The Original Collectors

[silverdawn]

Well, I was born in 83, so not a 50+ adult collector, but from a young age, my sister and I would cut the "garage sale map" out of our town paper, plan our route for the weekend, then bike ride to all the sales looking for ponies.  We would've been 10-12 or so?  My dad was always a techie and was the one who first suggested I use the internet for collecting to find out info back in the mid to late 90's.  Little did he know what he had started.   I was buying/selling/trading when I was 15 years old, and making a profit with my extras so I could turn around and buy MORE ponies.  I don't think he expected it to go quite as far as I took it! lol At first when he saw me sending cash in the mail and "giving my address to complete strangers" he was a little concerned.  I had to beg him for a long time before he would start my Yahoo Auction account (anyone remember Yahoo Auctions?) and eBay because I was underaged.  To this day I still love the thrill of a good buy or a good sell!

I do remember the Delaneys!  When they finally got Baby Cherries Jubilee and the Party Time mail order babies to complete their sets!   That first Baby Cherries on eBay went for some insanely high dollar amount back then...

Silverdawn

[gabumon]

it's so fun to hear these stories.

my sisters had ponies as children (we were born in the late 70s) but when I ask them about ponies I remmeber they had (Bonnet dance achool, so soft ponies) they don't rememeber them.    they're not into ponies.
 maybe if I showed them ? I've bought several for myself in the past couple of years.

[FiddlePhan]

I consider myself an original pony collector as I was born in the 70's and am now pushing 40 years old.

I have never stopped collecting from the time my granny bought my Gusty as my very first pony.  It's funny though that when commercials first came out for MLP, I thought they were stupid toys with their silly colours so for the first few years of production I didn't want any. 
Then one night on TV there was a circus on with a 'real life unicorn', aka one horned goat.  I loved unicorns so I wanted something to remember that 'unicorn' by.  There weren't any all white MLP unicorns so I picked out Gusty and the Best of the West outfit.  Didn't realize the hat wouldn't fit her very well.  lol

I spent a lot of time in hospitals for various spinal surgeries and visitors often brought me a pony as gifts.  I've kept every one of them.
When I was old enough to go out on my own with my bike, I'd make a list of yardsales I could ride to and see what MLP goodies I could find.  We also had a giant charity garage sale where I made a few hauls of around 50 ponies each year.  Then they started letting deals in for first dibs and all that was left were McDonalds ponies when the sale opened to the public.  Interestingly, I bumped into a fellow Arena member at one of those charity sales, Bubblecup.  I don't believe she's active anymore.

I now have around 370 ponies, maybe more and are from all generations. 

[wystearya]

I was born in 1980, and my first ponies were Moondancer and Firefly.  I had a LOT of the originals growing up, but sadly, most were thrown out by my mother.  Dad saved some of them though. 

I haven't been collecting in a long time, and I have sold a lot too.  I plan to sell even more soon, so I have very few original MLPs left now.  I still love toys, but I have found more enjoyment in life with less 'clutter' so I keep my collection smaller now. 

I enjoy seeing other people's stuff!   I just try not to have so much in my possession at one time.  lol

[sweetiebabyfizzy]

I remember her SN now, it was inglemist! She's an older lady who collected ponies in the 1980s and 90s and was an adult then. She's probably in her 60s now. She used to post at the TP. I remember buying, selling, trading with her, very nice lady.

Apparently she's in her 70s now...
http://www.mlptp.net/index.php?members/inglemist.265/

also: I'm pretty sure she's an older lady
http://www.mlptp.net/index.php?members/prettypony55.255/

[tuneful87]

I remember her SN now, it was inglemist! She's an older lady who collected ponies in the 1980s and 90s and was an adult then. She's probably in her 60s now. She used to post at the TP. I remember buying, selling, trading with her, very nice lady.

Apparently she's in her 70s now...
http://www.mlptp.net/index.php?members/inglemist.265/

Oh that is fascinating! I'd love to interview her!

[cricket]

I remember Inglemist!! I did several trades with her back in the day.  She had a great collection.  And yes she was definitely an older lady.

[Lilithdrff]

I was born in 1979, so not quite old enough yet, but did start my collection in the 80's (still have my childhood ponies).

