Scalping and YOU.

I agree. While I'm just getting into BJD's, this works very similar to other collections I have had. The price is set by what people are willing to pay for it and the value is more personal than anything else. I love shoes, while some may thinking paying $300 to $400 for a pair is ridiculous, if it is a pair I want, I will willinging spend it. The same here with the dolls. I've ordered my first and have plans in place for at least three more. If one of the dolls will no longer be available any other way, I would probably still save up to get her, even at a higher price.

 

I hate scalping.

I have to deal with this in the bjd and lolita community. With bjds, its usually a limited doll, and good thing I never care for them. With the lolita community, its prints mainly from like Angelic Pretty. What the both have in common is that they both are sold out from the original company, and like a week later, someone decides to jack up the price sky high. I think its unfair because even if someone will not buy it at such a high price, it still has an effect on them.

If someone crazy enough buys it, the scalpers think 'wow, looks like I can set the price as high as I want to'. But this cycle continues when the person who bought it sets the prices almost as much as they paid for it, so that they can get some or all of the money they paid for it. This in effect makes them no difference from the original scalper. They can add some words like ' I believe it is worth this much' and whatnot, but still.

 

Are we talking about scalping as any type of resale? Even years later? I think part of collecting anything is the investment element. You're gambling in a way, if you buy something and later the market goes to pot (like Beanie Babies), then you're going to have a difficult time making even a slice of what you paid back. However, if you buy something and later it gets scarce or people start liking it a lot more, then suddenly you might find yourself with something really valuable (like a Babe Ruth Baseball card). You have to take resale in these cases for what it is, it's people selling their stuff for what they can get out of it. If you had something that you didn't need anymore you could make real money on, I hope you'd sell it. We live in such a disposable society anyway, I hate to think that nothing has any value anymore.

For me, I doubt I'll be into BJDs forever. If I get married and decide to have children, I'd be afraid my children would break my expensive, beautiful dolls, and I'd rather they move on to the next person.

And anyway, people who buy used stuff to resale very scarcely ever make even minimum wage money at it, so I figure if they make a little at it, I'm happy for them.

 

Scalping is simply a very common practice when it comes to the world of collectables in general. But as long as people are willing to pay inflated prices for a limited edition or special, it will continue. As for myself, I'm notoriously cheap. When I was searching for my Boding, Boding Sharmin, there was one on Ebay for about $200 over retail price & I simply wouldn't pay it. As the doll didn't sell, she relisted it about $100 cheaper & I still didn't bite. At her third attempt she offered the doll for retail & I grabbed it. Seeing how it was a limited edition of 10 in the world, I didn't expect to find a mint bargain but was willing to pay no more than original retail.

I've come to the conclusion that there are almost an unlimited amount of attractive dolls & I don't need a special edition especially at an inflated price.

 

You completely hit my motto on the ball Gwydion! I have the exact same feelings about it. Sure I might lament missing out on a beautiful doll... but they're wants, not needs. Life will go on.

 

That's the best way to be, I think. I'm short of funds at present and am currently depressed about not being able to order a Limwha Mano Elf on the last ever ordering period and I really wanted the Everpurple Iris as well. I have to keep telling myself that when I do have the money, something I like just as well or even better will be out there.

 

I'm not heated on the issue, but I do have an opinion.
With the current economy I can understand why someone may want to get the most bang for their buck when they decide to re-sell. However, on the same note I don't think as many people are in the position to actually afford those inflated prices for items like dolls and collectibles. Of coarse there will always be some collectors who will sell a kidney to get what they want at any price, but I just don't understand it.
It doesn't bother me so much when someone on say Ebay jacks the price up on a limited doll months after it was released, but what does rub me wrong is when someone wins a lottery and a week after receiving the doll jacks the price up double what they paid and says they 'didn't bond' with it. Sure, some folks who do this are sincere, but let's face it. If you just didn't bond with it you would want to find it a good home and get your money back, not profit 100% by scalping it. There are some dolls like the 4 Sisters YoSDs, Reisner and Luna who I would love to have in my collection but I refuse to justify spending $800-900 on a Yo or $2,500 on Reisner. Sorry, I just can't do it and feel ok about it. But that is me. I sold my Yo Sara as soon as she arrived home because I had a chance to buy a doll I had wanted for quite some time instead, but needed the money back from Sara to do it. I sold her to a friend for the exact same price I paid for her ($400 something). Now Yo Sara is going for around $600-900 in original condition. Yikes!

 

There will be other dolls. I have a price range and I am not going out of the range for a doll. Paying 3500.00 for a VOlks Limited is not for me. If I wait long enough they will release the head again or something close to it. Who cares about old dolls when something beautiful is coming in the future from the companies you love! Damn I would rather put that money toward a trip to Tokyo to get me a Sato only FSC that I can customize any way I chose!

