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Author Topic: The Mimic Phenomenon  (Read 7237 times)

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Offline Henpatch

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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #15 on: March 24, 2021, 04:32:40 PM »
In my unofficial research - I gather Hasbro did not make as many Mimics as many of the other ponies. Therefore there were less of her to collect!
As she was rather unique with her colour etc. I guess people (kids) looked after her and so over time her price has increased.
I recently sold a Mimic and was quite stunned by the price.
She was certainly unique!
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Offline starbritesprinkles

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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #16 on: March 24, 2021, 04:47:23 PM »
The Golden Horseshoes has always been one of my favorite episodes. As a kid, though, I'm not sure that I realized that she was an actual toy, or I wasn't vocal about wanting her. I got Quackers and Locket from the second set. I learned about all of the other ponies I didn't have or see as a kid from Dream Valley when we got internet service at home in 1998.

When I started actually collecting as an adult, Mimic was typically $75. She steadily increased to double that over the years, but I've watched her reach $200-400 over the course of the pandemic. I'm not sure whether or not prices will ever go back down to early 2000s levels since we're 20 years later now, but I hope the market does eventually level a little and keep hoping for lucky wild finds.
« Last Edit: March 24, 2021, 08:18:36 PM by skig »

Offline StillandSilent

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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #17 on: March 24, 2021, 05:22:09 PM »
I've seen Mimic come up for sale more often than Quackers, TBH.   

Offline SpacePinto

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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #18 on: March 24, 2021, 05:56:58 PM »
I got mine for around $200 plus shipping, and it was only about a year ago.
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Offline dannahbanana

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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #19 on: March 24, 2021, 06:05:52 PM »
I think its people's addictions to parrots.

Not going to lie, I was addicted to parrots as a child. Wanted to walk around with one on my shoulder like a pirate.... still do.

Post Merge: March 24, 2021, 06:08:11 PM

I got mine for around $200 plus shipping, and it was only about a year ago.

That is pretty reasonable! I'd pay that for her. I'm glad you found her.


Post Merge: March 24, 2021, 06:19:41 PM

If you have me on Discord in any server, you already know my struggles with Mimic, lol. I feel like the ones on eBay right now going for $1,000+ is just simple price gouging due to people in the US getting stimulus checks. I despise price gougers because they know what they're doing and it's scummy.
People have told me that she used to go for about $150+ a few years ago, and then once Covid hit her prices soared. It could be a mix of simple inflation of prices with the pandemic and rise in collecting and nostalgia raising the prices. The $1,000+ Mimics are severely overpriced due to price gouging.

I personally love Mimic because she has a nice pose, beautiful colors, and she is a twinkle eye, which is my favorite G1 gimmicks. Not everyone is a fan of her, but to those who do love her it's hard to see these prices...
 :yikes:

I agree, her pose and colors are beautiful. When I first started collecting I didn't care for twinkle eyed ponies, since the eyes of a pony are the most charming to me and I thought the gem took away a bit of their personality by covering their eyes. But now I find them beautiful. I'd love to have a Mimic, but I don't want to pay more than $250 for her, if that is even possible anymore. I saw that she sold in Japan for about $150 last year, unfortunately I wasn't collecting then, so I didn't get the chance to get her. I've had dreams about finding her in the wild. It looks like from other posts it may be possible. Hopefully my dream will come true. But honestly, there are other ponies that I want more than her, such as the Mountain Boys, especially Sunburst.
« Last Edit: March 24, 2021, 06:19:41 PM by dannahbanana »

Offline Marshie

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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #20 on: March 24, 2021, 08:18:58 PM »
I think its people's addictions to parrots.

Not going to lie, I was addicted to parrots as a child. Wanted to walk around with one on my shoulder like a pirate.... still do.

Post Merge: March 24, 2021, 06:08:11 PM

I got mine for around $200 plus shipping, and it was only about a year ago.

That is pretty reasonable! I'd pay that for her. I'm glad you found her.


