How long did secondhand market shopping take?

I browse here, Mandarake, Dollyteria, and the bjd sales Instagrams almost daily. I check in on the Facebook bjd sales groups 2-3x per week, and check Discord sales about once a week. I've had the most luck here, Mandarake, and Instagram for buying, but I have the best luck selling on Facebook.

 

It varies greatly. Sometimes it took a lot of patience, other times I found a treasure early on.

 

It's been about a year since I started looking actively, and I expect it to take a few more. Three times I've been unlucky and messaged a seller only to hear that someone else beat me to it just a moment prior.
But such is life, and patience is one of my virtues. The wait makes the reward all the sweeter

 

All of my dolls have come second-hand. I have either found them via eBay with careful selection and asking a lot of questions, and requesting pictures. As of late, I have found that Instagram sales pages have been fruitful.

Best KC

 

Grail hunting turns into an obsession for some people, and not just in this hobby!
For me, it's weighing up "how much do I want this?", "what condition is it in"? and external factors like postage costs.
This all contributes to how long it takes me to find something.

The vast majority of my secondhand dolls are from Asia. I live in Australia, so shipping from the US, where the majority of English-speaking hobbyists are, is lopsidedly prohibitively expensive. It costs me $20 USD to send a head to the US, but it costs a US person $50 USD to send a head to me
I have bought dolls/parts from the US when I've wanted them enough to justify the shipping, but it makes me carefully consider how much I want the doll/part before enquiring.

Item condition is another factor for me – a doll would have to be very rare to justify buying one that's yellowed like a banana or had serious damage.
I collect mostly Volks dolls, and now that Volks has added double-jointed legs for SD10/13 to FCS, buying a doll with single-jointed legs feels wasteful to me as I know I'll want to upgrade the body and have to try and sell off the old one. The effect the US tariff situation has had on English-speaking BJD secondhand sales also means that I am unlikely to sell anything – I have had 1 sale enquiry in 6 months – so the idea of recouping some costs by selling parts I don't want is currently not realistic.

I recently went to Japan and purchased a lot of doll-related items and a few dolls: sometimes seeing something on your wishlist in person confirms that you do love it, or you might see it from another angle and realise you don't like it after all!

I've only been active in the hobby for about 2 1/2 years, but looking back at my wishlist over that time...
-Two dolls took 2 years to acquire (high cost, limited availability, high shipping cost, appearing in various conditions that were more damaged/missing parts than I'd like). Both of these dolls were bought after seeing them in person in Japan (confirming I did like the look of them and eliminating shipping cost) and both were fullset with minimal yellowing or damage considering their ages (one needed restringing and minor stain removal, the other's fullset outfit had never been opened)
-One doll took 1 year to find (was available secondhand, but came with a body I had no use for. When that one sold, I realised how much I did actually want it. Another went on sale, but was a One Off, also with a body I didn't want, that was too expensive and I didn't particularly want to buy as I'd be wiping the faceup. When a US person had one for sale that they were willing to sell only the head of, I pounced on it, as the shipping cost justified how much I wanted it, and how it was priced)
-Some dolls I want are available secondhand, but the condition is too poor to justify the price. Someone might be willing to pay ¥500000 for a banana yellow Suigintou, but that someone is not me!
-Other dolls are available secondhand, but the cost is too high for me considering I only want the head (there are lots of Le Petit Freres for sale in Japan, and I'd love a Frere girl, but that would mean ¥140000 down the drain and a body I have no use for. I could have a whole brand new FCS doll for that price)
-Some dolls have left my wishlist entirely for various reasons (I didn't like the look of them after seeing photos from different angles, their proportions were too different to my other dolls, I found another sculpt to fill the niche I wanted that particular doll for)

To sum up, I feel that secondhand hunting comes down to an equation of item availability, cost, buyer desire, item condition, and external factors that are all going to differ from person to person and doll to doll.

 

I've bought a bunch of second hand dolls and the easiest to find by a long shot, if I was looking for a specific sculpt, have all been Volks.

Most specific dolls I have not had luck with finding on the second hand market though. Of the two non-Volks dolls I've gotten second hand:

1. I had been looking for a specific doll and couldn't find it. During this search though, I found another doll from the same company that I really loved and got her instead. I'm actually kind of glad I didn't find the other doll because she really fills a special place in my collection.

2. The second was actually an impulse buy! He was a doll I'd never seen before and from a company I barely knew anything about. He fit so many unusual things I love in a sculpt and fit a lot of my wishlist traits in a male doll. The price was also insanely good -- the prior owner really wanted him out of her house lol. I wasn't looking to buy a doll at the time, but I'm glad I found that one.