'Old' collectors: how have things changed?

[dragonfly]

the early pony fairs were like really really big pony meets. there was always some big drama over something that happened at the fairs. there was some competition for who would be "THE" pony convention - UK or USA. Then Bronycon happened. I guess they all kind of branched out into their own thing. there was so so so much excitement around the first ever pony fair...I think in Las Vegas.

We tried so hard to get Hasbro interested and involved. There would be some communication then it would break down. Then SDCC got popular.

I started a group that was supposed to help people identify as trustworthy sellers vs. scammers because 10-12 years ago there was a huge influx of scammers. I think it lasted a couple years. eBay was like the wild wild west. They had no buyer protection at all. If something went south, you were pretty much on your own so there was a lot of vigilante justice on the boards. 

Pony listserv.
People went nuts over TAF babies and MOs.
MO birthpony variants were THE thing to have.
Discovery of Argentina ponies.
Discovery of piggy ponies - everyone thought they were fakies at first!
There was a big scam about reverse Gusty.
The Princess Rinse N Spit craze.
The discovery of Greek MOCs.
Princess Sparkle's price spike after she was on a TV show (the OC?)
The discovery of Ladybird and ensuing discussion of whether or not she was legit. 
When the owners abandoned MLPTP before satinslipper took over. That's around the time BM started The Arena.
the anticipation of when would G3s arrive in your area.
The anticipation and subsequent letdown of G2s.
Rehair wars.
Wondering whether G4s were actually a G4 or just new G3s.
There was a lot more snark out in public. You could get eaten alive if you weren't careful.

Man I'd forgotten about Lexi.

[MonstarNomNom]

I am hardly an "Old timer", since I am only 24, but I have been collecting for many years and discovered the community about 8 or 9 years ago. What I remember most vividly was all of the artists! Of course there are still artists now, however about 10 years ago there were SO MANY and so much beautiful artwork to oogle in the art section as well as dA!

I also remember when G2's came out and the first time I saw them in stores, but I was of course too young to even know a pony community existed. I LOVED them for the simple fact they were MLP. I of course had them, and would play with them alongside my garage sale G1s

I was also probably annoying at the time. lol

[invaderhorizongreen]

I miss finding any gen pony at the flea for cheap and good prices, they are so outrageous now.

[Taffeta]

The name "Ladybird" for that particular greek pony came from my website, as did the name "Bobbie" which, I think, says everything about variant knowledge back then. Ie, aside from a few of us who delved, nobody knew, nobody collated and it was really all over the place. I was really focused on the Italians when others started to appear and I just shoved everything on my site and yeah, those two names got adopted (although I have seen Ladybird corrupted into the American term Ladybug over the years) and have stuck the duration

I think what goddessofpeep said about the community is all pretty true. We were all a lot younger and so had a lot of adolescent yelling matches. I'm particularly guilty of being an idealist who basically waded in tactlessly whenever someone did something that wasn't particularly nice.

For example, there were a bunch of people who made up variants from the UK in order to make money. White haired Posey anyone? It really annoyed me because it made like everyone in the UK was a scammer and all the info we were putting out to try and correct errors looked like lies. I got told that we were scammers and liars a few times over that period, because there were about four or five UK people total and we just couldn't match up to the authority of Dream Valley's information at that time. It was tough.

I had a few really bad experiences with members back then, some of which I probably created myself, and others of which I know I didn't. I think because we were a closer knit community, clashes were more likely. There wasn't any insulation between you - you shared an interest, but this was all so new and so people clashed and fought and all that happened.

But I miss the old community too :-/. It's weird, but I really do. There was so much still to be discovered, then, and a sense of wonder and excitement when that happened. Now that is much less frequent and I think the Nirvana/variant thing has gone way out of hand. One reason I gave up with them and went back to the UK ponies as my thing was that I didn't and still don't like the huge amounts of money that change hands over those ponies (reminds me too much of the Jem community and the big prices for the fashions there in the early 2000s).

I didn't like the Arena when it first was set up, actually. I felt it wasn't necessary because the TP was already there. But then the TP was badly managed for a long time (as already mentioned), and worse and although it is okay now, I guess my memories of the pink and black forum were dented and tainted by those problem years.

I sent cash to a lot of sellers and I never got scammed by any of them. I find that amazing considering the risk I was taking and the age I was when I began. My first trade partner used to telephone me here at home (with parental permission). I don't think that, if it was now, I'd give anyone my phone number. It was just a different world then to now.

