Are Doll Companies Biased?

Going to have to agree with this entirely. When I was in Japan, the only place where I found a large assortment of English Speakers was right next to a college. Which is hardly a fair demographic, don't you think? And we stayed in the Kanda district which is a well known Business District. So I'm going to have to say no on that one, although I am sure there is a larger amount of English speakers in these countries than there has been in the past, and it is easier to find people who can translate, However, it's still not nearly "English is spoken everywhere" to me that's kind of rude to assume o.O

You're right. Volks realizing that it's hard for North Americans to get to Sato allowed the Sunkiss Skin and several heads that are otherwise "Sato only" to be purchased at the LA Sumika. Further more until the release of Irvin in Japan, Ebony Skin was an NA skin color only. They've also released dolls in the states that we're a lot easier for us to get than people living in Japan. Little Alice is one in particular that I'm thinking of >.> Anyway, they've done a lot for NA fans. How is that favoritism towards Japan?

As for other companies, Soom is releasing a doll for Comic Con. Dollzone has released several dolls for specific dealers in other parts of the world only. And Most of their Chinese dealer dolls allowed International people to purchase them. I could really go one. Hell Luts made dolls just for this board. I'm really not seeing favoritism at all here. The only thing I can see is that some companies(and I do mean "some') take advantage of Exchange Rates >.> *but* they're still Globally fair.

 

Whether it's "favoritism" or not doesn't really matter to me. Their USD price is the price at which these dolls are available to me. If I cannot buy the doll in the cheaper Korean/Chinese/Japanese currency the company also offers, then that cheaper price might as well not exist. Some might say this is giving preferential treatment to the customers of one country (usually the home country) over foreigners, but I think this is totally within theirs rights! While I'm sure doll companies very much appreciate and enjoy our buying power for their dolls, I'm also sure that's its much less of a hassle selling locally or within Asia than to deal with international shipping and English-speaking customers.

Basically, it all comes down to me and what I'm willing to pay. The fact that someone else in the world can get the same doll for cheaper doesn't really bother me, because all that matters is that I can't get it cheaper. So either I'm willing to pay the price available to me, or I'm not.

 

Depending upon the doll company and the exchange between foreign currencies, I believe that, for the most part, the price discrepancy is negligible. Even in cases where it is not, keep in mind it's harder for these dolls to be shipped overseas, and it's probably additional work to translate our orders. We're still receiving products identical in quality to what the company markets to its own country--I've never heard of an incident where people ordering from external countries have been scammed (though that does not mean this has never occurred), so I believe it is within the company's rights to charge more, or have minor event exclusions, since it is their choice to market to us at all. I don't think it's a blatant bias unless your doll arrives far later than expected, with no apparent reason for delay, or if the company randomly adds seemingly extraneous additional costs (and even in these incidents, there's a fairly significant margin of error that occurs with ordering overseas).