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Rare or Hard Dolls to Get?

Jun 25, 2016

    1. I'm really interested in a lot of the old, obscure sculpts that were unpopular/made in small numbers even when released. Not necessarily the most expensive when they do pop up for sale, just impossible to find! And there are a surprisingly large number of sculpts which you can't seem to find working images of. It's kind of sad, like there's all this BJD history lost to time...internet never forgets, except not always in the case of dolls apparently.

      I've always wanted a Custom House Warrior Earl. He was one of the last really good quality fullset dolls custom house offered in... 2007/2008? He kind of looked like a more mature Jun? Couldn't afford the prices CH charged for fullsets back then...i'm always on the look out for one in the marketplace, but i've never seen him popup. I'd love the fullset, but could probably be tempted into buying just the naked doll as well...
       
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    2. Oh best of luck! I am a big fan of this sculpt as well; finding my Glorydoll Louis on the marketplace was the catalyst that got me back into the hobby after I had quit.

      One of the perks of the bjd hobby getting older is that a lot of formerly beloved sculpts have fallen out of favor and consequently show up at surprisingly low prices, as their owners move on to different aesthetic tastes. But the flip side of that is that a lot of formerly not very successful sculpts... have now entirely disappeared. Because, of course, there's always a certain proportion of hobbyists who move on but don't resell, or who have left the hobby so completely that they're not on any doll sites any more.

      I don't really have a grail doll that I'm actively hunting for, but I do somewhat regret not buying the Roxydoll Eun-U I saw a few months back on the marketplace. That sculpt seems to have last shown up for sale on DoA in... 2012. :nowords:

      I mean, it's probably better that I didn't go for it because literally the only reason I want that doll is that I saved photos from Esthy's site of a faceup she'd done on a Eun-U from waaaaay back when I don't think I even owned a doll but was just daydreaming about bjds occasionally.

      But still, that kind of nostalgia kick makes my fingers itch to hit the contact seller button every time I run across some very old, seldom-seen yet familiar face on the marketplace. Perhaps another part of it is that many of those old dolls come from a time in my life when I was a poor student and unable to afford much of anything, and so now that I'm in a better position there is a kind of personal vindication in being like aha! I can finally have you now!

      One old-old doll I still hold a torch for is K-Doll Kayan. Likelihood of actually seeing one for sale is next to nil, given that the search I just did shows that the last time this sculpt was even mentioned on the forum was 2014, but hey. Never say never, I guess? I do own a Kill_U 1st head, another rare old K-doll, and I didn't have to pay much for him either (though Kill_U 1st is not as rare as Kayan because as far as I am aware Kill_U 1st had one rerelease and Kayan was never rereleased), so it's not entirely outside the realm of possibility.
       
    3. Oh I so agree! The rarest and hardest ever. I waited for 4 years on the waiting list to get a Resin Enchanted Doll. Then at the end of 2016, the ED creator, Marina Bychkova released 100 REDs. I was fortunate enough to get one. She is gorgeous. I named her Isabeau. She is the European sculpt, painted by Angel Toast. She was $3000 US, nude, unpainted, with eyes and lashes in a decorative designer tin. I have seen the resale go as high as $11,000 with $5000-$8000 more often. Just this month it was put forth on the ED Forum that 28 dolls remain and are being distributed to the list once more after a long hiatus. She is the doll in my avatar. I have her in my estate planning. This doll is my most precious treasure after my living companion animals.
       
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    4. It used to be Dollshe's Bermann that was the impossible doll on my wishlist. But Dollshe brought him back, surprisingly, and now I have him on order.

      So now, the doll I want that I think might be the hardest to get is Dollzone's Anson flowergirl.
       
    5. Definitely Enchanted Doll
       
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    6. I'm not a connoisseur so I'm not familiar with super rare/ultra limited runs. My personal "hard to get" doll is Bishonenhouse Nails, because all of BH sculpts get very very small batches. I know if I'm patient he'll get more batches but for now, there's no way I'll be getting one in the near future.
       
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    7. D d Anne Lotus- I think there are maybe 40 total but that was split between four or five releases in various colors. and all were hand cast with the eight arms at the size they were they are astonishing. It took me 5 years to get my hands on one and I'm shocked I was able to.
      [​IMG]
       
      #47 Sims, Sep 28, 2017
      Last edited: Sep 28, 2017
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    8. Years ago, there was a creator called Fancyboots who made a doll called Liebchen. There were 75 in one skintone, 75 in another, and I think those are all the ones she produced. While Fancyboots is on the wiki, hers is a red link.
       
