Is it getting harder to find good doll stuff on Ebay?

Hmmm, yes and no. I don't believe the amount of good items has actually decreased so much as I've seen those, decided they're not what I want and therefore look them over and say there's nothing good there.

In the last few months I've actually found a lot more good things, I don't know if that's because of the doll conventions and dolpas lately or what. (In the last 5 months there have been like 3 Dolpas and 2 doll conventions) I did see a few people saying they were selling some of their stuff to try and save up for a LE doll from the next Dolpa, but that clearly can't be the case with everyone, right?

I do agree about forum-trading and Etsy, though. I listed some of my dolls and doll items on eBay because my parents made me, but I had to jack up the prices so much to cover the eBay AND Paypal fees (Which added up to $60 more per doll) it made it where no one was interested in them, specially those who also had customs to consider on top of that. So eBay really didn't do me any favors and I can see why a lot of people aren't interested in selling doll things there. Meanwhile when I put my dolls and doll items back on the forum I was able to offer them at a realistic price (since I could offer to take out the 3.9% Paypal fee if they used the 'gift' method) and I had no other fees to cover, and guess what? They both sold quickly.

For the most part eBay is not a friend to people in the BJD hobby. Yahoo Japan on the other hand is like a fri-enemy... You can almost always find what you want, but at an expensive price. And Etsy is just lovely, period.

 

The higher fees have pushed a lot of people off of eBay I think. Etsy charges 3.5% and forums/communities are generally free to sell on, but eBay charges a huge 9% fee... handmade items in general are already considered to be somewhat expensive by buyers, so it's hard to tack on an extra 10% to offset that fee. : /

 

It's not exactly that there's so much less good stuff on eBay, per se.... it's more that there's so much MORE crap stuff, which is drowning out the good stuff. The larger this hobby gets, the more floods of cheap junk you're going to see being sold as BJD items, so that sellers can cash in on the hobby by sticking in keywords like "dollfie" into their auction pages. (Like the way you see black Laura Ashley dresses being sold with a "goth" keyword. XD)

Actually, that influx of homogeneous crap is nothing new either. ^^ I think I stopped buying doll stuff off eBay around 2007-8. About when all those mushroom-companies started popping up, filling a few orders to look legit, & then one day disappearing without shipping anyone's stuff. MagicTailor, remember them? XD About the time they disappeared without my money and many others', and the month after that there were 2 new sellers popping up with the same exact sort of items.... I decided eBay was starting to taste rotten.

You can still find some gems on eBay nowadays if you dig. Especially if you shop just before conventions, Dolpas, tax seasons, & holidays... people jettison all this great rare/HTF stuff then, and if your vulture-timing is good, you can score big!

But in general, there's just smarter shopping available on doll-specific forums & marketplaces.

 

I've never bought anything from ebay, so I wouldn't know if they have less stuff now. But as for homemade stuff, I think Etsy is probably a better bet. And maybe more people are moving there from ebay.

Also, I think a lot of people might use the marketplace here. I'm sure I'm not the only person who would rather buy from the marketplace than ebay. It's a closer community and I trust the people here a lot more. I never really trusted anybody on ebay, which is why I've never used it.

 

I used to sell my dolls (cloth art dolls) on Ebay until about 2 years ago when I moved to Etsy. It's not just the huge fees that ebay charge, they also began to treat sellers as third class citizens and to be honest as a seller Ebay seems like taking a risk now as everything is tipped in favour of the buyer. Ebay consider all sellers as at fault automatically where there is a dispute and if you do get ripped off or messed around by a buyer you can't even warn other sellers about them by leaving honest feedback. You can only leave positive feedback for a buyer!!!!

This probably doesn't worry large or unscrupulous sellers, but for small artisans and crafters like me it's the kiss of death. Etsy on the other hand, is a really pleasant way to sell your doll stuff direct to your customers and everyone I've dealt with is so nice and friendly.

 

Because of the changes to ebay, I won't sell anything of value there, because I am afraid of getting ripped off by buyers who could claim anything against me without fear of bad feedback. I think the fees are too high for small volume sellers. I continue to buy things there from sellers I trust.

