What Makes You Lose Interest In Ponies? . . .

[FarDreamer]

 . . . for awhile.

Howdy,

So I haven't been on the boards in forever, I haven't updated my website in months and months and months, I haven't hardly entered my pony room, and all work on turning it into a giant diorama has halted.

What happened?

I want to move SO BAD!!!

My husband and I have wanted to move back to Michigan, closer to our families, forever.  We've tried several times but have always had a hard time finding jobs there.  That's not unusual, nearly everyone we went to college with moved to the east coast for jobs after.  Now he has a phone interview for a REALLY good position in Ann Arbor this Tuesday.  All I can think about is moving.  I'm already collecting packing materials and such as it's the only thing I'm motivated to do.  I think the anticipation is going to be the end of me.  It's 1:00 am and here I am still awake because I can't stop thinking about it.

I can't be the only one.  Anyone else have things that makes you totally a pony zombie at times?

[Salli]

Life in general can numb me to anything/everything sometimes. I feel like its almost like a sparkler firework. I get all this energy, then it burns out and feels hollow for a while. Then the spark comes back and it starts over.

I think it makes total sense for your brain to not invest anything in your current place if you are hoping/trying to move. Your brain might even think it would be betraying your desire to go, kind of jinxing the possibility, if you do anything that might 'anchor' you to where you are.

Don't worry, it'll come back. And best of luck with the interview!

[northstar3184]

I had joined the arena back in 2009 after my interest in ponies was renewed for the first time since childhood (I can't remember what brought that about). At that time, I began collecting petite ponies. Then I quickly lost interest in the franchise and left the arena. Half a decade later, the nostalgia from revisiting the MLP cartoons resparked my interest in 2014 and brought me back, this time with an interested in collecting G3s.

[Junipur]

For me it is when I can´t find any ponies, or if my luck changes and I find stuff for one or more of my other collections, then I spend time on that instead.
Lateley I have started being more serious in driving with my rl pony, and that takes up a lot of time too, so basically, just life in general

[prancingstag]

As a G4 collector, sometimes it's disappointment in the lack of new characters and exciting releases in the line. As a G1 collector, sometimes it's a feeling of hopelessness at the fact that the vast majority of ponies are in other countries and I'm a scrooge when it comes to paying extra for shipping Also when money is scarce my interest in spending on anything goes away, handy dandy for my bank account. Frivolities are the first to take a hit so on slow months, ponies are completely dead to me.

Orrr something new and shiny could come along and take all my excitement with it. Six months ago that was Zelfs, and now it's Monster High. I'm completely enamored with posing/playing with my dolls and swapping fashions. I've been meaning to sell off some of my pony stuff for a long while and recently I considered shedding the whole collection and just focusing on dolls. But I'm going to dust them all off, organise them nicely on the bottom shelves and just wait for the pony love to come back. I know it will eventually, it always does. Last time it was TAF Scoops that pulled me back in... I'm just going to sit tight and wait for my next pony to come along and demand that I get them, as usual.

[Miniature Sheep]

Wow, that sounds exciting! Fingers crossed for you and your husband!
My interest in ponies tends to come in little waves; I'll have a break from them for a while and then come back to them later with a renewed buzz. Lately I've been more into collecting maneki-nekos and checking out new music but ponies have started catching my attention again over the past couple of weeks.

[CupidStrikes]

As a G4 collector, it's usually a lack of new characters, or, like in 2013/4, the majority of new characters being exclusive to US-stores, meaning we're unlikely to see them, or see them at a high-mark up (plus, the store that carries the Wal-mart exclusives is nowhere near me ). Sure I can order them off Ebay or from other collectors but it really kills the thrill of waiting for them to appear on the shelf, and the excitement when you find new ponies when you least expect them.

I also collect G1s, but trying to find them in good condition, for a decent price (and in this country, because international shipping is so expensive these days), and then not get into a bidding war...

[Scraleos]

The biggest thing for me is lack of money, if I can't buy any ponies, then it's just same old on my pony shelf lol. Another one of the biggest things is the lack of G4 characters and the prices of them in the UK. A $10 pony in the US is most likely £10 or more over here, and I feel as if I am getting a little cheated by Hasbro. The US exclusives need to shift over here too!

