And open letter to ebay sellers

[bladespark]

Three things:

1. For anybody who's selling My Little Ponies. "Minty" is the name of a specific pony. "Minty" is also a flavor. "Minty" is not a condition! Either a pony is mint, or it's not mint, there is no "minty." And using the name of a pony as a condition descriptor is needlessly confusing.

2. To everybody who sells collectibles on ebay: Mint = exactly like it came from the factory. Mint is perfect. Mint is never dirty, mint hasn't got fleabites, mint doesn't have writing on the bottom or ratty hair. Mint hasn't got paint rubs or smudges or fading. Mint is perfect. Say "nearly mint" if you must (and not minty!) but do not call it mint unless it is truly, completely, utterly MINT. (Ideally mint really is only mint in box, but with things that have been display only and never played with, I'll accept mint without the box. This is not generally the condition of so-called "mint" ponies though. Mint appears, to some people, to mean "no huge defects.")

3. For crying out loud people! Do not sell me something that weighs a couple of ounces and which I have seen with shipping from England for $3, and charge $10 shipping from two states over! You make it look like such a deal when you price it at just $1 for $5 worth of pony, but I see what you're doing, and you're making a disgusting profit off of shipping, which is just plain dishonest, in my book. I refuse to buy from you people.

Comments

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

many ponies (especially G3s) are often referred to as "mint" when freshly removed from the box. including ponies with paint smudges, loose hair plugs, missing symbols and dirt. i have several ponies that came in that condition, from the factory.


hasbro has no quality control. :(

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Heh. That sucks.

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

well most of the G1s were made in hong kong (a few in italy, spain, macau, germany) and hong kong tends to have pretty decent quality control or at least they did back then.
G3s are made in china. china is also responsible for all that poisoned pet food and their cheaply made furniture.

im not impressed XD

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Ah. Yeah, that'd explain it.

Hong Kong really has a lot of awesome manufacturing stuff. I know a lot of BJDs are made there.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

I was really mostly griping about G1s as mint. An actually ming G1 is rare as hen's teeth, but I sure see a lot of auctions that /say/ mint on them... (And even more that say minty, augh!)

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Also I can't type. Ming dynasty ponies! *laughs*

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

Now I want to get a white pony and paint it in porcelain patterns.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

That would make a pretty spiffy custom, now that you mention it.

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

China blue eyes and delicate Oriental patterns. I bet I could get away with minimal rehairing ...

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

*laughs* If you do it, you have to post it to lj so I can see it!

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

I will. :3 Just gotta find a base for it. Ithink the Blossom pose, maybe ...

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

He he he.

You know it's funny finding a new enthusiasm, and seeing how many people on my friends list come out of the wood work and turn out to share it...

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

Well, I've been vaguely considering trying customizing since a friend of mine made a pony based on an OC she plays in a game I'm in.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

*nods* It's finding the right idea that does it. I'd thought vaguely about customizing for years, but it wasn't until I thought of doing Pink that I actually decided to give it a go.

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

I think the Ming pony will be fun~

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

You know what I want to do now? A Ming The Merciless pony! Heeeeeeeeeeee! That would be hilarious.

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

Hah, it would. XD

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Well, maybe after finishing the current batch of things, I'll make one. (I have a ki-rin, a dark side pony, and two secrit projekts in the works at the moment.)

[ellixis.livejournal.com]

Be sure and post~

[reaverta.livejournal.com]

Damnit.

I now have visions of a pony with a Ghengis Kahn moustache.

You know, one of those narrow, twirly ones.

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

i have several mint G1s. :)

MOC Snuzzle
MOC Gingerbread (now SHES freaking rare!)
Mint sparkle pony (wish i could remember her name XD shes blue with reddish hair)
Mint TE Mimic

i have more but i cant remember them offhand.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Awesome. I don't have any mints, the ones I kept were my favorites, they've been played with a lot, though they're in good shape for that.

I've decided to start a very limited collection, in addition to my customs. VERY limited, I'm only getting boy ponies. *grin*

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

ooh good luck. ;) i know alot of the boys are prone to cancer and stains. i only have 3 myself and theyre mot mint but i adore them. :)


im having some good lulz over at fursuit right now XD

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

I'm not after mint ones, or I'd never find them, and pay a ton if I did. I just would like to have ones about in the same condition as my Barnacle, who's a bit smudged and rubbed, but otherwise great.

And what's lulzworthy?

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

growly has no idea what shes doing. XD and rather than look it up online, she posted it in fursuit.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Ah! Right. *laughs*

[2dlife.livejournal.com]

Actually to be fair, most of the stuff that used to say "Made in Hong Kong" was back when China had closed borders and stuff was actually made in China and exported through Hong Kong since the West wasn't allowed to trade with China. Nowadays with open borders and aging factories (and profit margins so low there's no money to upgrade), you would expect quality to go down. There's a whole lot more stuff being made in China for all over the world, but it's not as good and there's a lot of pressure to cut corners.

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

um, ok.

o.0

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Don't mind C, he's what we call a "pedant." This means he lectures more than my mother. *grin* Just on different subjects.

[whippetluv.livejournal.com]

Ha! The thing is here is a loose definition for pony standards.
Mint...right off the card perfect
Near Mint...Mint but they are afraid to say so incase you see a tiny flicker of a spot and call them on it.
Minty...close to mint but not quite.
Excellent/Great/wonderful...usually a small spot or writing underneath hooves or dry hair
Good...bigger spots/marks/minor haircut, frizzy hair
Bair...something chewed on it, buried it, drew on it, or was a rough kid!

If pony collectors had windstone expectations in condition then ponies would be very very hard to find in collectors condition. After all they were toys, but windstones were art. NO one expects a 4 year old to play with a windstone! :)

But you will get used to it really. Oh and yeah overpriced shipping on ponies has been a problem for years!

But anyway.. Minty in pony collecting is a very acceptible definition of collecting and you just have to get used to it I am afraid!
*giggles*

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

It's idiotic. Minty is a name. Minty is a flavor. I am not going to "have to get used to it," I'm going to roll my eyes every single time I see it.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

And those are the right definitions by anybody's standards, of course. I'm complaining about people who SAY mint when what they've got is "excellent." In Windstones or ponies, it happens both places. I don't expect all ponies to be mint. They're toys. That's fine. I don't expect all Windstones to be mint either, most of my collection is very much NOT mint! And I'm happy to buy ponies that are not mint. But I do expect an honest/i> description of all flaws though. When it says "mint" and I can SEE IN YOUR CRAPPY PHOTO that it is not mint, that's pathetic.

[keplilly.livejournal.com]

I can understand. I always have hated inaccurate descriptions when doing ebay.

[loweko.livejournal.com]

Mint, alas, is rapidly becoming like "rare" or worse "OOP" in terms of uselessness on ebay.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

OOP?

[asciiskull.livejournal.com]

Out of package.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Ah. I would rather think that would be the default, and "in package" the only thing one need mention. But apparently not.

[loweko.livejournal.com]

Out Of Production, actually.

[doran-eirok.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain, it seems like wading through "minty" as being both the pony's name as well as an ill-advised condition description (is it like 'mint-ish' or something?) would be a bit of a nightmare. And I hate when people do the wow-a-pretty-reasonable-price-but-whoops-lookit-that-I'm-charging-three-times-the-item-value-in-shipping thing too. Drives me up the wall!

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

It's like "in perfectish condition" some things are not analogues!