Are Doll Companies Biased?

Really unfair, but quite common. On the other side, the quotes of different companies on En websites are qutie close. It seems the "market price" on English website.

 

I think that more and more overseas BJD companies have realized that there is a good market for their products in the U.S. But all the issues that are incumbent with doing business in the U.S. have probably made things more complex and expensive for them so that might account for increased prices for the U.S. consumer.

I have noticed on a couple of their English language websites that they will happily sell you a doll that is only for sale on their original sites if you are interested.

For myself, I'm just happy that so many of the overseas companies have made the attempt to accomodate their U.S. consumer base!

*edit to add: Since I live only in the U.S. my response is based only on my personal experience. Yes, I'm aware that the United States is not the only country Asian BJD companies market to. Any assumption to the contrary is erroneous.

 

This is just me being a little anal but their international customer base isn't just the US, there are just as many of us in other parts of the world.


If anything you guys are lucky because the USD has become the currency of choice for BJD stores/forums, the rest of us still have to deal with exchange rates to USD from our own currency so at any given time we might be paying even more or in some cases less than you.

 

I don't know about price bias, but the 'availability of certain dolls only within the country' is certainly not bias. For example, shipping. It's always a little bit iffy if something will happen to a product in shipping, and I can understand why they wouldn't want to ship something so precious (to the artist who sculpted it, certainly) overseas and chance damage.

As for price difference and/or special offers for people of country of origin (On some websites, I've seen discounts if you use a certain korean bank, etc.), I'm not really sure why. You'd think that shipping would cover shipping costs, so there shouldn't be too much of a difference. Perhaps translation fees? You might have a point about extorting english speakers, but I just don't know. =/

 

Including us 'up here' to the north. For the record, I find Asian doll companies and eBay sellers much easier to deal with than American (with JunkySpot being the one shining exception), given the sheer amount of geography that seperates me from Korea, China, and Japan. Sure, customer service inquiries sometimes come back in rather convoluted 'Engrish' but -having spent a fair amount of time when I was growing up among new Canadians and exchange students from Asian countries- I can usually get the gist of the communication; more often than not the odd phrasing is charming and exotic, a welcome reminder that my dolls are something very special, coming from a very different place in the world than where I live.

There are an awful lot of US companies that simply won't sell to a Canadian customer, or if they do charge ursurous, ridiculous shipping & handling fees, or try to send items via an overpriced courier service when regular mail would not only suffice, but get here faster and more reliably.

One thing I am really grateful for, is that Lati took the charge for my Red at point of order, not shipping...::eyes plummetting $CAN sadly:: DH is still gonna screech when he sees it's $100 more with exchange No new dollehs for this tigger in the next year, I don't think ~^vxv^

 

I couldn't agree more. I buy a lot from Hong Kong and Japanese sellers on eBay and never ever has there been any problem in shipping it to Europe. On the other hand, one in ten American seller will even consider shipping abroad, and that at totally insane shipping costs (and no, those are NOT the actual shipping costs.. I can look up the rates, too)

Occasionally you find someone (like DenverDoll) who actually ships to you and only charge the actual cost of the shipping - but they're few and far between when it comes to American sellers. Sorry guys, I have a LOT of very good friends in the US, but it sometimes seems like there's a general unawareness of a world actually *existing* out side of the US of A...

As for doll companies charging extra form overseas customers... well.. why shouldn't they? As much as we like to think of our dolls as unique pieces of handmade resin art, the fact is that we're talking about companies here. Business. Any sound business will earn money where they can, anything else would be stupid. They're not giving the dolls away with an intention of loosing money on it.

Remember, it's not like anyone forces us to buy a specific doll. It's all a question of taking as much as the market will allow. Make the dolls too expensive and you'll lose buyers and money. Strangely enough the opposite is true, at least partially, too: Make your dolls too cheap, and people will think they're crap and not buy them either...

 

~Do doll companies show favoritism towards people of their own country?
Of course they do. Country of origin is where they are, where they got their start. It's the easiest way to get the most money for their efforts. They probably don't have to comp so much in the way of dolls damaged in transit and lost completely, since it's a shorter trip. They are dealing with other people who speak the same language. So yeah, there's a lot of advantages to dealing with the same county.