 

There's a lot more volume of BJD stuff on eBay now than there was five or even two or three years ago . . . but I agree, it seems as if the majority of what's there is either the same low-to-medium-quality things listed again and again by multiple sellers, or wildly overpriced things listed by hopeful scalpers. (*koffkoff* "Ichimatsu Geisha Super Dollfie," anyone? *koffkoff*)

I still scroll through the "Dollfie" category a few times a month, and I'm thrilled when I find either something original, interesting, and well-made, or something of high quality that's being resold. I don't really go to eBay expecting to find great surprises anymore, though.

FWIW, I have a similar feeling about Yahoo!Japan, where I'm seeing tons of the same kinds of clothes and shoes that are on eBay now. There was always some of that, but it didn't take up page after page after page until the past year or so. While there are still amazing Y!J sellers--Sweeney, pare*ideal, Robin's Egg, et al.--it feels to me (unscientifically!) as if there are fewer of them in proportion to what I think of as the "discount store" listings.

ETA: what JennyNemesis said, basically.

 

Yes and no. It's hard to find nice things specifically made for bjd's. But I have found a lot of nice things that were made for other dolls, or not made for dolls at all, but are sized perfectly.

 

sometimes you can find good and low price deal on ebay, well that's all depends on luck hehe

 

I've picked up a few nice (new) bits and pieces on eBay, particularly shoes, eyes and a couple of pieces of clothing. I've also found a lot of great fabrics and buy most of my sewing stuff there, so its great for that aspect of the hobby. But when it comes to hand made, second hand stuff and actual dolls, I would rather do business (both buy and sell) on the marketplace here.

 

I have never found anything good on eBay dollfie related and when you do the price is jacked up 10x!!! I'd rather go to Y!J, where I know its pricey but at least I have always found those hard to get items easily!!!!

 

I wasn't around for this hobby at the time you mention, but I hate the BJD market in general, on eBay, Y!Japan, and even here on DoA because there is just so much crap everywhere. It shouldn't take me 20 pages when I have typed something very specific full of unrelated stuff and junk.

Etsy seems like the only safe place for now.

 

I'm finding there's tons of stuff on ebay now, but at the same time it's harder to find the more specific things I want in mind. So I'm with the yes and no answer ^^;;

 

Is it harder to find what you're looking for on Ebay than it used to be? Why (or why not) do you think that is?

Not really. I only buy from certain sellers. Like DollHeart has their own store on eBay as does Dollmore and Luts. The prices are the same as on their websites. In general, there are a lot more sellers on ebay and the internet in general, but since I typically only buy from the manufacturers/company directly (even on eBay), I am able to easily navigate what I need.

I will say that looking for a discontinued/limited item can be tough since there is so much to look through, but finding those rare items has always been a pain and required a bit of leg work. So in that instance, yes, it is harder just because there is a higher volume of stuff to sort through. But, what I want is so specific if it doesn't come up by its exact name, it probably isn't on there.

 

to be honest , ebay is big trad website , so that there are many different products there ,also many different people there , so it is not good without the negative feedback there for some dishonest person from my point of view

 

I think it depends when you look. Sometimes ebay has like 80 plus pages of doll stuff. Sometimes its rather dissapointing. If you check alot you'll eventually find some goodies on there ^^

 

I found a Hinaichigo outfit for my doll...$45 with shipping!
So I nearly jumped for joy and got it

 

Personally I think agree with Wildwoodflower. I'm completely new to this hobby and figured that ebay would be a Perfect place to look. E-bay, was like, the site for EVERYTHING! You could sell your mom on E-bay if someone wanted her!

But I look, and found 2 BJD shops! TWO. And they were more of official dealers.

I see more shoes than clothes sometimes for dolls and it's like, they all look so much alike, that once you buy a few pair in differrent colors, you're set.

Where is the worlds creativity right now? Specialty items like this are always needed, so they would almost always get business...

I haven't even looked on Etsy yet. And the few sites that I have seen, are so new they only have a few items in stock so far.