[Taxel]

For me its been dealing with shipping costs, since I don't collect G4 anymore. In reality its not that much for me, usually, but if I can buy a doll at the store with no shipping fee I'll usually go that route. Money's been a bit tight lately and my interests have been scattered at best, so most of my new toys have been from holidays. Its not really possible for me to send my relatives all over eBay, Etsy, etc chasing ponies.

The only new ponies I've acquired in a couple of years came from gifts, a few from relatives buying them for me in person when I was visiting them and a massive box from a friend who traded things to get them for me. I miss getting pony mail, and boy do I miss adding to my Sundance army, but things keep popping up! I just "inherited" an antique doll collection so they're gonna eat up all my money for a while. Plus I need to get entirely new craft supplies, I need a better lightbox so I can photograph my current ponies (and other things), I need backgrounds for that lightbox... it just goes on and on!

[Sky_Rocket]

Bad deals.  High Shipping costs.  Not finding anything in the second hand stores.  No Time to check the second hand stores.


Bad Deals - Bought a few MOC or MIB's off ebay.  MOC Magic Hat's bubble cracked in shipping.  MOC Baby Katie and Friend were packaged so badly they came off the card and the seller claimed "not my fault".  MIB Oakley was taken from the package, played with and put back in (this was from a very reputable seller).

All in all, that worked out to about $400 lost.  Yea, I still got the ponies, but I paid for XX and got xx and had to fight with sellers, with no resolution.  I don't like fighting with people, which makes collecting less enjoyable.

High shipping costs - I lived in Canada and ebay switched it's shipping to priority only for international buyers if the seller want to be insured.  Lovely!  that means the $15 pony I bought is now $32+ b/c of shipping.  And then there are those that won't even ship international.....sigh.  I wonder how that's worked out for the sellers?

Not finding anything the in Second Hand Market/ Not having time to go the second hand stores - I used to go to toy shows three times a year.  Someone else pays $50 to get in early and buys all the ponies.  And then my job turned into 10 hours days, which met I had no time to go second hand shopping.  It also meant that I had no time to go through ebay (where shipping costs are now too much) or scour the boards for things I'd like.

I guess that means collecting is all about the collecting for me. 

[DazzleKitty]

Sometimes I just get a burnout for no reason at all. I go really strong for a while, buy a bunch of ponies, but then suddenly the fire is burnt out and I lose interest. Usually it's when another collection starts to take precedence or I find a video game I get really addicted to.

Right now a big frustration, as others have said, is shipping prices. Especially when someone in my own country on an eBay auction wants to charge shipping of $10 for ONE pony. I think they are taking money from these shipping prices and putting it in their own pocket.

Right now I do have money to blow on ponies. I just made over $1,000 on eBay selling my manga collection (I had a big collection and I just didn't care about it in anymore). I am working on finally getting ones I really want and shipping isn't such a big deal now, especially when buying from overseas because I have money to blow.

[DaffyDilly]

For me it's a focus on real life. I haven't lost interest and only yesterday I was off pony hunting. But I want to pay off my credit card and buy a house. I amassed maybe 600 ponies in 4 years and as a result I don't think that I did many of them justice. So I'm selling the vast majority to raise funds but also so that I can focus on the ones that I keep and enjoy them as individuals.

[hathorcat]

The drama Sometimes the pony world comes with waaaaaay more drama than little plastic toys should ever demand. Thats the only thing for me which sometimes makes me want to retreat and stop collecting. But thats such a teeny tiny part of the whole thing its usually only a 5 minute strop before I move on and am happy about ponies again. 

[mlp4me]

What causes a lack of interest for me is rl stuff taking up my entire day and then some. Some days I really don't have the time if I work 14 hours. I used to go out thrifting once or twice a week, don't even have time to do that anymore...  Also, knowing the last ponies I need for my G1 collection are more htf (and I'm holding off as long as I can from going to ebay for them so this will take forever). However, I do try to stay active here daily, even if it's only for a few mins.

[Sora]

Not enough ponies out there on shelves - Too many US only ponies. And when they do hit the UK, the markup is beyond a joke for many exclusives *cough*TRU*cough*.