Did Volks fall out of favor? How? Why? When?

Used to watch out for BJDs on ebay and sorta gave up a few years ago. Loved seeing what was selling and all the dolls that would come up. I don't know if the algorithm changed, but it seemed to promote sellers who sell by mass over smaller individual sellers, which made trying to find legit dolls really hard. Even though lisitings for 1 off BJD auctions existed, I found they came up less frequently no matter how I searched. Just a load of carbon copy listings of the plastic EVA dolls, other irrelevant non-BJD dolls, mass producted clothes/shoes that aren't really appropiate, or recasts. Given that on instagram and facebook I don't have to slog through loads of listings that aren't relevant, as a buyer I completely lost interest in using that platform to watch for doll sales. At some point ebay turned from something in which it was easy to search and find BJDs for sale, to something that became an effort to find legit and relevant BJD dolls.

 

Yes, I feel like your experience has more to do with the fall of eBay, rather than the fall of Volks. Anything genuine posted on there tends to be hugely overpriced and gets lost in a sea of cheap Chinese BJDs and recasts. Most collectors shop second-hand elsewhere.

I think of Volks as very high quality, I pretty much exclusively shop from Volks for clothes, and they are producing some gorgeous dolls, but their dolls are expensive and can be more difficult to get a hold of, especially for international buyers, so maybe that’s had an impact?

 

I'm new to collecting, but the first time I learned of bjds was due to volks and at the time i only knew of this brand. As I searched for dolls more I learned I don't care for volks face sculpts and really gravitate towards korean bjd face sculpts. Also I looked at volks dolls and they still look like they did 10 years ago. I feel like they are catering to people who prefer the same stuff and don't really change with the trends. The dolls look sort of out dated. Does that make sense? This is all my personal opinion, so you can just ignore my post. What I mean by out dated is the dolls look like they could be from 10 or more so years ago. How long has volks been around? I feel like they don't adjust to new trends or diversify because they don't really have to for their company to survive. Aren't they well establish and have lots of customers? I like supporting the smaller korean dollmakers. I like how the dolls are made in not too big of a batch and there are lots of varieties some look like kpop idols, some look like antique bisque, some look almost anime like or cartoon like, and etc. I personally don't like anime looking dolls. I do want to add at least one volks doll to my collection preferably the old rozen maiden doll, but i don't really need a volks doll in my collection for me to feel happy.

 

I really love korean bjds. I somehow ended up only collecting Korean bjds before i realized I collected all Korean bjds. I don't know why, but i gravitate towards the Korean bjds. I think dollmore sort of have realistic faces. They have dolls that are so huge! They are the lusions and trinities lines I think. I don't collect dollmore. I am also new to collecting so I could be wrong about dollmore being realistic.

This link has my comment about some of my favorite bjds I like if that helps:

https://denofangels.com/threads/favorite-bjd-company-and-why.850957/#post-13013919

 

Unidoll? There is this one brand that again is korean that has a line called unitot. Is it this brand you are referring too?

구체관절인형 Company '아이오에스'

 

The name does sound really familiar, and I think I might have saw some dolls that looked intelligent. I really can't recall where... I have to look it up later. Are these the dolls you are referring to? From what i read on doa it is a Korean bjd.
https://denofangels.com/threads/unique-look-feel-unidoll-database.74097/

They are unique looking. I think sometimes maybe doll companies don't last because there are too many cheap recasters selling the dolls. Some people I think prefer cheaper recast dolls which is unfair to the actual people working making these dolls because it steals profits and runs them out of business, since they might be a small company with only a small handful of people.

 

volks is pretty popular as far as i can see! with the ebay thing, I have bought some second hand dolls there but you need to be really careful and check the seller and listing carefully. recasters have been posting "amateur" photos that look like resellers photos, but upon closer inspection, youll notice its actually a recast :0

 

Unidoll folded in 2009-2010. They were a Korean company with some very tall (at the time) semi realist sculpts. You almost never see them around any more. The collectors who had them seem to not post pictures any more.

THis is my UniDoll Suri. I've only seen two... and I sold one and kept the other. I don't know who has her now but I've never seen the other again. She's had to be dyed over because her creamy resin turned kind of rancid butter green. I think she was cast in a hurry as the company was failing.

 

Volks just really doesn't work for me. Their face sculpts are often more childish than the proportions of the body would suggest, and the ones that aren't all look the same (to me). It baffles me that their dolls that are supposed to be proportionally similar to 10, 13, and 16 year olds are all approximately the same height.

And I also really don't have much interest in supporting a company financially that treats anyone who doesn't live in Japan as an afterthought. There are lots of companies that sell dolls I like to anyone in the world, with no prejudice against foreigners.

 

I always considered Volks dolls the endgame dolls. Like one day far in the future when Im rich I'll probably just start growing a Volks collection. I went to the Volks store in Japan and couldn't believe how beautiful the doll showroom was. But at the same time Volks always seemed like a secret club and ordering one of their dolls seems impossible if you don't know the system? I honestly wouldn't know how to order one if I wanted to. Which sounds weird I know. I buy msd and sd clothes from them all the time. In any case I'm pretty sure one day I would probably like to own one. Nothing really compares to the Volks aesthetic and the dolls are adorable. I wish there were more boy options though, that's kind of a bummer.

 

I wish I could afford more Super dollfies, especially the super dollfie graffiti