Stupid question eh....?

[Cron Sacchariferous]

Hope this is the right home for this thread. Anyways...I have a couple of near mint ponies, hair perfect and bodies are pristine but their emblems are either missing little bits of paint, or have some kind of marker on them. These are not considered bait are they? Or are they bait....? Not particularly attached to these ones either so I wanted to narrow down what category to put them; selling sort of speak. Inputs would be nice! Thanks. :3

[Diamond]

Bait is different to different folks but from what you are describing (photos would help) they sound like someone would buy em and restore/fix up there symbols and be happy to rehome em. 

[Galactica]

If I were buying I would consider those bait- 

[Elisto]

Bait tends to refer to really poor condition that would require work to repair that's not worth doing. Just because something's not perfectly mint doesn't make it bait, especially when the problem's fixable (like sunfading ink).
Part of what makes it not worth doing is how common it is too, though. If you're talking about a mane 6 G4, yeah, most flaws aren't really worth fixing since you can usually just go buy another. If you're talking about G1, no, what you're describing sounds like normal condition for a 20-30 year old toy.

[HavACrumpet452]

It depends on the pony but in general those dont sound like bait. You really have to look individually though. Bait a Rapunzel in that condition and you lose a $300 pony. A core 7 pinkie pie can be baited mint out of the box though.

[gabumon]

Here's some information about determining if ponies are bait:

http://mylittlewiki.org/wiki/Bait

Photos would help us here though.

[zabe77]

I really depends on how badly they're damaged. I have some with scuffs ect to symbols that are far from bait. Do you have pictures?

[HavACrumpet452]

I HATE that wiki page.

Sorry, but leeching plastic is not fixable, it can be temporarily stopped with rubbing alcohol and it does slowly all leak out and become rock solid, but over time and ponies can get brown discolored marks in the process.

Permanent marker in very fixable with sunfading. Flocking loss is very fixable by deflocking. Cancer spots can even go away completely on ponies who are safe to go in peroxide.

Even a broken horn or broken mechanics on an otherwise beautiful pony isn't necessarily bait. There's plenty of HTF unicorns whom I'd buy with a broken horn.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Show us - we can help! 

[Baby Sugarberry]

If you hate it so much, write something better. o.O
Deflocking is not a "fix" - you are permanently altering a pony in such a way that they will never be the same as they were originally.  Yes, it's a good save for an otherwise grubby or unwanted so-soft, but not restoration.  That would be akin to saying stripping the finish off an antique chest and repainting it a different color is "restoration". 

There is no concrete proof that plasticizer leeching and age spots are correlated.  There are ponies with one problem but not the other, and ponies with both, and ponies with neither.  If you have evidence otherwise, I'm sure we'd all love to see and hear about it!  New discoveries are made all the time.

It says SEVERE permanent marker - as in, scribbled all over, soaked right through the plastic.  There are cases out there where no amount of sun treatment will fix, or it'd take a decade or more, and no one knows what that amount of sun exposure would do to the plastic itself.  There is a point in time where it becomes not worth one's effort to fix a problem.

Also, no where does it say Unfixable = Automatic Bait.  That's not the case.  It just means most likely not restorable to original condition.  I have many ponies in my collection with unfixable issues, and that doesn't make me any less happy to have them at all.

[Vintergatan]

Issues with symbols never put me off, unless they are completely gone, so to me those wouldn't be baits at all. That said I wouldn't pay as much as for a minty pony of course. I actually like ponies with flaws if that means I get them for cheap.

[Elisto]

Issues with symbols never put me off, unless they are completely gone, so to me those wouldn't be baits at all. That said I wouldn't pay as much as for a minty pony of course. I actually like ponies with flaws if that means I get them for cheap.

^_^ same here... I think mine are fine, and if I can get them cheap, even better. I do have a good number of nice minty ponies, but looking at the standards I see some people using here, I'm afraid much of my collection would be considered trash!

[michelle53]

In my humble opinion, unless a G1 is missing limbs, it's not bait.  Take this pony for example:
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Bad hair cuts, ingrained dirt and missing wings.  But there is hope:
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There are other insanely amazing transformations of "bait" ponies being rehabilitated.   

[kakenterprise]

michelle53- your quite talented at restorations 

[Cron Sacchariferous]

Here are the pictures:

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