There will be other chances and you never know! Nice collectors are out there who are willing to sell their Limited dolls for fair prices. I learned that first hand and I am ever thankful to that DOA member who sold me a rare doll for and exceptionally fair price. We all love dolls and I know that if I truly didn't "bond" with a new doll I would not be hiking up the price 150 percent to find it a "good home" ...please

Oh and TheFontBandit I agree with your statement. Banding together to lower prices is not going to work. Indeed there will always be someone out there willing to pay the higher price and good on them if that is what they want to do. If you don’t want to pay a high price for a doll well...just don’t pay it. Again, more dolls are coming.

 

I second this. I was fully prepared to pay $2500 or what not + shipping + fees for a certain limited Volks mold, but in the end someone sold me a head for a very decent price. Now I just need to save up for a body. ^_^

I sold my old type Dollshe body for $600, which is more than the original retail price of the doll, but I needed about that amount to buy a replacement body. One could argue that a buyer is not responsible to cover purchase costs of what the seller wants to buy, but I wanted a good price and made use of the fact that the body was discontinued to ask more than retail price.
At the same time I chose to buy a discontinued body myself as a replacement and the seller wanted more than retail price and more than I had budgeted. The seller told me that she was in no hurry to sell and she could wait until someone was interested to pay the price she was asking, if she had to, but she wasn't selling for less. I could easily have gotten a different body (I've looked at plenty at the MP that were very reasonably priced), but I didn't want to, so out came the wallet. Nobody forced me, although I can still feel the pain in my wallet.

The above is just supply and demand. I've also sold a body for $100 less its retail price, because the market place was swamped with similar bodies and it wasn't a very popular body.

Although nobody has more right to owning a certain limited or is more deserving than others, it does feel fishy to see some people buying limiteds and then resell them a few weeks later for profit or even worse, buy 10 at the same time. It's a smart thing to buy things you know will be in demand later on, and I'm not talking about just dolls, but when someone buys 10 or more of the same limited that is made in a limited amount they more or less force people to pay for inflated prices, because the chance to buy for retail price is taken away. It feels less fishy when it's an "order period" limited, because if someone buys 10 for resale, that means there will be 10 extra dolls available on the secondary market and that would actually tone down the inflated prices.

 

Personally, I believe that second-hand selling should be the best example of a free market out there. If someone's willing to pay $4000 for a LE, then I don't blame the scalper. However, I think the scalper should listen to what their customers have to say about their prices and lower them accordingly until a buyer is found.

When selling a doll or clothes, etc; I always try to sell for close to the original price, unless there's some major damage, but I'm always willing to negotiate.

 

Wow so true. I can't blame a person for upping the price so they can get themselves a new doll That makes total sense. Older dolls are hard to come by and if they are "out of print" naturally they would be worth more.

I think the only bit that nags at me are the people who are truly scalping for profit and never wanted the doll to begin with. I give most people the benefit of the doubt when I see a new doll for sale but if the price is jacket super high I do raise an eyebrow but that is about all I do. If another person out there wants that dolly for that price go for it! That is their right.

I am ok waiting... I fall in love with a new doll every few weeks so I that system works for me.

 

I'm not sure a true scalper will lower their price, at least not by much. They're in this to make money. So they're going to make the most they can.

The issue boils down to being fair. Using your example, let's say the scalper bought the doll for $1000 and wants to resell it for $4000. What if that's the only doll of its kind? The scalper just artificially inflated the cost of that doll. I'm positive there's somebody out there who'll pay $4000. But it isn't fair at all, especially to those people who would actually take care of such an item.

The problem is:
1. Life isn't fair.
2. You're talking about a free market. The item will sell at what the market will bare.

Like Isenn said, there will be other dolls. And sometimes you just need to be patient.

 

I think a buyer needs to be extremely savvy here when looking at buying anything in the used and new doll market. I learned my lesson early on to check very carefully what the going price is on a new doll and compare it to what someone is asking for their used doll. People do scalp here both on limited and mass produced dolls and it is an accepted practice, so it just puts even more responsibility on the buyer to do his or her homework before you buy.

With that said, I do seem to notice that the merchandise that has inflated and full prices here does'nt seem to be selling very well in this economy. I think the days of people expecting to get back exactly what they paid on doll items including shipping are in the past if they really expect to sell their used stuff.

 

Exactly. A few years ago, Luts was selling Delfs for 550-600.00 USD. If you look at the page now, the Delfs are -much- lower in price. Companies of nearly everything (especially in the luxury item market) have had to drop their MSRPs in order to convince people to buy anything in a world economy that has been troubled.
I only wish the same were true for the cost of food.

In regards to inflated prices for limited dolls goes.. well, people will pay nearly any price for something they feel is very important to them.

 

This, plain and simple. When I was new to the hobby, I overpaid for quite a few things, because I wanted them and didn't do my research first. I am still kicking myself. There is such a fluctuation in the Marketplace from seller to seller. Informed research is critical. A seller can charge whatever they want for a doll, standard or limited. It is up to the buyer to weigh the pros, cons, and value (both moneywise and emotional) of a doll and decide if the price is right for them.

