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Author Topic: Where is everyone finding these amazing pony hauls?!  (Read 7973 times)

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Offline Taffeta

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Re: Where is everyone finding these amazing pony hauls?!
« Reply #15 on: April 29, 2018, 07:04:35 AM »

Noticed your signature, are you the curator of the mlp scrapbook? its helped me tons with identifying and understanding the UK timeline :)


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I was going to ask which rough area of the country you were in. I actually think the opposite to gabumon - that it is harder to find ponies in urban areas compared with rural. Charity shops as a rule tend not to be overly enthusiastic about toys - I picked up a large Rainbow Dash in a store recently and a BAB one at another store, but quite often they're predominately clothes. There's a local hospice shop in our area that has a large toy section but otherwise most of the others are predominately books, dvds and clothes. So shops are in my experience rarely that good for MLP, and even more rarely for G1.

I grew up mostly on the English side of the welsh borders. That was a hugely successful hunting ground for me with ponies over several years until the carboot sale I frequented closed due to sale of land for building a hospice. This was back in the nineties of course so G1 were plentiful, but these kinds of carboot sale out on fields seemed to yield the better crops. Ones in more urban areas/on tarmac rarely did and charity shops hardly at all.

I am now in London for a lot of the year. I have visited on tarmac carboot sales and they are fine but rarely produce much in the pony line, even G4. I have more often found Monster High at them, but pony stuff hardly appears. Very occasionally. I think  I did get a float and an Applejack once.

Within range of where I live there is at least one big field carboot sale outside of London. I find this a much better place to pony hunt albeit G1 are still rare to find.

In terms of my home area, I stripped it out of a lot of ponies in the nineties, both for my collection and for trading to people overseas so I am somewhat responsible for the fact in that area ponies are probably less common than the average now ;)

Are there any toy and train or collector fairs in or around the Liverpool area you could try? I almost always see G1 at these and sometimes at good prices. Once got Spanish Strawberry Fair/Sugarberry at one of these for 30p because male vendors often underestimate girl toys. There are a couple of dealers who frequent fairs I know but their prices are competitive and not unrealistic, usually very reasonable. Also, any indoor markets or anything like that?

I think we have to accept that time has moved on so far that the time of G1 being junk people just want rid of has passed. And the internet is now a lot easier for a lot of people. But don't give up! There must still be ponies hiding somewhere in your area :) Maybe it's worth finding out if there are any carboot sales on field which you can get to from where you are as the summer continues. Summer is the best season for collecting toys because of carboot sales and school fetes and such like, so you might have more luck then.

Maybe you should come to ponycon in October in Nottingham ;)

A lot of UK people do sell and trade on this forum. I'm one of those, when I'm not in London (because my trade ponies are not in London) xD. Maybe we'll trade in the future. :)
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Re: Where is everyone finding these amazing pony hauls?!
« Reply #16 on: April 29, 2018, 07:31:41 AM »
After 7 garage sales this year, I finally found one with ponies. I gave up on thrift shops having ponies in my area, and even antique stores are running dry on those. Collectible stores near me avoid girl toys cuz they don't sell as quickly.
In short, garage sales are the only viable means for me.
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Re: Where is everyone finding these amazing pony hauls?!
« Reply #17 on: April 29, 2018, 07:33:38 AM »
I live in the US, not really a huge city, but a decently sized one (~40k people) and we have a decent amount of thrift stores around here, and in nearby cities, so my G1 luck is relatively decent. I had a streak of three trips to my local Goodwill where I found a G1 pony (two in the last of these trips) each time within the span of about a month, I suspect all these ponies must have been donated by the same person. From time to time I'll also find one G1 in a Value Village toy bag among other ponies or fakies.

