How many people know you collect?

[HelloGoodbye]

Not a ton of people know about mine.  My family does, and a pretty good chunk of my friends.  It is the sort of thing that people find out about when I've known them for a while.  It's not that I'm ashamed of it, it is just that I like having a pretty good idea of what someone's reaction will be once I tell them.  I've had one or two negative reactions that really kind of surprised me and made me a little more cautious in terms of telling people.  I do have pony doodles in my notebooks and stuff, and I don't keep it a secret by any means, I just don't tell everyone right away.  If someone asks, I certainly tell them.

Online, though, I don't hide it.  I like talking about it a lot and finding other fans.

[zombienixon]

Only my family and closest friends (who are collecting MLP too) know. I tried to tell people but it always led to being laughed at and being called "not fully sane", so I quit telling. Sometimes though I still do... for example to that nice clerk at Build A Bear last weekend. We had a nice little chat about MLP when we were there to buy some BaB-ponies lol. Well, I did not name 'collecting' itself but we surely chatted about how unfair it is that Germany is still not getting Applejack, Trixi, Zecora and how cool it would be to have them all and so on. She was my age, so maybe she knows MLP from the 80th too, but I was too shy to ask.

In my experience, the people at BaB are pretty nice about it. They're pretty much the only place where I'll admit it's for me if they ask. (Then again, if it's a gift, one would usually let the person it's for stuff it, so it's kinda hard to hide it.)

[Juliepants]

I should also add that myself and my husband are currently staying at my parents while we move house, I had one of my friends round to "play ponies" the other evening! My parents thought it was funny, my husband rolls his eyes! We had a great time, brushing their hair and putting them in different outfits. She's not a collector, she's got 3 G1s she bought from ponycon that I took her to last year, they were ones she had as a kid that she rebought. Sadly all her original childhood ones are long gone. So she's probably the only one who's seen my whole collection, its currently all in boxes. Although I've got 3 ponies on the way to me, so its constantly changing!

Jules x

[Alzatia]

Yeah, it's the type of thing people usually find out as they get to know me. Unless it's other collectors I'm just meeting, then they normally find out from the get go.

[Griffin]

Pretty much everyone knows, I'm quite open about it and will bring it up whenever hobbies are discussed. It's also quite difficult to hide it from anyone visiting us... I talk more readily about customizing though and that's the aspect most people seem to be interested in, although at some point they usually ask if I give all my ponies makeovers or if I have some in their original state as well.

I don't recall any negative reactions so far, not all people understand collecting in general but most do understand the nostalgia associated with G1 ponies, and even those who would otherwise consider my pony hobby "childish" usually change their mind when they see a couple of carefully made customs. I don't really care if they get the aesthetics of Hasbro ponies or not, it's enough to know ponies make me happy. I don't think it's different from any other collecting hobby, all collectors are crazy to some extent.  

[Leave a Whisper]

my closer family and my boyfriend knows. its not that I'm ashamed, I'm just not all that social

[reanna-mator]

Most people who know me, really. My friends and family, since I often post pictures of my collection and new acquisitions on Facebook. I actually got the small childhood herd of my sister-in-law, and those ponies are super precious to me. And of course, when I went camping with my family I brought a few of my favorite ponies, and they even got played with by a couple of the little ones:

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Even a good number of my coworkers know! I don't see any point in making a secret of it since I haven't gotten any negative reactions yet.

[slyons]

Anyone who gets to know me finds out pretty quickly. I'm not shy telling anyone, I even have customers who look out for ponies for me when they go garage sailing! 

[EeveeMUA]

Everyone who knows me knows!  I post on social networks about pony related stuff regularly so all friends and family know all too well, and I tend to have/wear a lot of pony accessories when I'm out. 

I just started a new college last week and upon seeing my pony stationary a few people in my class were curious and asked me about it and it just got me started on my pony chatter! haha 

[reanna-mator]

Anyone who gets to know me finds out pretty quickly. I'm not shy telling anyone, I even have customers who look out for ponies for me when they go garage sailing! 

That's part of my hope, admittedly! If enough people I'm close to know I collect, I might get a few ponies out of it! My dad sometimes finds ponies for me at garage sales. I got my Quackers that way.

[Falconaitae]

Not counting my Internet friends, that would be my parents, my brother, his girlfriend, my friends - pretty much everyone, who had been in my home. In total some 15-20 people.
As for work...  during our company Christmas supper, I overheard one girl talking how this new pony cartoon is awful and she won't let her children watch it... so I decided to not talk about ponies at work (on the over hand, during interview for this job, I showed a pony video game that I made, as an example of my skills, so at least the person that interviewed me knows the truth ).
At my previous workplace though, I had blind bag Twilight Sparkle sitting on my desk, so pretty much everyone knew.

[slyons]

Anyone who gets to know me finds out pretty quickly. I'm not shy telling anyone, I even have customers who look out for ponies for me when they go garage sailing! 

That's part of my hope, admittedly! If enough people I'm close to know I collect, I might get a few ponies out of it! My dad sometimes finds ponies for me at garage sales. I got my Quackers that way.

Quackers? That's impressive!
And I do get quite a few fakies and other generations that way...but I just smile and say thank you and remind them to look for the Hasbro stamp and 1995 or earlier on their hooves 

[reanna-mator]

Anyone who gets to know me finds out pretty quickly. I'm not shy telling anyone, I even have customers who look out for ponies for me when they go garage sailing! 

That's part of my hope, admittedly! If enough people I'm close to know I collect, I might get a few ponies out of it! My dad sometimes finds ponies for me at garage sales. I got my Quackers that way.

Quackers? That's impressive!
And I do get quite a few fakies and other generations that way...but I just smile and say thank you and remind them to look for the Hasbro stamp and 1995 or earlier on their hooves 

I get mostly G3s from my dad, yeah, but that's always cool too! He found me Pumpkin Tart and Coconut Grove, among others. I get some fakies now and then, but I don't mind.

[LadySiha]

I'm very open about it, but working in  comic shop makes that easy.  Ponies tend to come up in general conversation and I'll mention that I collect.  I get lots of people who are very "seriously.....?" But for the most part people think it's fun or at least interesting.

[cassstorm]

anyone who walks in my house knows instantly  I have a display in the living room,mostly sales ponies.. but the upstairs is where we keep our collection lol. plus always a few in the kitchen lol