~Are they trying to get more money out of English-speaking customers, and why?
No, they're trying to cover the costs of running an English site, translators for emails and questions from English speakers so things are resolved quickly. They need money to cover the fluctuating currency. They need increased shipping and insurance covered. So, no, they're not trying to get more money out of us. They're trying to cover their costs with dealing with us.
~What are other reasons that their prices are different between the different-language stores/certain dolls and doll events are limited to their own country?
Well, certain stores are going to want to give their home country a chance at that limited doll, or special edition, or one off, first and foremost. Which makes sense to me. Why not give your first supporting crowd a reward for being there the whole way through? Also, they don't have to worry once again about damages and replacements as much when shipping locally like that.

As to Doll Events, most doll companies are not going to want to put out the money to send officials and dolls over here for us to oogle at. I know Volks does, and one other(?I think?), but Volks is huge. Smaller companies that will do it at home, probably just can't warrant the cost of coming over and doing it. I'm sure eventually US dollie events will be more common (And maybe other countries too) but for right now, they're not.


so, all in all, no, I don't think the companies are really biased. They are, however, companies that recognize and increased cost in dealing with over seas and forgien language buyers, and are trying to cover that a little.

 

I saw one company who had an 'estimated price'. After you bought the doll is took the current exchange rate and determined the price. I though this was brilliant. Then you KNOW you're not being cheated.

Just something I thought I'd add. But I don't think some companies are biased. Some probablly are, but that's life.

 

I was looking at *coughbadlytranslatedcough* versions of Korean sites and English next to them, and I'm not quite sure, but I think another difference is that stringing isn't included in the price...
At least, when I added in what I presumed were things included in you US doll, they appeared to be only about $50 difference or so. So maybe they aren't so biased? *shrug* I can't say for certain though, I'm dealing with my VERY substandard knowledge of the language.

 

I think it's perfectly normal for a business to be "biased" in favor of closer customers. When you have to start shipping over distances it becomes harder to compete on price, plus if it's cross-border sometimes they have tax concerns in addition to customs concerns.
Many sellers of goods other than dolls just don't ship cross-border at all. I think it's pretty cool that the doll companies make the adjustments they do to sell to the US - and as people have pointed out it's in their advantage to do so as there is a big US market for their goods. But, it's silly to think that there aren't costs involved with that.

 

For the ebay thing, I have helped others here purchase something have it sent to me, and I send it on to them for the ACTUAL shipping cost. Some just don't want to deal with the extra paperwork, which isn't THAT much more work. If any of you want to do that, PM me! I don't mind helping you out!

As for being biased? Yes, but hey, that country is where they got started. Doesn't bother me save when I want that doll or that outfit, lol. Sometimes it's the thrill of the hunt. ^^

 

What are other reasons that their prices are different between the different-language stores/certain dolls and doll events are limited to their own country?

I think it's not so. Aren't there some limited dolls "special for" foreign dealers site? Take that new Dollzone girl for DenverDoll as example... And I know I've seen something like that before too. So... companies do limited dolls for all people they have business with, not only in-country. It's just not many companies have well-established dealers now... I think 2-3 years more - and we'll have more of "western limiteds of ABJD".
As for doll events - the price of going abroad for several people and decent quantity of BJD will be so high those dolls will be worth their weight in gold. So... as much as i'd like to see something like that - it's better not. ))

 

Well, I think they may be biased, but it is common and not hard to understand. This type of things not only happen in the doll world, but other marketplace as well. For example, Clinique is three times cheaper here in US than in China, and similar to other makeup brands. The thing is when a company sell things to other countries, they need to calculate and consider if people in other countries will buy-in. Because different cultures and other things, the most popular dolls in Korea or Japan may not be the most popular one in US. So, to them, there are so many things to consider before selling them to other countries.

