Down to the wire - MLP Fair prep

It's only 12 days until the MLP Fair.

I've had to drop several projects that just won't get done in time, but overall the prep is going well.  The ponies are packed, the accessories are packed, and the booth decoration is nearly done.

G3 and G4s packed

This doesn't mean I've stopped panicking.  Oh no.  There's still tonnes of important stuff to do, like finishing my contest entries for the custom contests, getting signs made for the booth, printing all the tickets, planning our itinerary...the list goes on.

Now everybody's in there

The luggage is lined with a sheet this year, since last year the ponies got some black marks on them from the suitcase.  First time that's happened, hopefully the sheet will prevent a repeat performance.

So many accessories, with Wooley for size comparison

Roomy has to clean out the car, or everything is not going to fit.  And we need to do a mock-up of the booth to make sure everything goes together well.

We're not done yet!

Elf

How much money is in vintage toys?

I've been hosting panels at conventions over the last year or so with Roomy, and sometimes Stormrave, on the broad topic of collecting including budgeting and tips on how not to get in over your head.  We've also talked about whether or not you can expect to make money off your collection.

The short answer, my friends, is no.

If you've gotten into vintage collectibles only to make a windfall, I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed.  I'm not saying you can't make money reselling, or that you can't finance your personal collection through reselling, what I'm saying is, you're going to be unlikely to find a $2000 vintage MLP for sale for 50 cents at a yard sale.

A certain buzzfeed rewind list (first posted on July 15, 2013) would have you believing differently.  33 Of Your Childhood Toys That Are Worth a Fortune Now would like you to think that selling the 1980s toys you've got gathering dust in your parents' basement or attic can net you enough money to pay for your dream vacation.  Shall we look critically at those prices and see how likely that scenario is?

Buzzfeed missed MLP on their list of 33 expensive 1980s toys (Philistines) so let's pay a visit to Roomy's side of the Geek Cave and look at #7: Princess of Power Action Figures.  The image they chose (re-created below) is of a Starburst She-Ra and Crystal Swiftwind set, an expensive POP set, true, but is $749.99 a reasonable price for it?

To check out how reasonable this price is, I'm going to ebay.  On June 19th, 2014, I searched for "princess of power crystal swift wind" and specified "completed listings" in my criteria.  This will bring up any recent auctions that have finished, whether or not they've sold.  My search returned 25 matches.  Of these, 15 had sold (several were for individual wings only, for $8.00 USD).  Only one auction was for the same set as the above, with some damage, and it did sell, but the end price was $297.50 USD.  The next highest price for a sold item was a loose horse, with all accessories, for $52.99 USD.

A search for "princess of power starburst she-ra" returned 34 results, with only 19 sold.  Aside from the gift set, the highest successful sale was a MOC doll listed at $99.99, but sold at less than that through the "best offer" process.

The main issue with the buzzfeed list is that it looks only at the asking price of auctions, not at the ending price.  As you can see from my above searches, a seller can ask for a certain price, but that doesn't mean he's going to get it.  More often than not, I've seen ebay auctions for good, clean MLP that have ridiculously high starting prices.  The same is true for any vintage toy (go do the same search on any of the other toys listed...I'll wait here).

Is this a problem?  At best, it gives collectors who know their toys' values something to laugh at or gripe over.  At worst, it causes new collectors to overpay for an item and regret it later.  Perhaps most frustrating, it gives the impression that all vintage toys are worth hundreds of dollars, regardless of condition, completeness, or how common they are.  This makes it harder for collectors to obtain their toys as non-collectors price themselves out of the market, and can also imply that collectors are gluttons, spending ridiculous amounts of money on little plastic toys.  It's not something I enjoy seeing.

Elf

27 days to go and I'm still cleaning ponies

As the title implies, we're in full blown panic mode over here!

dirty G3 ponies

However, the G3 trade/sale ponies are now all shiny clean and ready for their new homes!

It's the bigger projects like this that worry me.  Rehairing customs I can get done here and there in the evenings after work.  Packing can get done here and there too.  But if I'm going to clean 50-odd ponies, I'm going to get it all done at once rather than dragging all my supplies out every couple of days.

I don't normally style my trade ponies' hair (other than to wrap it around their neck/leg to keep it tidy) but seeing as I had several G3 Pinkie Pies, I thought it might be fun to style one of them as G4 Pinkie Pie.  Well, at least it amuses me.  You can see her with her curlers in the upper right corner of the picture below.

clean G3 ponies

There's still the booth display to finish, customs to finish, and trade/sales stuff to organize and price.  One of these years I'm going to take a day off work before the Fair so I can get all this done!  ACK!