And I confess I liked the MLP community much more when there wasn't the public interest, the outside attention, the youtube channels and the fad memes and so on. I liked it better when it was more about us as collectors collecting something for the love of it, rather than the value. I'm getting old but I see too many PC posts these days. For selling, I understand, but these days people post PC for items they've bought to find out what it's worth and if they overpaid. That wouldn't have ever happened back then. It was just a different, more innocent and less money-driven world, despite the frequent clashes.

(And there are a lot of people I also miss who are not here now ><)

[Leave a Whisper]

The name "Ladybird" for that particular greek pony came from my website, as did the name "Bobbie" which, I think, says everything about variant knowledge back then. Ie, aside from a few of us who delved, nobody knew, nobody collated and it was really all over the place. I was really focused on the Italians when others started to appear and I just shoved everything on my site and yeah, those two names got adopted (although I have seen Ladybird corrupted into the American term Ladybug over the years) and have stuck the duration

I think what goddessofpeep said about the community is all pretty true. We were all a lot younger and so had a lot of adolescent yelling matches. I'm particularly guilty of being an idealist who basically waded in tactlessly whenever someone did something that wasn't particularly nice.

For example, there were a bunch of people who made up variants from the UK in order to make money. White haired Posey anyone? It really annoyed me because it made like everyone in the UK was a scammer and all the info we were putting out to try and correct errors looked like lies. I got told that we were scammers and liars a few times over that period, because there were about four or five UK people total and we just couldn't match up to the authority of Dream Valley's information at that time. It was tough.

I had a few really bad experiences with members back then, some of which I probably created myself, and others of which I know I didn't. I think because we were a closer knit community, clashes were more likely. There wasn't any insulation between you - you shared an interest, but this was all so new and so people clashed and fought and all that happened.

But I miss the old community too :-/. It's weird, but I really do. There was so much still to be discovered, then, and a sense of wonder and excitement when that happened. Now that is much less frequent and I think the Nirvana/variant thing has gone way out of hand. One reason I gave up with them and went back to the UK ponies as my thing was that I didn't and still don't like the huge amounts of money that change hands over those ponies (reminds me too much of the Jem community and the big prices for the fashions there in the early 2000s).

I didn't like the Arena when it first was set up, actually. I felt it wasn't necessary because the TP was already there. But then the TP was badly managed for a long time (as already mentioned), and worse and although it is okay now, I guess my memories of the pink and black forum were dented and tainted by those problem years.

I sent cash to a lot of sellers and I never got scammed by any of them. I find that amazing considering the risk I was taking and the age I was when I began. My first trade partner used to telephone me here at home (with parental permission). I don't think that, if it was now, I'd give anyone my phone number. It was just a different world then to now.

And I confess I liked the MLP community much more when there wasn't the public interest, the outside attention, the youtube channels and the fad memes and so on. I liked it better when it was more about us as collectors collecting something for the love of it, rather than the value. I'm getting old but I see too many PC posts these days. For selling, I understand, but these days people post PC for items they've bought to find out what it's worth and if they overpaid. That wouldn't have ever happened back then. It was just a different, more innocent and less money-driven world, despite the frequent clashes.

(And there are a lot of people I also miss who are not here now ><)

I can understand that.

[Mermaid]

I came along in 97 on the trading post. Here are some of my memories:
Ponyland press and dream valley / trading post chats

Buying blind lots on eBay after scrolling through about 30 listings

Reading posts of people finding old stock of g1 items at toy stores

Euro babies selling for $100+++

eBay flood of moc Greeks and moc argie ponies I picked up so many for under $50 each!

People finding new and strange ponies on a monthly basis! And the threads of speculations on where they originated.  Pretty bow anyone? Haha!!

That crazy person who said they had an aunt in Egypt that was sending them like 100 or so Egyptian ponies both moc and loose.

Buying Mocs on eBay at low low prices. I got a complete set of taf babies mip for $60. I also got a baby starbow and baby sun ribbon for $15 each.

Scrolling through people's personal webpages usually hosted on geocities and waiting for them to patiently load on dial up, getting mad that they had too many animated .gifs moving and midi file music loading to play. Or a crazy sparkly background that made the neon colored text impossible to read. But you did it and waited anyways because seeing other peoples scanned photos was amazing! I remember making my first webpage and joining the mlp webring list and using a disposable camera to photograph my collection. I'd always feel super crazy when I would get the film developed and the developer would go through the pictures of my ponies to me to verify that the pictures looked good!

I agree as a community we were so much tighter! There couldn't have been more than 500 of us for a while. We all chatted daily either in the chats, emails, forums or instant messenger! It wasn't just posting on a forum, it was real friendships. Many have come and gone since then. I often miss many of my friends!

