Higher Value Than Thought??

[Star Warrior]

I've kept my eye on a few auctions recently to see what the ending bid price on some G1s would turn out to be. I was surprised by some of the prices since I thought the ponies I watched were, for the most part, fairly common and ranged no higher in value than perhaps $20 for the So Softs. I know people can get into bidding crazes and go over the actual value of the item, but I was curious to know if the following ponies are actually worth these amounts (these prices do NOT include the shipping charges).

Gusty (no accessories) ended near $30
Medley with her ribbon ended at $60 - this one really surprised me since I thought she was pretty common
Firefly (no accessories) ended at $16 - same thought as with Medley
Twist with her brush ended just over $30
Hippity Hop (no accessories) ended just over $30

Granted these were in near mint condition but not necessarily 100% perfect.
**Please note that I'm not trying to discredit the sellers OR the buyers! I just had a preconceived notion that these ponies were of lesser value. I'm all for learning otherwise.**

 

[Lil Alley Cat]

The best way to see if a price is skewed is to do a comparison price check against other completed auctions. There is an option to search completed auctions on ebay so you can pull up all the ones that match your query, ie "my little pony gusty".

Pony prices fluctuate all the time and that is the best way to stay up to date at least for common ponies like these. This method isn't as helpful with very rare ponies that may only have one other completed auction to compare to.

Any pony in near mint to mint condition can sell for those prices if photographed well and sold by a reputable seller. Gusty looks like she has been selling for over $20 often enough to say that even though $30 might be the higher end, it's not way out of whack. Medley $60 is crazy high so I would say that one is either a variant you didn't notice or just a bidding war. Firefly, was it movie version Firefly? She goes for more so $15ish seems reasonable enough. So Softs in nm condition , especially from the 2nd set, often go for $30 range. If Hippity had pink hair still that also affects value.

Overall, even if on the high end they are mostly within value limits. Some sites have data collected over a long period and produce averages but I don't find those to be as accurate as doing a completed auction search as there are often factors that can affect a ponies value that are not taken into consideration with these averages, ie condition or recent surge in popularity due to unusual circumstances. Princess Sparkle was on a tv show, maybe "Dawson's Creek"? a few years ago and that exposure made her price quadruple in price (sometimes even higher) for a long time.

Hope that helps!

 

[ariaelwen]

The price will also be decided as to how many international bidders are competing for the pony. In the case of most of those mentioned, to you they are common but to me they are rare as most were never released in the UK. Of those you listed, as far as I'm aware, only Gusty and then only movie star Gusty was released in the UK. (There is new evidence suggesting so softs were available for a short time period but Medley and Firefly are no-no's). Roughly £15-£17 for a pony I'd have awful problems getting from UKebay sounds fairly reasonable to me albeit possibly top end, of course if I could get them cheaper I would. Over £30 is pushing it though, £8 I'd be skipping. XD (This is working on the exchange rate of £1-$2 which I think is slightly out now).

Just a little thought.

 

[Star Warrior]

I didn't know you could search completed auctions on eBay. Where's the link for that? I agree that watching numerous auctions for the same type of pony gives a better estimate of the value. I've done that with Mimic - which is easy since she is ALWAYS on eBay - and she's averaging about $70. It's funny how people choose to bid. I've seen one Mimic end at $100 while another ending at nearly the same time in the exact same condition go for $50.

As for the ponies listed, Firefly is the regular and, according to the description, Medley was not a variant. She even had a couple brown spots which made her end price surprising. It would be interesting to watch more on her.

I noticed a spike in Princess Sparkle's price a while back, though I didn't know what it was about. Is she still considered "more sought after" than the other princesses, or has she gone back to the average price?

Yeah, the difference between the first and second So Soft sets can be amazing. While I'm observing $20 average for the first set, Crumpet and Bangles recently sold for $100 each. However, I was surprised to find Taffy with her accessories go for a lot less ($20). This could have been just a lucky auction for someone or Taffy is not as sought after. Does anyone know which it is?

PS: Good call, ariaelwen! International buyers could very well make a difference. I know there are ponies that didn't make it to the US that I'd be willing to pay a little extra for, so it makes sense for that to be the other way around. I was not aware that some of those earlier ponies weren't available in the UK. Sad.

 

[pikapal]

Princess Sparkle was on The OC. So when that was popular like 6 years ago people wanted the pony.

 

[apanda0622]

I saw a G1 Powder go for $60 about a month ago. I was stunned by the high price.