Rare ponies on eBay?

[Perikoala]

I think the general consensus is that it’s not a collector, it’s old shop stock. Welcome back Reaperfox!

Shop stock with mail order ponies? And from what it seems, each one of the ponies of all sets/years, no doubles? I really have doubts about that. I think it was a person who just bought the stuff back in the day (and thats why they dont have non US ponies either).

[Noasar]

I think the general consensus is that it’s not a collector, it’s old shop stock. Welcome back Reaperfox!

Shop stock with mail order ponies? And from what it seems, each one of the ponies of all sets/years, no doubles? I really have doubts about that. I think it was a person who just bought the stuff back in the day (and thats why they dont have non US ponies either).

That’s true! But what about all the other 80s toy stock that was in there? Very varied for a toy collector although I know people can (and do) collect in more than one area.

[Taffeta]

They did say there were two boxes didn't they? Isn't there a chance the other one has Euro/Non US ponies in it? I just find it difficult to imagine a collector with this much passion (and money) doesn't own ANY non-US ponies? (I think I saw NSS Magic Star there maybe).

Hello I have risen from the grave

*prods*. Oi, Sel, did you just say NSS? *grins*

I think it could be a collection acquired back when they were out in stores. There are some examples of that happening. Though it could easily be a collector collecting from back when MIP were cheap (do you remember that? ) and there weren't huge numbers of UK carded ponies then, let alone ones that were as cheap as the US ones were back then.  I guess we'll see though. I won't pretend I don't want UK ponies to show up (unless they're later year ones. I could live with that xD I am so transparent xD).

I'm glad the pics can go on the Wiki. I think it's important that they do.

@Noasar, you don't have to use my site if you have preferences for others, that wasn't my point at all. Just that it seemed odd to me to say something had never been seen before because it's not on the Wiki. A lot of stuff isn't on the wiki.

My real reason for pulling up your comment though was just to put things in a rational place. All these things have been seen before and probably will be seen again. I remember all the stupid about whether a MOC Mimic could exist and then when the first one appeared it went nuts because everyone was certain it was the Only One Ever. There are currently I think more MOC Mimics than there are the whole of the MB set, but she still sells at around the same price they do. There are also several MIP ponies that sold for much less than Mimic which are the only known surviving examples :/

So yeah, awesome. Rare. But not something that if you miss it now, there'll never be another chance. Especially since it seems there's already one crazy bidder determined to disrupt pony valuation, I wanted to make sure nobody else felt desperate enough to play that game too.

[Perikoala]

I think the general consensus is that it’s not a collector, it’s old shop stock. Welcome back Reaperfox!

Shop stock with mail order ponies? And from what it seems, each one of the ponies of all sets/years, no doubles? I really have doubts about that. I think it was a person who just bought the stuff back in the day (and thats why they dont have non US ponies either).

That’s true! But what about all the other 80s toy stock that was in there? Very varied for a toy collector although I know people can (and do) collect in more than one area.

I know! That confuses me a lot. Maybe they were a couple and they collected several different things, or maybe it was someone who had contacts with the toy companies. We don't know if they storaged the stuff that way or was someone else. Honestly, it kills me we couldn't never know the story behind this 

[aero_oceana]

I just wanted to pipe in and say... HOLY PONY! Best find I've ever seen. I'm following this closely but doubt I will be able to purchase anything. I think I would have a heart attack if I ever found this haul.

MIP Rapunzel will be fun to watch.

[Noasar]

Just that it seemed odd to me to say something had never been seen before because it's not on the Wiki. A lot of stuff isn't on the wiki.

...I never said anything about it never being seen because it wasn’t on the Wiki? I think I was just excited because I had never seen them before! What can I say, I’m easily pleased and I definitely missed out on the ‘cheap’ MOC days!

[Taffeta]

Just that it seemed odd to me to say something had never been seen before because it's not on the Wiki. A lot of stuff isn't on the wiki.

...I never said anything about it never being seen because it wasn’t on the Wiki? I think I was just excited because I had never seen them before! What can I say, I’m easily pleased and I definitely missed out on the ‘cheap’ MOC days!

There's a difference between saying what you've seen and what's never been seen before, so I guess I assumed. I mean, she's not on the Wiki My apologies if I assumed too much.

What I regret about the cheap MOC days is that I didn't keep all the ones I bought then until now to sell them to pay for my rent and PhD costs :/ I went through a purge of mostly US carded and boxed ones including a dream beauty some ten or twelve years ago. And I don't regret parting with the ponies, but yeah. I wish I had them to sell now...is that wrong?

