The MLP Arena
Pony Talk => Pony Corral => Topic started by: WaterDraw on August 09, 2018, 06:13:21 PM
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Okay so ponies I really want (Diamond Rose, Feathermay, Flitterheart, more) are all like really expensive on places like eBay. Is it because they were early line ponies or are they actually rare? Any information is helpful! Thank you!
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It's because they were early line, and were not all that common, especially among bronies who snubbed them for not being from the show. So when they did sell, they mostly sold to kids, not overwhelmingly to adult collectors who would still have them in good shape these days.
That and you have people who went in, bought show characters, and then just became MLP collectors trying to round out their collections.
I am absolutely kicking myself for getting rid of all of them.
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Yeeeeah... I started collecting a little over a year ago. Luckily I've been able to nab my desired ponies for less than eBay prices, which is super nice.
I've found a lot of collectors are pretty enthusiastic about helping others to fill in those gaps, which is nice. A few wonderful people were generous enough to cut me a deal on loose ponies like Star Swirl and Rainbow Flash, and now I have almost all the G4 ponies I really, really want because of them.
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It's because they were early line, and were not all that common, especially among bronies who snubbed them for not being from the show. So when they did sell, they mostly sold to kids, not overwhelmingly to adult collectors who would still have them in good shape these days.
That and you have people who went in, bought show characters, and then just became MLP collectors trying to round out their collections.
I am absolutely kicking myself for getting rid of all of them.
I actually happened to find Plumsweet's brushable at the thrift store today, but she was with other dirty g4's of the mane 6, and I didn't really want to buy them just to get her. I feel kinda bad for letting her slip through my fingers. Hopefully someone gives her (and the mane 6 clones) a good home.
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I remember at the time some people were having a hard time finding Diamond Rose in store. Flitterheart and Feathermay were quite early in the line. Some collectors seemed a little picky about that wave it seemed too, only getting a few of the 6 singles released and many skipped Feathermay because of the head/body color mismatch she has. I wouldn't say rare necessarily by my personal definition of rare but they are going to be a little harder to find than others, especially as there were never any re-releases of those characters.
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Another reason some of the earlier non-Mane 6 ponies are so uncommon is because they often came in big sets that a lot of people just couldn't afford or didn't want to spend money on, like Minty. I've had my best luck on shopgoodwill and thrift stores in general, too. Thrifting rewards patience with ponies that only cost a couple dollars when they're selling for $25-30 each online :happy:
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I think they were a lot harder to find than most releases, but they do appear from time to time. In my local toys r us, (south west U.K.) I saw them two weeks before my birthday. There were probably a couple of each (feathermay, flitterheart, snowcatcher, honeybuzz, plumsweet, lulu luck? twinkleshine? and maybe dewdrop dazzle. I put them all on my wish list and I got snow catcher. My parents said that was the only one they could get, and we went shopping on the day after my birthday and all were gone. They never came back in, so we had them for about two weeks. They pop up occasionally in lots but not very often, maybe a few a month.
Cherry pie and diamond rose however, were in my Toys’R’Us for a couple of months. I regret not buying them so badly! They’re also harder to find now so I don’t know if it was the case everywhere.
I hope this is a little helpful, I believe it is a combination of not being available for very long and also being early in the line :) I also never saw the favourites packs (except the flowery tattoo ones) in Toys’R’Us, but there were many available online here?
Edit: Secondhand, I have found 3 Lulu Luck and 1 snowcatcher
Mlp Sunsparkle x
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My experience was also on the lines of sunsparkle's. I saw them once in Harrods of all places when I first moved down to London in 2011 for my MA. Because I'd just moved there I bought Feathermay and Honeybuzz as housewarming ponies but they were expensive so I didn'tt buy any others. Little did I know I would never see them in stores ever again :'(.
I think the ebay prices are a bit nuts to be honest. But I do think there were actual distribution issues with this set and a few others as well which has driven up the demand.
I'd suggest you just haunt the second hand sales, the toy fairs, the antique stores, thrift. Given that kids probably bought these more than collectors did, they're going to come up in those places. Not everyone is going to stick them on ebay for a profit. Also look for lots of ponies sold by parents getting rid of their kids' stuff, rather than the named and labelled lots aimed at collectors.
I haven't been lucky enough to stumble on Diamond Rose or Flitterheart yet but I have picked up Lulu Luck through that method. I've also found a few of them on cheaper BINs on ebay as well which is worth looking out for as well.
