i wonder

wart

wart

Bushwoolie
Joined
Dec 4, 2006
Messages
378
i see that alot of people are washing all their ponies, all their g1's....especially sellers on ebay, whose cleaning skills i do not trust...

and i wonder...are those of you that wet your ponies taking them apart to let them dry?

this worries me. i never buy from sellers who've obviously precleaned their ponies, but wont tell me exactly how. mostly i prefer to bid on dirty ponies and clean them myself, cus if the sellers don't let them dry thoroughly on the inside, then you're gonna have tail rust and possibly also mold within a year.

what are everyone else's thoughts?
 
I personally don't take my ponies apart when I clean them, unless I have to due to tail rust, or junk inside the pony.
I wash the hair, but never put the pony itself directly under running water or submerge them into water unless I have taken them apart.
I usually clean the body with cotton swabs and cotton balls, and select chemicals.

I don't sell ponies anymore, but when I did, I didn't clean them too much, just removed some surface dirt and left deep-cleaning to the buyer.
 
yeah, i think what worries me most is when i see the tail all wet or if it looks like the tail has been washed.

i've been burned on this before, and there isnt anything you can do about it if it happens to you, because once the pony has tail rust theres no way to reverse it, and its too long since tha transaction took place, like a year.

its why ALL my pearlized babies have tail rust.


i think people who dont collect, and sell ponies dont realize that the water seeps in the tail hair.
 
Edit! :3

What I'd meant by this post is that I'm very careful whenever I DO sell ponies. I don't like to clean them except tidy their hair up (and this is usually only with G3's), and I wait a good long while to make sure they are completely dried out before even thinking about selling them. I AM concerned, to answer your question.

Sorry about the apparent misunderstanding. :)
 
no, there isnt any reasonable way to get the rust off of the metal crimp inside the pony. In theory i suppose you could take a wire brush to the metal crimp, but you would also have to take the hair out, du-rust the inside of the metal crimp with the wire brush, then recrimp the hair with it.

and if there was water present enough to rust her on the inside, then mold is also present. both of which will eventually permanently discolor the vinyl.

AND if you just rewet the pony and remove the rustcolored particles from the outside, then you just accelerate the oxidation process. eventually the entire crimp will disintegrate, and all of the hair will fall out.

SO, if your pony has tail rust, then you probably should remove the metal crimp, and replace it with something else to hold the hair in.

and it just makes more sense to me, in terms of time spent, to let the pony dry completely before putting it back together.

heat accelerates both chemical reaction(rusting) and the growth of mold spores.

BUT, that's not the point. it doesnt matter what YOU do with your pony, as long as you arent trying to sell it to other people later on, without telling them how you cleaned it. and thats really what i was sortof asking. let me start over;

Does it worry any other collectors, when buying ponies from for instance ebay, whenthey see that the pony has been wet? Am i the only pony collector who is concerned that the growing surge in the popularity of SELLING mlps among NONmlpcollectors will result in a higher incidence of previously good ponies who now are exhibiting signs of rust? im sure i cannot be.

do you ask ebay sellers who you are considering buying from what it is, exactly, they did while cleaning them? cus in theory they dont care how it;'s gonna look in a year, they just want to sell a pony for "mint" now, regardless of wether a seemingly(to them)harmless amount of water has seeped in through the tail?
 
I've actually removed tail rust several times, it doesn't really concern me too much. Also, not everyone knows how to clean ponies *shrug*

I am usually more concerned about pen marks, how the pony is packaged, etc, than how the person cleaned or washed it.
I've also had several rusty ponies, that *did not* have mold. Only rust on the tail and on the metal parts holding the tail, which are not really that hard to clean. Really the biggest pain for me was removing the head of the pony, than removing the tail, the washer, and the rust.
 
well, first let me apologise for being terribly short in my last post.

and then let me say that thankyou, that is the sort of input that im looking for. it may be that i am the only one concerned with it really.

and i would also say that, i suppose if the original owner had the pony in a chlorine pool, there would be rust but no mold. but also that you cant say for sure, because not all molds are the same in terms of appearance and odor, and some are odorless. some are even rust colored AND odorless, but still may have a damaging effect to the vinyl.
 
