How To Get Doll Money: The Master List of Ideas!

So I saw that someone mentioned making a photobook of doll photography and I wanted to reiterate that its very easy and sorta fun to make one. The two big photobook makers are Lulu and and Shutterfly.
Oh and Redbubble is a good site to make stickers on

 

If you have a reliable car, and live reasonably nearby an affluent city, try DoorDashing at dinner time on the weekends, if you have the free time. It’s currently paying for all of my layaways, and I have quite a few going, atm. Just remember to set aside some money at the end of the year if you do it often, since they do not withhold taxes. Not sure if it’s the same with UberEats/Grubhub/etc.

 

If you're a fan of gacha games (think Love Live, Fate/Grand Order, Idolmaster, Bandori, Genshin Impact, Identity V, etcetera), you can make a lot of money by making "reroll accounts." My general plan is this:

- Make a variety of new accounts on different gacha games.
- Log into all them regularly, collecting in-game currency (most gacha games have log-in bonuses, especially near holidays)
- Collect as many limited SSRS/skins/characters as you can with free in-game currency.
- If you get one, wait at least a few months after the promo ends. This makes the demand for them higher.
(Note: You can check how "in demand" an SSR is by looking on forums where accounts are sold and traded.)
- Sell your account once it gives you enough money.

Alternative:
If you have a large account on any of these games that you don't really play anymore, you can also sell those.

My younger sister just recently got $200 for selling her old Love Live: SIF account after she lost interest in the game.
That's more than enough for lower-cost BJDs, and close to half of a higher-end one!

 

The best way I think is sell the dolls you don't want anymore and try limit the numbers of dolls

 

I m jumping from hobby to hobby
So I tend to sell out stuff from my old hobby which I no longer play with, to get the funds for my new one

 

Believe it or not my brother has made around 800 a week for doing that instacart thing. He also asks our neighbors if they want someone to go grocery shopping or yard work. With covid a lot of elder people do not want to leave the house. Now is the time.

 

I recently sold some jewelry I didn't want anymore. Stuff that was broken or way out of style or had bad memories attached to it - ie - ex boyfriend gave it to me and I've been married for 30 years so that was a long time to keep something I wasn't ever going to wear. I sold the jewelry to one of the more reputable gold and silver sales places in my area. I actually got a lot more for it than I thought I would and I'm not a big jewelry person.

 

-Use the Shopkick app. You can get points by scanning barcodes while you shop which can be used to get gift cards to offset your regular purchases at Target, TJ Maxx and others. You won’t be able to directly get a doll, but eventually you can save by offsetting small purchases.

-If you have a credit card with cash rewards/points/miles, use it for all your regular purchases to build up rewards quickly. I've been doing this for a few years and my last few major purchases were bought solely by the cash back reward through my credit card.

 

Here is a good idea I found on Tiktok! Go to wal-marts and check the clearance section. Use an app like amaz0n and check the prices. Keep items small and easily mailable like books, games etc. If there is a huge price difference buy it and resell online. This is what I do over FB and K1j1j1!

 

Re sell old books on amazon or ebay, you can also go to a dollar store or a goodwill or similar sort of store to find cheaper donated books. The best ones to get are college textbooks that you can resell, some of those sell for a lot.

 

So my contributions are more long term ideas. I have no "get rich quick" ideas. My ideas for having more doll money come bluntly from increasing my overall base income to begin with.

I'm a "career" type person. I frankly love working.
I've got a bachelors in Fine Arts but I work in Information Technology. A lot of my coworkers have weird mismatches as well or no degree at all. I've mostly worked for small private companies (sometimes 200-2000 people), my current one is a few hundred people spread out over several countries and continents.
I have a fairly big disability that limits how much time I can be "on my feet" each day that'll get progressively worse with time (yay, HEDS) so a lot of my career ended up being finding something I can do that I find enjoyment in.

Everyone has different challenges and advantages in approaching their careers and lives.

As I mostly work corporate, here's some general info for those moving into entry level work. I'm not a career advisor, these have just been general observations and based off a lot of conversations with friends over the years who have wanted to enter office work and have struggled to wrap their minds around it.