I think if G4 really is ending, then probably the number of kid collections being dispersed will also rise (like it did with G1, G3, and is now doing with Monster High). It's worthwhile being patient with that. If the market gets flooded the prices will drop so there's no sense in spending silly money on them in my opinion. I am totally expecting a flood of Holly Dashes here in the UK in the next few years xD.
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It's because they were early line, and were not all that common, especially among bronies who snubbed them for not being from the show. So when they did sell, they mostly sold to kids, not overwhelmingly to adult collectors who would still have them in good shape these days.
That and you have people who went in, bought show characters, and then just became MLP collectors trying to round out their collections.
I am absolutely kicking myself for getting rid of all of them.
Sounds to me like it sold to its target audience. Kids. :)
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It's because they were early line, and were not all that common, especially among bronies who snubbed them for not being from the show. So when they did sell, they mostly sold to kids, not overwhelmingly to adult collectors who would still have them in good shape these days.
That and you have people who went in, bought show characters, and then just became MLP collectors trying to round out their collections.
I am absolutely kicking myself for getting rid of all of them.
Sounds to me like it sold to its target audience. Kids. :)
Shocking. I object. XD
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I did see a G4 Minty when doing some G4 research. Is she also from that same first wave? And difficult to get?
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I did see a G4 Minty when doing some G4 research. Is she also from that same first wave? And difficult to get?
As someone said above, she came in a big multipony set. I picked her up on ebay for cheap though so I don't know if she is difficult to get...
The prototype one with the paler streaks is a different matter. I think she's quite expensive. But the regular one from the set I am not sure about.
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I did see a G4 Minty when doing some G4 research. Is she also from that same first wave? And difficult to get?
As someone said above, she came in a big multipony set. I picked her up on ebay for cheap though so I don't know if she is difficult to get...
The prototype one with the paler streaks is a different matter. I think she's quite expensive. But the regular one from the set I am not sure about.
Ooops, sorry- didn’t see she was already posted about :lookround: There are so many ponies from the G4 line I didn’t know exist even. I didn’t know she had a prototype, but I’m fairly certain the regular one is the one I’m looking for. Thank you - I’m hoping to find all the G4s I’m looking for when thrifting so I’m hoping she was actually sold up here in the cold north too :P
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It's because they were early line, and were not all that common, especially among bronies who snubbed them for not being from the show. So when they did sell, they mostly sold to kids, not overwhelmingly to adult collectors who would still have them in good shape these days.
That and you have people who went in, bought show characters, and then just became MLP collectors trying to round out their collections.
I am absolutely kicking myself for getting rid of all of them.
Sounds to me like it sold to its target audience. Kids. :)
Shocking. I object. XD
*uses gavel*
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I did see a G4 Minty when doing some G4 research. Is she also from that same first wave? And difficult to get?
G4 Minty came in a large multi-pack set that, for whatever reason, somehow skipped the USA and got shipped North to Canada. I found mine in a thrift store last year, but that was after years of searching.
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I did see a G4 Minty when doing some G4 research. Is she also from that same first wave? And difficult to get?
G4 Minty came in a large multi-pack set that, for whatever reason, somehow skipped the USA and got shipped North to Canada. I found mine in a thrift store last year, but that was after years of searching.
Ahh that explains why everyone talks about it as rare. I think it must have got to the UK as well because my Minty was from here. So there's probably a good chance it also got to you, Katrine...
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I'm confused about the Midnight at Canterlot set? I thought it was:
1. Set was released as a Costco exclusive early in the G4 line, maybe 2012 or so.
2. Set fell into obscurity
3. Set was brought back to Toys R Us 2015 or 2016
That's how I got my Minty and Dewdrop at least. Was it only in certain areas? I thought them bringing the set back helped to bring Minty's market price down.
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I'm confused about the Midnight at Canterlot set? I thought it was:
1. Set was released as a Costco exclusive early in the G4 line, maybe 2012 or so.
2. Set fell into obscurity
3. Set was brought back to Toys R Us 2015 or 2016
That's how I got my Minty and Dewdrop at least. Was it only in certain areas? I thought them bringing the set back helped to bring Minty's market price down.
I think this is correct. :) I got my Midnight in Canterlot set from Toys R Us which was a couple of years after it had been a Costco exclusive. I think one of the ponies names changed between the Costco version and the Toys R Us version.