G4 is definitely the most common generation to find, of course. I tend to find at least one G4 pony or other MLP item (be it playsets, accessories, merch) during all of my thrifting trips, of course the longer I collect and the more I get, the more likely it becomes that the things I will come across are things I already own, and thus I pass them up. Regular G3s are somewhat uncommon, but much more common than G1s. McDonald's G3s, on the other hand, feel about as common as G4 ponies, maybe a little less, but I still come across them a lot. G1s, as I said, aren't as common as G3, but I've had decent luck thrifting them, especially in the past one year or so. G2 is by far the least common generation to find while thrifting, and I've only thrifted four of them in my 7+ years of collecting MLP. Two of which were from a very small local thrift store years ago, and the other two were in the past year at the Goodwill, I had actually found three during that Goodwill trip, but one of them happened to be one that I had previously got at the local place years back, so I left her there.
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Offline cyberunicorn

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Re: Where is everyone finding these amazing pony hauls?!
« Reply #18 on: April 29, 2018, 07:50:31 AM »
Personally I have never found a g1 in the wild only a very rough looking g2.

However my boyfriend found two in one trip on his first time looking. I think it is just luck on the day.

Alternatively try go to a pony con lots of "wild" ponies there  ^.^

Offline emily_katie

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Re: Where is everyone finding these amazing pony hauls?!
« Reply #19 on: April 29, 2018, 08:22:12 AM »

I was going to ask which rough area of the country you were in. I actually think the opposite to gabumon - that it is harder to find ponies in urban areas compared with rural. Charity shops as a rule tend not to be overly enthusiastic about toys - I picked up a large Rainbow Dash in a store recently and a BAB one at another store, but quite often they're predominately clothes. There's a local hospice shop in our area that has a large toy section but otherwise most of the others are predominately books, dvds and clothes. So shops are in my experience rarely that good for MLP, and even more rarely for G1.

I grew up mostly on the English side of the welsh borders. That was a hugely successful hunting ground for me with ponies over several years until the carboot sale I frequented closed due to sale of land for building a hospice. This was back in the nineties of course so G1 were plentiful, but these kinds of carboot sale out on fields seemed to yield the better crops. Ones in more urban areas/on tarmac rarely did and charity shops hardly at all.

I am now in London for a lot of the year. I have visited on tarmac carboot sales and they are fine but rarely produce much in the pony line, even G4. I have more often found Monster High at them, but pony stuff hardly appears. Very occasionally. I think  I did get a float and an Applejack once.

Within range of where I live there is at least one big field carboot sale outside of London. I find this a much better place to pony hunt albeit G1 are still rare to find.

In terms of my home area, I stripped it out of a lot of ponies in the nineties, both for my collection and for trading to people overseas so I am somewhat responsible for the fact in that area ponies are probably less common than the average now ;)

Are there any toy and train or collector fairs in or around the Liverpool area you could try? I almost always see G1 at these and sometimes at good prices. Once got Spanish Strawberry Fair/Sugarberry at one of these for 30p because male vendors often underestimate girl toys. There are a couple of dealers who frequent fairs I know but their prices are competitive and not unrealistic, usually very reasonable. Also, any indoor markets or anything like that?

I think we have to accept that time has moved on so far that the time of G1 being junk people just want rid of has passed. And the internet is now a lot easier for a lot of people. But don't give up! There must still be ponies hiding somewhere in your area :) Maybe it's worth finding out if there are any carboot sales on field which you can get to from where you are as the summer continues. Summer is the best season for collecting toys because of carboot sales and school fetes and such like, so you might have more luck then.

Maybe you should come to ponycon in October in Nottingham ;)

A lot of UK people do sell and trade on this forum. I'm one of those, when I'm not in London (because my trade ponies are not in London) xD. Maybe we'll trade in the future. :)

Originally I'm from Rural Lancashire, so when I'm home I tend to find the best things (I am probably the only toy collector in the area lol)  :frolic:
There are a few carboots in Liverpool around but my inner pessimist tells me re-sellers will get anything good before I can snatch anything. I would have much better luck at carboots back home I wager! Toy fairs may also be a good idea :) My boyfriend likes model trains so I'm sure he wouldn't mind looking round a toy/train fair haha. Trading is something I very much would be interested in :) I just worry I have nothing anyone would be too interested in having!
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Offline kingluke

