What does a mini pet mean to you?

So I was posting in the "What did you get for your 7th Year Birthday" thread when it got out of hand and got closed. Personally, I think it should be cleaned up and re opened but that's not for me to decide.

So on to my question.

What does a mini pet mean to you? Well, for me it actually is like the pokeman ideal where you have to collect them all. But knowing that some minis are out of reach for the wrong reasons, I decided smartly to stick to the ones that are only released for Birthdays. Sure, I have celestial ones and a ceratadon because they were easy and cheap to collect and trade for. I enjoy my collection and the only ones I need are from the 5th years presents. Nine in total left to collect.

Unfortunately 7th year minis now also include asian ones that I'm guessing drop in extremely rare cases once again starting the cycle of overpriced minis all over again. Making it hard for players like myself who could care less about the cost of the minis and enjoy the completion side of collecting. My whiptail is as valuable as any green mini sort of thing.

I'll never waste my life by giving up on friends and family and a social life to farm for these just to say I have one. I'll never botfarm to acquire money to buy one either. My account is too valuable and my life is worth more then a few minutes of showing a mini in a town or outpost when 95% of the people there could care less.

So what's a minis value to you? Is it money? Prestige? Is it something that just looks cool? Something I haven't thought about? Post your thoughts.


***mod edit--keep this about the topic--mod edit***

Expensive minis make you better than everyone else. Obviously.

The only reason I have ever bought Mini pets is for my HoM.

I never have one out, and as soon as I have dedicated my mini, I delete it. Now I have 50/50, I have no need for minis, and I will sell all future birthday gifts unopened.

different pets mean different things
the vast majority of them are HoM dedicating fodder.
some are ones I just really want
others are purely investment

I will take whatever I get and put them in my HoM's. I wanted mini's for the 6th year, the tonics are worthless to me.

After I've dedicated enough pets for hom (after which I delete them because they hog space), I have usually sold most new minis I get. However, I have kept three (celestial Dragon, Tiger, and pig). I have dedicated them and kept them on three of my chars because they were given to me by a generous guildie during their respective CNY. They are also currently the only gold pets I have ever owned in my almost 7 years of guildwars (and I do have quite a few characters...I hate my luck).

Anyways, basically...it depends on how I get the mini and whether it is sentimental or not.

Besides HoM, the only minis I really care about are the bunnies. That's pretty much it :P

although, I'm not saying I would turn down any pandas either...

The majority of them are HoM fodder and they were either destroyed or given away after dedicating except for the few that I like. I don't have the time to try to sell dedicated mini pets since their demand is so low and they do take up valuable space.

Honestly I can't be bothered with the rare asian minis or whatever. Since they are purely cosmetic and doesn't affect my performance in PvE. Most people in town don't care if you are rich or you have a rare mini. I certainly don't.

I have been selling all my birthday minis, even the rare green ones. The ultimate destiny of a mini is to be dedicated in someone's HoM anyway.

most of my minis mean nothing--a few have sentimental value (like kunnie) and a few others I just really liked (my hubby loves his turtle--he like turtles in RL so that would figure).
I collect (in RL) cute stuffed toys--and the minis that look like cute stuffed toys are ones I would like to have (panda, mpb) and I have some of the cute ones --moa chick, yakki....

I dont care for the people ones for the most part (I like evinnia so I got her) and most of the creature ones are meh or bleh (and yes, some of these are 'high end' --vizu, 'sin, etc)
THEN
it turned into the pokemon thing (I do this with the RL stuffies too--much to my hubby's dismay)...though I have no doubt that my collection will remain unfinished (my hubby is happy about that in RL too--some items are just too rare or too costly to obtain).

I agree. Although perhaps a second thread should be open for "Screenshots Only" to confirm what minis are in the presents.

When I first played the game, I didn't care about minis. Then a friend of mine gave me a mini temple guardian and I was hooked! I decided then that I wanted to collect all the minis. Little did I know that some ranged in prices of over thousands of ectos. I thought - how could someone get that much?

I have not reached my goal yet but I hope I will be able to now if the highest end minis drop from 7th Yr Presents.

I don't think all minis should be available to everyone for a low price. I kind of value minis as collectables like baseball cards or coins in real life. Some maintain value, some go down, others go up. It's what makes collecting them half the fun in my opinion.

I like them because they remind me of my favorite parts of the game; Aatxes, smites, raptors are all awesome to me because I've spent so much time with them in-game. I'd pay huge for a spectral vaettir for the same reason. My moa chick I keep because it was hard work way back when to get it, and my celestial rabbit is my lucky charm because I only had to open a few fortunes to get it.

None of the others really appeal to me at all. A shiroken would be cool, but the only thing I'd want from any of the others is their value as alternative currency. And I don't have enough cash to need that.

it means HOM statue

HoM points, that's about it. This is the only game I've ever actually collected more than 5 pets in, and only because there was a point to it beyond the obvious collecting. I never take my time to stop and look at peoples pets, although the chibi gwen has always held a place in my heart.. lol

Well to me, Zhed is the only mini I want just because there one of the cooler minis IMO...not much you can do with money in this game after you've played 7 years . Anyone know why unded Zhed is like 75a now? Just message me an answer or something, I really wanna know cause I have to know if I should hussle my hussle to get one now or will they drop more. anyway, staying on topic, basically I like minis because there is nothing else to get in this game.

one less inventory slot, somthing to dedicate than delete.

Nothing really....I just buy them for HoM...and I persaonlly never take them out except for mad imp..thats the only one I know with movemnt animation that is just cool...

I started playing before the HoM calculator, so when I heard about minis I viewed them as a nice token to commemorate a year of playing. I only intended to own the minis I earned.

I had no idea what was going on my first CNY, so missed the ox (I did eventually buy one to make up for it, only because I had no idea if the game would still be around in 2021 for me to have another crack at it), but I did the quests for my celestial tiger (and subsequent celestials), and enjoyed the first year whites (and occasional purple) I opened. I also had a lot of fun with the moa chick quest, and have done a couple of MPB runs.... These things have an emotional symbolism for me.

It was with a bit of sadness that I had to take mini gifts from friends and buy a bunch of latter-year minis to fill my hall. They don't feel truly "mine."

So I guess to me, a mini pet is like a souvenir -- a reminder of an experience.

They do NOTHING. I wish you could convert them to a con set or something, once you dedicated them.

Some minis I refuse to sell. They are part of my characters. Example being my yakkington and my celestial dragon.

They're a wasted inventory slot, except the expensive ones. Those are an extremely good use of an inventory slot due to wealth compaction. I hear you can make them walk around too, which might entertain some people.