[Goanna]

Wow! Just totally amazing!!

[maycrestmom]

wow yes that is quite the stash

am I reading correctly that most seem to have a Toys R Us sticker?  So yeah, not sure if they were just buying and holding...

not to be a downer but an ebay buyer with a "0" score bidding up alot of the stock has me thinking "shill" bidder...sorry it just seems it would be too tempting for this re-seller given the story and lack of info from the family that lost to just a $300 dollar bid for a storage locker.

Is there anyway to confirm with ebay that there is a legit history for that 0 account-bidder?  I would hate for the MLPcommunity to be taken "for a ride" in the excitement of so many MOC and MIB items when here we are discussing the joy of a more complete wiki upload  and all a reseller is caring is about the biggest bucks by any means possible

anyhow at this time I thank you all greatly  that have contacted the seller for more pics in helping establish a better digital history of these guys :-) love the MLP-family for that archiving spirit :-)

[Ponyfan]

I've noticed some of these are going for extremely high prices like Baby Firelfy, Baby Moondancer  Twice as Fancy Yum Yum  and Sweet Scoops while some of the earlier ponies with discolored bubbles and boxes I agree with Taffeta that Twilight's bubble looks like it's retaped.

I'm not sure what to think about the low feedback bidder driving the prices so high. It does seem a little unsual to me due to the fact that the bids suddenly increase by hundrends instead of smaller amounts.



Ponyfan

[maycrestmom]

exactly... and the fact that this is a reseller and we haven't got a good history on the collector... not that ponies can't be found in the wild and all suddenly we have a ton of "new" MLP like what happened when MLP from bisanti / venezuela was found out

just I have to admit that the evil-bay does not have the best of market reputations so this is where to me I believe our pony community can protect each other when we do see suspicious activity and it can be reported as such for further investigation if need be

I am happy for the seller as that whole storage-wars stuff takes a lot of time for the once-in-a-lifetime jackpot win like this event.  I also just hope that this re-sale ain't playin' with a stacked deck KWIM?

[banditpony]

I think shill bidding traditionally defined is inflation by the seller with other accounts.

It seems pretty dumb for the seller to go and just put really high bids in like that and be obvious. It's more like trolling rather then schilling.

Also, it's not always about bidders with low feedback. The person who has 169 feedback has a history of retractions, including at least 1 on the ponies.

[LadyMoondancer]

Yeah, I think the seller would have to be extremely dumb to shill bid up to $2,000, especially when it sounds like they did their research.  (Guy in the video mentions what his friend is expecting to get and I believe he said "about $50" or around there . . . He didn't say "around $2,000", lol.)

I think if there IS a scam, it is probably what Taffeta mentioned:  unsavory bidder makes sure they are the high bidder when the prices is $40 or something;  then unsavory bidder creates two puppet accounts and stages a fake bidding war between them, driving the price up so that no one else will bid.  Unsavory bidder then retracts the bids of the puppet accounts at the last moment.  Now their "real" account is the high bidder at $40.

Of course it's also possible real bidders are legitimately going crazy and bidding more than they normally would.  What sounds cooler:  "This is a mint on card pony, I don't know how the seller happened to have it" OOOOOOR "This is a mint on card pony, I got it from a seller who found an insane cache of MOC ponies in a storage locker"?    The second one is just more exciting.  I can understand wanting a piece of this particular set, maybe even for people who normally wouldn't be that into MOCs or nostalgic people who normally don't collect ponies at all.

[Taffeta]

Meme bidding. A 21st century problem.

It used to be much harder to retract and there were strict rules in play. I am pretty suspicious of baby glory and baby firefly both. Less so on some of the others. I feel something bidder related is going on on those two. But it would be so much better if ebay was as transparent as it used to be. I realise showing bidder names brought its own problems but it was so much easier to police scam behaviour by building solid patterns of activity.

I don't suspect the seller of doing anything wrong. I sent a msg to ask about Twilight and he said he was going to ho double check the conditions to be certain...

[freezestime]

Meme bidding. A 21st century problem.

It used to be much harder to retract and there were strict rules in play. I am pretty suspicious of baby glory and baby firefly both. Less so on some of the others. I feel something bidder related is going on on those two. But it would be so much better if ebay was as transparent as it used to be. I realise showing bidder names brought its own problems but it was so much easier to police scam behaviour by building solid patterns of activity.

I don't suspect the seller of doing anything wrong. I sent a msg to ask about Twilight and he said he was going to ho double check the conditions to be certain...

Yeah, I don't think the seller would really worry about raising the prices too much (unless they're really greedy)