Original prices for G1 ponies in store?

[lunar_scythe]

The big thing we have to remember isn't the actual dollar price of the pony, it's how many hours of work did it take to afford one? For example, in California, the minimum wage per hour from 1981 to 1988 was $3.35, so the average pony cost about 1 1/2 to 2 hours work to purchase.

Today, the California minimum wage is $10.00 an hour, so the average pony costs half an hour to an hour to purchase.  That means the G4's(working 0.5 -1 hour) actual cost compared to G1(working 1.5 to 2 hours) is somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 the price, if that makes any sense.

[millenium0chi]

I think that a basic, carded pony tended to cost around $5? 

I know if you look at the Wishbooks online, you can see prices listed for ponies:

http://wishbookweb.com

Holy online time waster, batman!  Thank you for posting this!!!!

[Ponyfan]

It seems like the prices in the mail order catalogs are a little higher than what you would have paid in the store. A relative that bought a lot of my childhood ponies said most of them weren't very expensive but some of the playsets like Dream Castle were. Does anyone know how much the Dream Beauties originally cost? 

I wish I'd kept my backcards.

Ponyfan

[Wardah]

Well in 1988 $4.99 is worth $10.10 in todays money, so they have doubled in price and halved in size.

Your math is off. They halved in price and size. $4.99 today would be worth close to $2.99 back then and you would be lucky if you could get a baby G1 that cheap. FS are a pretty close equivalent to G1 in both size and today's price.

[Gingerbread]

Well in 1988 $4.99 is worth $10.10 in todays money, so they have doubled in price and halved in size.

Your math is off. They halved in price and size. $4.99 today would be worth close to $2.99 back then and you would be lucky if you could get a baby G1 that cheap. FS are a pretty close equivalent to G1 in both size and today's price.

Sorry my bad, I just copied and pasted from a conversion site I have dyscalculia so not a clue I am afraid.

[LadyMoondancer]

The big thing we have to remember isn't the actual dollar price of the pony, it's how many hours of work did it take to afford one? For example, in California, the minimum wage per hour from 1981 to 1988 was $3.35, so the average pony cost about 1 1/2 to 2 hours work to purchase.

Today, the California minimum wage is $10.00 an hour, so the average pony costs half an hour to an hour to purchase.  That means the G4's(working 0.5 -1 hour) actual cost compared to G1(working 1.5 to 2 hours) is somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 the price, if that makes any sense.

Yes, that's a good way to think about it.  Just looking at the $$$ it may seem like G4 singles cost the same as G1 singles.  But really the G4s are cheaper, because a dollar in 2016 is obtained more easily than a dollar in 1984.

When I was a kid, a candy bar cost 40 cents.  These days, most candy bars are the same size but they cost . . . I dunno, $1.14, something like that?  In order to produce the same product, the price had to go up as inflation went up.

So it's not really an accident that today's ponies don't have the same quality as G1s did.  That's what Hasbro had to do to maintain the $5 pricepoint.  We get less, but we pay less.

I think that the size of the G4s is partly due to having to keep them cheap, but also an aesthetic choice.  IMO they do look better at a smaller size.  I could never get behind the large Funkos because I was like "Dang, too big."

[Taffeta]

Looking at this always bring me down to earth with a bump.

Spoiler

visitors can't see pics , please register or login

 If you can't read the label, it's a little faint, it says $4.99.

I have some pony prices for the UK from the Argos catalogues going back to the early 80s. Snowflake was about £2.85 I think. The Play and Care Sets were £4.99ish. I have a lot more but it would take me a while to go through them all and it's already 3am here.

I remember that when MLP ended in the UK max retail price for an average adult pony was £5.99-£6.99ish. Babies ranged from £2.49-£3.99. Just looking through my images files, the cards for my sister and my childhood bedtime newborns both say £2.99, which would be from 1992-3. Princess Sparkle, Rollerskates Ponies and the Birthday Pony were £9.99. When ponies went on discount I remember seeing German carded Rockin' Beats for £1.99 each. But that's different.

A lot of my cards do have price tags on them and it's really interesting seeing not only what the price was but what kinds of stores sold them as well.

[Mainsail]

Yup, $5 sounds right to me. Though I only lived through G2 and so on, but I remember regular G2s being around $5.

[Ponyfan]

Wow, Mimic for $4.99  i love seeing the original prices. Too bad that we can't go back and buy them for the same prices now. I barely remember buying Palm Tree and Baby Pearly in the stores. I think Baby Pearly was under $5. I remember in school we had to write a real world math problem and I remember writing something about buying a pony and getting change and a lot of kids laughed at me for writing about buying ponies.

Ponyfan

[Taffeta]

Wow, Mimic for $4.99  i love seeing the original prices. Too bad that we can't go back and buy them for the same prices now. I barely remember buying Palm Tree and Baby Pearly in the stores. I think Baby Pearly was under $5. I remember in school we had to write a real world math problem and I remember writing something about buying a pony and getting change and a lot of kids laughed at me for writing about buying ponies.

Ponyfan

To make it worse, I think the price label on my Tornado card says £4.25.

Sigh.

And what's wrong with doing maths with ponies? I'm sure most of us saved up and counted pennies for that purpose! My sister and I did odd jobs around the house to gain a little extra cash and it was always exciting when it was a day we could go get a new pony (usually a baby as they were cheaper and we weren't that patient to save for an adult). We had a little notebook and I remember adding it all up carefully to see if I had enough. Similar calculations happened at Christmas with Christmas money, or birthday money. I could usually afford an adult pony then...and £9.99 seemed such a LOT of money back then somehow.

 If ponies taught you arithmetic, then that proves they're a great thing for kids!

[Ponyfan]

It's hard to believe the original prices on some of those ponies.   I think it did seem like more  money back then too. That's probably why I had mostly the smaller playsets like the Baby Bonnet School of Dance and the Lullabye Nursery instead of Dream Castle or Paradise Estate.

If I remember correctly the teacher told the kids to stop laughing at my math problem because she said it was no different than someone writing that they bought a football but it was the last time I ever wrote a math problem using ponies. 

Does anyone remember what the petite pony prices were? I got 2 sets of petite ponies and one house. My friend got petite ponies, a house and a shop.


Ponyfan

[Elfpony]

One of the few things I still have from my childhood is the box from the Birthday Party Set with its price tag. It was $26.99 Cdn. I remember debating between getting it or the Sleepover set.

Elf

[Ponyfan]

I was wondering about the price of the birthday set. I think my grandma bought it for me at Toys R Us because she wanted to buy me ponies that I didn't have already. Unfortunately I lost some of the pieces like the blindfolds, the pony invitations, the larger invitation and the sticker that came with it. I was really carefully with Yum Yum but her wings broke anyway.

It looks Petite ponies might have been $3.99 per set and the houses were $9.50? I saw some MIB ones on Ebay but it's hard to make out the prices.

Ponyfan

[Leave a Whisper]

G3s cost the same as a G1. IMPO Hasbro's cheap cuz the MLP team has been possessed by the spirit of a super saiyan scrooge.

[Wardah]

G3s cost the same as a G1. IMPO Hasbro's cheap cuz the MLP team has been possessed by the spirit of a super saiyan scrooge.

In the 2000's toys in general were a lot better quality. Just look at the original Bratz and My Scene. Maybe raw materials were cheaper (isn't plastic made from petroleum?) or maybe labor was cheaper or maybe the exchange rate was better but whatever it was things changed all across the board.