What are pony deals you missed out on?

[kingluke]

Hello everyone,

Today there was a great ad online. It had the complete set of jewellery babies, two surprise diaper babies, a little brother with bandana, the complete apple delight family, baby princess sparkle, a sea pony with float and so much more. All for 45 euro's. I immediately responded the minute the ad was up. I waited for a response but only got to see how they read my message and didn't respond (total d*ck move imo, if you have time to read, you have time to talk). Now the ad is reserved for someone else. I'm kinda upset at this but it was to be expected I suppose.

What are your pony buying tales of woe?

Outbid at the last minute? Unresponsive or bad sellers?
Share your stories here.

Cheers,

Luke

[Skandalous]

Oh man, my first auction I was supremely inexperienced and didn’t know what to expect. Like a fool, I hadn’t really read over the tips so I was afraid that every bid I made (if won), I’d have to pay. Lets say the current winning bid was $30 and I put $60 as my highest, and no one outbid me, I was afraid I’d have to pay the full $60.

So I saw this GORGEOUS loose but complete G2 silverswirl and kept my eye on her for a week. I laid my claim with a relatively low bid but the night of the end of the auction another bidder (clearly more experienced than I was) hopped on and swept her out from beneath me, even as we entered a full out bidding war (due to my aforementioned fears, I was only bidding in increments of $1). At the last minute I thought I’d won, but alas.

I have a complete loose Silverswirl now, but I’ll never forget the crushing defeat I felt xD No hard feelings towards the winning bidder, by the way.

[kingluke]

Oh man, my first auction I was supremely inexperienced and didn’t know what to expect. Like a fool, I hadn’t really read over the tips so I was afraid that every bid I made (if won), I’d have to pay. Lets say the current winning bid was $30 and I put $60 as my highest, and no one outbid me, I was afraid I’d have to pay the full $60.

So I saw this GORGEOUS loose but complete G2 silverswirl and kept my eye on her for a week. I laid my claim with a relatively low bid but the night of the end of the auction another bidder (clearly more experienced than I was) hopped on and swept her out from beneath me, even as we entered a full out bidding war (due to my aforementioned fears, I was only bidding in increments of $1). At the last minute I thought I’d won, but alas.

I have a complete loose Silverswirl now, but I’ll never forget the crushing defeat I felt xD No hard feelings towards the winning bidder, by the way.

That really sucks. I'm glad you have her now .

[bright rabbit 1]

Sweet Celebrations family that only had the mum, baby brother, and baby sister (it was on bidding and make a offer) I made a offer of £15 over the asking price, they rejected the offer, went to bid on it and I missed out.

[RLisa]

Oh that really sucks! Bidding wars are so nerve wrecking. And getting ignored and missing out on a buy is awful.

As for my story, for a while it seems like buying Buzzer was cursed for me. Either I was always too late with responding or I had very unresponsive sellers.

With 2 different sellers they simply ignored my bids or messages. They sold the pony to someone else without informing me on the different bids. If I'm outbid, at least let me know about it...
Then with another 2 different sellers they responded to my bids and we made an agreement on the sale. I basically offered them the asking price. When I asked for payment details, these sellers decided to ghost me  Maybe they changed their mind about selling but I still don't understand. They even wanted the shipping address just before ghosting me.

In the end I did finally found a responsive seller when Buzzer was part of a g3 lot. So perhaps that lifted the "curse" somehow

[pandabear_chan]

I missed out on so many things in the past that I can't list it all here. The problem with local platforms is that if sellers, who are unexperienced, offer something great for sale they get so many responses from people that they are often overwhelmed. Often they change the listing from "fixed price" to "open for offers" and sell it for the highest bid. That is kind of annoying because it has become the new reality.
And yes ignorance is a thing that bothers me as well. People are not polite enough anymore to answer even if you don't get the item. But yes that is normal as well.
Bidding wars on ebay are usual and the good thing is they end when the auction is over. On yahoo.jp you can set an option which extends the bidding time until no one bids within 5 minutes, so one / all of the participants are giving up. THAT is nerve wrecking!

[kingluke]

I missed out on so many things in the past that I can't list it all here. The problem with local platforms is that if sellers, who are unexperienced, offer something great for sale they get so many responses from people that they are often overwhelmed. Often they change the listing from "fixed price" to "open for offers" and sell it for the highest bid. That is kind of annoying because it has become the new reality.
And yes ignorance is a thing that bothers me as well. People are not polite enough anymore to answer even if you don't get the item. But yes that is normal as well.
Bidding wars on ebay are usual and the good thing is they end when the auction is over. On yahoo.jp you can set an option which extends the bidding time until no one bids within 5 minutes, so one / all of the participants are giving up. THAT is nerve wrecking!

