Accidentally Buying a Copy: What Should They Do?

if I where in her shoes and that happend to me, I would quit the hobby for the online attacks. She didn't know better and shouldn't been treated that way, but with does reactions I can't be surpise if anyone left the hobby.

But I would keep the doll if the emotions for it is still there. But I know better and would do some research befor buying a doll.

 

You think that, yes. But I think I don't have to read. What I want to read is where it says it's illegal, because I like black on white/proof on proof.

Another question; if a person buys a recast, on purpose, does that person get banned or/and be hated?

And I really feel I have to say this: I don't own a recast, I'm not planning on buying one either. I want to say this because I don't want to be hated just because of an opinion.

And thank you for answering.

Don't answer. Found it. Thank you anyway!

 

(Sorry for bumping up an old thread but I gotta share my two cents)

You spent the money, you bought props you basically made this thing your baby and even though it won't be allowed here doesn't mean someone should get rid of their precious doll even if it's off topic. I still have my vinyl BJD's but I don't talk about 'em or post them outside of DeviantART or other sites. No one said we had to go all salem witch hunt on a person who accidentally bought a doll and made it theirs.

If I accidentally bought a recast I'd give hell to the ebay seller and demand a refund or at least a partial refund and report them to ebay as a fruad but I wouldn't destroy my doll. It's not the dolls fault.

I actually remember a girl who got a BJD of her dreams and posted his box opening and everything...I even commented on it congratulating her cause I ran into her talking about her first doll so excited and eager...Only to wind up questioning his authenticity and found out through other DOA members that he was a recast.

I could feel the horror and fears in her posts after that and of course the thread was locked but I felt horrible for the girl and I really wished I could've done something to at least help her feel better. I'm not sure if she got her money back but I felt just heartbroken FOR her. If my Avalon heaven forbid wound up being a recast I don't know what I'd do...I wouldn't get rid of him he's my baby for god's sake. I'd just stop posting him here...But he's legit. Totally legit.

Yes recasts are bad but the people who buy them by mistake...Is it fine to start jumping down their throats and basically act like they themselves re-casted the damn thing?

 

To those that are saying that someone who is buying such an expensive doll should have already known recasts exist/been more careful- keep in mind, even more mainstream sites that talk about BJD don't often delve into discussion about recasts.
I first found BJDs through Danny Choo, and as far as I can recall, never once has he mentioned recasts in his blog, nor do I often see a lot about it on DA or Figure.FM.

While ideally everyone would have access to DoA and have some kind of "beginner's guide" they could easily download and learn these things from, as far as I can tell, nothing like this is easily accessible. People don't necessarily all know about recasts until they're already part of the hobby and participating in discussions on here, which is how I found out about them.

This isn't a lack of knowledge or effort on the part of those who don't know about recasts, as it is our responsibility to teach the newer collectors what they need to know about avoiding recasts.

I think the best solution to any of these problems lies in finding a better way of introducing new collectors to the hobby. Within the NewbieLand area, or even when they're first accepted, people should be given a PDF file giving a sort of welcome and a how-to for BJDs. You know, sites to buy from, tell-tale signs of recasts or con artists, explain yellowing and maybe stringing, and just general safety precautions (involving things like sealant and sanding resin and such). I feel like it would make it a lot easier on everyone if people knew right away that this is a big issue and how to avoid becoming a victim of someone selling a recast.

 

If people want to make inexpensive dolls that is fine. But they should take the first steps and create their own. I'm not knowledgeable about the process but I know how it feels to see your own art work posted and claimed by someone else. SO different from when someone approaches me and asks if they can use my art for something. Permission and respect for the creative art process is vital to our community. I have a kind of crass mental picture that carries my own feelings about recasts. The people who make them are like someone who POOPS in the pool we are all swimming in. I'd like to discourage that. Might be a small thing, but has a way of permeating ~ '
That being said, I have an old, relative to our hobby, Volks recast. Since buying her, I've never even taken her out of my house. But I do love that doll. Like someone said, [if you have a strong imagination this will compute] I feel like it isn't the dolls fault. Maybe because she has some age on her I feel a soul from her. I've seen the recast sites. Some will show up when you run a search for a legitimate doll. A good rule of thumb there is, if the prices are too good to be true...you know the rest. I look at THOSE dolls, they feel soul-less. But I haven't bought and invested myself in them.
'
I hope I'm on topic enough. I belong to a local facebook bjd group. We had some hot debate and a "multiplication" of the group occurred. Conflict is a part of life. No reason for it not to leak into the hobby world too.

 

This is a very good question. I think if by any chance there was a newbie like that, or anyone who bought a copy we should gently point that out since we don't know if they do that accidentally or intentionally. i won't talk about the cases people buy it intentionally.
second Anneke, alienating her only make her hates her doll (and herself more). would that help preventing companies from making copies? No! so why do we have to do that?
If she can't escape the guilt of bying a copy, then I might sugestting her to do some mod? or hybrid? You know, like giving the doll a new life? Like reproducing it maybe?
Haha i'm giving suggestion like this is a real case haha!