I don't like it when I see ponies with wet hair in the photos or cleaned by people. I hate tail rust! As well as interior mold and cancer spots. I beleive someone wrote a guide http://reviews.ebay.com/A-Guide-to-...llectors-with-pics_W0QQugidZ10000000000942866 but I think it should say don't clean em at all. Chances are they'll get water inside the pony or ship it wet. I think it should say just wipe down with a wet cloth, if anything. There are many tutorials online for how to clean MLP that I do not trust (like using bleach or submerging em), which newbies could come across in their search.

I also won't bid on people that curl the hair either unless I can determine what they used.
 
I tend to buy from sellers I trust 100% because I'm a nut about mint condition Ponies. For me it's worth a few extra dollars to go with a trusted seller and feel like I'm definitely getting my money's worth rather than running the risk of being disappointed.
 
One thing I won't do is buy from a seller that curls the pony's hair. I don't like curls to begin with, and usually they end up super sticky, or hard, and it can be a pain to clean all the junk some use to curl a pony out. I don't like buying ponies with haircuts either.

I personally, rather buy dirty ponies. Not only do I know exactly how they're cleaned, since I'll be doing the cleaning; but I also like cleaning them up. I'm not so particular when it comes to a pony being mint, so some surface dirt or slightly frazzled hair doesn't turn me off from a purchase too much.
 
I've honestly never thought about this too much, but wart, I like all the info you've given and how much thought you've put into this. When I look to buy ponies, first it has to be one I don't already have, then my concern is that it doesn't have any horribly bad haircuts, then symbol rubs / pen marks. Tail rust doesn't bother me that much, although it's certainly not appealing. The way I display my ponies, you can only see their fronts anyway (just becuase seeing the display side would take up more room than I have). I've never thought about how a pony was cleaned. Now that my collection is getting to the point where I have most of the commons I'm after, I'm getting more selective about condition and I'm looking to see a pony in as nice of condition as possible (for online purchases) or if I see it in person and I don't have it, I pretty much don't care about the condition. I did have one online purchase that I was not thrilled about - the ponies were very dirty, but no haircuts and they looked like they'd clean up nicely. The seller thought they'd be nice and give the ponies a bath before sending them to me, and they were still wet when they got here. I found that to be disgusting, and gave them another bath, although I really don't like to get a pony that wet. I much prefer to just wash the surface and wash the mane and tail without getting water in the pony. Oh but the short answer, no, I don't take how the seller cleans a pony into consideration.
 
Lilithdrff said:
One thing I won't do is buy from a seller that curls the pony's hair. I don't like curls to begin with, and usually they end up super sticky, or hard, and it can be a pain to clean all the junk some use to curl a pony out. I don't like buying ponies with haircuts either.
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This is my biggest worry, not how clean or dirty the pony is. To me, curls are hugely suspicious and can be a way to cover up haircuts or missing plugs. Unless it's a pony who's supposed to be curly (Caramel Crunch, etc.) I avoid these.

I don't really care how other people clean their ponies, personally. I submerge mine and have never had a problem with mold or tail rust. If I hear water still inside the pony I'll take it apart, but otherwise my entire collection is in pretty great condition despite not being a perfectionist about how I clean. :) Most of mine only get mane/tail washings and then get marks taken off with nail polish remover.
 
I much prefer to buy dirty ponies so I can clean them myself. The one time I bid on a pony that had obviously been cleaned he showed up smelling horrible. The seller must have put him in the plastic bag well he was still wet. 00)

Ever sense I have avoid ponies that look like they have been recently washed. yeah I don't trust ebay sellers cleaning methods. The only exception is if I know the seller is also a knowledgeable collector.
 
Things may look fine now but how will they look another 10 years down the line if they sit with a bit of moisture inside of them? Or stuff left on them? Or human hair products left in the hair? I beleive in doing as little as possible to retain or restore to the original condition while avoiding unintended effects like cancer spots, mold, color fade, tail rust, neck tears, damaged hair, etc.