[Sukey]

I discovered eBay in 1999 and was addicted for quite a few years.  I visited the local post office lady frequently to obtain money orders. I can remember when there were no photos and I can remember when there were no thumbnails. It was a big thing when they added those! You didn't have to open every interesting auction to read the condition. It was much easier to search for G1 ponies on eBay as the other lines didn't exist(except for G2). I didn't discover message boards for 80's toys till early 2000's- I felt kinda of alone and even a little strange that I was collecting toys. It surprised me when I discovered there were large communities dedicated to certain toy lines- I didn't feel so alone anymore. It was a time of discovery for me and other collectors. I never knew there were so many toys released in different lines especially ponies. Message boards were really active and there are some I miss especially the Rainbow Brite boards. I really like that this board is still active! I think you could find more stuff in the wild back then and for cheaper.

[Sky_Rocket]

Lots has changed, but some things stay the same.   Reading a post here a few months back, maybe a year now on the trader support board there was discussion around a buyer.  Can't remember who, but reading through it, and I thought - I know this person.  They've scammed before.  Everything that this person did, the older scammer did.  And where are they from?  Ah, the same state, the same town.  Scammers of the days past are still out there, just wearing a new name. 

I'm one of the old old collectors - but have gotten very quiet in the past few years.  Took a break after a lot of eBay buys went south (MIB's that weren't MIB, shipping prices of $17 for one pony, when package arrives, seller paid $3.50), and then another break to work on my career and travel. So I can't say much about the pony community from 2005 onwards, but before that?  I was on eBay every week.  Checked all auctions from auctionweb days until about 2005.  I knew my prices  

eBay auctions back then were great - those that had pictures.  From about 1998 onwards, most did have pics, but they didn't have the thumb nail pic like they do now.  So now there's next to no hidden deals, but back then - wow.  Sellers who weren't familiar with the pony community didn't know terms likes MOC or NRFP or MIB, so those auctions would go unnoticed.   There were very no Buy it now options - you had to bid to win.

And all the spectacular auctions...the lot with a few MOC ALT Birthflowers - I think that one was in Spain.  It was two lots.  Went for a decent price, but then there was issues with the seller or shipping if I remember right.   The SHS's from the TV Commercial were on Ebay, shipping was only by Freight. One is in the community, the others I don't where they are.  There was a seller from Hawaii who had Many MOC's and had the First MOC Mimic to sell.  Issues with that seller too - something along the lines of they didn't want to sell or want to ship.  Baby Paddleball on german eBay - a seller took the head of baby dangles and put it on a fake and tried to pass it off as a new pony (new ponies were discovered all the time back then).  That auction got pulled, but not before bids got up over $126 USD for it.   There's so many more, but those are the ones that come to mind now. 

There was D and G's auction site - an option to eBay.  Donna would run auctions on her page every month, and she always had great stuff for sale.  It was the first time anyone saw a Lickety Split that wasn't pink, but had chocolate ice creams! (this was about two years before Arg Ponies were discovered) And she had a Cha Cha the Llama that had a triangle for it's foot marking.  Never heard any more about that one, or where it ended up, or if it was even legit.  I always wondered where she got her stock - her stuff was amazing.

In terms of pricing - yeah, some stuff is higher priced now than it was back then.  Mimic has always gone up in price.  I heard there was a group of people who wanted their Mimics to be worth more, so they would shill bid on the Mimic's on eBay to increase the price so EVERYONE had to pay the price they wanted them to pay.  The cheapest Rapunzel I ever saw sell was in 1997 and it was for $75. Her price has only gone up since then.  Since I was trying to finish off my North American collection, and was keeping a price guide, I got a good feel of what ponies from which sets were hard to find - but few others had taken notice of this.  The ones that I had a hard time to get back then, are the ones getting higher prices now - Nightglider, Munchy, Red Roses, Oakly (took me forever to get!), Lemon Treats.  I'd have all the others in the set, but those were my last ones to finish the set off.

There were very few sellers selling Euro or UK ponies - and those were the auctions that were fun to watch.  Every time I'd run into a seller who had listed a bunch, I'd look them over very careful and dream about which one to buy.

There weren't a lot of resellers either - which was nice. And when someone did resell - oh my! The back lash!!!


Not Auction Related, but I remember the discussion on naming G1 and G2 ponies.  The reason?  It's because the Transformer name their generations the same way, so we followed their naming convention.  That was a heated Debate if I remember right


There's so many more memories, but most of them have been covered by other people - the change in the community is the biggest one.  I wouldn't say everyone knew everyone, but it felt like it.  I miss those days.




