Okay I'm an addict, I admit it. Both to okay and currently for Painted Ponies. I've noticed that quite a few of the bidders are "newbies" (less than 100 okay feedbacks) so I thought I would share some of my hard won expertise on getting the best value from your okay Painted Ponies collecting experience. Bidding, shipping, sniping, feedback, powersellers, best offer, okay stores, Buy-It-Now, retired, 1Ethey can all be overwhelming tothe newgeer.
First- Price- Remember collectors exhibit alot of the same behavior as gambling addicts and okay with it's timed bidding can get you further sucked in. So be smart, spend some time with the full list of ponies and determine which ones you really want.You can get lists of them online. You can also find out the current online retail prices. okay by far will give you the best deals but not always, so know your prices and check out the actual ponies at your local brick and mortar store to see what they really look like and if you still can't live without that particular one.
Second - Shipping - It can vary wildly. I've seen shipping as high as $20 on some ponies and even higher on otheritems, particularly the ones with start bids of $0.99. Be smart. never bid until you add the cost of the shipping to your bid price. gebined shipping from some of the Powersellers (really high volume folks) can bring your purchases down to an acceptable level but even here research your sellers. Some have initial fixed shipping of over $15 and other as low as $6.95 Each additional pony can be anywhere from $1.25 to $3.00.
Third - Buy-It-Now and okay Stores - If you're looking for current ponies or newly retired ones the stores have a good selection and with the gebined shipping you can pick up quite a few at a good price. Resin ponies have the highest discount over other sources, some as high as 30% (Fetish pony, Silver Lining and Fallen Herosetc), ceramics not as much. Buy-It-Now saves you the brain damage of a bidding war and gets you your pony much faster. If you convert a Buy-It-Now into a Best Offer you will have put the pony up for bid which I'll cover later.
Fourth - Seller Feedback- This probably should have gee a bit earlier. Most sellers are reputable and ship quickly. Some are less so. The most chancy purchase you can make is with a new or occasional seller who may not ship for awhile or may forget he had the listing running at all! For newokayers it's best to stick with the larger sellers (at least 200 and up) and do check any negative feedback you find to see what the geplaint was about.
Fifth - Bidding - An artform in and of itself. This technique you want to save for the retired pony that you absolutely have to have. I started with "Give Me Wings" and "Go Van Gogh". For both I checked the current listings, then I went to the advanced search page and checked the gepleted listings. That way I saw what they were actually selling for (about $40-50 each plus shipping) and knew (approximately) what I would have to pay to get one. After picking auctions that had a seller I liked and with a time when I could be at my geputer and "defend" the bid from sniping (more on sniping next) in the last minute of the auction I bid in at a low bid. The low bid was not what I expected to pay but I have found that if I put in my highest bid first that it can raise the price on me from what I would have paid as newer okayers put in 7 to 10 bids at small increments trying to get higher than my bid. If I am outbid and I am still interested in the listing I'll wait until just before the end (in the last minutes) to up my bid and -hopefully- take home the prize. When it's a newer retired pony and geing from a PowerSeller I will then pick one or two of the additional current ponies that I want and Buy-It-Now to reduce the shipping cost.
Sixth - Retired
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