 

Personally, I think the buyer's fault where recasts are concerned is knowingly purchasing a knock-off. If you love a sculpt and love a particular doll or company, you buy the doll from the company, you get the genuine thing. You wouldn't download/buy a copy of your favourite band's CD, no matter how much cheaper it was. You'd save up and get the genuine thing, you'd support the artist.

But if you don't know, then where is the fault? If you are new to a hobby, it is easy to make mistakes. If you enter the hobby alone, these mistakes are very easy to make.
If you are comfortable keeping the doll knowing the stigma attached to it, if you love this doll with all your heart despite the fact that you yourself may be outcast or prejudiced against for owning it...by all means keep it. The damage is done.

 

I have actually almost had this happen to me back when I was looking for my first doll, luckily I knew a few people who knew more about bjds than i did and they were able to tell me it was a knock-off and steer me to a reputable seller on ebay. Since then I've learned a few sites to avoid for dolls but their clothes are fine usually, and sellers on ebay such as ownnowwin or however they spell it who are openly admitting to the dolls being recasts (please report them if you get the chance to bump their priority to ebays "quality control" whatever XD)

 

So, DOAers, what should she do? Should she choose what appears to be a morally right path, and get rid of her beloved doll?

Well, it's totally up to how the owner feel, isn't it? I don't think it's more moral to get rid of the doll. The owner needs to make sure that no one else accidentally buys a copy--so it's best not to let it out of the house. But that doesn't mean she can't enjoy the doll... just should not post photos on DoA. I think it would be interesting so see a copy, so see if it is really that similar to the original dolls. it can be informative--just not on DoA as far as picture-posting. (Information posting--I think that is OK???)

Should she keep her doll while remaining on the board, though she doesn't post pictures, bearing the stigma of having purchased a fake?

Well, it's not her fault. I'm sure most people would understand that and not blame her. So... whatever she decides... stay on the board, but don't post pictures, or whatever.

Should she disappear altogether, never to be seen on the board again?

It's not her fault. (but people need to be careful, because buying from the re-cast sellers only encourages them) I would hope that people would be nice about it.

And maybe she could just tell people about what happened so that others don't get scammed by the guys selling these re-casts???

What would you do if you inadvertantly purchased a fake you'd fallen in love with? I know what I would do; but I'm curious as to what others think.

I'm not sure what I'd do... I've been trying to be very careful, so that this doesn't happen to me. And I've been trying to do whatever I can to stop the thieves in my little small ways (posting info and reporting them when I can).

I think I would keep the doll to make sure no one else buys it, and not take photos or promote the doll. And would try to do better in the future to not get fooled by people selling copies. I'd still stay on DoA, of course.

 

What a sad situation! Well,it's not the same as buying a recast on purpose,something you should never do. But it's not your fault if you trusted the wrong people and bought one by mistake. Hell,I didn't even know recasts existed until I joined DOA. It never even crossed my mind that people would rip off doll artists or that people would actually buy them. It's very easy for a trusting person to get scammed in this hobby.
I don't think the girl should post any more pics of her doll,but she shouldn't get rid of it either. She should simply be more careful and only buy from reputable sources from now on.
If something like that happened to me,I don't think I would stay on DOA. The whole experience would be ruined for me.

 

If this was me I would keep the doll a secret, but still love it all the same. Getting rid of it would only cause more grief. The seller already got away with it. Can't change the past unfortunately.

 

We actually had something similar happen on my German doll-board. Someone bought a doll from eBay and found out, when it arrived, it was a recast (bad quality, crumbling resin ...). That incident caused quite a lot of discussion, especially since the vibe some of us - me included - were getting from that person was that she was more upset about not having been told right away she was buying a recast than about buying a recast. I have to admit I was pretty harsh with her - I would have been more sympathetic, though, if it hadn't been quite so obvious she didn't mind owning a recast and basically, just was upset about having paid too much for it. (Was interesting, too, how many people on that board don't mind recasts ... might want to change over to a different doll-forum.)

As for me - what would I do? I wouldn't keep the doll. I'd probably hand it over to customs to have them dispose of it. It would be very, very hard to do so but to me, personally, that would be the only right thing to do. Now, if someone unwittingly bought a recast and really, really loved the doll and couldn't part with it - I could totally understand if they decided to keep it. Wouldn't give them a hard time about it, either. But as for people who buy recasts on purpose - no sympathy for those and I don't have any problems being very, very harsh to them, either.

 

The only crime being committed is the crime of ignorance. Keep the doll, enjoy it, take photos but dont post them on here. Even recast dolls have a price that involves someones time etc. thats why they are cheap like the fashion knockoffs. Put the photos on flikr or somewhere else and let the world see what you enjoy and make it clear who the maker is, the name of the doll etc. People will either love it or loathe it and thats their prerogative. Its a good question though. It would be sad if this was the persons first experience with BJD's and they got hounded for buying a fake when they didnt know it was a fake nor did they understand the rules of the forum. Good lesson learnt for all.

