Friends/Family who support collecting?

[lovesbabysquirmy]

My mom is why I have always been into MLP, so I go secondhand hunting with her whenever we can.  My husband and his family try to be supportive and find ponies if they are at a yardsale or antique sale,  but it's not a focus for them to go thrift store shopping like me and Mom!

My co-workers are just like, "Huh, okay."  I don't have ponies at my desk or anything so it's not really something we talk about.  They like my sewing and history geek-out much more.

[daffodil101]

I don't really talk about it much, except to people I feel will understand   I have some friends who collect pokemon which is awesome   Geeks are the best!

Other than that my mum is super supportive.  Things with her are complicated, but she's always excited to see new ponies and asks 'have we seen this one before?' when one arrives in the mail.  My sisters both collected as kids and have both given me a lot of theirs.  Jenny has her favourites kept at her place but has downsized, my other sister's no longer interested and raises her eyebrow a bit about me collecting, but never makes me feel bad about it or anything.  But yeah, I'm pretty lucky to have family support

[Lucky_Ladybug]

My mom loves Ponies almost as much as I do. She's always commenting on how cute they are. Dad is okay with things. He probably likes that collecting hobby of mine better than some of the other things I like (such as the TMNT, heh).

I don't generally talk about my love of Ponies with other family members, but my brother-in-law went to several Targets to find the Celestia and Luna Fashion Style set for me when they were clearancing it, and one of my sisters picked up my Sunset Shimmer plush at Target for me. And I help with activities for young girls at my church and often wear my Pony cap, which gets commented on. Overall, it's a very positive atmosphere and this is definitely an area with lots of Pony fans, judging by how well they sell at Wal-Mart.

[Princess Lala]

My husband supports and helps me collect and that's really it! xD one of my uncle-in-laws collects these bunny salt dishes, so he kinda understands my passion and keeps his eyes out at thrift stores for G1. Very open about my collecting in case anyone I know happens to have old ponies in the attic they don't want! One of my coworkers said she is jealous of my pony and LE Disney doll collection and asks for new pictures anytime she sees me! Most people, especially my little half sister, thinks im a weirdo for buying toys my age xD

[buttonso]

Thanks for the stories, all. Keep em coming! 

[Sugarberry]

Love everyone's stories!  Family really enhances or spoils the fun in collecting. Anything becomes more enjoyable when the folks around you support it.

I'm really lucky to have a family like this.  Mom eeked out money here and there to buy ponies for me when I was small, and still occasionally does.  When we moved into the new house, she made curtains for all my windows out of pony fabric.  She and dad bought anti-UV film on rolls for the windows.  When I was small, Dad made me a structure that took up a whole wall in the bedroom to put the ponies on.  In the new house, he put up a ton of shelving across every wall, and he actually designed the new house addition to account for the size of the collection.  Then there are the cases. Dad, my big brother, my husband and a few terrific friends have helped bring 11 breakfronts/china hutches and 4 curio cabinets upstairs.  The last two just went in this past weekend.  Then... my gem of a husband!  Ponies are frequent surprises now.  He's from Northern Ireland and my in-laws often save ponies and merchandise from there for me, but when Christmas or birthday rolls around, each time I wake up to piles of pony things from Keith.  Every so often, he'll bring me home some of the gorgeously detailed G4 plush ponies from Oly Factory.  He 'gets it' though, because he collects Star Wars and Dr. Who, and we both love the original Transformers and collect them too.  My kitties are also very supportive, especially of the new cabinets... 

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[Ariana]

I'm very lucky that like 99% of my family, as well as all my friends and my boyfriend, support and love my collecting! However...there's always that one... One Aunt of mine ALWAYS has something nasty to say about it...even at Easter she was like "If you didn't have all those stupid ponies, you could have like...gone away or something!" 
Lady...why can't I do both? 
 

[Sweet_Stuff]

I'm very lucky that like 99% of my family, as well as all my friends and my boyfriend, support and love my collecting! However...there's always that one... One Aunt of mine ALWAYS has something nasty to say about it...even at Easter she was like "If you didn't have all those stupid ponies, you could have like...gone away or something!" 
Lady...why can't I do both? 

omg!! Well forget you, Aunt!  

[DazzleKitty]

What a nasty aunt. The only really negative thing a distant family member said was that I should sell them while they are worth money. I'm like....no, I'm the fool who will spend a ton of money on a pony.

[buttonso]

Even my relatives who don't get it are at least not nasty about it. My grandpa kind of grumbled about it but he's a crabby old man so I take what he says with a grain of salt.. and when I calmly pointed out hat I don't make fun of his hobbies he took the hint and stopped. 

[Chelsea7]

My family doesn't mind that I collect and restore ponies, my mum even thinks it's a great hobby to fix them up and renew. I always got ponies as a kid so I think it was no great surprise when at 21 I announced I was going to start collecting G1s. My sisters (who were kids in the 80s) used to have tons of ponies, but unfortunately got rid of them years ago. All in all the fam supports the "addiction", but have yet to buy any for me.

My boyfriend on the other hand, is a different story. He is a football, sportsy baseball guy, and literally rolls his eyes at the mention of things like Twilight Sparkle or Posey, or just MlP related. However, he is starting to turn around, and he even offered to buy me a G1 for our 3 year anniversary! I almost died, as when I first started collecting he wanted nothing to do with ponies. I noticed he's starting to learn names. He know who Mimic and Galaxy are, as well as all of the core G4 characters.

To make things fair, I feign interest in his football stuff. I imagine my disinterest in sports is the same as his disinterest in ponies ^^

I actually tried comparing the NE Patriots players to ponies, as they all have special talents for the team (like how ponies have their talents and cutie marks) and they have to use friendship and teamwork to win. I wish I could have framed the reaction on his face

[dragonfly]

I've been really fortunate bc my family has always been super supportive of collecting, even getting for me pony stuff when they see it. Friends tolerate it.

[Corona]

My parents are okay with it as long as I'm not going into debt collecting ponies. Actually had to stop for a while until I got better income.

My sister totally enables me on the holidays. She's not collector savvy but she got me Creamsicle the Giraffe one Christmas because she looked up the Pony Friends set and felt compelled to get the, and I quote, "freakin' pony giraffe."

[appleponygal]

Most of them support it actually! They know I like my ponies! I even wear tshirts sometimes so it's not like any kind of secret to anybody!