 

[lunar_scythe]

*grins* I've collected most of my life, and joined here in 2005 after i got my first white Bluebelle.

 anybody else remember the first pony armies?  Wildshadow's Surprise army and FireMuse's Majasty army had an epic battle at the 2007 MLP Fair,  haha.  Those early fairs were really just large pony meets more than anything, you didnt really worry about your table because you knew everyone by name. They were only advertised on the Arena and the MLPTP, so you didnt really have to worry about anything as far as security, you just set up your booth and you could wander around freely, if peole wanted to buy something either they would wait for you to see them at your spot, or they would come find you.

That was also when i started up my own army of Bluebelles, but i think they were the first to have armies.

I remember getting a huge lot from the UK, and waiting anxiously for it to come, since that was one of the first things i bought from outside the US.

I remember trading for a giant G3 Australian plush; at that time they could be shipped in like a black garbage bag, still stuffed!

[STLGusty]

My Little Pony Monthly was my favourite thing, a news letter with fan stories and amusing articles written by other collectors.  Mostly it was stories, which came in serial instalments.  This is before the days of easy fan fiction aggregate sites.

Tabby's old website still has all 101 Monthly releases if you care to scroll down memory lane! - http://fakiespaceman.com/dv/monthly.htm   I occasionally submitted a very poorly constructed "Talk show" segment in some of the issues (Gusty and Tabby's Talking Times...or something corny like that).  Tabby was actually the first person I ever bought ponies from online.

I was just in junior high when I entered the community back in 97/98, so I remember my mom being very wary of me sending checks to some people online for ponies that I may or may not receive - but thankfully I always received each one.

I remember hanging out on Dream Valley's chat, using Yahoo! auctions, and using AOL Instant Messenger to chat with some of my pony pals that actually had AOL at the time.

Those Webrings were hilarious - some of the sites would never work - some would take forever to load due to all the pictures and sounds - and I remember always trying to create a webpage (with Tripod and Geocities), but then I'd get frustrated and give up.

Good times!

[kellyponyfeathers]

I've been thinking lately about how many of the big and old time collectors have sold off their collections.  It's sad to me, though of course some needed to raise money for very worthy causes.  But it's nice to see other old timers chime in here.  I was around at the beginning of the online MLP community, but mostly lurked on the outskirts.  I studied guide sites like Dream Valley but didn't really participate in discussions.  But I did a fair amount of trading, often with Sebby6 (*waves to my old friend*).  So while some people have come and gone, I'm glad others are still here.  Pony collecting is a never-ending quest, and I plan to pursue it for the rest of my life.

[SpaceButtPonies]

Its hard to believe that things were so different then. Then again I shouldn't be surprised haha.

[Loa]

I remember when I was first collecting getting a lot of 300 ponies, G1 & G2, for $800 NZD.
Bliss.

[Sugarberry]

There was a true sense of community... any old members of the Church of the Mint on Card Mimic still around?  It was a group of "tongue in cheek" folks who pretended to worship the holy grail - a mint on card Mimic  =o).  Had a website and everything.

Jeanne!  Bill!  Sure have missed you guys!   
I'm still here. A few more silver hairs in the red now, but still here in the background. 

Nostalgia trip... here we go.

I can perhaps go back a bit further than most folks here.  I began the Berry Patch in 1994 during university.  It was not meant to be an ID site so much as a collection website as a result of an education project.  My intention from early on was to eventually write a book for the ponies and to publish it, but my website was never meant to be part of that.  Back then, the internet was just starting to develop and Ebay was just coming into existence.  It may be difficult to imagine now, but most http addresses were very little other than text.  Pictures were not exactly digital, or upload-friendly.  I began with Polaroid pictures, then scanned them. 

Later, toward... 1995/96 a new place came about called Geocities.  You could literally "house hunt".  Addresses were shown, and you could see who your neighbors were.  I moved the Berry Patch there, and that was about the time Ebay began to explode and webrings did too.  I still have all the graphics I drew, and pictures of the webrings, but Photobucket seems to be down.  I'll try to pop some up later.

Anyway, I spent thousands of dollars trying to upgrade computer equipment to keep up.  Paid for AOL service too.  Mouse-drawn images turned to tablets, scanners became faster.  I bought a program called "Adobe Go-Live" and that helped immensely with html, but that also had a drawback.   
 The website eventually became too large for my poor mac Performa to handle, and too tedious to code the html by hand.  Macintosh and PC formats hated each other and making the website loadable for both was really hard.  I bought a G3, then G4, but technology was still moving too fast to keep up with glitches.  Dream Valley became the major ID site.  Being too shy and carrying too many credit hours to do much beyond graphics, I kept trading low-key to a handful of friends.  Money orders, cash hidden carefully in foil or within items.  There were too many fights, too much nastiness with people vying for positions as 'experts'.  Ebay was a bite-and-kick situation.  We could all see who was bidding, there were no sniping programs.  Everyone here was on dial-up modems, so it was "refresh, refresh, watch clock, refresh... get ready... BID!" --- and hope you didn't get kicked off.
 Some folks would run up bids just because they didn't like a person or were jealous.  That happened on a daily basis.  I remember the scammers too, and the shill bidders.  But it was because of those IDs being visible that I met and made some very good friends.  Everyone kind of recognized everyone else.