 

I don't see anything wrong with it. After all, each country has it's own culture and way of life. As big as DoA is, BJDs are still sort of an "underground" thing in countries outside of Asia. So owning one is more of a privilege/splurge than a right. And they kind of have to make up for the fact that they won't sell as many dolls to foreigners as they will to people inside their own country, right?

 

I don't really think there's much of a bias as you may think. I think it's more of a "More work involved" charge. XD Shipping outside of one's own country is probably a pain in the butt and there might be exportation charges or fees they have to pay on the income they get for the dolls. Or maybe it's a percentage of the price to convert currencies that we're being charged. *shrug*

I may not particularly like to know that I'm being charged more than someone that lives over there, but it probably has its reason for being that way, even if it is just because they know I can't speak Korean/Japanese/Chinese XD

 

I don't think companies are showing favoritism by having an Exclusive doll for a region or time specific. I mean the upcoming Dolpa event, Miruku is Dolpa only, it's not just international customers that can't get her, but anyone that can't make it to that Dolpa. So it's not any kind of negative on anyone's part. As a company you want to make things fresh for your oldest market, and LEs are a good way to do that. It's much easier for someone to walk into one of these stores and pick up a standard release doll. How do you keep interest then? Further more, as mentioned Volks does US exclusives. And they're hardly the only ones, a lot of companies are started to do more. Dollzone had not one but two US Dealer Exclusive the one for Junkyspot and the one for Denver Doll. They're hardly the only ones. Angel Region reopened but the first website they reopened was their English one, the Korean and Japanese were down during their "comeback" week. The Japanese one is still down. What does that tell you about their current market?

 

~Do doll companies show favoritism towards people of their own country? To a given extent, yes- local business is far easier to manage and maintain than international business. Locally you don't have to deal with customs or overseas shipping and things tend to work more smoothly.

~Are they trying to get more money out of English-speaking customers, and why? Maybe. I know a lot of the sites recently went through and lowered their prices to corespond with the exchange rates changing, so the 'much higher prices' might be from translation errors or the changing economy more than them attempting to take advantage of foreigners.

~What are other reasons that their prices are different between the different-language stores/certain dolls and doll events are limited to their own country? Local promotions, event promotions where the makers will actually be present, etc etc- it isn't realistic to expect every event doll to be available outside of the event or for every event to be available in every market.

 

I must admit, the price differences didn't worry me because they used to be only slight. Now it's more extreme. Dollstown is one of my favourite companies, but to order a 15Girl body from the Korean site, would apparently cost US $390 at current exchange rates and from the English $510. I think that's a little extreme. I see Luts have reduced their prices substantially but few other companies seem to be acknowledging the currency changes. I'm guessing it's basically greed and that until people stop buying, things won't change. I can't blame them, but I do tend to think it's exploiting their foreign markets a little. The companies were fairly fast to put up price changes when the currency went against them.

 

This. When a company ships overseas, there is far more cost involved than just the price of the courier.

 

International business does cost more than domestic, and I think the reasons have been well stated in previous posts.

As for bias in terms of limited dolls... I do think that it is a way to make an event special by offering a limited edition doll to those who can attend.

*side note: about international shipping from the USA... Paypal and the USPS have made international shipping much more expensive than it used to be.

Paypal does not cover a seller unless they ship with an online tracking number (supposedly so they can check it themselves). While it is relatively inexpensive domestically (75 cents plus a bit more because you need to pad your package thick enough to pass the requirements... it has to be 3/4 inch thick), international tracking numbers (registered mail) costs $10.80. I was also not allowed to purchase insurance for a regular airmail package online (maybe I can directly from the post office).

So even if regular airmail mail would cost $2.00, I would have to either add $10.80 to register the package, or risk losing the cost of whatever I was sending if it got lost or stolen... without that tracking number, a chargeback can be made by the buyer if the shipper cannot show that the package was mailed. And for low value packages, the customs forms are different, and do not provide a tracking number.

I have been mostly lucky with sending international mail, but lately I have been less inclined to risk international sales. I would like to trust that if something got lost in the mail without a tracking number or insurance, the buyer would take responsibility for the loss if they chose to go with cheap shipping, but I cannot count on that.