Collectors "rite of passage" horror stories!

[lochnessmomster]

I bought a huge lot of about 150 ponies that had a BIN of 400 that included shipping.  The picture wasn't that great, but there were several rare ponies including all of the TAF babies except for Milkyway, 2 Tux n Tails, and a bunch more.  When I got the lot, all the TAF babies had really, really bad chews, like full on holes, almost all the ponies had marks, hair cuts, or looked like they had been poked with nails.  I think maybe 1/3 of the ponies were in good condition, the rest were all either bait or serious restoration candidates.  After that I was much more careful about what I bought off of ebay!

Oh, no!!!  This has probably got to be one of the most horrifying stories I've seen on this thread.  What ended up happening?  <<peeks carefully through fingers>>


~Lochness~

[StoryDreamer]

Mermaid's story is pretty horrifying.

[Mermaid]

Mermaid's story is pretty horrifying.

Yeah it still gets to me every now and then that this collector was so praised. She is no longer around but I'm always cautious when I see newbies with HTF ponies that are eager to trade! I always want to PM them and be like "NO!! MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR $$ WORTH!!" LOL!.

[lochnessmomster]

Mermaid's story is pretty horrifying.

Yeah it still gets to me every now and then that this collector was so praised. She is no longer around but I'm always cautious when I see newbies with HTF ponies that are eager to trade! I always want to PM them and be like "NO!! MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR $$ WORTH!!" LOL!.

Yes... that story was pretty bad, too. <<shudders>>
 

[SweetScoops]

wow, these are some horrific stories! D:

My worst boo-boo story is selling my childhood Surprise newborn Baby Snoozy for less than a dollar to a fellow collector that convinced me she was'nt worth more...This learned me that fellow collectors aren't always nice and helpful good thing the mayority is or else I'd have quit collecting. I was so sad later on when I planned to buy a replacement because I regretted selling her and found out she was a bit more expensive and hard to find than I'd learned.

[Candy_Bang]

Ouch. Mostly my horror stories include the many pony parcels that have never shown up, even with tracking and stuff. I still can't bring myself to buy a TAF Strawberry Fair and Lollipop because I was so bitterly disappointed that they never arrived.
My worst mistake though is returning a damaged Sweet Pocket pony that wasn't sufficiently bubble-wrapped (wasn't bubble wrapped at all, just shoved in an envelope!). I was crushed because she had perfect hair and her flower and bee had been attached. What I should have done is keep her and glue her, but I was so upset that I emailed the seller. They told me to return it and I did (at my own expense!) They then said they would bin the pony! I said it was worth something to collectors as a restore or even just as parts, but they said no, they'd never sell a broken toy. Hello, they broke it ¬¬ What really stung was that I paid shipping to send a Sweet Pocket to the metaphorical glue factory. I still haven't forgiven myself.

[Ivy]

Trading 3 big brothers with hats and bandana's for a Surprise, Posey and Skyflier.

[Chi]

Warning: This is a really bad one. I customized a pony that should never be customized. Do not read on if it will traumatize you.

I mixed up my Argie Drink n' Wet Baby Cuddles with the original U.S. Drink n' Wet Baby Cuddles >.< The poor thing went in a blue dye bath. She actually wouldn't look too bad if it weren't for her little tube also being blue. YES I am kicking myself over it to this day, and when I realized my mistake I nearly fainted. You would think the difference between the ponies would be obvious and these days I would never ever make that mistake. But this was when I was a newer collector and about 15. I don't know what to do with my poor Cuddles now. If I could restore her I would, but at this point it's kind of a lost cause. The only thing I can really do is hope the dye will fade enough on her tube that I can do something to fix her.


This is a cautionary tale for customizers everywhere - even if you think you're tinkering with a common pony, it never hurts to double check. Check the hooves! If it doesn't say Hong Kong or China, leave the pony alone!

Accck, noo! Checking the hooves is never enough!
Poor Cuddles, though. Can you still see her symbols?

[skyrocketneko]

This is about eekk.... 15 years ago?  There used to be 2 toy sellers at my local (ish) flea market. They were selling the big ones for $3 and the little ones for $2. Little did I know that I passed up Scribble and Dabble and Rapunzel until I got home after what I thought was a decent haul. I left them because I thought there was something wrong with the Pretty Manes' hair and Rapunzel was a tangled up mess!