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    9. Any of Souldoll's old Kid sculpts. I've been holding out for a Souldoll Tiny to pop up on the MP or Ebay for the past I-don't-know-how-many-years. There was an instance where I thought I finally found her on Ebay (the seller didn't know which sculpt she was), but because I wasn't certain and she was in atrocious condition I didn't get her. Then there was a Russian dealer that had her listed as "pre-order" and I nearly had a coronary. I asked the dealer how they could possibly get Tiny made if Souldoll had discontinued her. They were like, "Oh, sorry, you're right, we can't order her for you." THEN WHY THE $@#*BALLS IS SHE LISTED ON YOUR SITE?! Ugh, I should have just purchased the one that was in-stock at DDE all those years back.:sigh
       
    10. TIL: everything in my collection is considered rare/hard to find. Not sure how I feel about that! I should probably qualify this by pointing out most of my collection is of a much older style that is apparently no longer fashionable, so maybe it's just that we've owned a lot of this lot since release/picked it up really dirt cheap because no one else wanted it?

      It should probably also be mentioned that an LE of 10 doll, for instance, whilst incredibly rare, becomes really, really cheap when it's no longer the in thing, so eventually, even the seemingly impossible dolls become available! I know because I own several, one of which I actually got for free via a series of deals and careful waiting.

      All of that said, hardest to find all things in, probably the very early LE's. CP, for instance did a whole series of one off's with Luts, quite a few of the French art dolls are tricky to find and were released in very small numbers, Irrealdoll's generally, but specifically Nur, there was a Russian sculptor, Global Tranz (?) who vanished from Etsy that we actually own a head from. Things like that.

      ***EDITED TO ADD***
      Domadoll Okki...the single regret I have in the 11 years I've been in this hobby was selling that doll, never found another one.
       
      #50 Lulu, Sep 28, 2017
      Last edited: Sep 28, 2017
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    11. Aoi Tuki Tukihime's body. There are maybe two on this forum and I ended up with one of them. I'm not even sure they're being sold anymore.
       
    12. The doll I had the hardest time finding was the Soom Marl. She wasn't a super popular sculpt and it was hard to find her with all her fantasy parts. I think she popped up maybe 4 times in as many years? And always went super fast before I was able to snag one, and even then, I still had to track down her fantasy legs
       
    13. On my profile I have listed the top ten from my own wishlist I think will be very, very hard to find now. I'll list some of them here:

      CustomHouse Selene
      Dollmore Ray
      DollShe Salubia
      Happydoll Margo
      Roonodoll Yumi

      The last two I had actually slmost purchased secondhand before but didn't and could just slap myself for now.

      (And of that list, I think probably the Salubia would be the most impossible to find!)
       
    14. Well, not sure if this counts, but it is impossible to find owner pics of Telesthesia and Dragon DiFei. I looked EVERYWHERE for pics. She isnt limited, just not popular I guess.
       
    15. I've been trying to locate an Aimerai Sabby 1/12 size. He's sold out from the company and I've yet to see one secondhand.
       
    16. HyperManiac dolls are hard to find second hand, but some pop up more frequently than others, like a couple times a year you see one for sale. I can't recall the last time I saw a full Ksy, Gye-do, Na-hu or Ishta for sale.

      Last year I bought an Edelweiss Gagnon, and really you rarely see Edelweiss heads come up secondhand. I also have a Nathan doll from Ahkmel, you rarely see them come up either. I am glad I managed to snag both of them.

      Some Or-Doll heads seem hard to find.
       
    17. I bought a Unidoll girl at Dollism in Buffalo. She is an H 14 head, I believe? (That's what the seller told me). I can tell she is very old, and would probably be hard to find another.
       
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    18. It's odd to see so many dolls pop up in this thread that I saw get released with so little fanfare and then drop into obscurity, but that's exactly what is going to make them rare. I've had a lot of them pass through my hands, or be on my wish list at some point.
      I think the rarest that I still own is my X from Psyche (the Korean Psyche, not the second Psyche). She made 5? 10? to fit the old Dollshe Hound body and I was able to obtain one through a DoA friend and a money transfer. I've never seen one for sale secondhand, and when she made another head 'A' many years later, her business model hadn't changed so I don't know that anyone outside of Korea bought him either.
       
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    19. Not doll lab Bleu Citron, I thought she was pretty interesting. I'm not sure I would buy her if given an opportunity, but I've never found her for sale.

      Dear mine sky blue picasso bean LE. I've only seen it on their website. I can't find owner pictures or anyone even talking about that doll.

      I'm afraid souldoll Hye is hard to get now I put off buying her since she was not limited and now she is discontinued. :doh
       
    20. Probably Edelweiss Gideon. He was an artist head and when I finally got the funds to order him, the site was gone. :(

      Edit 11/18: put up those WTB, threads, folks! I found one to bring home. <3
       
      #60 mustbemissa, Jul 3, 2018
      Last edited: Nov 13, 2018
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