How do you prioritize your pony hit list?

[dragonfly]

How do you prioritize your pony hit list?

When deciding WHICH pony to go after first - how do you generally choose? This  is a bit different from my earlier question about collection preferences.

Say you are saving your money for one special pony or can only afford to buy one per month or whatever. How do you decide?

I guess I usually find myself drawn to a certain set, and pick them off either by who's my favorite or what's available for sale at the time.

[Leave a Whisper]

Depends on how much they owe me and if they ratted me out to the Coppers see! 

My most wanted are usually first, though sometimes another one will jump the line.

 It's more of a loose guideline.

Oh and when I'm pony shopping and an affordable grail comes along it takes immediate priority.

My next of each species is

Earth : G3 Seaspray
Boy: Wigwam
Pegasus: Masquerade
Unicorn: SS Gusty or Ribbon if she eludes me yet again. 
Sea Pony: Pretty n Pearly Baby Sea Shimmer
Flutter Pony : Wind Drifter
Winger: High flyer

[Kiwi]

Most of my shopping lately is what's current in stores, or any finds in the wild for older gens. It's been a while since I bought a pony off ebay - usually it's something specific I've latched on to.

[Duenia]

I use multiple methods whenever I feel like it. But they all ultimately get thrown out the window.

• I like to complete sets
• Get favorites
• Go for the cheap
• Stop into a store for a quick pony

Or something else that happens to come to mind. It really all depends on my mood.

Like this week G2s pique my interest.

Or sometimes it's totally impulse. I got Dazzleglow recently. I didn't even like her before I saw mine when she was for sale. And once I did it was like, I need that pony. She's currently residing on my night stand.

It's generally a surprise to me lol.

The only consistent thing is I pay attention to price because I have to make them fit into my budget somehow. But there's so many I would love to get a hold of that I don't think I currently have the patience to save and wait.

[ValhallaLilly]

Depends on how much they owe me and if they ratted me out to the Coppers see! 

I laughed way waaaay to hard at this. probably because that's how I read it as well but man I needed that!

my pick is pretty much if I see a g1 in the wild I buy it. unless I'm at the fair then I pick things to finish sets or pretty much anyone that  I decided was pretty that day/moment. As for g2's it's ones I can afford. g3 I probably would get too unless it's like pinkie pie or minty because I see those a lot.
g4 is if its really unique and I have money.

pretty much the worst answer ever. I guess I don't have much of a set pattern because I so infrequently have money set aside for ponies.

[Sugar]

I'm a buyer of opportunity, myself.  I have a general idea of which ponies I'm after, but I'm well into the harder-to-find ones (at least as far as G1s go) that it usually boils down to serendipity.

*snip*

Depends on how much they owe me and if they ratted me out to the Coppers see! 

*snip*

Ohmigosh, too cute!  That's exactly the train of thought I boarded too when reading hit list.

[Chelsea7]

I always end up being spur of the moment

Realistically I go in thinking" "Okay, we need to complete sets, let's get the Rainbo..... OH PRETTY NIGHTGLIDER, I NEED HER!"

This is why I barely complete any sets 
I should just make myself finish sets, but I am such a spur of the moment collector, if something really catches my eye that I like I usually buy that instead of a set finisher

(the above happened recently, I'll never complete the Rainbow set at this rate...)

[dragonfly]

lol Chelsea pony ADD. I have it too!

[Silver_mirror46]

Mmmm I think it depends, for new ponies I make a list of the currently available on shops and the ones from older collections or that are more popular are usually higher priority.

For older ponies and other stuff I can't get on retail in my city, I usually scoop Ebay and Mercadolibre for bargains. I know the ponies I want most will pop up nice and cheap sometime

[Jorgito93]

I always end up being spur of the moment

Realistically I go in thinking" "Okay, we need to complete sets, let's get the Rainbo..... OH PRETTY NIGHTGLIDER, I NEED HER!"

This is why I barely complete any sets 
I should just make myself finish sets, but I am such a spur of the moment collector, if something really catches my eye that I like I usually buy that instead of a set finisher

(the above happened recently, I'll never complete the Rainbow set at this rate...)

Why did you explained what i do? I'm like "i only need two princesses to complete the set, let's hunt them.... SS TRULY!!! NEED HER NOW!!!"

[shelvesofwhimsy]

For me it really depends! I know for the fair I made a wishlist of who I wanted and then just went after those.
In every day life it is whoever shows up (from my ever changing list) for a good price! I don't normally just randomly buy a pony

[Shatyr]

I used to just pick them up whenever I found them in second hand stores, then in eBay lots. These days, I have to be more picky (darn lower amount of disposable income).

For the Fair, I made a "shopping list" of all the ponies I didn't have and prioritized about 5 of them. These days I go for set completions and fairly common ponies I don't have yet. That way, I'm not looking for All The HTF Ponies All The Time.

It's worked out fairly well for me. We'll see how long it continues.

[SkyCakes]

I think this got me. Im pretty random on what I look for. If its to break a set or start one ect. I have alot of expensive ponies left on my list. ><:

[northstar3184]

I chose "Something Else" because there's some method to my madness but it changes: When I started collecting, it was G3s. I made a list of who I liked and sought them out. Later, I added ones that I thought would compliment my collection by adding more variety of color. Then I started collecting G1s. Some I bought because they were childhood ponies, some I just liked, some I wanted because I liked their cartoon representations. Although my reasons varied, I always had a reason for each pony I chose.

[reanna-mator]

I actually just did this the other day!

I'm coming up on the five year anniversary of joining this forum, and now that I have well over the majority of US G1s, I decided it was time to get a priority list started. Here's how I did it, split into three categories:

1. Collecting by year. For a while I've been attempting to get every store release pony, working upward by year. Apart from a couple rarer ones in 3 and 4, I'm on 5 now and keeping my eye out for the earlier ones I haven't gotten yet.

2. Set completers. I love completing sets, and this list consists of either single ponies to complete a set or the other half of a set of twins.

3. Favorites. Just ponies I really really want.