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Re: Where is everyone finding these amazing pony hauls?!
« Reply #20 on: April 29, 2018, 09:22:55 AM »
personally, I get my hauls from ebay.
But the websites gumtree and preloved could help? Their both uk websites.
Good luck!
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Offline emily_katie

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Re: Where is everyone finding these amazing pony hauls?!
« Reply #21 on: April 29, 2018, 09:29:21 AM »
personally, I get my hauls from ebay.
But the websites gumtree and preloved could help? Their both uk websites.
Good luck!
Up to now i have used ebay, its just competing with other bidders and postage can end up a little pricey  :sad:
I check Gumtree, Shpock and Facebook often too, funnily enough searching my little pony turns up real horses on preloved!
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Offline ordinarycollector

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Re: Where is everyone finding these amazing pony hauls?!
« Reply #22 on: April 29, 2018, 10:30:31 AM »
In my area of the U.S. I've had slightly better luck with secondhand stores in lower population areas. For example there are two Goodwill stores within twelve miles of my house. The one closest to me is where I found several bags of ponies for $2.99 apiece and at other times I've found many things for my other collections as well as a lot of clothes in great condition for my nieces. On the other hand if I go to the one in the next town over which is a bigger town, it's always totally picked over and I rarely find anything of value. Any "good" clothes brands as well as any toys that might be worth something are snapped up by resellers before I'd ever get a chance.

On the other hand I do find that garage sales tend to be a bit better in the bigger town, just because there are more of them so there are more chances for my collectibles to be at any given sale.

The biggest thing I think that makes a difference is to pop into the shops as often as possible, even if I just have a few minutes to glance over the toys. That way I'm more likely to be the one to see something good shortly after it's been put on the shelf. Also in the summer people dump their garage sale leftovers at the thrift store afterward, so even if I don't have a chance to go all over creation on Saturday morning I might find a few things at the thrift store over the next week.

As for how things have changed in recent years, I do see fewer vintage toys these days. When I first started I found lots of toys from so many lines, and for a while in the early 00s I was the reseller buying up the good stuff to sell online. Now it's been years since I've seen a My Buddy or Teddy Ruxpin or an old style Fisher Price Little People set in the wild, and dolls for my collection turn up much more rarely. It makes sense because the ones who had those toys and wanted them gone mostly sold them years ago, so the people who still have them either who want to keep them or are collectors who want to make back what they paid.

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Re: Where is everyone finding these amazing pony hauls?!
« Reply #23 on: April 29, 2018, 10:38:21 AM »
I barely ever see MLPs "in the wild". A couple of G2s once, some G3s and G1s at one market stall and the odd pony here and there.. but that's about it for me. It is frustrating :(

One thing I always try to keep in mind is, people don't often post about NOT finding ponies in the wild (unless it's a thread like this, I mean) - they only post when they HAVE found something. So that can skew our perception and make it seem like great hauls are easier to find than they actually are, because you hear about them more often. If that makes sense?
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Offline Broken Irishwoman

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Re: Where is everyone finding these amazing pony hauls?!
« Reply #24 on: April 29, 2018, 10:54:23 AM »
I don't find that much either, but I have to say that I don't go out hunting very often. Kingsday is great because there are huge fleamarkets everywhere, I always seem to hit the jackpot! But thrift stores have nothing to offer here, and I don't have the energy to go to many small fleamarkets. Marktplaats (Dutch version of eBay/Craigslist etc.) is something I just don't get involved with because it makes me nervous.

Long story short, I could probably find more if I went out hunting more often. :)
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Re: Where is everyone finding these amazing pony hauls?!
« Reply #25 on: April 29, 2018, 12:20:18 PM »
I feel with you :hug: unfortunately, I started collecting when G1 already started disappearing from the flea markets. I can remember that when I was a child there always were plenty of ponies, I just didn't look out for them... I also think many people who usually sold their stuff at yard sales or flea markets now get rid of it via the internet. Also Taffeta is right about that collector's guide thing. There were a few people on TV with their pony collections here in Germany and since then everybody thinks he has a valuable collector's item for sale... even if it is a Baby Cuddles :D there are still bargains out there though. Many of the more rare ponies in my collection are from flea markets. And people keep finding them. So there's still hope :)
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Re: Where is everyone finding these amazing pony hauls?!
« Reply #26 on: April 29, 2018, 12:40:44 PM »
I just thought of another idea too, although maybe a bit expensive. Us Americans didn’t get a lot of releases that you guys did (lookin’ at you Tales cast) so if you maybe happen to have something like that you don’t want another way you can get new ponies is to trade them!

