Hi! I'm getting back into collecting ponies after a long hiatus (things like school kind of got in the way). I found a Forget-Me-Not in an antique store this Christmas and since then have slowly starting collecting again.
I've collected G1 ponies pretty much literally all my life, becoming a serious collector around 1997--2005. My sister and I own a collection of about 200 or more ponies. My first ponies, my mom tells me, were Glory and Peachy, and I got them secondhand when I was about three when a thrift shop lady gave them to me because she saw that I was playing with them a lot. I received a lot of G1s secondhand when I was little and also can remember buying my own from the stores -- sparkle Baby Firefly, Li'l Honeypie, Starglow, movie version Firefly, mermaid baby pony, and more. I was pretty young when I began a serious My Little Pony collection (around '97) and can remember the first days of My Little Pony on the Internet and how cheaply you could buy ponies back then.
As I got older and as school and other things became my focus, I left off collecting, though even then I wouldn't have considered selling my ponies.
Glad to be collecting again and hope to get to know you all soon.