Sorry for being so opinionated but it makes me...squeam what some of these people do to a massive amount of ponies, or advocate doing. Since I knew I would be going through a ton of ponies I did plenty of research like talk to established doll collectors. I prefer ponies that look like they've just been pulled from long-term storage, like dirty but not obviously bait. So I can restore em myself. The MAJORITY of G1 ponies can't get back to 100% but I don't pretend and call every pony "mint" when it's not...it's simply amazing how some of these people come across such massive amounts of "NEAR MINT" ponies especially without resorting to not-so-good cleaning short-cuts. And not answer any questions about what WAS used.
 
Blitzn, what are the recommended products you encountered in your research? Might as well share the knowledge to help future sellers. :D

Personally, I let ponies dry for at LEAST two months before I even list them for sale. The obviously dirty ones are beheaded and cleaned out and left apart to dry as you've described. If there's no reason to remove the head, though, I won't. I just get the surface dirt and any stray marks, and pretty up the hair. If I'm not planning on keeping the pony, I'm not going to try any risky cleaning methods, either.
 
I'm sorry for answering your question wrong, wart. :oops: I *did* go edit my original reply to state what I'd meant to write, however. :3 I am quite concerned about ponies being too clean when I'm adding them to my collection, if you know what I mean...or with curled hair or anything of that sort, and I greatly avoid buying ponies that look like they've been "tampered" with too much as far as that goes.
 
SilverHealer said:
I'm sorry for answering your questions wrong, wart. :oops: *Sighs* I am quite concerned about ponies being too clean when I'm adding them to my collection, if you know what I mean...or with curled hair or anything of that sort, and I greatly avoid buying ponies that look like they've been "tampered" with too much as far as that goes. I feel like an idiot now.
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I totally understand where you're coming from in this matter. It's always hard to tell if a pony has been tampered with or not, so you can never be too careful. I think it was kinda rude the way you came off so short to SilverHealer, wart...she was only trying to offer you some advice and help you. You shouldn't feel like an idiot Silver *hugs* You did nothing wrong.
 
Personally, the only time I care what a person has done to clean a pony is when they have those nasty ringlets. I got a pony who took 5 washes just to get the gunk out of her hair, but now the seller claims she doesn't use products in the hair and that the curls aren't sticky :roll:

The sad truth is though, cleaned ponies sell 10 times better than a dirty one. I wash every pony that I sell and style the hair without products. I make sure they're as dry as possible and most time they sit at least a month or more and get squeezed about 2-3 times a week just to make sure. I never submerge the ponies, but just in case. It's posted in my auctions that I clean. I'm not about to give up my cleaning tips, but if a buyer is truely curious I will tell them in a private email. I've been selling ponies for over 8 years though, so I at least consider myself a knowledgable collector who knows how to clean a pony without damaging it.

While I don't like tight ringlets on my ponies, I do like some gentle curls and have gotten many comments on them and they'll brush right out if someone doesn't like them. But from the gist of this thread, it sounds like people would prefer to clean their own ponies and I'm just wasting my time :? To each his or her own though :wink: I'd personally rather buy a pony that looks like the one I cleaned up below over a dirty, frizzy pony that you can't see well enough in the photos to determine it could be cleaned or not. I want to know my ponies are going to be nice when i get them, not disappointed later when it doesn't clean up. This is all just my two cents.

tafyy1bn5.jpg
 
i only remove attempt to remove rust if its on a see through pony like the sparkel babies and adults. if i cant see the inside of the ponys body, i dont bother

the only time i took off the head when i put ponies in water was when i was trying to stop the brown spots from spreading. I boiled the ponies in bleech and then let them dry wit their heads hanging off pens. Looked macabe actually
 
Kar Red Roses said:
I received a wet pony in the mail once. It wasn't a pleasant surprise :|
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Same here, she smelled terrible. Mine was one of the euro flower ponies if I remember rightly. I remember I had picked up the mail on the way to work and I opened the package while i was in the car stopped at traffic lights. Having a wet pony plop onto your lap isnt nice!

In regards to cleaning I only pop the head off if I need to remove tail rust or if its is already loose. otherwise I was them and leave the standing tail hole down in a warm place and all the moisture drains out. I've never had any problems doing it this way. Curls are wrong and I would never buy a pony that had crunchy solid curls!
 
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