 

Here's an idea. Porcelain doll artists sculpt a certain mold and then sell a few dolls of that sculpt for thousands of dollars. Then they sell the molds to other doll artists to use until the mold wears out, at which point the other doll artists buy new molds. The original sculptor still makes money from the molds. Why can't the Korean and Japanese companies do the same? Make a some dolls and incise them on the back of the head and neck as, e.g. Soom mold 18, 1 of 100, made in Korea, and sell them for $700. Then sell the molds to Chinese companies and charge a license fee for each doll, say $20, but mark these dolls as Soom mold 18, made in China. The Korean companies would still make money from the sales, the dolls would still be genuine Sooms, they would be much cheaper (maybe $250), and the whole issue of recasts would just go away.

 

How is that fair? That would prevent them from making any money from limited sales because no one would buy them. The prices of limited dolls are high so that companies can make back the money they spent developing the sculpt, not because they want to charge high prices!

 

That's a toughie. But in the end, I think I'd keep the doll too.

 

Some people would still buy the limited dolls for the prestige. And the people who buy the cheap dolls would never buy the expensive limiteds, anyhow. Licensing the molds would enable the original companies to still make money from the fees, thus getting reimbursed for the costs of development. If this system works for porcelain artists, it should work for resin artists. Or look at Mattel: they sell some expensive limited edition Barbies for thousands of dollars (check fashion doll magazines), yet they make most of their money from the drugstore and toy store cheap Barbies.

 

This happened to me.

When I was 14, and in my first year of high school, I met a girl who introduced me to BJDs. She had a picture of DoD E-an on her binder, and I went and looked at the website. I literally thought this was the only website that sold BJDs on the internet. I had barely even started using the internet at this time, lol! I fell in love with DoC Petsha, but my mom laughed me out the door when she saw the price. She was astonished that the doll came with no clothing or makeup. She told me if I found a doll that came with everything, and was under $200, I could buy it.

So here goes stupid 14 year old me, using the only other resource for buying things on the internet that I know of, eBay. I was extremely ignorant. I found a doll, it wasn't labeled under any sculpt name. I think the listing just said something like "1/3 BJD Full Set". He was $180. Biggest red flag ever, but at the time, I thought, "wow what a good deal! I love the way he looks!" Showed him to my mom, and she let me buy him with the money I had saved. He shipped in two weeks. Oi. All of the red flags!

After I got him, I joined DoA (with the guidance of my high school friend, who had just discovered it), and posted some pictures. Immediately, I got loads of comments as well as moderation PMs about my doll being a recast. I had my gallery locked and deleted, and was informed never to post him again.

Needless to say, I felt horrible. Not only was this one of my first posts, making me feel very unwelcome, but I also felt like I had committed a horrendous crime. I had supported an art-theif without my knowledge. I was an ignorant child, and I vowed to never let myself or anyone else interested in the hobby who I talked to make the mistake I had made ever again.

I don't take pictures of this doll, ever. I don't want to spread images of him around on the internet. I don't want anyone to think that they want this doll, or to go looking for him in all the wrong places. But I do love him. I am emotionally attached to him, he was my first doll. I can't ever sell him anyways. Even if someone wanted him, I wouldn't sell him to them, because he is a recast. Stolen art should not be spread around, period.

I was dumb. I was young. I was ignorant and uneducated. But I am so, so grateful that DoA is here to spread awareness of this sort of thing to newcomers.

 

I was in a similar situation as that girl was. I am just recently knew to the 'hobby', and when I first got introduced to them I fell in love with them! So I did want to have my very own, but I was unaware of the prices, let alone recasts. I wanted a Fairlyland MiniFee, and then I didn't even know Fairyland was a company. So I was gobsmacked at the prices these dolls were (since I was new to the hobby). Anyways, one of the top search results in Google was a very cheap MiniFee. And it looked so legit, so I fell in love and purchased her. I was very excited, and thrilled that I just purchased my first ever Bjd.

So I started researching more about Bjd's and the companies/ how to look after them etc. And the topic 'recasts' came up, and I had no idea what recasts were. After reading more about it, I started getting worried that my doll was a knock-off. I clicked on a link to DOA and it was about 'banned dolls' and had a list of illegal companies etc. And the company I purchased from was on the list. It was the worst feeling ever. I felt like my heart was in my throat. I started getting angry at myself, thinking that I just wasted all my money that I saved for this doll. As well as feeling lied to. But I requested for a full refund, and to my surprise, I GOT IT!

I went straight to dollfairyland.com and finally purchased my legit doll from there, (felt like the safest thing to do). If I couldn't of gotten my refund, I wouldn't of loved the doll the same. As soon as I found out I purchased a fake, it just wasn't the same for me anymore. I would of just given it to my little cousin as a gift or something.

But for that girl, if she still loves it the same/ has the same connection, she should keep it.

I just know for me that whenever I looked at the doll, all I could see was a lie.
But thank God I got a full refund. And now my legit doll is on the way. :3

 

I don't know. I personally don't mind recasts. If you don't like it just mod them. I mean I've seen many DOA members Modded their legit company dolls. But, anyway that's just me.