Buying damaged and poorly modded dolls

My Volks MSD was a fixer upper. She was made in 2002 and was really, really yellowed when I got her. I sanded her seams and did a few deyellowing processes on her and it really brightened her up. She still looks old, but I don't mind that. Working with her really makes me want more fixer uppers.

 

I paid a lot of money for a doll back when I made good money a lot easier. I wanted to dye her. I read every tutorial I could find but you can't plan for everything. Even with testing magnets on my pot, there were trace amounts of aluminum and the doll had a bad reaction. I cried for an hour as my husband helped me scrub green off my doll.
Am I embarrassed? You bet I am, and wishing I could just get rid of it so I don't have to feel guilt when I look at it anymore.

I've thought about just selling it as-is to someone who knows what they're doing and can make the doll beautiful again. I've also read methods on stripping dye but I'm scared of making it worse.

So, now I have a doll that I sunk $700+ into, for this to happen. Right now I'd give anything to take it all back and just get my dream $200 doll instead. I haven't even attempted to sell it yet because I'm embarrassed of how it looks now...

 

Instead of doing that, why not go look in the Customizing Forum ( https://denofangels.com/forums/customizing-services.131/ ) and find someone to fix her for you?

 

That crossed my mind, but it would take hundreds of dollars to pay someone to fix her up, money that I don't make so easily anymore. My tastes have completely changed and I'm detached from her. It would be entirely from a resale point that is too risky for me to make.
She deserves a good home and to be honest the experience just tarnished any love I had for her. It was an expensive lesson and I'll leave the customizing to the pros from now on.
Something was off the day I opened her box and I reasoned with myself that if I made x improvements that she would be perfect and I would love her a lot more. I should have listened to my gut the day I opened her and put her back in the box. Unless you're extremely talented or have the money to pay a professional, don't buy a doll that you don't love as-is.

 

Well, all right. Let's see if I understand your problems correctly.

You didn't quite like her when you got her, and tried to mod her.

The mod came out badly.

You've invested $XXX in her, and now you feel even worse because the mod failed and you feel as if you have wasted that money.

But you are afraid to sell her because you'll never get the money you feel you wasted back.

Take Elsa's advice. Let it go.

I know this is hard advice to take, but the fact is the money is gone and you aren't going to be able to get it back. That's a fact. Let it go.

Then see if you can sell her for what she's actually worth with the spoiled mod. Think of that, not as "oh no, I didn't get back all the money I wasted." But as "Well, now I have $XX." Let go of the money that's gone, because it's gone.

If you can't sell her at all, then you might just as well be even braver and try some of the techniques for getting rid of dye. You literally have nothing to lose. Remember that. You literally have nothing to lose. You don't like her now, and you can't sell her as-is. It's a zero-sum problem now.

In your shoes, before I went with the chemical option to try and bleach her, I'd try one of three things.

(1) Sanding. Most dye doesn't ever penetrate very far into the resin. You might well discover that with a good light sanding you can get rid of all of the dye.

(2) Painting. It turns out that automotive vinyl spray paint bonds extremely well to resin, much better than any other paint people have tried (it also bonds fantastically to ABS plastic, which I have tried myself). You might get a color similar to what you wanted by using automotive vinyl spray paint. You'll find it in the paint section of auto parts stores, like Pep Boys.

(3) Working with the color she has by turning her into a OOAK fantasy doll of some sort. Let go (there it is again) of the idea you originally had for her, and come up with something new and original, something you would never have considered before. You can start by plugging the color she is and the words "fantasy doll" into a search engine, and do an image search. I suspect what is going to come up most are off-topic Monster High dolls, but I have seen a lot of intriguing critters in that series with looks that could easily be adapted to a BJD. For instance, you said something about her being green now; copper ages to verdigris green, and that color would lend itself to a steampunk doll. Green would also lend itself to a dryad, or other nature spirit or nature elf.

Don't be afraid to go down to the styling and crafting area and ask for help/inspiration. Every one of us down there has at some point or other had something go terribly wrong, and we've all learned how to make lemonade out of lemons.

