Do you have more luck at thrift stores, flea markets or garage sales?

[Marshie]

Do the pony collectors here have more luck finding ponies in the wild at thrift shops, garage sales, or flea markets? I'm trying to make a game plan for this weekend when I plan to search all stores and garage sales I can for some G1 ponies! Was just curious where you all have more luck finding some ponies?

Cheers!

[tailrustedtealeaf]

Thrift stores 100%. If you can find a store like Savers or 2nd Avenue where donations are not local, but are shipped from various places, that's your best bet. Goodwill tends to be entirely miss for me. Garage sales are an entire miss as well, they're very reliant on the demographics of the area. Flea markets sometimes, not as often as thrifts.
For specifically G1 ponies, you might get some misses. Might be worth picking up G3 and G4 to sell/trade online though, I pick up all ponies even if doubles to fund the harder to find acquisitions.

[SpacePinto]

I only buy my ponies on eBay.

[SunPony]

I've had the most luck at flea markets, followed by thrift shops, then garage sales.

[tailrustedtealeaf]

I only buy my ponies on eBay.

Oh yeah, on this note, eBay lots are excellent for acquiring ponies for a discounted price if you don't mind putting some work into them. A lot of my G1 were acquired from vicious G1 lot buying when I got my debit card. Always an option if you don't find anything good!

[banditpony]

It kind of depends on each area, I bet.

On a holiday weekend -- flea market -- no doubt in my mind. It's best to be early, because there is always someone else hunting (including vendors).

But I'll say in my area (within 50 miles), the flea market always yielded more finds then the thrift stores... and the best finds...

Small note about goodwill.. in our area it's only the goodwill outlets that had vintage ponies. There was an area in the back where the workers would dump plastic toys, and people would be grabbing them, putting them in their carts... then you'd pay for toys by the pound.. (so a pony could come up to be a quarter). It was too competitive for me, lol.

[Leave a Whisper]

Swapmeet. But namely with G3. I still find them now and again.

[Ponyfan]

G1 pony luck is terrible where I live.  I’ve found one pony at a garage sale over 10 years ago and a few overpriced ponies at antique stores.  I have bad luck at thrift stores too. 

One time at Savers (potentially yucky thing in spoiler relating to bugs)

Spoiler

I found a bag of Beanie Babies. One of them was a Beanie Baby that I really wanted when it came out but it was hard to find and a lot of people wanted outrageous prices for it.  Inside the sealed bag with the toys was a dead bug.

Ponyfan

[Sunset]

My best luck is usually at flea markets.  There are still a lot of misses but flea markets give the most bang for your time.  *edit to clarify that the kind of flea markets I’m talking about are the kind that pop up only on the weekend or once month and tend to be outdoors.  Not the kind that are permanent and indoors.  I’ve only had luck with one of those just the once. (And that was the kind of store that looked like it was owned by a hoarder and I had to dig for the ponies in a back corner and hope that nothing fell on me while I did it.)

Unfortunately, none of the thrift stores in my area are the kind that sell much in the way of toys.

Garage sales are almost always too much work.  Having to look them up, plan out a route, drive all over, only to come up empty handed.  Now I only do garage sales when I see a listing that either specifies My Little Pony or there are pictures that look promising.  I did one time get up early and go to a a garage sale that advertised loads of (G4) mlp and even though I got there at the start time I still didn’t beat a couple of ladies who I absolutely know run a booth at my local flea market.  But it was all good, they went for the larger toys like the talking ponies and the fashion styles.  I got my pick of the brushables.  In a way, it’s kind of reassuring.  Their prices aren’t unreasonable and they do all the work of driving all over town.

I would also advise checking your area’s Craigslist regularly.  The older crowd may be more comfortable with it and I have twice come home with two large hauls from people selling off their adult children’s collections.

[Marshie]

We have a antique store in the area I love going to, I may try that one out tomorrow before I go into work. Thanks everyone for the input and I hope you all have good finds in the future!!

[Eighties_Otaku]

I used to find lots at garage sales like 15/20 years ago now it's basically nothing. It does depend on the area and who lived in the house/still lives there.

I use to find a ton at thrift stores again 15/2o years ago. I still find some, but not as much. Lately more so because of competition of non-collectors and covid really messed up the inventory with lower hours, weird stock levels, weird stocking time sand very picky inventory.

There aren't really fleamarkets here. I used to find some on and off but thrift stores top it all.

[Harmonie]

I've run into more MLPs at local vintage/antique shops. Even there, they're still rare, in my experience. A local one has had a booth with G1s for a couple of years now. One in my college town had a bag of G3s. Other than that, pretty much nothing. A heavily played with G4 with marks and a hair cut was all I've seen at a garage sale, and flea markets I've rarely been to but think I only saw a G3.5 toy there and it wasn't one of the brushables (although I know nothing about G3.5, TBH).

This makes me miss going out to these. My mom and I used to love that, but the virus has made that unsafe. =(

[Taffeta]

I don't think I've ever been to a garage sale, not really a big thing where I grew up.

When I started recollecting in 1995 the best place was carboot sales.

Second hand or charity shops rarely yield anything pony for me, esp G1. It's occasional but not regular.

I probably acquired over a thousand ponies from carbooting, for my own collection and to trade. It may be more. I think my sister and I gutted out this local area quite well because there was only one other collector here back then and she sold her collection - about 2/3 of that we obtained and kept or traded (she had 600 ponies and a ton of accessories, so that was a big deal).

...Now the best place for G1 is the toy fair, when it runs, which this year it hasn't since February. There is an increasing G1 presence at that, and I have bought a couple of MOC sea ponies there as well.

The carboot sale overall still has the highest return but most of that was in the past. I did pick up some good G1 ponies at the one down in the south east though. I miss living there so much and hope to go back when all the covid madness is done.

[LadyAmalthea]

I've only gotten them on Ebay so far. I never found anything locally in our charity shop prior to everything shutting down last spring. I had a day planned today to go to a town about 20 minutes away from my son's school while he was in class, since he only has 1/2 days on Fridays, where there are lots of antique/flea market-type shops that I  thought we could go pony-hunting in. I got my girls all packed up to make it a day trip, and then after dropping my son off I lost my nerve and came home. Now I'm kicking myself because it's a beautiful day, and we should have gone.

[Shy Violet]

I used to find tons of G1's at garage sales 10-15 years ago, now nothing.

My all year round flea market had a vendor with a toy booth until last Spring. He had been there at least 20 years and now his booth is gone, I hope he just retired. He always, always had G1's plus tons of other 80's toys but he had them priced expensively. So I'd go look every 6 months or so and buy a couple more rare ones but otherwise I prefer to spend less on my ponies.

Thrift stores have been good to me. Most of the time I find nothing but I always checked once a week pre-covid and once in a while I'd find some.

I've checked some antique shops and only 1 had some ponies. I bought what I didn't have and the rest sold and they haven't gotten more since.

It's going to be different in every area so I suggest you check regularly and get a feel for your area.