How to spot a recast?

All you have to do is see if the doll is shipped directly from China and the stock photos of the recast.

 

I'm gonna quote this post so it's here again; not all sellers/dealers from China are selling recasts. There are lots of wonderful companies and dealers based in China, and I'm really not sure where this idea that sellers from China are to be avoided came from. There are recast producers everywhere, not just China.

 

This is patently wrong. There are plenty of legitimate companies in China, who therefore are shipping directly from China and show (their own) stock photos. (Doll Chateau, Doll Zone, ResinSoul, Spirit Doll, ImplDoll, Doll Leaves, and on and on and on...)

Furthermore, there are legitimate dealers based in China, who also are shipping directly from China and show stock photos from the companies they work with.

This is not only misinformed and bad advice, but risks starting a witch hunt against legitimate collectors, companies and dealers because you've convinced yourself (and others who don't know better) that a lie is truth.

Please, take the time to educate yourself first before attempting to give advice. Not all dolls from China are recasts, and not all recasts ship "directly from China."

 

i did sell a legit April story at about half her "retail cost". this was because 1. she was bought 40% off when i got her from the company (events rock!)2. it was a new person to the hobby i was selling to (i gave her one of my feeple 60 nanyuri heads to go with it) and 3. slight damage to the neck. if they are selling it cheaper like me, but wont state why: steer clear. communication is important 100%!

 

Lots of really solid advice in this thread!

It's easy as a relative newcomer to completely discredit eBay as a reliable market for legit dolls due to its reputation (which is not completely undeserved). You need to be willing to put in time, sometimes a lot of time, digging around and asking questions if you're not very knowledgeable yet. The truth is, sometimes it's super easy to spot a recast just from the ludicrous titles. And sometimes you have a seller who is very close to passing one off as the real thing. There's unfortunately not one universal way to tell if you're looking at a recast or a legit. Don't jump headfirst into a sale without taking a step back and seriously reviewing a lot of what's been mentioned here.

I would also like to add a really valuable resource for me is the Wayback Machine. It's an internet archive, and even though not all photo links work, I use it a lot when I'm looking up older dolls on eBay. A lot of really cheap but older legit dolls get sold off and it's really hard to find information on them anymore, especially if their original website is defunct.

 

If the doll is being sold on ebay and alie express there's a high chance that it is a recasts, also, the price of a recast is reaally really cheap compared to original dolls.

 

I have a question about recast, and i hope this doesn't get me banned or anything but i wanted to know, for people who are new to the hobby and need practice modding and with face-ups, is it a common thing to buy recast for practice purposes? I've never seen anything about people intentionally buying them just to use for practice so i guess not but i was just curious.

I know some sellers sell practice heads though, and while no one seems to sell practice bodies i have read that monster high is a good choice for bodies.

I'm not condoning buying recast so before anyone makes assumptions i don't really support buying them.

 

I do like to look around and see if I can hunt down a good deal... I look specifically for "used BJD" in places like Ebay to filter out tons of very obvious recasters. I don't bother looking for dealers there for new dolls. The things I look for in second hand are:

-The other items the seller is selling. Are they selling other dolls or collectables? Or random cables and car parts?
-Claiming outright that the doll is legit or recast. Most people selling recasts own up to it. Not always though.
-Marked as "Used".
-Has the doll been known to be recasted?
-Do they have pictures of the actual doll you are receiving, and company marks? Inside of head/body? Pictures of the box and/or CoA if they have one? These things CAN and ARE faked of course and that should be kept in mind.
- If not and you ask about it, are they willing to provide additional pictures?
-Is the doll's skintone something offered by the company?
-If the title is obviously there to have as many searchable tags as possible.
-The item description. Actual used dolls almost always mention being sold for some reason, like hardships or simply leaving the hobby. Doesn't guarantee it's not a recast but it's more likely you're buying something actually second hand than from a recast manufacturer directly.
- The price. Good deals can be had. Right now there's a bunch getting auctioned off by the Good Will charity shop. The better the deal the more skeptical you need to be. If it's too good to be true then it probably is.

I wouldn't recommend Ebay or similar places for second hand dolls unless you've really done your homework and the doll you're thinking about picking up isn't known to be recasted. Even then you can find yourself getting scammed so you need to be prepared to deal with that if it happens. The advice in this thread is excellent though

 

There are tons of cheap bjd companies that you can practice on. They do sell practice heads, like you mentioned, but there are companies who sell option body parts. Luts for example sells just the body of all of their dolls. I know of more cheaper companies that do the same. some artisans say they bought a practice head and a cheap body second hand to practice on, so recasts aren't a valid option for beginners.

 

Fair question!

If anyone is buying recasted anything for practice with mods it certainly isn't talked about. Practice heads are sold though on places like ACBJD and basically cost the same as a recast head. I personally don't see the need to buy a knock off. There are many companies that sell bodies only, including the cheaper options like ResinSoul. Again, those go about the same price as a recast, especially second hand.
Monster High dolls and similar seem like a great way to start, especially if you're seriously worried about shelling out $100 for a body to practice on. I mean, $100 is $100, so I get why someone would be nervous. The material is different but the techniques are pretty similar in most cases.

Moral of the story, there's enough legit options out there for practice and tons of people to point anyone in the right direction who asks!

