Nirvana How do YOU obtain variants?

Use this prefix for threads about MLP items manufactured outside of the USA, exceptionally rare items, variants, and prototypes.

Aadra310

Pixie Cut Pony
Joined
Jun 18, 2005
Messages
820
Just curious how you go about enlarging your variant collection. Do you shop the boards, eBay, or somewhere else? I've had a lot of luck on the boards with more common variants like Italians- they are in my price range atm! And, a certain other pony person likes to give them to me on my birthday! You know who you are! :yay:

I see a lot of awesome stuff of eBay, especially the non-English eBays/auction sites but I only read a little bit of Spanish so have a hard time figuring out if a seller would ship to the US or not! Is there a directory of variant collectors that speak other languages? I've bid on US auctions to help non-US people so this seems like a plausible idea... discuss!

Oh, another question! Do we have a list of members and what they specialize in? For example, it's well known that rel is the argie lady. I'm sure if I lurked at the arena I would discover more but I'm almost exclusively TP. I know there are even a few sticker experts, charm people, and so on. Would a list like that benefit the community?
 
That would be a nice directory to have. I prefer the TP, too (first pony home and all that) so I don't really check the arena's variant topics unless I'm really trying to find out something in particular. Maybe there could be a stickied topic called "Specialists" or some such that you could easily refer to when needed, where folks could simply express their area of expertise and willingness to answer questions? something like that?

I think I stumbled into the variant purchasing thing by seeing a Haarschmuck Starlight for sale on someone's sales thread. I had no idea what she was, just that I liked her (SHINY SHINY SHINY and stars! lol). Same person had a Baby Nightsong (baby STella... whatever your preference lol--the white one at any rte), also pearly-shiny and starry, so I bought them both. That's when I realized there are many lovely foreign-only ponies out there. Now I just kind of keep my eyes open for foreign ponies that I like *and* can afford, here and on the arena. Rarely ebay.
 
And, a certain other pony person likes to give them to me on my birthday! You know who you are! :yay:

Oh balls, your birthday is in 2 months. I need to get of my butt and start scouring ebay!

I mostly get my variants from the Arena anymore. I don't have to bid that way, and people on a message board that I "know" are usually willing to take payments for larger purchases, whereas ebay doesn't do that. But I still do find awesome deals on ebay, and I search it every day!
 
the majority of my argies are from ebay
although there are several that i have purchased on the arena. Most people know my goal to own every argie variant and when they are ready to sell many will PM me to see if i need them ^_^
i have been very lucky that way to buy some VHTF argies :yay:
 
Most of my ponies have come from eBay & people from the boards. ;) I did get a bunch from a very special friend (who sadly passed away not so long ago) whom I met years ago from a pony email group.

Ponies tend to come in waves. Over the years I've seen different countries go from Very Hard To Find, to "all over eBay", and back to HTF. If you keep an eye out for what variants are common or less desirable at any given time, you can add to your collection for cheaper. For example, Argies are very hot right now, reaching record prices on eBay. Several years back, many of those same high dollar Argies were selling for $20-40 a piece.
 
I've gotten mine from foreign ebays. I managed go get some beauties from Argentina and Brazil from ebay Italy of all places. lol
 
Has anyone ever had any luck finding hard to find ponies in second hand stores?
 
Has anyone ever had any luck finding hard to find ponies in second hand stores?
Sure, but most likely not variants, especially depending on where you live. I've heard a few stories where people pick up Mimic, for example, for dirt cheap at garage sales, thrift shops, etc., but since variants were only made and distributed in certain countries, the odds of finding one secondhand are quite slim. Like the South African ponies, what are the odds of them leaving South Africa, becoming a child's toy, and ending up in a thrift shop? It's a far-fetched idea, but I guess you never know . . . Don't count on it though. ;)
 
Has anyone ever had any luck finding hard to find ponies in second hand stores?

Yes, but it doesn't happen very often! In my 14 years of collecting, I've heard of a person finding 3 South African ponies bagged together in a US thrift store, 2 different people finding India Funskool ponies in US thrift stores, & a handful of people finding European released ponies & Italians in the US.

In the late 90's I found a Germany Baby Lemondrop (baby blossom pose) at a second hand toy store in Maryland... I was ecstatic!! At that time any non-US pony was like gold. :eek:k:

Finding variants in thrift stores or second hand shops is a little more common in European countries since traveling from one country to another for vacations, business, ect. is more common than in the US.
 
Aadra found a Euro G2 at our local flea market, and years ago I think she said she saw a dutch pony (???) at the same place, but that's twice in, what, 17 years?

I think the best foreign ebay ever was when Aadra was helping me translate Potuguese. Neither of us speaks Portuguese but we figured Aadra's Spanish and Google Translate was close enough and we happily messaged sellers all night to see if they'd ship overseas. Good times. I think I got a Brazil TAF that night.
 
I found a Mexican Snuzzle at a thrift store once, but that's my extent of finding foreign-issued ponies at second hand places. At the time I was pretty young and didn't know what she was, as she had flat hooves with no markings. I assumed at the time that she was an oddly accurate fakie and almost left her there (!). Im glad my curiosity won out.

I only have few Italians and a few UKs, and those I've picked up through trades and a few from collectors selling off their collections.
 
Has anyone ever had any luck finding hard to find ponies in second hand stores?

I found my Mexi Peppermint Crunch at a Garage Sale for 20 cents!!! Got my Dutch Singalong as well from a NZ auction site for five bucks.

I also hunt on Ebay at least twice a day to see what is there, and my brother is spending a year in Canada so I have ordered him to be on the lookout... (So far nothing but fingers crossed) I frequently check out second hand stores here, not that there is much in the way of Pony here in New Zealand, and I scour a NZ auction site called Trademe, once in a blue moon something special pops up.

Most of the variants on Ebay are well out of my price range, but having said that... This morning I grabbed a Posy that has a factory default, her symbols were painted perfect on one side, the other side all that was printed was the leaves and stems, no flowers. So it does happen. (Just wish it happened more often, but then, they wouldn't be rare would they!!!)
 
Last edited:
I tend to stick to the pony boards or the Swedish auction site when I'm on the hunt for variants.

While the pony boards offer more variety which is great the Swedish auction site is by far the best to get good deals on HTF variants. For example: got my mint Alternate Birthflower Holly for about $60 on the Swedish auctionsite a month or so ago while she'd surely go for $200+ on any international site. And the UK/Dutch exclusives and so on tend to go for nothing more than $15-$25 while I see them on Ebay for $60+ so yeh, I'll stick to that :p

On Ebay there's just too much competition these days and the prices always skyrockets way above what I'm willing to pay so no thanks to that.

In the "olden days" - like 6-7 years ago I did buy a bunch of variants both loose and MOC from Ebay, but then the demand wasn't very high for them and they were sold cheap. I bought the two MOC Argie Fancy Pants Babies I have for like $30 back then and now I don't see them for any less than $200 o_O I do miss those days :p

But those are my best tips and tricks for getting my hands on htf variants :)
 
Last edited:
Back
Top