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Author Topic: The Mimic Phenomenon  (Read 7239 times)

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Offline dannahbanana

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The Mimic Phenomenon
« on: March 23, 2021, 10:13:43 PM »
I have only been a collector for 5 months in total, but even in that short amount of time I have seen a sharp rise in pony prices, especially for one pony in particular...Mimic. I started out seeing her at $250 USD and even lower, and now she has been soaring over $1000 in some places. What is the cause of this Mimic craze? My theory is that Covid and quarantine has made people a bit restless, causing them to turn to hobbies and collecting more than before. But on the same note, many people are struggling financially during this time, so I don't quite see why these ponies are selling for such high prices. Why is Mimic so popular right now? I think she is beautiful, but what about her makes people pay over $1000 for her? Why does it seem like everyone wants her, but when I look on social media it seems like so many people already have her? Is she really as rare as it seems? Do you think pony prices will go back down, or is it just going to go uphill from here? Share your thoughts! 

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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2021, 10:49:53 PM »
When I started, I'm pretty sure she was just a $100-150 pony at most.
She's not the most rare, just sought after.
I didn't get her yet, I'm expecting her price to go back down after a little while.
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Offline LadyAmalthea

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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #2 on: March 24, 2021, 04:33:12 AM »
Even a year ago when I started getting back into collecting, I was seeing her going for $100-$150-ish. I think prices in general have increased during that time; lots of other ponies have shot way up since then too; Glow-n-Shows didn't used to be so high either, for example. I don't know why.

Offline dragglereeka

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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2021, 08:00:03 AM »
Years ago I read somewhere (could be inaccurate) That Mimic didn't sell so well on her release, hence she showed up MOC a lot on the internet. Can anyone fact check this? I find it hard to believe she wasn't always popular, due to her unique and colourful design.

She's probably the most well known "rare" pony - particularly to non collectors- which could explain the price, despite her not being the rarest ever.

I'd love to have one myself but it is unlikely I will ever afford it ! There's loads of beautiful customs of her I've seen on the Arena  ^.^
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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #4 on: March 24, 2021, 08:24:52 AM »
Dragglereeka - I think you're remembering the "church of MOC Mimic" which was (IIRC) a joke site that claimed to worship the "ultra rare" MOC Mimic and etc. Satirical, but I think a lot of people took it seriously.

I know there's been rumours aside from that, that Mimic didn't sell well, but I don't think we've ever found any actual concrete evidence for that... it's theoretically possible there are less of that wave *in general* since second waves do tend to be a little harder to find (stores may not order the second wave if they still have a lot of wave 1 on the shelves), but I don't think Mimic in particular is that HTF really... I think much of it is just the hype around her. Everyone knows Mimic's "the rare pony" so her prices tend to reflect that.
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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2021, 08:29:43 AM »
Mimic was the first pony I traded for, in November 1997. At the time I didn't know she was rare especially, although my first trade partner did tell me she was a bit tricker to get than some of the others...and did I mind if the pony had a few flaws. As it happens my Mimic only has ink on her hooves, she's otherwise fine - and that's not really a flaw for me. But the point is that idea of her being 'rare' was already around in 1997.

I think part of it was because of the Magic Horseshoes. I know that was why I wanted her - because I didn't know she existed before then.

Her distribution is also more limited - she was sold in Italy, the US, Canada - I'm not sure if anywhere else. So there's a global market looking for a pony with a limited release.

On the MOC front - I have no idea where that rumour came from. It was generally believed back in the old days of early online collecting that MOC Mimic did not exist. That's where the Church of the MOC Mimic came from. The idea that no such MOC existed, and was somehow the pony 'holy grail' as a result. The less I say about that the better.

When the first MOC Mimic did show up, after several years of this idea it didn't exist, people thought it was the only one and bid stupidly on it. It went well over $1000 at the time. Since then there have been at least five or six other MOC Mimics. There are not and have never been 'loads' of MOC Mimics - certainly no more than others from her set, and probably fewer if I'm honest. But there are more surviving than there are the whole set of Mountain Boy ponies, which also sell for four figures when they do come up for sale.

The idea of her not selling well is an urban myth without any actual evidence behind it. Likewise the idea there were fewer of Mimic in a box from Hasbro - I don't think we've ever proven that to be the case. Mimic herself shows up enough to suggest she was maybe less well sold than some of the other ponies from the time, but nowhere near as limited in her quantity than some of the more sought after mail order ponies.

Mimic was never sold here in the UK but I have found her here second hand.  To put that in context, I've never found a HK Firefly, Medley, Powder or Skyflier here second hand - they were also not sold here.

So to summarise - Mimic is a bit harder to find than the most common ponies from that year, but probably not more hard to find than, say, Bright Eyes, who has a similar release range and timeline. The reason she's more expensive is probably a self-fulfilling prophesy, because she's always been more expensive and that's just become entrenched over time.

Some people also treat Mimic as a status symbol. But when I traded for Mimic back in 1997, I traded Gypsy for her. And honestly, in terms of rarity - if not price - I still think that's an equal trade. It's just that Mimic has been blown out of all proportion by 25 years of hype.