Then word came through one of my trading friends named Kristin (Icefeather) that there was going to be a huge gathering in Pennsylvania.   Pony Palooza.  It was a major gathering, and so much fun!  The first of its kind.  I had met up with a handful of local collectors here in town before, but it was bitty compared to Palooza and not really an 'event' so much as friends gathering.  It was at Palooza that Kristin and I made up the moc Mimic thing, and I made a stained glass picture of her for a mock website.  We were so sure none were left in existence!!!!!!!  hahahaha!  We were wrong.     She eventually did get her carded Mimic.

I began with my book photos in 1998, and continued to '01.  Hasbro employees and other companies making products were always searching and referencing the online websites still, because there were not very many resources out there even then.  In 1998, a group of folks from France contacted me for information because I had posted up scans of the UK pony magazines and they wanted more info and references for one they were creating.  Sadly, I had such a hard time with scanning back then on a primitive scanner that I was only able to send out a few more scans.  Each scan back then took 5-10 minutes and was massive in size.  I also scanned and posted up the Adventures in Ponyland gameboard that came with Baby Blue Ribbon at its full size.

I made a trip back out to visit Jeanne and Bill, Kristin, Heidi, and another friend who has since passed away.  I had been to England, France and Scotland in '00, and had accumulated hundreds of pictures and information for previously "unknown-in-the-US" ponies, and was looking forward to finishing with the rest on this particular trip.  Kristin was moving away from NY to get married, so I pushed my trip up a week.  I wanted to see NY.  I was there the week before 9/11.  For many reasons, this trip was one I truly cherish.  It was the last time I got to see another friend and Kristin.  I also got to spend a lot of time with Jeanne, a most marvelous friend.  For almost a week, she let me photo her collection.  When I went to photo that other friend's collection though, the collector had had a change of mind and had become fearful of others knowing about her ponies.  It was frustrating to say the least, but I understood.  It was still a wonderful visit with all of them.  Unfortunately, my ankle had a bit of an accident at the end of the trip, and then you all know the aftermath of 9/11.  I got home and woke the next morning to see the towers on the news. 

Collecting unites us, but it can also tear folks apart.  Too much drama, too many scammers, increasing cost and some trades that I sent off and didn't receive back the other trade made everything a bit sour.  Suffering from quack dentistry and in need of shoulder surgery and other medical things, I decided to stop trading and just purchase what I wanted.  Right about then the moc Greek and Argentina ponies popped up, Dutch too.  A collector's guide to ponies came out shortly after.  It appeared rushed, was factually inaccurate on many things, and could have used more care, but it happened.  I shelved my projects and took down the Berry Patch in late 2002, but joined here just after that time as well.  I guess the last thing my website did came in the form of a small email I have saved someplace.  It was from a Hasbro designer that had seen a graphic I drew and wanted to know how I created a light effect in Glory's eye when I drew her.  That little color stripe in the G3 eyes- that came after.   Then we moved in properly to the new house, I hosted a couple of pony meets here before I had too many medical and financial troubles to do it again.

I like the changes that have happened here in the last 10-ish years.  There isn't so much bragging anymore - it's more of just a friendly exchange of info and very refreshing.  There are still some obnoxious collectors but most folks are very sweet.  I've done a few purchases and a couple trades now and found the results very nice (thanks again Kelly!)  Wiki is very helpful, but still lacking so much info.  I see many old friendly names that have been around ages.  It's tempting to try again with more trades.  So many new items are out, and Summer's Pony Fair is always enjoyable.  Lots of nice changes!    

       








         

[tikibirds]

I remember MLPTP was on EZ board and at one point it was invaded by some idiots called the Whooters or somethinng like that.

I used to pay for ebay items with money orders but then signed  up for paypal. G1 poniws were a lot easier to find on ebay as there was no G3 or G4.

And i vaugely remember someone  claming that their friend in egypt was givingthem a ton of super rare MOC greek ponies bu then their so-called friend died or something. I done remember thier ID but they were a known troublemmaker.

things have gotten more global. I can easily search on taobao for ponies - although living in china at the moment does help

excuse the bad spelling. i cant type well on a phone