[ZennaBug]

I still have my childhood ponies, but I wasn't really collecting them.  I was born in '88 and most of my ponies came from $0.99 baggies at the thrift stores because we couldn't really afford many toys.  I have around 35 ponies from that time.  The only one I remember buying MIB was Chocolate Delight.  Mom thought she was weird, but I adored her.  She was the only pony that never took baths with me because Mom was worried about her filling up with water and getting moldy.  As a result, she is in almost mint condition still with all her original curl.  Shockingly, considering the amount of time my ponies spent in a bath tub, none are nasty and rusty because my mom was super careful to always squeeze out all the water and let them dry butt-down so they drained.

I started collecting again as an adult in 2009 because I saw a picture of Little Flitter on DA and it prompted me to start googling ponies.  I came here to buy a couple and the rest is history!    I would have loved to be around when the Delaneys and other older collectors were still around.  I've heard the stories for years, but I bet their collections were amazing. 

[invaderhorizongreen]

I have been collecting sense I was about 8 years old I will be 32 next year.

[Katika]

I think there were more of them than we may have realized.  MOC G1s are still rare as compared to loose ones, but the fact that there are actually so many of them suggests that there was a decent force of adults that anticipated MLP becoming collectible when G1s first showed up.  It's hard, though, because that was a pretty long time ago.  Circumstances may have changed for those first collectors, whether finances made them have to sell or they just lost interest, but I don't think it's that strange that there aren't a lot of them around. 

What I have trouble thinking about is how different pony collecting must have been then!  Now, we have the internet and we can get (heck, we even *know* about) international ponies relatively easily.  Back when G1s were new, there was no internet.  There was no way to really know if there were other collectors out there, much less an easy way to network with them!

This is a very interesting topic

[brighteyes]

In 83-84 I would have been 11-12. My first ponies were Moondancer and Firefly, so depending on which actual year I purchased them I might have been between 11-13 when I started collecting MLP.

I would consider people like Karen as "Original Collectors" - those who actively collected the ponies when they came out and still have their original ponies and still collect.  I was born in 1980 and collected and played with ponies as a kid, but I didn't buy everyone I saw (no money!) and gave all of mine away to nieces as I got older.  I guess I'd consider myself more of a "Returning Collector." 

I kind of remember the Delanys from the pony usenet in the later 90's.  It would have been great to see their pony room! Back then you could actually go to a thrift store and have a really good chance of finding a pony.  Hunting ponies at thrift shops now is like being in a bad relationship- just enough reward to justify the continued effort.

[daffodil101]

I remember the Delaneys!  I wasn't part of message boards at the time, but their collection was legendary. 

In my teens my mum got seriously into pony-chasing for me and my sisters.  (She never collected, but she loves ponies and lives vicariously through our collections  )  This was the days when the online community was just starting out and we weren't really aware of it yet.  We used to get up early on Sunday mornings and race around the flea markets on this adrenaline-fueled pony hunt.  Mum did a loot of pony-hunting through flea market contacts, I remember she had a typed page with names and phone numbers of 'pony people' who she'd buy things from, and occasionally we'd get packages in the mail from around the country.  (They always went into a cupboard to wait for birthdays and christmases.  There weren't a whole lot of teens around who were excited getting toys for their birthdays!)

When we realised that pony people were on the net, it was crazy.  I discovered Kim Shriner's Dream Valley site and spent hours studying it.  I had no idea so many ponies had been released.  I remember buying my first pony online- Boysenberry Pie, still a fave   It was somewhere around there that we heard of the Delaneys.

Their collection had this mythical status, the idea of having 'every pony' was up there with your dad being an astronaut.  Let alone MIBs, or flutter ponies with wings! 

I'd love to see a pic of their pony room in its heyday.  I think I remember hearing they were selling off their collection and not understanding how anyone could do that!  I mean, nothing's better than a room full of ponies 

[Marigold]

I don't think a lot of adults were collecting new toylines that were only marketed to kids.  There were some who collected Barbies and Star Wars figures and maybe a few other things, but most of those had adult high-end versions for the collectors.  But I think ponies were first seen as too young and toylike.  I think it is awesome that there were a few adults who did collect them.