Spoiler: Jobs/Needs:

Try to think about your job in the long term. Do you want to be here in five years? Ten years? What all do you need to have covered in your life?

• Housing, food, healthcare, and any dependents all need to be covered financially, along with making yourself a safety net and also consider what you want for fun money. This will affect if your pay is enough or not.
• If your job is not meeting your needs, it's absolutely time to start looking. When it's like this and you're still hemming and hawing, I want you to imagine that your job is gone in 30 days. You can't stop it, it won't be there for you, get ready to move yourself.
• If a job gets "too close" to the wire(financially, stress, hours worked - esp if exempt salaried, and so on) but maybe it's still meeting your needs: set a date 1-2 months out. Start cleaning up your resume, which should be maintained on the regular anyways. If that date comes and the situation has not improved, start sending out your resume.

Spoiler: Social Media/Applying:

• Lock down your Facebook to private. Any public social media with your actual name on it needs to be kept at least surface level professional. Use your handle other places, try not to mix the two. Hiring managers WILL run searches on your name and if your Facebook is open, they're going to see it.
• Similarly, if you've got NSFW writing, art, photography, or anything else, be real careful about having it up with your real name. Your intended career field might be "chill" about it, but not everywhere is and you don't want to hamstring yourself when you're in a job bind.
• Don't friend your coworkers on Facebook unless you're really really close to them or you don't work there anymore.
• Set up a LinkedIn. These are public profiles and they're not just for office drones! Your hobbies don't go here (though you can find ways to word doing commission work in an acceptable manner), but your work history, connecting to coworkers, people you've volunteered with, and just general networking do! Many hiring managers will also check for a LinkedIn, to the many I've talked to/worked for, it can be a dealbreaker. The other benefit is that this will direct people to look at your LinkedIn and not keep digging until they find something with your real name elsewhere online.
• You do not need to make wall posts and such on LinkedIn though the option is there, you can just use the connections/jobs/resume-profile sections.
• Look at others' profiles and how they set them up. List your jobs and your skills. The extra benefit here is this counts as a backup master resume when the uploaded resume you'll actually send to places should be tailored down to 2 pages, tops.
• Set up alerts on LinkedIn for the types of jobs and areas you are looking for. These are private, your employers won't see it. ONLY use the "I'm currently looking" settings if you're OK with it potentially getting back to your employer.
• Be careful with recruiters, good ones are invaluable and bad ones are scams.
• When applying, also keep in mind that if you can meet around 3/4ths of the "requirements", you should apply. A lot of people skip applying to jobs they really could potentially get because they feel they need to meet all of them.
• At worst, you'll make it through an entire interview process you were excited for and be turned down. It happens a lot, don't get too discouraged.
• Reminder that when you are interviewing you are also interviewing the company and hiring manger to see if they're a good fit for you.

Spoiler: Types of jobs (office jobs anyways)

I want to note real quick that the roles I'm mentioning can be prone to high turnover, often because they're entry level stepping stones for people moving on to different roles:

• Customer Service, Customer Support, Customer Care - having retail and food experience can be great for these types of roles. Pick up any product or service and go to their website, usually down near the bottom they may have a careers link. Often they'll be in need of customer-facing roles that may be in call centers, offices, or even managing chat programs.
• Sales Support - these are roles great for detail people who maybe don't like selling, but like the high energy or are looking to avoid a mostly commission-based role. A Support can be partnered to a small team of the Salespeople and they might be pre or post-Sales with slightly different approaches to the role.
• Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Billing Specialist - Finance roles that are careful data entry, tracking, sometimes calling other business customers to ensure money is moving correctly.
• Administrative Assistant, Office Managers- kind of loose terms in my experience and the offices I've worked in. For some this is a secretary like position serving a small number of people, others can range up to running the front desk, greeting guests, dealing with deliveries, and a number of hospitality-like tasks for an entire building.
• IT Support, Desktop Support Technician - if you've got some good problem solving skills when it comes to computers, and ESPECIALLY if you've got good people skills, it can be a good way into IT. Jobs in IT can be heavily reliant on certifications too, as opposed to a degree.