 

I skimmed the replies so this may have been said, but if you find a doll you are interested in you can ask the moderators their opinion on if it seems genuine.

Personally I see no reason to buy a cheap head to practice face ups on. Any head you can just clean off and do over. Now I could see wanting something cheaper to practice modifications on, but there are those Doll Family practice heads and possibly something cheaper on the mp. For modifications my concern with a counterfeit would be the materials; what is it even made of? Probably not a high quality resin which is dangerous enough to deal with. So due to all that I would not consider even a secondhand counterfeit as an option ever.

 

There's a lot of talk in this thread about ebay, but I'd like to bring up two other sites that I think are worth mentioning:

Instagram - A lot of people are selling dolls over Instagram nowadays. There are definitely some recasts on there, as I have seen a few suspicious sales posts and even some people flat-out saying they're selling a second-hand recast, but there's also a good deal of legit sellers. I've seen the same dolls being sold there and on the marketplace here, and I've even brought one myself over Instagram. There are also some independent artists who will take orders over Instagram as well. So it's complicated.

It's even more complicated because most of the people selling on Instagram are doing it on their personal accounts/have a link to their personal accounts. So you basically have to poke through the seller's history and feedback - if they sell often, they'll usually provide links to their feedback on other sites (like DoA).

Etsy - There are some very cool legit little indie companies selling dolls on etsy. There are also some faceup artists who will take commissions and list heads they have worked on for sale there. Unfortunately, while browsing the "bjd" tag I have also encountered a few very obvious recast advertisements - ticking all the boxes of "generic listing", "using only company photos", "very low pricetag", "comes in weird colors", etc. And there are probably some older folk that use etsy all the time and will be taken in by the photos and buy a doll for their children/grandchildren without knowing what it actually is.

Luckily, Etsy does have a way to report shops, and they do have a rule against people selling counterfeit items. I would encourage others to report these places as well - I feel like etsy gets overlooked because it's a lot easier for recasters to sell on ebay, but there are definitely a few there that are worth warning against.

 

That is such a great point to bring up. Etsy, despite it going more into wholeseller and dropshipping territory than homemade, really is against counterfeiting and copy rite infringements. I haven't seen too many dolls for sale that aren't artisan, but i also don't look to buy bjds on etsy. I'm sure they're out there.

 

Etsy is now absolutely FULL of recasts, particularly doll chateau and similar. I keep reporting them, Etsy doesn't care. It's quite sad really.

Best you can do is educate yourself. If something is listed as "new" or "made to order" research that company or site to see if they're legit. If it's a private seller don't be afraid to message them to ask for information and provenance of the doll. They should be able to tell you 1: where they bought it from and 2: send you a picture of the certificate or any markings on the doll that confirm legitimacy.

A lot of doll companies use head plates but also a few have internal markings that on a recast are a lot harder to read. If the writing inside the head is fuzzy it's suspect. if they have no head plate, it's suspect (unless it's a resinsoul because their head plates fall off all the damn time and they're very unlikely to be recast because they're cheap as hell) If there's no certificate and the dolls usually come with a certificate it's suspect. Of course it doesn't mean for sure it's a recast, you have to use best judgement.

I recently purchased a doll from someone who I ended up chatting to through pms on ebay to confirm the legitimacy. It had the head plate so I was fairly sure it was good but I wanted to confirm where it had come from. She was able to give me a history and a screenshot of the email reciept from a well known dealer which made me feel better.
Big alarm bells come when you contact a person and they go "I dunno, I just bought it off ebay" or "I just bought it from a site I can't remember the name of"

I'm like "nnnghhh no."

Of course, the recasters are getting clever and now producing fake certificates, but they don't look like the real ones. It's very much worth researching WHAT the legitimate certificates, head plates and boxes look like to compare.

there is still a chance some thief will swap out legit parts for recast parts and pass them off as legit but that takes a lot of effort and is thankfullly rare.

Go with your gut basically. Short of buying direct from the company you'll never really know for absolute SURE but you can be pretty certain if you know the origin of the item and can trace it's history.

and honestly? most of the listings for recasts use some seriously wierd wording for their listings anyway. The majority are quite obvious if you recognise that word salad listing title practice.

 

If you restrict your eBay search to only used items, it eliminates many recasts. And of course add "-recast" to your search to filter out auctions with "recast" in the title.
Neither are perfect to filter them out completely but they catch quite a lot. Also avoid any auctions where they stipulate a production time.

 

I just hate that there are recasts dolls out there! I love this hobby but I'm by no means rich. I try to find the dolls second hand. But that makes it hard to spot the recasts. I saw a doll that had a "shiny" look about her. I wonder if that is an indication.

 

Also, I really appreciate all the advice! Thank you!

 

I own Dollfie Dreams which are difficult/impossible to recast because they are made of vinyl so I don’t usually have to worry about recasts. However, I do have some knowledge on how to avoid purchasing one!
- Mandarake is unlikely to sell recasts because they do a quality inspection.
- Avoid ebay listings that just show the company photo and not the actual doll.
- Avoid buying dolls on websites like Aliexpress or Wish.
- Double check the original price to see if its too good to be true.

 

@Chantelle This is really helpful! One question, would a recast doll have the "real" artist name carved inside the head?