Ponyfan
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I did see a G4 Minty when doing some G4 research. Is she also from that same first wave? And difficult to get?
G4 Minty came in a large multi-pack set that, for whatever reason, somehow skipped the USA and got shipped North to Canada. I found mine in a thrift store last year, but that was after years of searching.
Ahh that explains why everyone talks about it as rare. I think it must have got to the UK as well because my Minty was from here. So there's probably a good chance it also got to you, Katrine...
Wow- interesting. There is just so much about the G4 (and G3!) release I don’t know about...! I’m crossing my fingers for her to show up at fleamarkets. The seasonal autumn markets are starting next weekend and I’ll be first in line for the toy section *kids move away! Collector looking for ponies!* :lol:
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Wait, it is the same set with Dewdrop? That was the first time I saw Dewdrop here, her original release was really badly distributed here...but I saw it in Smyths not TRU...??
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Wait, it is the same set with Dewdrop? That was the first time I saw Dewdrop here, her original release was really badly distributed here...but I saw it in Smyths not TRU...??
Midnight in Canterlot included Dewdrop Dazzle and Minty. :)
Ponyfan
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Here's a pic of Midnight in Canterlot, it's got a second release of Dewdrop Dazzle and the first of Minty, as well as a few show characters.
I just remember it being TrU exclusive in the US, but because it was originally from Costco, it's possible it just got picked up by whomever in whatever countries it appeared at.
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Midnight in Canterlot has an interesting history. It has had one of the strangest releases that I have heard of.
One was released in 2013 after a different TrU release of Nightmare Moon from the Favorites collection (which included DJ Pon-3, Lemony Gem, Flower Wishes and Trixie all with glitter cutiemarks). It has a nice, non-glitter variant of NM Moon.
The original Midnight in Canterlot was released in the US to Costco in 2013 and then there was a re-release of the set to TrU in 2016. Overseas saw them sporadically in different places, probably to the highest bidders- it was not all that "exclusive" to specific retailers outside of N America. It was just rare due to TrU having shotgun to a lot of Hasbro's releases, and that likely led to them being the only retailer that was named as being the dealer of the pack in N America.
As a side note, the second release in 2016 was near the tail end of TrU being saddled with a decade $5bil-worth of debt and being screwed over pretty hard by Amazon, litigation and different settlements for illegal business practices and all sorts of other bad juu juu). The main thing that kept them afloat for so long was that they had struck some fancy deals with Hasbro (among others, like Lego and Mattel because... well, where else were they going to go that was 100% toys?) so they probably got some favoritism based on that alone.
There were virtually no differences in the Midnight in Canterlot sets- they didn't have the "Only at <place>" markings on the packages, either. If you look at all sorts of other G4 releases "exclusive" to TrU (Costco, Target, Walmart, etc), you will see it being noted somewhere on the package. This is not the case for the Midnight in Canterlot set. Both releases have the same packaging, same setup, and some had noticed that the packs from TrU have deteriorating glue, as if the set packaging was OLD. This has led to the speculation that it wasn't meant to be "exclusive", but just turned out that way out of convenience and coincidence to satisfy something between Hasbro and TrU.
Oh, and a peak into the brain of the beast. There is also the marketing of the sets themselves. Many marketing teams function based on this:
Why sell one thing valued to us at $4 when I can mash all these characters together in one box to upsell, and mark it at $35 per unit? It's xxx% more profit per unit, which means the profit will rack up faster.
All the marketing teams that I have worked with have used this logic. As much as it sounds stupid, it works, and works well. More often then not, consumers see multipacks as a value because they are preprogrammed to view any sort of multipack as getting more than one of something for something that is a decent price, regardless if that pack is REALLY a value.
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Here's a pic of Midnight in Canterlot, it's got a second release of Dewdrop Dazzle and the first of Minty, as well as a few show characters.
I just remember it being TrU exclusive in the US, but because it was originally from Costco, it's possible it just got picked up by whomever in whatever countries it appeared at.
Now that you post the picture, I remember it. But it was definitely Smyths that stocked it. It makes me wonder if they did so as surplus from Costco rather than TRU, because mostly TRU exclusives transferred over if they were going to be sold here. Smyths, mind you, have had some weird stuff in the past. They had the Through the Mirror ponies (were they Target or Walmart?) and they also had something MH which was only available in Walmart in the US I believe. So it may just be they were buying up excess stock. They have had a lot of Canadian packed water cuties of AJ and Flower Wishes, and the ribbon ponies, also on Canadian cards, so I guess that's a possible.
