Do you try to order within your own country?

Clothing and such, I'm willing to order from pretty much anywhere if I can justify the shipping cost. New dolls usually come from US distributors, except for the last direct-from-company order I placed. About half of my secondhand dolls are from international sellers. However, those were heads and one doll without a box. If I plan to get any 1/4, 1/3, or 70cm dolls secondhand, I'll try to find one within the US since shipping doll boxes that size internationally would be quite expensive.

 

Pretty much everything I have is bought from out of the country - of everything I own (dolls and clothes), only one doll and three outfits were purchased from Canadian sellers. There's not a whole lot here. If the item is available from a Canadian seller on etsy, I've love it (I actually did find one seller from out east on there).

The exchange rate is the worst, though... with the dollar having tanked so much, it sucks thinking "oh, this item is only XXX!" only to find out it's 20% more expensive before shipping to buy it.

 

I have bought about half my dolls through DDE, two from MoC, two directly from an American artist, one from a Canadian distributor. Only three (one of which I won't have for a few more weeks) were bought directly from companies in Asia. I try to buy wigs and eyes through DDE when possible, but I've ordered some wigs from Parabox, and plan to order eyes from Captured in Glass at some point. I prefer ordering from within the country for lower shipping and less of a language barrier if there is a problem.

 

In short, no. I look for what I like and if the shipping is going to be high, I save for it.

 

I only try to buy stuff in the US (where I am) to save on shipping. Most of the stuff comes from overseas anyway, so that would be the main difference-- saving some money on shipping and/or lowered price as a second-hand item.

 

I'm in the Netherlands. In a country this small, you're forced to look for international options as well. I do try to order within the EU, to prevent custom charges, but if I have to look for something overseas, that's okay as well.

^I agree, it's the same in non-US countries. Paypal is also very protective of customers, so if you buy something and the seller doesn't hold their part of the deal, all you have to do is contact paypal.

 

If I can buy through a local dealer, I'll look there first, particularly when it comes to clothes, wigs, eyes, shoes etc. I'd rather not have to pay exorbitant shipping prices for that sort of thing, unless I'm ordering the stuff with a doll. I've also found that doll layaways are a bit less of a hassle when I go through dealers. Plus, shipping, again. Haha.

(And I had a crappy experience with Luts the first time I ordered direct, so I was hesitant to do so again with the new tiny centaurs. Fortunately, there's a US dealer that works with Luts and takes special orders so I went with them.)

 

Yes, the more I can since customs are a real pain in the a**, the fees are super expensive and you're definitely not sure to see your package in a good condition... So if I can order through a not too expensive dealers and french marketplace, I do !

 

Unless I want a newly made doll, I try to stick in country. I'm terrible at waiting, and shipping from outside the US can be pretty high.

 

It's pretty hard to find anything in my country. I prefer buying within Europe to save customs and shipping fee but it is a bit difficult to find dealers. So I still have to buy things oversea.

 

I have no issue with ordering from other countries if they have what I want. After all, they're just as good as our country, really. Sure, when something's available here in the US, I'll go for it, but sometimes what I want is in Thailand. If that's the thing I really want, then it's worth the wait.

 

It is virtually impossible to find most bjd-related items in my own country. Even second-hand items are hard to find. Today, there are more people selling bjds in the second-hand market than ever before, but everything else is complicated to find. So, if I were to try and keep things local, my dolls would all be naked and barefoot, unfortunately... The few clothes they have were imported or sown by me. It is hard even to find someone in the country who will sew clothes for them.

I did buy the supplies for faceups in my own country, with the exception of MSC and the appropriate mask (I couldn't find a mask for sale anywhere, even after looking for months).

I would love it if I didn't have to depend on the foreign market to buy whatever I want for the dolls, or even just the basics, but it would just be too complicated to do, in my opinion. This way, I would be able to avoid not only shipping fees, but also my country's customs and, most of all, our postal system, which gets more and more nightmarish by the day (right now the average waiting time for something imported to be delivered is around three months. Three. Months.)

anyway. It would be a dream to be able to support the local market, but unfortunately there isn't an actual local market to be supported.

 

All I have in my country is something that called taobo or something like that, and they have really old and I thikn limited dolls which makes me think that this site is a recast one. :/ Could be awesome if it was not, because ordering from your country is the dream of all of us.

 

Why not try contacting people who take commissions? There are plenty of talented people who make clothes/accessories for BJDs, sometimes even better quality than the ones from BJD companies.

 

I try my best to buy within the US. It arrives much faster. However, its hard to find everything you want here. That's when I have no choice but order from where ever available which is usually over seas.

 

I like to buy within my country accept things like wigs. I have not found shoes from China, etc satisfactory, they never seem to fix. I make quite a bit myself or trade or buy from other owners on sites like F.B. Really, to me its no fun if you can't make what you want for yourself. I have been sewing for 50 years.

 

I do have a few favorites shops from overseas that I regularly buy doll stuffs from them. But if I find out that I can get things from local people, then... why not ? I have a local face up artist that mostly paint my dolls, so... I'm open to options.

 

It really depends on the item. The harder it is to find, or the more "I GOTTA HAVE IT" I feel, the less likely I am to care about where it's coming from and how much I need to pay to ship it to where I am. Thankfully I have family located in SE Asia, so if shipping is noticeably cheaper to there then where I am currently, I have options.

 

no I haven't found much interesting in my country. When I'm at a dollmeet (they tend to be very tiny) I may purchaase some merch that others have put up for sale then and there though. But never dolls.

 

It would be impossible for me to buy what I want if I only purchased from within my own country (United Kingdom). What's on offer is very limited, I only know of one dealer based in the UK and they don't really stock items or dolls that I wish to buy. I prefer to order direct from the doll company when ordering a doll then I don't have to wait as long for it to arrive, it can take some considerable time before the dealer even gets around to placing the order as they prefer to order from a company only when several people have placed an order with said company. I prefer to cut out the middlemen. And then all there is after that are a few second-hand goods here and there on ebay or facebook groups. The majority of what I purchase is from Asian online sellers, occasionally US sellers.