Post Merge: March 24, 2021, 06:19:41 PM

If you have me on Discord in any server, you already know my struggles with Mimic, lol. I feel like the ones on eBay right now going for $1,000+ is just simple price gouging due to people in the US getting stimulus checks. I despise price gougers because they know what they're doing and it's scummy.
People have told me that she used to go for about $150+ a few years ago, and then once Covid hit her prices soared. It could be a mix of simple inflation of prices with the pandemic and rise in collecting and nostalgia raising the prices. The $1,000+ Mimics are severely overpriced due to price gouging.

I personally love Mimic because she has a nice pose, beautiful colors, and she is a twinkle eye, which is my favorite G1 gimmicks. Not everyone is a fan of her, but to those who do love her it's hard to see these prices...
 :yikes:
I saw that she sold in Japan for about $150 last year, unfortunately I wasn't collecting then, so I didn't get the chance to get her. I've had dreams about finding her in the wild. It looks like from other posts it may be possible. Hopefully my dream will come true. But honestly, there are other ponies that I want more than her, such as the Mountain Boys, especially Sunburst.

I wonder how much that shipping would be from Japan to here (US for me). I have a subscription box from Japan that costs about $15 for shipping!! I've also seen those posts about wild Mimics, and I honestly don't know how I would be able to handle myself if I found her somewhere like a garage sale or thrift shop!!

I hope you're able to get those Mountain ponies! Always feels great to get your dream ponies, especially if they aren't as much as an investment as Mimic is  >_<
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Offline SpacePinto

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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #21 on: March 24, 2021, 08:32:19 PM »
I got mine for around $200 plus shipping, and it was only about a year ago.

That is pretty reasonable! I'd pay that for her. I'm glad you found her.

I forgot to mention that shipping was another $100 ;)
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Offline dannahbanana

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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #22 on: March 24, 2021, 08:41:43 PM »

I wonder how much that shipping would be from Japan to here (US for me). I have a subscription box from Japan that costs about $15 for shipping!! I've also seen those posts about wild Mimics, and I honestly don't know how I would be able to handle myself if I found her somewhere like a garage sale or thrift shop!!

I hope you're able to get those Mountain ponies! Always feels great to get your dream ponies, especially if they aren't as much as an investment as Mimic is  >_<

I live in Japan so shipping for her would have been free! But unfortunately I missed out. In general ponies here are priced higher than abroad, but for some reason really rare or sought after ones tend to go for less than they do in US/Europe/etc. There was a bundle of two Glow N Shows for just $30 a few months ago that I missed out on.

Offline lovesbabysquirmy

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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #23 on: March 25, 2021, 05:55:37 AM »
Mimic has always been a pricey pony and her price never really comes down.  I remember when G1 were still very common at yard sales, etc. and people would complain, "OMG she's the $30 MLP, I'll never afford her!"  Now...  yeah...
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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #24 on: March 25, 2021, 06:09:50 AM »
In my unofficial research - I gather Hasbro did not make as many Mimics as many of the other ponies. Therefore there were less of her to collect!

As the thread already mentioned, there is no evidence that this is true. Or at least, there is no evidence that fewer Mimics were made than the other ponies in her set with the same distribution - who sell for far less.

I am only calling this out because opinions like this help to cause panic buying and push up prices of ponies unnecessarily. There are probably as many Mimics out there as Quackers and Bright Eyes at least. I feel like it's impossible to bring her price down to their price level, but it is possible for people to stop and refuse to pay ridiculous amounts for her :/

Obviously I'm happy for anyone selling who randomly got a huge price for their item - but I feel like there's a danger of normalising the high price spike if we keep reinforcing the unproven assumption she was somehow not produced in as great a quantity as her set-mates.

Look at what happened with Rapunzel (who is rarer,  but not the rarest MO pony). When I came online, her price was around $80-$150. Now it's at a stupid level. If we don't want that to be normalised with Mimic, I feel like we have to be responsible with the information we relay to others.

The reality is that Mimic was produced for the largest existing MLP markets in the 1980s - the US and Canada. There are many ponies produced only for smaller markets who sell for less than Mimic does, even some Nirvana ponies.

