Definitely many times since I first started collecting for myself (if you count spending my own money on ponies, not when you got ponies for christmas etc.) when the g2 ponies came out.
After I got my visa card, could sign up for paypal, and not use my grandpas
, I started with the goal of getting the ponies I wanted the very most. Daddy Apple Delight was #1, I was obsessed with getting him after wanting him all my childhood and playing with him every chance I had at my friends house! After that it was the other UK/EU ponies in the later years that I was missing.
In the hunt for those rarer ponies I picked up a bunch of regular US ones, started getting interested in variants and Nirvanas, customs, merch, more g3, basically anything and everything that caught my fancy and then some. I ended up with a huge collection of just random stuff that I didn't really have any control over what I had, I just knew it all made me happy.
In 2015-16 I put all my ponies in storage and started selling some. I should have waited a little longer in doing so, but it started the process of where I am right now. I have been pretty actively selling stuff since (with some pony breaks because I have been pregnant a few times).
Now I sell more than I buy. I am back to where I first started. I want the ponies I am missing from my childhood Dream Team! I have been hunting down the missing ones in the 'Family friends and baby ponies' set, only missing Daddy Berrytown now! I started buying accessories for my ponies, which I never cared for before, like baby Ruby's ring and necklace, the skating ponies walkmans, brushes and stuff like that and it makes me really happy
Ontop of that I have again started my CJ army collection hunt to try and get every single piece of Cherries Jubilee merch I can. Plus the few CJ's I actually don't have in my collection
Basically now I am happier with my collection than I have been for YEARS! I am selling stuff I no longer care for and only buying some ponies here and there I really want