Info about G3 Birthflower Ponies

[paradiserain]

Hey pony friends,

Sorry it's been a hot minute since I was active here, but I need some help trying to figure out the G3 birthflower ponies.

I'm just 3 ponies away from completing the G3 birthstone pony collection (Just need March Madness, June Blossom, and November Nights now) and I want to try and collect the 12 birthflower ponies next.

However, I have come to discover that every listing I have found of a G3 birthflower pony has been ludicrously expensive. Like, $350 for an MIB December Poinsettia and $140 non-MIB February Violet. Sometimes I'll find listings for non-MIB ones that are still over $50 and that still feels too steep to me.

I know they are considered HTF and were exclusive to Toys-R-Us in 2006 but weren't the birthstone ponies also sold for one year as Toys-R-Us exclusives in 2005? Yet the birthstone ponies are considered much easier to obtain and are generally much more reasonably priced as MIBs and non-MIBs.

Am I missing some info here? Was there only a few hundred made of each pony? Were the birthflower ponies only available for a few months in 2006 or are people just being ridiculous with their pricing online?

I really want to own the birthflower set one day but I just can't see that happening if sellers keep pricing them so darn high. I don't have that much disposable income available. 

Just trying to make sense of the situation and learn something.

Edit: Wow, thank you to everyone for the replies! This has been a very interesting and informative discussion. I really had no idea the birthflower ponies were so massively popular amongst collectors even in 2006. It makes a lot of sense now. Still sad that they're so hard to find and expensive these days, but I'm still hoping to have them all someday.

Thanks again! 

[tailrustedtealeaf]

I was not in the scene in 2006 but I'd imagine there may be a few factors:
-Distribution in 2006 not being as strong as 2005
-Stores may have had extras of the 2005 ponies and (if possible,) opted out of carrying the new set
-General sought-after-ability increasing prices and demand
I am sure someone else will come in and be able to describe the environment from that time.

I always find part of the excitement to be getting ponies I want at lower prices. I hope a more reasonably priced pony pops up for you soon!

[lovesbabysquirmy]

the birthflowers weren't well distributed

[Ponybookworm]

G3 Birthflowers are highly sought after, as they were exclusive, rare, & not widely distributed. Took me ages to get the April one, & due to their rarity, I'm not going for the rest

[nhal039]

Hey pony friends,

Sorry it's been a hot minute since I was active here, but I need some help trying to figure out the G3 birthflower ponies.

I'm just 3 ponies away from completing the G3 birthstone pony collection (Just need March Madness, June Blossom, and November Nights now) and I want to try and collect the 12 birthflower ponies next.

However, I have come to discover that every listing I have found of a G3 birthflower pony has been ludicrously expensive. Like, $350 for an MIB December Poinsettia and $140 non-MIB February Violet. Sometimes I'll find listings for non-MIB ones that are still over $50 and that still feels too steep to me.

I know they are considered HTF and were exclusive to Toys-R-Us in 2006 but weren't the birthstone ponies also sold for one year as Toys-R-Us exclusives in 2005? Yet the birthstone ponies are considered much easier to obtain and are generally much more reasonably priced as MIBs and non-MIBs.

Am I missing some info here? Was there only a few hundred made of each pony? Were the birthflower ponies only available for a few months in 2006 or are people just being ridiculous with their pricing online?

I really want to own the birthflower set one day but I just can't see that happening if sellers keep pricing them so darn high. I don't have that much disposable income available. 

Just trying to make sense of the situation and learn something.

If you look at sold listings I doubt any sold for those highly listed prices. The are sort after but you can still pick them up from any where from $10 - 50. You just have to keep an eye out for them and be patient. Its a very cool set to have

[Loa]

They are super hard to get now, and were scarce at the time.

[goddessofpeep]

I was hardcore collecting G3s as they came out at the time.  I was there from day one until the very end of the G3s.  The TRUs in my area tended to get new stock very early, if not first in the world.  This was probably due to my living close to the largest port in the country, and the port where all shipments from China arrive in the USA.  I was checking at least one TRU daily, and occasionally I would be the first person in the world to find something. I remember finding the birthflowers during my daily check. I basically got half the set the first day they were available.  I can’t remember exactly, but I may have been the first person to find those six, or at least the first person to post pics. I think I got the second half of the set from a couple of TRUs a few days later.