Don't get me wrong - I really love this pony. But I would love to see her appreciated more for her aesthetic and less for her price tag, which often seems entirely unnecessary.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2021, 06:13:28 AM by Taffeta »
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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #25 on: March 27, 2021, 05:19:10 AM »
I got mine for around $200 plus shipping, and it was only about a year ago.

That is pretty reasonable! I'd pay that for her. I'm glad you found her.

I forgot to mention that shipping was another $100 ;)

Shipping gets me every time  :drunk: :drunk:

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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #26 on: March 27, 2021, 05:26:33 AM »
I think Taffeta makes a good point. I think it’s easy to assume that a popular vintage collectible is expensive because it’s rare, but that’s not always the case. Many things can drive up the price on collectibles and perceived rarity is only one aspect (I say “perceived “ rarity because we’re often told that something is hard to find when a little digging proves otherwise. There’s also a tendency for collectors to assume that because something is expensive it must be HTF).

My own personal anecdote on Mimic is that, as a child I first encountered her in a pamphlet and immediately fell in love. I loved everything about her and I wanted one badly. However, I only saw her in stores once and at the time I elected to buy Jangles and Tangles instead because I was away from home and thought ponies with accessories would be more entertaining for the week. But I never saw another Mimic to buy.

What I take away from this memory is not that Mimic was short packed or harder to get, but that possibly the whole second set of TE were. Note that, at the time Mim was on shelves in Canada I was buying instead a twin set from the previous year, indicating that new and older stock were available together. If anything, it supports the theory that 2nd waves are harder to find in stores, something we’ve seen happen in G3 and G4.

Memory is a tricky thing and not entirely to be trusted. But I’m fairly confident of this one because I only had one twin set as a child, and I’m sure that if I’d seen Mimic for sale again at a later time I’d have snapped her up. So it’s possible that the whole set was a little harder to find back in the 80s. Of course, this is anecdotal at best.

About current pricing, I do think we’ll see the market fluctuate down again, but I don’t think it will go back to pre-pandemic prices. I expect prices to stay slightly inflated (we’ve seen that prices for G1s generally had been going up for years before that). But remember that for collectors, patience is a virtue. People still find rare ponies second hand and it is possible to get a bargain if you don’t mind waiting.

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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #27 on: March 27, 2021, 06:42:20 AM »
It does generally seem to be the case that a lot of 2nd and 3rd set ponies are harder to find relatively speaking than their first set peers - or that second releases of a pony are less common than the original. So maybe it's a case that stores wanted to move on to the new gimmick to attract the kids...TAF set 1 ponies are quite common in comparison, and they and the first set princesses would have also been out at this time? (Although they were sold globally so that may be misleading).  Not to mention the twins, like Elfpony mentioned.

I think it's more likely the whole set was a bit harder to find, rather than one individual pony.
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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #28 on: March 27, 2021, 08:13:46 AM »
Elfpony's right, this is a distribution thing common in Canada.  It's why you are much more likely to find the Wave 2 Sea Ponies up here. 
Canada tries to order what the USA orders, there aren't enough, but there IS demand, so Canada gets shipment #2.  ponies, vaccines, luxury goods, cars, you name it.  LOL
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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #29 on: March 27, 2021, 05:02:42 PM »
Elfpony's right, this is a distribution thing common in Canada.  It's why you are much more likely to find the Wave 2 Sea Ponies up here. 
Canada tries to order what the USA orders, there aren't enough, but there IS demand, so Canada gets shipment #2.  ponies, vaccines, luxury goods, cars, you name it.  LOL
I hadn’t thought of that but now that you mention it yeah. We saw some of that with early G4, where the States had tonnes of Mane Six but Canada got lots of the original characters. Conversely, in G3, we got hardly any of the TRU exclusive ponies. Bringing it back to Mimic, it’s likely that this kind of buying was also in play back in the 80s that resulted in some sets being harder to find in some areas.

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