ETA: Ninja'd by Carrehz xD.
« Last Edit: March 24, 2021, 08:35:07 AM by Taffeta »
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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2021, 10:18:20 AM »
Mimic's been one of the more sought after ones for longer than I've been collecting (which has been very close to 10 years now). I don't think she specifically is getting more popular at the moment, but rather G1 MLP as a whole is. More people, as far as I'm aware, have been getting into G1 ponies, and the average price of every G1 is raising as a result. The balance between G1 ponies' worth to one another is about the same I believe, but they're all increasing in price.
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Offline Rhaegar

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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #7 on: March 24, 2021, 11:07:07 AM »
The idea of her not selling well is an urban myth without any actual evidence behind it. Likewise the idea there were fewer of Mimic in a box from Hasbro - I don't think we've ever proven that to be the case. Mimic herself shows up enough to suggest she was maybe less well sold than some of the other ponies from the time, but nowhere near as limited in her quantity than some of the more sought after mail order ponies.

Out of curiosity I dug out my '87 Hasbro catalog and it mentions that set being boxed at 24 pieces a box. No mentions of quantity of each. Every normal  pony set released that year appears to be 24 per box. Curiously, even though they were never released the pony friends & dolls set is listed as 12 dolls per box and 24 animals per box, so not equal. And soft sleepy newborns (of which there are 3) are 4 per box. I wonder which one was the duplicate...

Offline SaraMari

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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #8 on: March 24, 2021, 01:00:32 PM »
I think overall the idea of Mimic being well loved and sought after is what makes her prices so high is probably the biggest contributing factor

I've found 3 of her in the wild (technically 4 but the seller had already taken some ponies out of the lot for her granddaughter and of course one of them was mimic, in this case I did believe the seller actually kept the ponies most cases that's a sad excuse when some other buyer swoops in and steals a sale) and there are ponies that are more common and less valuable that I have never found in the wild

In regards to prices going back to normal. Hmm, no I don't think they will go back to the 100-150$ range but they will probably come back down from the current craziness. As more and more collectors enter the community there's less and less to go around so as the years go on it will just get more expensive
« Last Edit: March 24, 2021, 01:02:32 PM by SaraMari »
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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #9 on: March 24, 2021, 02:15:30 PM »
The idea of her not selling well is an urban myth without any actual evidence behind it. Likewise the idea there were fewer of Mimic in a box from Hasbro - I don't think we've ever proven that to be the case. Mimic herself shows up enough to suggest she was maybe less well sold than some of the other ponies from the time, but nowhere near as limited in her quantity than some of the more sought after mail order ponies.

Out of curiosity I dug out my '87 Hasbro catalog and it mentions that set being boxed at 24 pieces a box. No mentions of quantity of each. Every normal  pony set released that year appears to be 24 per box. Curiously, even though they were never released the pony friends & dolls set is listed as 12 dolls per box and 24 animals per box, so not equal. And soft sleepy newborns (of which there are 3) are 4 per box. I wonder which one was the duplicate...

I would expect the extra SSN to be the pink one >.> just because ;)

24 makes sense for the TEs. They're a set of six, so 4 of each would be logical, right?

I have a 1990 UK catalogue from Hasbro and I think it does give exact quantities for some of the sets that are unevenly distributed...obviously that's circumstantial, but I'd assume 24 means 4 of each pony. That would mean that you'd expect Speedy to be the most common from the set being that it was her second release, and the others to all  be around the same availability...

However that changes a little when you add in the global market, because Locket and Tic Tac Toe also had a release in other places outside the US, Canada and Italy, where Mimic was available. So that should mean Locket and TTT are also a bit more common than Quackers, Mimic and Bright Eyes...

Which I think is probably true?

Quackers tends to make people picky because of her discolouration problems. But Bright Eyes and Mimic have both always seemed about the same to me. However...I picked up Bright Eyes MOC for way less than MOC Mimic sells for. Go figure.
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Offline Ragamuffin

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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #10 on: March 24, 2021, 02:21:26 PM »
When I started collecting, Mimics were at the $70ish range. Munchy used to be around that price but has gone up in price as well. Not to Mimic levels, but still more than she's worth.
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Offline brightberry

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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #11 on: March 24, 2021, 02:32:14 PM »
I used to walk to the nearby "Alco" where they sold ponies almost every day.  I saw the first set of Twinkle Eyes and So-Softs but never the second set and it was a long time before I even found out about the 2nd sets.  I knew about Mimic from the show.  I just didn't know she was a real pony.  But, a year later I saw the First Tooth Ponies and Merry-Go-Round ponies at the local mall.  So maybe the 2nd sets were distributed in different venues.

But, I did really want Mimic and I'm sure others were looking too.  It might be less about being short-stocked and more about her already being sold before the next kid got there.
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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #12 on: March 24, 2021, 02:47:58 PM »
I think its people's addictions to parrots.
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Offline Marshie

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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #13 on: March 24, 2021, 03:41:21 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:
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Offline brightberry

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Re: The Mimic Phenomenon
« Reply #14 on: March 24, 2021, 04:04:49 PM »
I think its people's addictions to parrots.
That's the logical conclusion. :)
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