[hathorcat]

Trading 3 big brothers with hats and bandana's for a Surprise, Posey and Skyflier.

Ouch...thats painful!

[Shenanigans]

I had a beautiful bride pony, very clean and with gorgeous hair. I wanted to give her molded hair out of clay to look like "The Last Unicorn" and so I cut off all of her hair. Turns out I had no idea what I was doing and she is still bald to this very day since I don't know how to reroot ponies

I bet someone around here would reroot her for you! Just pick someone trustworthy! But rerooting isn't too hard so you could learn, too!


[/quote]
I've thought about getting someone else to reroot her I tried rerooting a pony once with a rerooting kit I bought off of ebay. I think the needle was too big or something. I had to jam it through the holes and it ended up splitting the scalp of the G3 I was working on. The hair I got with the kit was very coarse too. So she's a mess now!

[Dyzarktarzk]

Another horror story... Trading my Bridal Beuty away because I thougt I have two of them.  I only have her and 4 Pony Brides!!  *kicks myself*

This is about eekk.... 15 years ago?  There used to be 2 toy sellers at my local (ish) flea market. They were selling the big ones for $3 and the little ones for $2. Little did I know that I passed up Scribble and Dabble and Rapunzel until I got home after what I thought was a decent haul. I left them because I thought there was something wrong with the Pretty Manes' hair and Rapunzel was a tangled up mess!

Oh, no!!  That's horrible!!!

[Lavender_Lace]

I bought a huge lot of about 150 ponies that had a BIN of 400 that included shipping.  The picture wasn't that great, but there were several rare ponies including all of the TAF babies except for Milkyway, 2 Tux n Tails, and a bunch more.  When I got the lot, all the TAF babies had really, really bad chews, like full on holes, almost all the ponies had marks, hair cuts, or looked like they had been poked with nails.  I think maybe 1/3 of the ponies were in good condition, the rest were all either bait or serious restoration candidates.  After that I was much more careful about what I bought off of ebay!

Oh, no!!!  This has probably got to be one of the most horrifying stories I've seen on this thread.  What ended up happening?  <<peeks carefully through fingers>>


~Lochness~

I still have them.  Well most of them anyway.  When I got the lot I was really angry, but on the other hand, at the time that I bought them prices were higher than they are now so I didn't think that I'd gotten shafted too terribly bad, and I didn't want to pay the $50 in shipping to return them.  I sold Tux after I cleaned him up and made him look as best as possible (cuts and all).  My TAF babies are still kicking around here.   TAF Baby Sweet Tooth has underwent many an experiment to try and fix chews without adding fillers like apoxie sculpt.  The other babies I haven't really done much with.  The mass amount of other ponies, there were a few that I've sold, but most of them I still have.  One of these days I'll get around to actually sorting, cleaning, and restoring them.  Until then, I have about 2 1/2 of the big storage tubs full of ponies that need my love.  I should dig out my taf babies and post pics.

[kaninchen]

....passing up mimic in fairly lovely condition at a thrift store for 1.50, half a million years ago, because i did not (and do not, to be fair) find her a very pretty example of ponydom.

argh!

[lochnessmomster]

I still have them.  Well most of them anyway.  When I got the lot I was really angry, but on the other hand, at the time that I bought them prices were higher than they are now so I didn't think that I'd gotten shafted too terribly bad, and I didn't want to pay the $50 in shipping to return them.  I sold Tux after I cleaned him up and made him look as best as possible (cuts and all).  My TAF babies are still kicking around here.   TAF Baby Sweet Tooth has underwent many an experiment to try and fix chews without adding fillers like apoxie sculpt.  The other babies I haven't really done much with.  The mass amount of other ponies, there were a few that I've sold, but most of them I still have.  One of these days I'll get around to actually sorting, cleaning, and restoring them.  Until then, I have about 2 1/2 of the big storage tubs full of ponies that need my love.  I should dig out my taf babies and post pics.

I just got a box of 14 ponies in the mail today that were supposedly in either very good or excellent condition.  To be fair, some of them are quite nice, but several have cuts in the front hooves (scratching my head over that one) and most are in serious need of a hot oil treatment, lol.  Talk about frizz!!  However, I only paid about $66 as opposed to $400, and even the grubbiest ponies look to be at least somewhat salvageable.  I hope you've more than made up for that awful experience by finding lots of other wonderful ponies for far less than they could have gone for.


~Lochness~