I don’t remember it being that hard to get the full set, though I doubt my experience was the average one since I was hunting every single day.  I do remember the birthflowers not being around long.  They were very popular, much more so than the birthstones, and they sold very quickly.  I think the birthstones hung around a little longer, but I’m not sure of it was due to distribution, or general popularity, or both.  I don’t think either set was restocked too many times, but birthflowers may have been restocked less.  Usually, each case had one half of the set, and I rarely saw all 12 ponies on the same shelf.  Each TRU usually got 1-2 of each pony per restock, and they did not stay on shelves long.

The birthflowers were more popular though. The imbedded gem style of the birthstones was more gimmicky, and the tinsel in the hair was unpopular at the time.  There also was definitely some extra nostalgia factor to the birthflowers that the birthstones didn’t have.  I think both sets were limited.  I’m not sure of the birthflowers were more limited, but their popularity is probably what is pushing their cost as much as anything else.  People went crazy when they were discovered. 

[LadyMoondancer]

Yeah, even when they were in stores it was almost impossible to get the full set.  I was collecting back then and managed to get three.

[goddessofpeep]

I was lucky during the G3 release.  I worked nights, and I had 2 Targets and a TRU nearby close enough that I could easily check daily, and 4-5 Targets, 3-4 TRUs, 2 KB Toys, 2 Walmarts, a Kmart, and a collectible toy store I could hit up if I had the time to do a full search. The local TRU was always very proactive with stocking, and would get their shipments early, so most of the time they’d have the new stock in the shelves at opening. It was easy for me to get the full set, but I was going *hard* for them once I found the first ones. However, I do recall the restocks being sparse.  They only got one or two cases of 6 ponies in at a time.  Since only half the set was in each case, and there was only one of each pony in the case, they sold out quickly. 

I don’t remember seeing the birthflowers hanging around long, or in any real numbers.  If you were looking for a specific month, any given TRU would only have one out on the shelf at a time, if you were lucky.   They did get restocked occasionally for a few months, but no store I saw had multiples of any pony on the shelves..

[Shiverdam]

I don't ever remember seeing the Birthflower G3s on shelves around here. I didn't even know they existed until a few years ago, after G3 stopped being in production.

[Silverflame]

I was hardcore collecting G3s when the birthflowers came out, and never managed to find a single one at any of my three TRUs, whereas I managed to collect the entire set of birthstones almost immediately

[Eskara1862]

Yeah, I was VERY much into buying ponies new in stores when G3s were around. I had the hardest time tracking down ANY of the birthflowers. TRUs were also closing some stores and there were only like three in my city, so that didn't help with finding them at all. When I've found them loose in the past couple years, they pretty much all sell immediately for about $50.

As a side note, I have November Nights and March Mischief for sale MIB if you're actively hunting them.

[Taffeta]

As far as I know, they didn't even make it to TRU over here. I didn't have massive access to TRU in 2006 mind you, so I may be wrong. But I remember feeling frustrated through a lot of G3 about ponies that never got here/ended up US store exclusives and how it ultimately drove me away from collecting G3 as much as I originally intended.

We must have had the gemstone ones as I've picked up a November one here which I gave to my sister. But aside the ones I own, three of which were gifts and all of which originated in the US (I have 4 total), I've never seen any. And I've been in and out of the pony community since 1997, and actively looked for G3.
I also had a friend in Stoke who used to keep an eye out at the TRU there for me and whenever I visited her, we'd go look. I still never saw them.

[therestornadosinmysoup]

Aside from TRU, were they available anywhere else in Canada?? I only have 2 from the jewel set, none from the other! 

[goddessofpeep]

The birthflowers and the birthstones were both TRU exclusives. I don’t think they were released anywhere else.

Apparently I had much better luck with the birthflowers than anyone else.  I think the fact I was hitting a TRU at opening every day without fail combined with the quirks of distribution in the area made my local TRU “magic”.   It seemed to get everything in, and it got it really early before the rest of the world found out about it and started hunting.  I hunted hard, and I did buy for a lot of other people(sold at cost or gifted - I’m not a flipper, and I only bought what had a home already), so I did spread the good luck as much as possible.