There's way more than this out there, but these are some good starting sets of words to look for.

One site I love for looking for work advice is Ask A Manager, the responder there is excellent. She has a lot of questions and answers on resumes, job hunting, negotiating raises and salaries, and also some really wild office social conundrums.

 

I create cross stitches patterns and sell really cheap (I also make custom patterns for cheaper than others).

 

One of the things I’ve tried is holding a garage sale. But! I get my items from friends and family members that were going to drop everything off at goodwill anyways.
I did a pick up which helped save them a trip, and I got to sell things!

 

Thank you for the ideas!
I think the most stable way is to find a job.

 

I've been getting into transcription work! There are several websites out there that you can use to transcribe things for money-- It's not a TON of money, but it will definitely help, and it's nice because it's flexible so you can do it whenever you have free time.

Transcription Jobs from Home No Experience (20 Jobs) - Swift Salary

This website gives an overview of transcription work from home, and gives many, MANY options for you to choose from.

Additionally, for selling things you no longer want, I recommend Mercari as it makes the process a lot easier. You can have your customer pay shipping, or have it pulled from your profit, which is standard. However, Mercari will also create a label for you so you don't have to; all you have to do afterwards is package it and drop it off to be delivered! It's an app similar to DePop, but not centered on clothing.

 

I have done the decluter and posting items for sale and it is crazy how much money you can make by posting items you no longer use. This is a great option for those who don’t want to do a garage sale. :-)

 

I joined the poppy parker club and I plan to sell some of the dolls I get there. Sometimes they sell for much more than you purchase them for. That club is awesome. I purchase Barbie's from Mattel, for example: Barbie Dia De Muertos, I purchased her and sold later for 400. Some of them you can purchase new and sell for much more after Mattel stops producing them. The preproduction sets are good about that. If you can buy the Monster High Dolls that come out and sell out in 15 minutes, they re-sell for a lot. I have the twins but no intentions of selling. I am always watching ebay and mercari for gotz and AG dolls that I can buy cheap and sell for more.

 

I know this is going to sound nuts, but bear with me...

One of the things that I think we all run into with this hobby, and with artistic and creative hobbies in general, is that we feel like we have to "treat" ourselves to dolls or add-ons because, as far as the general populace is concerned, this is an impractical use for hard-earned cash. (Especially when factors like health, social status, etc. make it difficult to find well-paying work.) It's like there's a guilt attached to it, and that's really sad. This is something that brings us joy, and creativity, and a sense of community, and is worth our time and money to pursue.

So, instead of scraping by with $5-$25 side hustles, start a side business (or several), and you'll fill that dolly jar (or several) in no time.

I literally sell trash on Etsy, and have not only made enough for dolls, but enough to buy a house. The trick is that I don't sell to fellow doll peeps or other starving artists, but instead, target buyers with WAAAAAAY more money than I have. I sell things like glass from broken windows (people buy it for weddings, fairy gardens, and fire pits), fallen pine cones (wreaths, fall and winter decor), and poly-fil beads from old beanbags (one old beanbag worth is about $500 of product). The materials cost me nothing (or next to nothing) and I don't spend any labor time on crafting them into something to sell, so the profit margin is ridiculous.

Raw materials can be found just about anywhere, but I suggest only dealing with ones that you have room to store in bulk. Not sure what people might want to buy? Take a trip to the local craft store, and look around, especially in the wedding and floral sections. Sand, feathers, seashells, moss, gravel, corks... fabric shreds? Plastic shreds? One man's trash is another man's treasure, as they say.

While I also have shops where I sell my crafted items, the "craft supply" shops make the most by far. I use my crafted products as project examples for the materials, and then just sit back and let them sell themselves. Don't have artistic skill to make project examples? Partner up with someone who does! ^_^

 

Wow! Thats an amazing idea!! Thank you for sharing this! Really amazing idea

 

I utilize my bullet journal and categorize spending to determine how much I can allot to spend on dolls etc.