#ponyguru advice

[ponyguru]

Hi, can you help me? I really like my little pony dolls and ive been wanting to start a collection of all the generation four gals if I can (i would settle for the mane 6 and a few others), however i have no idea where to start or how to find any, and on amazon i have only find weird knockoffs that have hard silicon hair. I also want to have an archive of all thr launched dolls, both mlp and equestria girls, but again, i have no idea how to research or really do any of this, do id really really like some pointers, or if you dont have any, for you to point me to someone who does.

Hi! Oh gosh, sorry for the late reply!! I'm not great about checking my Asks, and I only seem to get notifications for messages about half the time! >.>

So... it's a funny thing! Because when I was building most of my early collection in the early 2000s, the way to do it was to buy big eBay lots, and sell/trade any extras you didn't want from there. But now with eBay prices skyrocketing, and more folks getting into collecting/flipping pony lots, prices are all over the place - mostly ridiculously high.

Prices for G4, at least, seem to still be pretty low! More people are selling than buying. So if you're looking for G4 ponies, I highly recommend looking for eBay lots. I've still gotten some good deals there, even on harder-to-find ponies like G4 Minty. There's a fair amount of people just flipping them from the thrift, or selling childhood/post-fandom collections, so you can get good prices for them still. (G1 is less so! And G3 seems to be creeping up as well.)

I also suggest Mercari! Mercari is, unlike Facebook pickups, generally assumed to be for mailing items, so although there's some stiff competition, you can still find good deals! You can use that as an app or on their website! (If you are good at IRL stuff, you could always try the thrift stores yourself, or try local flea markets/toy fairs/Facebook sales! G4 is plentiful among toy collectors, especially those who trade secondhand, and you might be able to get some deals!)

I'm curious about what hard silicon hair ponies you're finding! I took a quick look, and I think you may be seeing the Ponyville/blind bag figures, which are minis. When I look on Amazon I still see some G4 stuff, but it's mostly 3rd party sellers, so it's very expensive. I still scroll through the Amazon Warehouse from time to time - you won't find older ponies, but if there's any newer releases you like, they may have those a little cheaper with a banged-up box! I found a cool Cutie Mark Crew set for $6 on there recently!

The most well-organized and comprehensive site, at least for the first few years, was Strawberry Reef (here's her release list by year), but I believe she fell behind in the past few years, since it only goes up to 2013. (She may have skipped G4 in favor of G4.5? I see links for G5 stuff there now.) MLP Merch is keeping up admirably, but I'm not sure if they have a chronological guide. There may also be some stuff in the various MLP wikis, but I haven't done a lot of research on that yet!

I suggest eBay by and large, but I also suggest checking out the MLPArena - it's one of the last remaining pony forums, and there's still folks selling and trading there! MLPTP is also still going, but they seem to be less busy than the Arena. I'd suggest Facebook, but the crowd there is Real Bad, and a lot of the folks who've become popular there were previously banned for being scammers on the forums. So if you join MLP groups there, be wary, and pay very strictly with Paypal goods/services - no friends/family, no Facebook pay. (Neither will give you ANY level of buyer protection!) There was once a feedback group for Facebook, but it turned out that it was run by some of the same scammers who got banned from the forums.

I'm trying to think of what else to say - I've found some nice and cheap G4 ponies on instagram flash sales, and I've also found some overpriced G4 ponies there! It really just depends on who's selling and how popular/packed their sales are. Jupiter.magia, for example, is a very popular, friendly seller; I got some great basic G4 ponies from her! But her sales posts would get claims within like .05 seconds. Ditto for Kristwoforks, a popular thrift reseller. She does a lot of sales, and has a LOT of fans! (And then of course, there's the classic "super popular seller who everyone loves but will occasionally scam people out of their items and attack anyone who speaks up", which I've personally run into in the past, as well as witnessed my friends get scammed by multiple Big Names.) Instagram, sadly, isn't a real sales platform, so there's no protection if things go south; your only recourse is through Paypal, and there's no real way to leave feedback, so scammers thrive there, as they do on Facebook. You have to be very careful and mindful of your claim deadlines, so I generally warn beginning buyers away from there until they gain a little more experience, and can pick up when someone's giving off bad vibes. I've found most of my IG buys from people I follow; they'll say, 'oh I got this last week from X!' so I'll go follow X's page for their next sale; or Y will get their sale post boosted on my friend's story, so I'll go check them out too. It's much safer IMO to find sellers by this sort of word-of-mouth, because then you know someone who had at least one good interaction with them.

I gave you a LOT of information here, ha ha, but I'm doing my best to be comprehensive! You've decided to collect G4 at a very good time, because with the end of the series, folks are losing interest, and selling off their collections. Not everyone of course, but quite a few! I wish you the best of luck in your future collecting adventures! And feel free to pop back around if you get stuck or have more questions!