Would you rather...Pony Edition

[nessa16]

Would you rather: pony edition?

So, you’re at a thrift store with $60 and change on you. You’ve done your usual loop through the toys hoping to spot pony legs or hair without luck. You’re about to head out the door past the “antique and collectibles” case when you spot familiar G1 eyes staring at you. Staring back at you is none other than Rapunzel! However, as you’re starting to hyperventilate, you notice something a little bit off about her. She’s practically bald! It looks like someone’s little brother took his safety scissors to her in attempt at GI Joe’s buzzcut. You stare in disbelief but are starting to think “it’s ok, I can rehair her. No big deal”. So, you ask to see her. The clerk pulls her out of the case to see a price tag sporting $60 and you smile because you just have enough and it’s still a great price for such an expensive pony. However, when you turn her over to see her NDS, you yelp in horror at the name NICOLE written across her in permanent marker! You’re devastated. You’re actually getting tears in your eyes but you chance a look at the case again in case another Rapunzel is hidden in there. You don’t see one but you do notice a piece of cardboard with a familiar rainbow logo sporting My Little Pony behind a Popple. You ask the clerk to see it and he pulls out a MIP Perfume Puff Red Roses! She’s stunning. Perfect hair and symbols, no creases in the cardboard or any wear. She’s also marked $60. The cash on you is almost all you have to your name and you don’t get paid for 2 weeks. Surely, by then whichever one you leave behind will have been bought by someone else. Rapunzel is so sought after but Red Roses is too beautiful for words. You can only afford one.  Which do you choose?

[TheBeatlesPkmnFan42]

Red Roses. I'd much rather pick a perfect condition MIP pony than a pony with two huge flaws that I would want to get an upgrade for down the road. $60 for a pony I'd want to upgrade is way too much.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

This is tough! I actually prefer Red Roses to Rapunzel, but I'd be so doubtful I'd ever come across another Rapunzel so cheap, I'd actually pick her up. It can be sunfaded out to a point, yeah? And it'll give me a chance to do a Rapunzel alt rehair! I'd never get to do one of those otherwise! Besides, the Quackers pose has a pretty unambiguous NDS, so you'd never even know it if I didn't take pictures of her...
I also prefer loose to MiB anyway!

[Safflower]

Red Roses! A perfect MOC with such pretty packaging and such a pretty pony and accessories is much better than a bait pony, even if it is Rapunzel in my mind.

[Pumpkin_Tart]

I’d probably pick up the Rapunzel and sell her to a collector and then buy a Red roses for myself. Sighs..... I wish i would find any pony thrifting...

[aintnobuffalo]

Gosh, that is such a hard choice! What a fun thought exercise! I think I would go with Rapunzel; the idea of having her at all is worth it. I could restore her enough to make her displayable to me.

[Mewtwofan1]

I wish this happened to me! But I think I would choose red roses. I’ve never had a MIP g1 before, and I wouldn’t need to upgrade or anything. I doubt I’d ever find rapunsel so low priced again, but I don’t really go for bait ponies, even if it is rapunsel. Maybe a bait genuine takara though!

[brightberry]

Oh I don’t know!  Neither pony is on my wish list.  I guess I would take the Rapunzel.  I can’t think of any rational reason other than she takes up less space on a shelf?

[Shaiyeh]

Red Roses. Punzie is a wonderful pony, and I'm fine with rehairs, but I can't deal with big pen marks. (unless under the hooves where you can't see it)

What I'd do, is I'd buy RR, and alert pony friends in the area that there's a Rapunzel @ the shop (done that in the past with a lot more common ponies. They were 3 ponies a bag and each bag was like €15, so I bought two, and posted in the stockholm pony group that there were more bags of ponies left, and then hid the basket with the ponies at the far back of the toy section, haha. They all ended up with collectors!)

[Taffeta]

Red Roses.

I'd love to have her MIP, she's a stunning pony

Thinking of it objectively, I don't like rehairs. I consider a rehaired pony to be at least 50% custom. I also don't do restoration and the idea of dealing with the ink and such would drive me mad. If it were just the ink, I would maybe consider her, but I wouldn't spend $60 on her because she's wrecked. And even if she's rare, if I have to replace the thing she's famous for, she's basically not worth it.

My Punzie has her hair cut to her hooves and she pretty much cost me 50p so $60 seems like a rip off beyond all proportions .

A beautiful MIP Red Roses, however, for $60, is a genuine steal and I wouldn't even hesitate for a moment on that decision

Great question

[milkywaymochi]

Gosh, that IS a tough one. I guess I'd go for red roses. She's my favourite out the perfume puff ponies, and $60 for a MIP pony is pretty darn good. A Rapunzel in that sort of condition would be salvageable, and normally I pick restoration project ponies over more expensive mint ponies, but not for $60 dollars I don't! Also, I can't honestly say that Rapunzel is a grail pony of mine, as such. Don't get me wrong, I'd be very happy to find her, but I can't help but feel she's a little... overrated? As in, the only real reason that she's a grail pony is because she's so rare. I don't think she'd be nearly as popular/expensive if everything else about her was the same, but she was more common.

[BlackCurtains]

Even though I have no issues with restoring and could do so, I don't like Rapunzel enough to justify that price tag - even if I would try to sell her off after the restore. I'd take Red Roses for sure.

[Shaz]

I don't collect MIB ponies, and I also have a thing for ponies so damaged that no one else would really want them, so I would go for Rapunzel! As I have so often said of various baity ponies: 'She NEEDS me!'. Red Roses in box is pretty to look at, but that's all you can do with her. Punzie would provide hours of restoration fun and could then be played with too. A MIB pony is more likely to be picked up and appreciated by another toy collector so I wouldn't have to feel guilty leaving her.
I'm imagining this taking place in a charity shop (English ). £60 is a lot for a damaged pony, but it's for charity so why not? I'm going to imagine it's a Cats Protection charity shop, so my money will go to help cats and I'll get a fun pony project: good times all round!

[Pinkie21]

This was a REALLY hard decision.  There are some factors I’d have to consider.  You say that’s all the cash on me, but is there money in my bank account for bills and groceries?  Is the cash on me specifically for fun shopping?  If bills are all paid and groceries bought, I’d have to go with Red Roses.  $60 seems like an awesome price for a MIB!  Plus I like the uniqueness of Perfume Puffs, and am not terribly into finding a Rapunzel. 

[nessa16]

This was a REALLY hard decision.  There are some factors I’d have to consider.  You say that’s all the cash on me, but is there money in my bank account for bills and groceries?  Is the cash on me specifically for fun shopping?  If bills are all paid and groceries bought, I’d have to go with Red Roses.  $60 seems like an awesome price for a MIB!  Plus I like the uniqueness of Perfume Puffs, and am not terribly into finding a Rapunzel. 

Yep, you just got paid and just scraped that $60 together after accounting for all your expenses in your budget (food, rent/mortgage, etc). It the only disposable income you have for the next 2 weeks.

I myself would choose RR because she’s a favorite of mine with her color scheme and being MIP would just be too amazing to pass up. Rapunzel isn’t on my wish list anyway. However, if it were just her in that condition for that price, I would probably pick her up and have her restored by someone experienced, as I myself haven’t gotten into restoration/rehairing. I thought this would be a fun little exercise for our collector brains and to learn a bit about each other.