Who is the rarest US NON mail order pony?

[FantasticFirefly]

that's when my buddy bought me the set! Everyone was selling them at once, I bought two of the same pony for myself (I bought a second to get her brush, which I was missing), and she bought me the rest! The ones I purchased had acc, so they cost a bit more, but my loose no acc ones were well under $30 each. I think they may have been closer to $10?

[Sunshine]

Yes! Ahh those were they days, weren't they?!

I do remember the White one took me longer to buy because I saw her in very poor condition (and back then I knew very little about restoring or cleaning ponies honestly), but... yes they are not so common now. I wonder what happened to all of them?

[kissthethunder]

I still feel there is no clear cut answer to the question posed honestly. US store released ponies, judging from the responses in this thread, are simply not 'rare', but there are ones that are sought after or highly valued among collectors.

Is there a chance someone can prove me wrong here, I'd love to know more.

[Sunshine]

Rare is just a word... I think people addressed this by saying in sheer stocking numbers, most of the US ponies were evenly released, except perhaps for the last few years. That doesn't mean the factories necessarily produced the same number of TAF ponies as they did TE ponies... so maybe you need to contact Hasbro and ask them about production numbers?

I had a whole huge folder stocked away somewhere of all this information I got on My Little Pony catalogs from Hasbro and the Library of Congress... I wrote to them about 15 years ago asking them for any information they could've given me. They sent me HUGE packets of photocopies. I don't know where they are, quite honestly... I know I still have them...

I think most people associate rare with highly sought after. I know I use the keyword Rare for those kinds of ponies. They get purchased quickly and go into new hands and are off the market, perhaps that is why they can be called "Rare"...? Just my opinions.

[kissthethunder]

I think most people associate rare with highly sought after. I know I use the keyword Rare for those kinds of ponies. They get purchased quickly and go into new hands and are off the market, perhaps that is why they can be called "Rare"...? Just my opinions.

I'm not one of those people who interchange 'rare' and 'in high demand'. I think the specifications for each is too different. I'd love to see some of that info you got one of these days, it must be so cool to look over!!

Well, it looks like this is a catch 22 question

[FantasticFirefly]

Well, the two I purchased, one came from an old collector who was downsizing, one was the original childhood owner. The last two my friend bought for me were from the same seller I think, another collector who was selling their entire collection. There were a lot of long term collectors that year getting out of ponies and selling everything, it was also during the BIG crash in the US so lots of others purging things like crazy on ebay they would have kept otherwise.   I bought entire collections that year. But oldie collectors- that was where the majority of the SSN listings I saw came from anyway.

Sunshine, I think of rare as hard to find even if you have $$$$ set aside. Sought after for pricey ponies and HTF for things that while are not rare, they don't show up on ebay every week. If I want crumpet I can get her pretty quickly if I'm willing to shell out for her.... another pony took me TEN years to find, and I had a LOT of cash set aside just to buy the thing! That one in my mind was a rare find.

[ravengusty]

I've had a discussion about TE Mimic and TE Bright Eyes before. Mimic is expensive because she's so popular. I think Bright Eyes is closer to being rare because I myself never knew she existed till last year and until I won her on ebay I'd only seen her three times in over a year. To me that is rare.
To me the rarity of a pony isn't in the price it's in how often you see the pony available. If it only comes up once or twice a year to me it's rare.

[Vintergatan]

You know what guys? I think someone should start counting out all the ponies people have Like, if everyone filled out a check list somewhere online, and then we see how many ponies are around. Naturally this number would change but it might give a general idea like Sundance - 345, TE Bright Eyes - 25. I'm just thinking out loud here and I'm pretty sleepy so if this is not making any sense just let me know

[ponybanker]

I would also agree with the 2nd year sea ponies and arent some of the pegasus dream beauties rare?

[bbassel]

I like that idea Vintergatan and would be down helping out with something like this

[Aurora]

All I know for sure if I'm going to go to Himmie's Kitchen! The missing Hushabye is there!

[Sunshine]

Yes, I just can't think of too many Non Mail Orders that are like that... for me it was Baby Leaper. I had money waiting for him, and I just did not find him until a wonderful person on here sold me one just recently (he's still in the mail, hehe)... So I guess, once he came around he was a "rare find"... but is he "rare"? I dunno.

The Dream Beauties are "scarcer" - I collect them and love them, but I've seen MOST of them time and time again. The shimmering beauties, the merry-go-round types and the rainbow beauties seem to be the most common. For a while it seemed like the blue winged one - Wind Walker - was the "rarest" but now she's been 6 thick on eBay at over $100 and I hardly ever see them selling, but the price is holding because... well I don't know why. I would say the Trim 'n Grow's are the "hardest to find" just due to the fact that they were made to have their hair cut, so condition being good is hard to find.

I have to do a massive accessory organization of my collection this weekend, I hope that perhaps I will get into the storage bin that has all that information from Hasbro. I know there was NO way I could've thrown all that away... I mean it was THICK. Lots and lots of copies of their catalogs and things like that... If I find it, believe me I'll share it!

[himmie]

Like I said, we need a pony census!

All I know for sure if I'm going to go to Himmie's Kitchen! The missing Hushabye is there!

One of these days, I will venture into the basement and see what pony stuff is still down there. Might be more giant babies, who knows!

[hathorcat]

I have all bar two of the Hasbro catalogues covering MLP and unfortunately they dont tell you the actual production numbers. That kind of information, companies will not divulge to members of the public unfortunately.

[Stormness_1]

You know what guys? I think someone should start counting out all the ponies people have Like, if everyone filled out a check list somewhere online, and then we see how many ponies are around. Naturally this number would change but it might give a general idea like Sundance - 345, TE Bright Eyes - 25. I'm just thinking out loud here and I'm pretty sleepy so if this is not making any sense just let me know

We should do that! Someone put this up someplace!