....Or does that not make sense? Hm. Oh well it’s a thing to think about at least.
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Offline Taffeta

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Re: Where is everyone finding these amazing pony hauls?!
« Reply #27 on: April 29, 2018, 12:53:53 PM »
I just thought of another idea too, although maybe a bit expensive. Us Americans didn’t get a lot of releases that you guys did (lookin’ at you Tales cast) so if you maybe happen to have something like that you don’t want another way you can get new ponies is to trade them!

....Or does that not make sense? Hm. Oh well it’s a thing to think about at least.

In theory it makes sense, but in reality it's a lot tougher to do than that.

It used to not be. Back in the late 1990s early 2000s, that's pretty much what we all did.

BUT the UK is not awash with exclusive ponies. Most of the ponies we had were also sold in the US. There are also at least as many ponies sold in the US and not here, but they seem more common (ie Glory, Medley etc) than most of our exclusives are. Dealers go looking for these as well, because they know they can sell them at a higher price overseas. We get stuck paying higher prices on our native ponies because of the demand and that makes buying them to trade harder as well.

Today at the fair I visited, about 90% of the G1 ponies I saw are available in the US and US people won't pay prices fair to the UK currency for those, and won't trade them at the same value as they cost here to buy because of the currency exchange and dollars being the definitive pony valuation currency. (I value by $ as well, mostly, even though it leaves me at a disadvantage. I do sell more in £ now, though, because most of the people I sell to are in the UK and it just makes more sense).

So there are a lot of things that make trading to the US these days less advantageous than in the past. When there were lots of ponies available it was easy to find UK ponies to trade for US ones. But now many of those UK ponies don't show up or are snaffled up by dealers first. I haven't seen a second hand mountain boy at a sale for more than fifteen years. Before that I used to find them a lot...I basically have a collection of mail order US ponies because I found lots of mountain boys and stuff back in the 1990s. So in theory, yeah, it's a great plan and bypasses currency. In reality, it's so much harder than it used to be :(

And I've noticed some US sellers inflating prices on common ponies even. Now it costs $25 to buy a Rockin' Beat, which is ridiculous...but if she were in the UK, I doubt we'd be able to sell one here for more than £6 at most.

None of this is anyone's fault really. it's just how the market is. But let's just say if I end up with doubles of US ponies, I find it easier to sell them within the UK than I find it to sell UK ponies to the US these days. Make of that what you will, but I think there are so many ponies from outside the US in the US now that we just can't compete any more with the US market.

@OP In terms of trade, I will trade for some G4 stuff as well. It's a good idea to know what the rarer ones from the later generations are in case you see them at local sales, because some people will trade G1 stuff for other gen stuff. My G1 collection is pretty complete now but I do collect non-mane 6 G4 and some G2 and G3 and I am not the only one.
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Re: Where is everyone finding these amazing pony hauls?!
« Reply #28 on: April 29, 2018, 03:50:08 PM »
I would go to the flea market every week (spring-fall) and maybe 3-5 times a year I would find some ponies.

I had to be there no later than 7:30am because there are/were other pony hunters in the area-- INCLUDING vendors with stalls there that flip them that day.

Once I left behind a baby crumpet in a thrift store -- really nice condition... and someone here made a brag about it. ;) So there is always someone else looking.
« Last Edit: April 29, 2018, 03:52:43 PM by banditpony »
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Re: Where is everyone finding these amazing pony hauls?!
« Reply #29 on: April 29, 2018, 04:36:57 PM »
Trading also fell by the wayside when shipping prices got very high about 5 years ago.  :(  So that is a definite barrier to international trades whether one likes it or not. 
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