salon thing, it didnt have Daffidazy with it, but was only $2 and my kids love it.   I have only ever found 1 G1, it was a Bowtie, but since I already had a Bowtie in my herd I sent her to a pony friend who had recently sent some other ponies to me.
The worst thrift store around here is the one called Goodwill, they had McDonalds ponies marked as $1 each OMG! and an empty (yes I said empty) bottle of MLP bubble bath marked as $2, so i don't even bother going there anymore, if they ever had G1s in there they would probably be marked $50 each LOL!

[mngusty]

Fun thread!  My best find was Mimic for less than $2 at a thrift store and most recently I found a G1 lunchbox (the one w/Gusty and Baby Gusty on it) and thermos for $2 at an antique store!!  I love a good deal!!
Good luck everyone!

[TokiBear]

I have quite a few thrift store ponies, but the very first time I went thrift store shopping I found a Baby Dancing Butterflies in the free bin!  I only paid a quarter for her... she was a mess too... just nasty.  I ended up trading her with a member here... I haven't had much luck since then... just a few G3's here and there and an occasional G1.  Here's the poor dear after I cleaned her up.

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[Elisto]

please ignore this