If your like me you love your painted ponies ... and your first editions are your most precious ... Ill never forget how i felt when i opened the box that contained my first Edition " Rosie the Apparoosa " she was so pretty and had been wrapped so carefully ... she still sits at the center of my collection.

  My husband and I decided that if i were going to keep collecting these ponies that i had better start figuring out how to offset some of the cost ... so I started picking up more than one when i found some nice first editions at the Department stores and held on to them for a while . then i started listing them on ebay and was doing quite well with my sales ... I had won  a "Spirit war pony " on an ebay auction, and then found one with a lower number at an estate sale so decided I would sell the one I had purchased on ebay ...  The auction was going splendidly and I had reached my reserve ... It was then that I recieved an email from a very friendly collector telling me that she did not believe that the number on my Spirit war pony was authentic. She explained to me that the year of copy write date on the bottom of the pony did not match up with the release year ... Well i was gonna show her . I emailed the president of the Trail and asked him to verify that my pony was authentic... Much to my dismay he verified that the pony was indeed an authentic Trail of the painted ponies "Spirit war pony " but was more than likely a 4th or 5th edition . I was devistated ... I immediatly ended my auction and emailed the bidder who was in the lead that there had been an issue with the pony and if it became available i would let them know . The whole time I was thinking to myself that this couldnt be .. the numbers on the bottom were painted on .. how could anyone change it ??? Well the numbers are actually very easy to remove this is no longer a big secret. And it doesnt take a genius to write in new numbers.

  So when shopping for your next Pony ... be sure that you know exactly what you are getting. Always ask for a picture of the bottom of the first edtion pony so that you know what you are getting ... don't settle for blurry or dark photos that you cannot read ... If the seller will not send you a picture or has excuses as to why they cannot ... I honestly would not buy from them ... Sure you risk losing that low number pony ... but you also eliminate the possiblility that you are getting a pony with an altered number . . you can get release information from the Trail of Painted pony website on  when each pony was released . If your pony is truely a first edition the Release year and the copy write year should be the same . There have been a few instances of ponies being having a different copy write year than the release year but they are extremely rare... so rare as a matter of fact that the Trail will not verify their existance for sure . Untill the end of 2004 The trail was an Lcc so on releases earlier than that the copywrite shoud read "  Trail of painted ponies LCC"   after that it is written "Trail of painted Ponies inc" and it is written that way on all ponies made after January 2005 .  So if you have any questions on when your pony was released always check the Trail of Painted Ponies website under "figurines and more " then under "release information " Be wary of sellers that will not supply pictures of pony bottoms  ... and dont bid until you have all of your information .