Elf

Chibi Medley

I always like to have some new customs for sale every time I go to a convention.  I haven't done a chibi pony in about 6 months, so I figured it's about time.

Chibi Medley was a G3.5 Starsong when she started out.  She's one of the versions with the switchable mane, so her mane has been permanently glued into place.  She's been fully repainted to match G1 Medley, right down to the shimmery green notes of her tiny symbols.  She also has blush on her cheeks, just like the original.

Had a hard time getting pictures of her that accurately show her colour.  The pic below is accurate (but sadly blurry).

Elf

Moar Fair Prep!

It's bath time, Ladies!

Probably a third of my Fair prep time is used in cleaning ponies.  :/

Some of these are "new recruits" that I've picked up second hand in the last year and haven't cleaned yet.  Some are from my own dusty collection, who have been replaced by upgrades (I'm not even going to get into the guilt associated with that process).  Some have lived in my trade box for a year (or more).  So there are varying degrees of cleaning going on here.

At last year's Fair, I discovered that many of my trade ponies had developed black marks in the luggage on the way down.  This had never happened before (using the same luggage for years) and I was not impressed.  Luckily, these marks came off easily.  I still have no idea what caused them, but the luggage will be lined with a sheet this year to hopefully prevent further mishaps.

At the very least, the girls need some salon time to fix up the horrible box hair they've developed over the year.  Some needed a more thorough clean, with Magic Eraser and dish soap, shampoo and conditioner.  A few had rust (the bane of my collector existence) and had to have their heads removed and insides cleaned out (not as traumatic as it sounds - despite Roomy's accounts).  I'm also mildly concerned that Lickety-Split seems to have developed some pretty effective cloning techniques.  There better not be four of her when next I go into the Geek Cave.

Dealing with this group (the G1s I'm bringing this year) took about three hours.  And I haven't even touched the G3s yet.  41 days to go.

...ACK!

Elf

MLP Fair preparation - 2014 version

As of May 24, it will be only 48 days until the start of the 2014 MLP Fair.  For those of us preparing to go, panic begins in 3...2...1...

*ACK!*

As usual, my preparations will come down to pretty much the last minute before we hop in the car to head out.  This year, I feel particularly unorganized (do I say that every year?)

I have to stop going to Value Village, I keep finding more ponies to clean.

This weekend I'm focusing on Fair preparation, hoping to finish cleaning all the ponies I have for sale.  I may even get them packed (if they dry in time) and then I'll have some more space to move in the Geek Cave.

Just a few of the ponies I may be selling this year.

My preparation also involves going through my own collection and picking out any ponies I no longer want so they can be prepared for sale too.  I've lately managed to pick up several ponies that were doubles of ones I already had, but who might be upgrades for me.  I've had to compare the two ponies and decide which one I'll be keeping and which will be sold on (not always an easy choice, but I don't keep doubles).

White body with marks and faded symbols or yellowed body with no marks and dark glitter?

There is still much work to do on the booth display, and the custom ponies for sale and contest entries.  Accessories to organize and everything needs to be priced.  48 days to go...

*ACK!*

Elf

The Last Unicorn

I have a fondness for unicorns.  You may not have noticed.  ;)

This is probably due largely to the fact that, when I was five years old, my grandpa took me to a video store to rent a movie.  The movie I chose was The Last Unicorn, and this began several years of renting the same VHS every week (literally, the conversation every week was "Are you sure you don't want to see something else?" "No. Last Unicorn.")

If you've never read the book or seen the movie, I strongly suggest you go do both right now.  I'll wait.  This is one of the rare cases where the movie based on the book is almost as good as the book (probably because Mr. Beagle wrote the screenplay as well).

This past Saturday, I was able to attend a special screening of the film in theatres, as Peter S. Beagle, the author of the book, is taking it on a tour.  It was a genuine pleasure to meet him and his team, to hear him speak about the book and the unicorn, and to hear him answer the questions of children and adults with an equal eloquence and care.  I also can't thank the tour enough for coming to Canada.

It sounds cliché, but watching the movie as an adult was as magical as watching it as a five year old.  It was a different experience, of course.  I picked up on different themes and was emotionally moved by different parts of the film, but a part of me yesterday was still five years old, with the unshakable belief that somewhere still, "the unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone."

Elf