Buying secondhand: Boxes and certificates...are they must haves for you?

The certificate must-have, box is optional. There are many recasts now =(

 

Heyyyyy, zalem, welcome back!!! So nice to see a familiar name from my first days in the BJD hobby--makes me feel like a newbie again.

Yes, sadly, recasts are a Thing now; the companies that seem to be targeted the most are Iplehouse, Soom (especially the limited fantasy dolls), Fairyland, Unoa, and some especially-popular Volks sculpts. Half an hour in the "Dollfie and BJD" section on eBay will tell you a lot of the story.

Besides the fact that boxes and paperwork never used to matter, some real frustration for old-timers with older BJDs (and for people who love obscure BJDs) comes up because so many earlier and rare dolls never had certificates or (sometimes) distinctive boxes in the first place. Another area of confusion is that the "identifying marks" of particular companies have changed over time. There are some newer BJD owners who don't know about or can't imagine those differences between then and now, and some who expect the basically DIY-oriented BJD hobby to work the same way as the NRFB collector-doll hobby that they're used to. Unfortunately, flurries of hysteria and accusation crop up from time to time just because of the knowledge-experience-and-expectation gap.

 

Original boxes are important to me, though I do have a few which didn't have them If there were two offered and I was looking to buy I would definitely choose the one with the box. I feel it is very important to ensure as far as possible that the doll is authentic otherwise I is money wasted but I also store them in their boxes

 

I would want the CoA not only to make sure the doll is legit but also if I ever want to sell it, having CoA would make it wayyy easier to sell rather than trying to explain to potential buyer why the CoA is not there...

 

I have to admit I do love an original box, Coa is nice too but not essential.

I have been stung in the past and bought a doll, (not on here but through the persons own website) and I knew little about re casts, but it still came with official papers. so the Coa means nothing.
But let me just say this, The person who sold me the doll ( You know who you are ) If I had purchased through here, Your name would be Mud!

 

Hello, it's nice to see familiar faces from the old DoA days still about. It's really surprising how much things have changed. It's good to know all this. I'll make sure I at least hold on to any paperwork for new dolls. Though I still can't be bothered to keep boxes. My place is just too small and I just can't keep big boxes around. Hmmmm, I'm trying to sell some dolls at the moment I'm wondering now if the lack of box and paperwork is scaring people off. I don't even remember if my Madoka came with papers. Maybe. If she did, it was in her box that I threw out though. lol.

 

Most CoAs are pretty easy to fake, honestly... they're generally just printed paper, with a unique number added if you're lucky. I could pretty easily replicate most of the CoAs I have here (even the one that's shiny--because I have some of the same shiny paper), if I really wanted to.

And of course, some dolls just don't have one, for one reason or another. Many of my dolls came without one, new from the company; I have one doll that, as ordered, was split in half--the head went to another body, and the body got an event head that, likewise, had no CoA of its own. I have two secondhand dolls that came without papers, too (though I did check them out ahead of time).

I'd prefer the CoA and box, personally, but I know how easy the former is to fake, and that many dolls didn't have one. So neither's really a dealbreaker to me.

 

I think only one of my secondhand dolls has ever come with a COA. Having either the COA or original box is not a huge thing for me, if I like the doll, I don't really care what it comes with.

 

I've never seen a recast, but I've heard that they are generally a fairly low quality product, pretty easy to spot for people who are familiar with the hobby. Anyone know if this is fact, or just wishful thinking?

 

On my opinion, certificate is must-have. Really, not a problem to keep this small piece of paper to be able to prove your doll is not fake
Boxes... of course, not everyone has so much free space at home in order to keep all the boxes. but the practice shows that not-original box might cause damage to the doll, unfortunately (as it happened with my Phonolus)

 

I did some research on this because I was afraid I might have bought copies when I was new to the hobby (but I found out the two I got aren't generally copied because they are the cheaper dolls). I wish I could remember the link now... But a guy had both the real and fake dolls and did comparisons. Some are really bad and easy to spot (completely different color resin or just not the same face) and others... I just couldn't tell the difference unless they were sitting next to each other. When he tried to point out ways to catch the fakes sometimes I just scratched my head because I couldn't see it. There are also dolls that are modded so what then? How can you tell?

I didn't even think of how easy some of the coas could be easily faked. That's depressing. When I got my Jodie he has this little birth certificate. It wasn't anything fancy. I'm not even sure it had a serial number on it.

 

I've mailed out dolls without their original boxes and they made it just fine. It all depends on how well a person packs the dolls up.

 

Sometimes have, but sometimes now. Some people who is kinda sensitive about this issue, then they try to have it, but when I get dolls by secondhand, Most people doesnt have it.

 

A box is not needed because while I like to collect things like those, I HAVE NO SPACE!! xD

A certificate is kind of a must-have though - if the doll company provides it with the doll then there's really no reason not to have it!
The only difficult situations would be like selling the head and body of a doll seperately and such... in those cases, naming the previous owners for records here on DOA would be nice, too.

 

Boxes and certificates are very nice to have, and certificates are important, but usually I'm really not bothered by it. I'd rather just have the doll packed as compact as possible because shipping to the UK is a killer! Just have to be very careful where you buy to make sure you aren't falling into the Recast trap!

 

I would definitely want the certificate and box. Evan if I was buying from a friend that I trust, I would want them for resale.

 

I prefer them coming with the boxes and certificates. I usually keep my dolls in their boxes, so for me having the box is important. And I like to have the certificates (as long as they came with one originally), not only in case I want to sell them in the future, but also because at least in the ones I have it says the date they were bought, and in case of second hand dolls I like to know how many months/years they have. I have one doll that came without box or certificate (quite bad packed as well) and although I tried to track previous owners and year the doll was bought I couldn't find too much. I don't know if originally that doll had a certificate, but certainly I would have liked to have it if the doll came with it.

 

HI, can you explain a bit more about recasts and where to find out what has been recasted etc. I am a newbie and not sure what to avoid and how to even be aware of it?

cas

 

The Wiki is a great place to look when you have questions! http://www.denofangels.com/doawiki/index.php?title=Bootlegs_and_Recasts

 

If they were available, then yes. But they aren't a big must.
It's nice to have the box that came originally with the doll. It comes in handy when you have to move (or sell). Otherwise I store them.
And not every doll has a CoA (only 2 of my dolls have one) Example: Fairyland just recently started with the CoA's.
There are other means of figuering out authenticity of the doll (i.e: headplates, proof of payment from when the doll was bought at the company,...)