There is a tendency in this hobby (and I was sooooo guilty of it) to become obsessed with all things BJD and overbuy because of the "omg another pretty doll.....waaaaaannnnnntttttt!" factor. If you are consistently overpaying for something you fall out of love with, you have to take a hit when reselling. Or they complain that a Seller A overcharged them for something. I've seen a few of those lately. If you overpay for a doll because you didn't do your research and Seller B is selling the same doll for less, that's your own fault for not doing your research, plain and simple. Don't whine about it. Don't accuse the seller of fleecing you. Call it a learning experience, suck it up, and move on.

Of course, now that I am more experienced, I grossly overpaid for one of my dolls, but at least that was an informed decision.

 

If prices aren't lowered, it will eventually come down to lowering the price or not selling at all. Making $3000, using your example, may have to turn into making 1000, if no one's willing to buy a doll that expensive. And I don't really think "fairness" comes into an issue for items like dolls. It's not a necessity, and no one's FORCING you to buy a dramatically overpriced doll. If the issue were with overpriced food or utilities, I'd have a completely different opinion. But we're talking about the equivalent to art, here. An artist can sell their art for whatever they like, but after a point someone may not be willing to buy.

 

Yes, it basically comes down to supply & demand as all things in a free market economy do. Some things like food, shelter, heating, etc. we need & don't always have much control over the prices. But for luxury items, something will sell for whatever the market will bear. There's always going to be someone with unlimited funds that can afford to spend $3000 over the original price of a doll while the rest of us just drool & weep.

Is it fair? Perhaps not but then very few things in life are. Would I personally pay it? As I've previously stated, no. Actually in all the years I've collected dolls I've only made a profit on about 5%, broke even on another 10-20% & lost money on the rest. But then I basically look at my dolls as toys so even when I lose money, it doesn't bother me as I figure I've had my fun with them & it's time to pass them on.

All this said, if you're patient & do your homework, you can sometimes pick up a rare or limited doll for a very good price, less even than retail. I've been fortunate enough to run into a few of those. And even if that doesn't happen, as has been stated so many times, there're always wonderful new dolls being released which, when you see them, you may be happy that you didn't pay an inflated price for something else.

 

Scalping Vs. not bonding or wanting the doll.

It's obvious when you have a person who always seem to have LE dolls up for sale in the marketplace ( and at two or three times the original release price ) versus someone who didn't want to miss out on a LE and then deciding a couple of days later the doll is just not for them.

Now you have a problem. The Scalper has set the market price potential and now the remorseful owner sees what others are willing to pay for the LE and sets their price accordingly. Now what?

I've seen a few LE dolls sold for what the original owner paid for them during the order period, but these are far and few between the scalped LE's.

 

I tend not to have any sort of problem with people turning dolls around- unless of course they turn the doll around for double what they paid. Say I sold my Glati. With what I paid, I could only justify to myself adding maybe 100 more onto the price. I find it unfair to others to ask for more.
I know others do not feel the same way, looking through the MP at the Beryls going for 500 a HEAD, that is obvious. If someone is willing to fork up that kind of money for a doll then I find it to be the buyers fault for being gullible. :P

 

I'm a bit mixed on the idea of scalping these days... If someone is willing to pay it, is it so wrong?

Also, here is what my post was before: I actually kind of find myself sickly amused about scalping. I notice 2 things that are most frequently scalped: Volks LEs and to a HUGE degree, Soom MDs. I just shake my head with a smile at scalpers, remember their name, and refuse to ever buy from them no matter what they are selling. I find it distasteful to ask a buyer to pay shipping from the company to you, plus the price of the doll, plus the price of shipping to the new home, but that is more acceptable than buying a doll for, say, 750 dollars and selling it for 1500. I could understand a slight markup if someone (distastefully) demands the buyer pay shipping from the company to the seller, but when they double the price just because it was a limited edition doll? Puh-lease. It's transparent, unethical, dishonest, and just a bit shameful. I'll stay away from scalpers, kthnx.

My opinions have since changed because I'm a lot more experienced in the doll world. I still feel it's pretty distasteful to ask the buyer to pay shipping from the company to the seller and/or the custom's fees the original owner paid, but if the buyer REALLY wants the doll, they'll pay it. My opinion was naive before, that everyone should be fair and help everyone else's doll dreams come true but the reality of it is, everyone works hard to survive and if they can make some much-needed cash by jacking up the price of their doll, that's their choice and it's alright if they do it. I would not refuse to buy from someone because they raise the price of their doll/s, I can just choose to not purchase the doll I feel is overpriced. So that said, most of my opinions within may have changed but I can still choose to stay away from scalpers if I don't want the doll enough to pay the raised price.