I am trying to remember what sets I saw in TRU, but I only really recall the glittery ones (Dash and AJ) with the dolls. Elements of Harmony I think. I remmeber buying AJ for my sister when she was clearance, because we'd seen her before at a stupid price and Naynie hadn't had the cash to afford her then. Otherwise we definitely had the pony mania stuff but I don't remember Chrysalis.
And then with Target ponies, they traditionally went to Argos and Tesco. Now they only appear at Tesco, but at times they appear out of season (by which I mean 2 years later) at Entertainer with Target labels on them! The Tesco and Argos ones never had Target labels on them, so Entertainer is clearly buying up excess US stock as well.
Makes it really interesting what ends up on our shelves sometimes. We're a big dumping ground for everyone, apparently...just like we were at the end of G1...
Thank you for posting the pic though :) It clears things up for me. I remember seeing a few big packs but that one caught my attention because of the artwork and now I see it, I remember clearly where it was and when.
So Minty was definitely in the UK, in some numbers, and that's why I was able to get her at a low price.
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I saw someone selling Minty at Bronycon for $45 and made an aside comment to someone who was lamenting over her price to check eBay...this same seller was at Ponyfair with the same exact prices and got undercut at every single stand.
It looks like her going price is about $20 right now, not too bad!
The Through the Mirror set was a Walmart exclusive, so it's interesting that they ended up at Smyths instead of Asda (? or what the UK equivalent is).
Your description reminds me of Ollies over on the east coast. I found a Target exclusive goth Pinkie Pie a while after they stopped carrying her in stores. It was a very lucky find for me! If we compared dates we could probably find out if it was excess stock or Hasbro just needed someone to sell overseas.
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Dates...hrm...now you are testing a study broken brain XD. I want to say 2016ish though. I remember because I never saw Dewdrop in her single release here. I snapped mine up in Lille but when I saw the pack I remember thinking 5 years late but better than never.
Asda was the UK Walmart chain. I am not sure what id going on with it now because there has been some weird new deal with one of our domestic supermarket chains over ownership.
Smyths is a toy store not affiliated with any of the US chains I don't think. Entertainer is a British store...I am guessing those with US store labels like target or walmart must be clearance stock but dunno about the canterlot set.
I think my Minty was equivalent $10 and she had her hair bands still in.
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So, I have a question about another brushable, and I couldn’t see her mentioned- but didn’t look too closely on all the posts so sorry if you already covered her :lookround:
Buttonbelle. I actually really, really like her. But I have no idea if she was ever sold in Europe. I haven’t seen her here (that doesn’t say much, because g4 ponies get snagged up incredibly fast second-hand).
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So, I have a question about another brushable, and I couldn’t see her mentioned- but didn’t look too closely on all the posts so sorry if you already covered her :lookround:
Buttonbelle. I actually really, really like her. But I have no idea if she was ever sold in Europe. I haven’t seen her here (that doesn’t say much, because g4 ponies get snagged up incredibly fast second-hand).
I saw her. But only in Harrods. BUT I believe she was in Argos here. That being a catalogue shop, though, it's not somewhere that you'd just see her on a shelf...
There's only one release of her, right?
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I *think* there is only one of her. At least I have only seen the one with buttons around her eyes. That is the Cutie Mark release? Or rainbow power? I can’t remember really.
Hmm, interesting though. Let’s hope I’ll spot her when my thrifting season starts next week :dance2:
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Yes, Buttonbelle only has one brushable release. It was called Cutie Mark Magic: Friendship Flutters (2015). She was packaged with 3 breezies. Trixie & Rarity were the other 2 ponies released in this wave. Yes, they do have symbols around their eyes & down their leg. I never actually found any of this set in a store, but they eventually came to Amazon & I was able to snag her. Even though she was only released once, I don’t think she’s considered all that rare. I think her current value is around $10.
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I actually found those exact 3 today while thrifting haha. As others have explained they just didn't end up in the hands of adults as much. I did buy them on store shelves when they came out, but I always grab them when I see them at the thrift stores given their htf status. I have several of all the sought after ones just from a year or two of hunting.
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Sorry for the late reply everyone! Thank you all for the information. It's a shame that they weren't bought as much, but oh well :/
Hopefully I can find one at a decent price. And now I will always cringe when I see people style their hairs in ways where they have to cut it ;-;