G1 Night Glider Question

[toyjunky]

I was at an indoor swap meet last weekend and one of the vendors had some G1 ponies. Many of them they were asking about $15 for, but they had Night Glider tagged with "rare" and marked at $50. So I am wondering what would make it a "rare" verses other Twice as Fancy ponies. Any thoughts?

[Khoufu]

Night Glider tends to be more expensive than the others but idk why.

[Noasar]

She is very sought after and hard to find without brown spots!

[lovesbabysquirmy]

She also tends to be a "fan favorite" with her unique design and theme!

[Taffeta]

Sounds like the seller did some googling.

There are a few ponies like this which command a higher price for no real logical reason except, maybe, the things people have mentioned here. I have seen her sell for $50 online before, and maybe more, but I am not sure if that justifies a seller putting that kind of price on her at an in person meet. I think if she wants that price, ebay is a better place to get it.

It's not so much that she's rare, although her set were not sold in as many countries as the first wave. But just that she's sought after. You'll find that Buttons and Munchy also command higher prices, and sometimes YumYum too, if her hair is pink. I am not sure, though, that Merriweather or Bonnie Bonnets would have the same kind of appeal. It's just collector logic, which is not really logical at all...

Mind you $15 per G1 without any distinction is expensive in my book. There are a lot of G1 which are worth much less than that...

[tailrustedtealeaf]

I always think it's because galaxy stuff is "in" right now.
Why is it that the second waves always seem to be more expensive?

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I always think it's because galaxy stuff is "in" right now.
Why is it that the second waves always seem to be more expensive?

in a nutshell.... because typically the stores had already ordered Wave One.  And if they haven't sold it yet, there's no shelf room for Wave Two.  Conversely, if the store sells Wave One so successfully, it may miss the ordering deadlines for Wave Two because it's trying to re-order Wave One. 

[Baby Sugarberry]

That exactly - only the biggest of stores consistently had 2nd or 3rd waves of a given style, due to how toys are marketed to retailers (in assortments / price points).

Night Glider is sought after, but not rare - at least not any rarer than any of her set-mates.

[LadyMoondancer]

Night Glider is IMO the most beautiful of the 2nd set of TAFs, and one of the most beautiful G1s overall.  I think it's as simple as that.

[Khoufu]

I've been a scifi/space fan my whole life. I guess I gotta wait for a lucky find for her. Thankfully the space-themed sparkle ponies haven't been too expensive in my experience.

[toyjunky]

in a nutshell.... because typically the stores had already ordered Wave One.  And if they haven't sold it yet, there's no shelf room for Wave Two.  Conversely, if the store sells Wave One so successfully, it may miss the ordering deadlines for Wave Two because it's trying to re-order Wave One. 

That actually makes a lot of sense. Thank you everybody for your thoughts on the matter. It just took me by surprise when I saw the price and figured they were either really trying to make a some extra money on it or there was a specific reason.

And yes, I think the seller googles or ebays prices. I think they also use the book "The World of My Little Pony: An Unauthorized Guide to Pony Collectibles" by Debra L. Birge" because I saw it laying in a box with some ponies and the book was not for sale (I inquired about the book).

They had all the ponies tagged with their names and a price and also information from the group they belong to like brush and grow, twinkle eyed, etc, as well as labeling mail orders.

[Leave a Whisper]

She's highly sought after for her unique beauty and is a grail for many. Thus, she commands a higher price. Not sure how rare she is, but I've never seen her for sale on eBay. So does Munchy, Yum Yum and the MO Baby TAFs.

[Khoufu]

Any idea on price difference between pink and faded hair Yumyum?

[Taffeta]

The damage done by the price guides in those books is incalculable. Real pony prices fluctuate up and down far more than can be kept up to date in the pages of a book. BUT to give your seller some credit, at least they bothered to have a resource and actually identify the ponies they had.

I think the wave 1 and wave 2 argument only comes into play if they have the same code. Otherwise it would just be choosing to order specific items. But I also know that the US seems more disciplined in forming years of release. When something is old stock in G4 it seems to vanish in the US and stock also seems to come oiut on shelves there in the right order.

None of that applies to the UK release so here it would be possible to have wave 1 and 2 of a set in a store at the same time.

But there's an international aspect to this particular set. A lot of the wave 2 releases from G1 only had a limited release in other countries. The Netherlands are an exception, they had both 1st and 2nd set TAF ponies and I think some people have said that sometimes the 2nd set are easier to find. Most of Europe and the UK, as far as I know, didn't get them. That adds to more online competition for those ponies that doesn't exist for the first set. I am not sure about whether they were sold in Australia and New Zealand, or Singapore or South Africa. Those countries seem to work to their own distinct rules that straddle different releases.

In any case, I think we can say a number of factors collide to make Night Glider more sought after. Some of these may connect to the wave she was released in, but I think the majority relate to collector partiality and the way in which that can abnormally inflate a pony's price.

[goddessofpeep]

Night Glider is one of those ponies that is somewhat unique(her color scheme is quite unusual for a MLP), very pretty, from a harder to find wave, very popular, and frequently has condition issues.  The convergence of all those things ups her price.  There are a few other ponies that have some of the same properties that also exceed the rest of their set's usual price.  Mimic is probably the most extreme example of this.  Diamond Dreams, Red Roses, Lemon Treats, and Munchy also fall into that category, just not to the extent as Mimic.