Exactly! Please check what you have, but then again, I love a good deal.
There's just no excuse to not be polite honestly. The seller i contacted was kind of to let me know the ponies were sold, so no hard feelings but people that can't do basic communication shouldn't really be sellers I think. (Or am I being to harsh here, idk?)
That version of bidding on yahoo sounds awful. i hope it doesn't happen to you.

[LadyAmalthea]

I've missed out on so many, but the worst ones are the ones when I've asked the seller a question and they couldn't be bothered to answer before the auction ended.

I've been searching for the top clip piece for the Cuddles baby buggy for months, and once in a while I've seen it pop up in accessory lots just as a random piece. Each time, I've contacted the seller to ask if they would be willing to split the lot up and sell me just that piece. Not one has ever responded. Seriously...they could relist the lot without that piece (most people probably wouldn't know what it is anyway and throw it away) for the same price they originally listed it, and then plus make whatever money they agreed to sell the buggy piece for, win-win for everybody, right? Or if it's too much trouble to make an extra 5 or 10 bucks, just say no!! At least respond, so I'm not hanging on checking my messages every 15 minutes for a week to see if you did.

Same with questions about combined shipping. Some people don't like to answer that question either. My son wanted the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and I was having trouble finding all 3 of them for a price I wanted to pay. Finally one seller had 2 lots listed, and if I had purchase both, all 3 CMCs would have been in there. I put them in my watch list, and the seller made me a cheaper offer on both. I was seriously considering it, but wanted to make sure they were willing to combine the shipping (especially since I didn't want anything else in the lots other than those 3 ponies), and they just ignored the question. Maybe they thought I was getting a good enough deal with their cheaper offer, I don't know. Well I didn't bite, and 2 months later I think those same lots are still sitting unsold in my watch list. Again...how hard is it to just say no?

[Skandalous]

I've missed out on so many, but the worst ones are the ones when I've asked the seller a question and they couldn't be bothered to answer before the auction ended.

I've been searching for the top clip piece for the Cuddles baby buggy for months, and once in a while I've seen it pop up in accessory lots just as a random piece. Each time, I've contacted the seller to ask if they would be willing to split the lot up and sell me just that piece. Not one has ever responded. Seriously...they could relist the lot without that piece (most people probably wouldn't know what it is anyway and throw it away) for the same price they originally listed it, and then plus make whatever money they agreed to sell the buggy piece for, win-win for everybody, right? Or if it's too much trouble to make an extra 5 or 10 bucks, just say no!! At least respond, so I'm not hanging on checking my messages every 15 minutes for a week to see if you did.

Same with questions about combined shipping. Some people don't like to answer that question either. My son wanted the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and I was having trouble finding all 3 of them for a price I wanted to pay. Finally one seller had 2 lots listed, and if I had purchase both, all 3 CMCs would have been in there. I put them in my watch list, and the seller made me a cheaper offer on both. I was seriously considering it, but wanted to make sure they were willing to combine the shipping (especially since I didn't want anything else in the lots other than those 3 ponies), and they just ignored the question. Maybe they thought I was getting a good enough deal with their cheaper offer, I don't know. Well I didn't bite, and 2 months later I think those same lots are still sitting unsold in my watch list. Again...how hard is it to just say no?

Yeesh :/ I’ve definitely been there. I was made an offer for a winger pony recently, but the pictures were blurry, so I thanked them for the offer and asked if they could confirm that the pony didn’t have any missing hair plugs or haircuts. They never responded and the offer expired.

Here’s another great story of mishap-
I saw a G2 golden glow II on eBay for less than $60 once, and was about to buy her when my power cut out. An hour or so later when the power returned, I returned to my watchlist to find her sold

[LadyAmalthea]

Yeesh :/ I’ve definitely been there. I was made an offer for a winger pony recently, but the pictures were blurry, so I thanked them for the offer and asked if they could confirm that the pony didn’t have any missing hair plugs or haircuts. They never responded and the offer expired.

Here’s another great story of mishap-
I saw a G2 golden glow II on eBay for less than $60 once, and was about to buy her when my power cut out. An hour or so later when the power returned, I returned to my watchlist to find her sold

Oh man, that's frustrating! I think I may have had my device die right before the end of an auction before and I missed out, but not on anything I was super passionate about, thankfully.

I wonder if the seller didn't respond because they were an inexperienced seller and/or not a collector and didn't know how to tell if there had been haircuts/plugs missing, but that's no excuse for not replying at all...so rude!

[bright rabbit 1]

Missed out on bait Newborn Twins Sniffles & Snookums, Wind Whistler, and Baby Lucky from the same seller.