 

I don't feel bad about seeing people mod dolls. I also get really irked when people gasp and groan about mods on other people's limited dolls-- I think one of the most hurtful things I ran across in the hobby was someone saying I 'ruined' my 'limited' iplehouse SID claude by commissioning a missing eye and scar onto him. While he's in need of a repainting now I'm glad I had the mod work done on him, but comments like that were both an insult to the person who worked on him and to my vision for him.

I've come to realize a lot of people who complain about bad faceups or mods on expensive or LE dolls are just being salty because they don't have said doll. I hate the attitude that people who worked hard and paid for a doll don't deserve to own it because they do things that are unpopular.

I did buy a doll with a pretty sub par eye opening mod since I wanted the fantasy parts it came with. I don't have the space or supplies for working on dolls myself so I outsource, but I think if I did have room to work on them I'd buy modded dolls. What better way to start than finish something that has a goal already laid out, such as opening or closing eyes.

 

Do amateur modders bother me? Absolutely not! I celebrate when people aren't afraid to just jump in. I started the the exact same place, after all. From my very first doll, I have done all my own mods and continue to this day. My third doll, I modified so deeply she cannot be recognized as her original sculpt anymore (yes, I still have her). I am a very firm believer that there are no botched mods, only mods that aren't finished yet.

As such, a rather large portion of The Horde started out as mods others didn't want to finish. From rushed gender changes, completely gouged out eyes (no lids, upper or lower, just holes), to missing elbows, I have gleefully snapped them up and taken them from unfinished to complete.

 

Where or how do I best get a project doll? stalking the DoA MP or is there a better possibility.

In my case, I will be looking for a MNF girl body in ws with yellowing/greening/dyed and do not mind mods as I plan on hybriding and do full blushing anyway.

 

I think what bothers me about damaged and poorly modded dolls is that the owner did not stick with the project to have it finished the right way. If I found out I couldn't complete a project, I would commission someone to fix my mistake and carry out my vision, but on the other hand I can understand not going through with it for financial reasons and then needing to sell the doll. It gives others the opportunity to own a sculpt they might not otherwise been able to afford, or just as a project for themselves if they are looking for one. People who are able to restore these dolls are awesome because they are giving the doll a second chance, and I love checking out the project journals for doll restorations

 

I agree with you. Sometimes people can't get ahold of practice heads and they have to make due with what they have. I'm sure if they messed it up irreversibly they are just as upset as the person who bought it. Lol

 

Yeah, I bought a doll that was very modded and damaged, a yosd, two years ago or so.
I bought him with the intent to modify him further, which I did... I applied clay to "undo" some of the modifications. But even though the eventual job was well done, I couldn't get rid of the edges. (the clay didn't smooth over into the resin without an edge)

And by now I wish I hadn't applied the clay :P Even though the doll was modded so badly, a good face-up goes a long way.
But he's lying in my drawer for years now, my motivation/will to work on him isn't that strong.

 

I think what most people do is post a WTB in the marketplace, to see what comes along, as well as looking around. Both of my rescued dolls came to me in other ways (one as a result of false advertising of his condition, the other as an offer of "I have the sculpt you're looking for but he needs repairs, you can have him if you're willing to fix him"), but generally when I see threads about restorations that discuss how they got the doll in question, that's how they've done it.

 

When I was a newbie, I got a limited head (Minifee Shiwoo sleeping vampire elf) and I didn't use sealent on his first few faceups, modded his eyes open myself (way too big), and pierced his ears and one of his earlobes snapped off.
He was my second doll, and I have since modded his eyes closed to a more standard Shiwoo eyeshape, scrubbed his head multiple times and learned how to do faceups the right way. Would I ever sell him? Nope. Have I thought about it? Yes, many times. But the fact that he'd only sell as a "project/fix-up" makes me never want to part with him. I'd rather keep him as a repaired experiment and character than pawn his head to someone else haha.

 

@vicemage thanks a lot for your answer. I just put a WTB on the MP. I do not expect anybody to answer very soon as my search for a cheap MNF body is very specific. But nontheless I am pretty happy about the possibility to make a unique doll with special characteristcs because of the "damage" *___*