[Taffeta]

The one that springs to mind was BIN Baby Cherries Jubilee for $30...

Although I do wish, given how much I was using Japanese auctions in 2007ish, I had scoured the whole market for cheap Takara ponies. I don't like them,  but they would've sure helped with my rent last year...

I've probably had several which have been sniped out from under my nose because I have never and will never use sniping software. But then again I've had just as much luck winning things from manual sniping (and that skill has helped us get shopping delivery slots since march, so I won't complain too much). The ones that spring to mind there though are Jem ones, not so much MLP.

There was MIB Baby Tic Tac Toe who I legitimately won but then the seller claimed it was lost in transit and they were moving and yeah. I got my money back. THere was one other like that but it's traumatic and I am not inclined to explain right now.

On a personal being scammed note, twice. Once for Baby Li'l Cupcake - that was Baby Bouncy, the notorious, using her "safe first trade scam on the second" technique. I have the pony now, but always wonder what happened to the sweetie baby I sent her.

The second one...was very ugly and the reason I no longer post on the TP. It's the kind of thing if you know, you know about it. If you don't, you don't. And probably don't need to. But let's just say if the person ever became active in the community again, I would not hold back on outing them.

And finally, at the carboot sale as a kid, I remember there was another collector who sometimes beat us to ponies. She liked to shove the ponies she'd got in our faces, and once made my sister cry because she got Italian Heart Throb first and gloated over it. Heart THrob wasn't sold here in any form so that was the only HT we'd ever seen. And Naynie had been watching the TV eps from her friend's vhs and REALLY wanted her.

BUT when the collector sold up her ponies, I made a point of going through and finding HT. So my sister did get the pony in the end. But nobody makes my sister cry -.-.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I've missed out on so many, but the worst ones are the ones when I've asked the seller a question and they couldn't be bothered to answer before the auction ended.

I've been searching for the top clip piece for the Cuddles baby buggy for months, and once in a while I've seen it pop up in accessory lots just as a random piece. Each time, I've contacted the seller to ask if they would be willing to split the lot up and sell me just that piece. Not one has ever responded. Seriously...they could relist the lot without that piece (most people probably wouldn't know what it is anyway and throw it away) for the same price they originally listed it, and then plus make whatever money they agreed to sell the buggy piece for, win-win for everybody, right? Or if it's too much trouble to make an extra 5 or 10 bucks, just say no!! At least respond, so I'm not hanging on checking my messages every 15 minutes for a week to see if you did.

Please don't message sellers to end their listings early so you can get the HTF piece in the lot.  It's actually something that is against Ebay TOS.

More importantly, and on-topic, MANY MANY MANY MLP collectors' biggest pet peeve is when someone does this.  It has caused a lot of hurt feelings and drama. 
I know you are thinking, "Oh it's just a little plastic part."  But what if we are talking about a lot of ponies, and the one pony in the corner with the hair half-hidden is a Sweet Scoops with a charm?  And you're watching this auction, you're the high bidder, and then all of a sudden, the listing is no longer available.  Sometimes the seller will even give you an excuse - "my dog chewed them, my kid changed their mind," whatever, then you see the lot a day later and it's missing that one pony.  GUESS what happened?

Okay my stories!  Like Pandabear_chan, there have been SO MANY over the decades that I cannot remember them all.  But here are a few that I am still seething over:

• the "hidden pony gem" in a large lot  ; I was SOCLOSE to owning a set of TAF babies in amongst a ton of other common MLP, but some horrible person messaged the seller and told them those ponies were not just common MLP.
  
   the seller on a local sales site who decided their sales ad was an auction.  I had already agreed to pick up and pay in cash ; we're in the car 3/4 of the way there, and the seller starts texting me, "just got offered $x, what will you pay?" 

[toyjunky]

I was at a random swap meet a few years ago and saw a Rapunzel (Before I knew exactly who she was and how rare). The seller wanted $75. I thought they were asking way too much for a G1 MLP and she had a lot of marker drawings and scribbles and a lot of visible tail rust besides other random marks typical to ponies. I looked her up a few days later and discovered what she really was. Now I know better, oh well (and if your wondering, yes I went back the next week and she was gone).

[Taffeta]

Nice catch, LBS, I missed that.

It's a taboo in the community. Once I saw an ebay seller published questions like that on the auction so it was obvious who was asking and why, so it's not necessarily something you can do without being found out.

But it's generally bad etiquette, so good practice not to do it. I know there are people who have been community blacklisted for it in the past.

I remember blacklisting someone from my auctions in the Jem community because she had a practice of getting auctions closed early and bids cancelled.

Sellers worth their salt will not comply anyway.