Second hand dollies- tracing their 'Geneology"

Janus is a second hand doll; he was in his previous incarnation a fairly well-known hound and one of the first Hounds I remember noticing on DoA, very beautiful. He came so stripped-down that there wasn't much left of that orginal personality when he arrived; he had his default eyes back in and no wig at all. When he came out of the bag, joy and I both felt how terribly sad and lonely he was. Not that he still was the character he had been (as the character still exists), but I think it had been hard for him to be sold. And he needed a little tlc, some cleaning and a restringing. Joy and I ordered him some very special eyes and I had a fur wig waiting for him when he arrived. Cleaning him and restringing him was almost a process of rebirth, and he had all new clothes and a new wig and a new name and home by the time it was over.

Now he seems quite content, and that empty doll he was when he first arrived is as gone in him as any previous personality he might have worn.

Still, we do sometimes go back to look at pictures of his old self, but they are just like pictures of another hound, not our Janus.

 

My Lavender is a previously loved head. Now and then I'll see a bit of a smirk on her lips and wonder if she's hiding secrets from her past incarnation.


I also have limbs from Kellyhime's old doll. They have quite a friendly and loving energy. I don't know... but I think I need to keep them! I'll try and make them into a whole resiny doll someday. Right now they're attached to my cloth body.

I like the mystery of adopting a doll... I like researching the history of the doll a tiny bit... I don't like to know too much. I would've been too attached to certain dolls to adopt them and make them new characters. Mostly I let the dolls decide who they are and go from there.

 

I got my doll from Y!J.
She came naked with no eyes, but with her default faceup... then I noticed when I got her that her nails had been painted.
That little thing made me wonder a bit whose she had been before and what named did the character she embodied was, but there's no way to know, with Y!J, because of the indirect communication, so it shall forever remain a mystery for me.
I'm not too anxious to know, though. ^^

 

Two of my secondhand dolls did not seem to have prior "lives" or personalities, so they started fresh with me. One other has a personality and has continued on with it, and will continue to do so..... But I think it's all up to you. If you're intrigued with their past, but want to change their future, then you can morph them into it. Otherwise, just let the past slide away and make no mention of it. Especially if their faceup is changing....that will make it very easy.

 

I never really tried to find out much about my Lishe's past, as friends bought her for me and I didn't even know she'd been bought by a member from the forum for a long while. After seeing this thread I decided to check out what I knew about her, which is that she had previously been named Raine. I think she must have been Lizbet's Lishe, though I'm not entirely sure. ^^; Unfortunately none of her posts to the gallery have working pictures anymore. I would have loved to see what Narue was like before she came to me!

I don't think seeing pictures from the beginning would have changed what I thought of my girl, but it's hard to say. I doubt they would now, because she's had more than enough time to develope into her new character.

 

I know, I'm far too finnicky... I just have to find the dolls that really fit my niche... plus... the Yen wanted to kill me.
I'm very happy to know where the Yen is, and where Anya is (she even kept her same name XD) Bunnii rocks, and really loves her, which I love.
The only one that saddens me a little, as a seller, is Daniel, the person who bought him never responded to my asking if they were on DoA, so I have no idea what became of him.

I'm sure I'll unintenionally upset more before I'm through, because I think I've finally found the dolls that will fit into the story I've had planned.

As for the dolls I have now: Kaye, Kaen, Spade and Arya are all second hand. Kaye, Kaen and Arya, I have no idea what their past lives were... Spade... well, I recognized his original head in the marketplace thread... he was one of the first Calvins I saw here on DoA... the one with the flawed eyebrow... but... I don't think that really matters now... he doesn't resemble his fromer self at all!

 

Hi guys ^^

So, I'm a big owner of second hand dollies- my first SD, a second hand boy, is on his way as we speak- and I was really excited to talk to the previous owner and learn his history. Does anyone else get any joy out of tracing their second hand doll's roots? Does anyone have advice for other people that want to do it, or want some help?

I found, by asking the original owners, that my SD (a hybrid):

Had a new body bought from FantasyDoll in 2008
Had the head bought off eBay a year or two before that

and my DoC Yen:

Was bought off ebay several years ago, and was at least second hand.

I'm having trouble finding any more info, so does anyone have some pointers?

Although my dolls all end up with new personalities than what they came to me as, i still love learning their pasts ^^

 

There's an interesting older discussion of this topic here:
http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39984

I like knowing my dolls' histories, but I'm also reluctant to bug people I don't know. If I know that a previous owner of my doll is active on DoA or another forum I frequent, I sometimes PM to ask a few basic, non-personal questions. But I wouldn't go so far as to track down the e-mail address of someone I don't know at all, just to ask questions. I might consider asking a friend, if I knew for sure that the previous owner and I had a friend in common, to inquire discreetly whether the previous owner would mind getting a brief e-mail from me with a question or two about the doll.

 

I hope no one minds that I am posting on this thread though it's almost a month old...(does that count as necroing???), but I was actually searching to find out if other people did this too. The other thread was closed, or at least there was no reply function on it, that and I'd feel a lot worse posting on a thread from 2006 vs one a month old.

So yes. A small while back, I got curious. I noticed that the girl I sold my first doll ever to, and I was curious to find out what happened to her. I hate just asking out-right to people like, "Why did you sell the doll I sold you" or "Why did you sell me the doll you sold to me?" because sometimes that can be really personal, so I did my own investigative resarch. I looked up feedback threads. I found that my girl was sold as a head, and then re-sold, and is currently living her life as a hybrid soom berryl. Yes, I know this is backwards geneology, but that's what got me thinking about that kind of stuff. If I was able to figure out where my doll is now, then I could figure out where all my dolls came from.

So I currently have a list of all my current and past dollies, and I try as hard as I can to trace them from their first owner, all the way to their current owner, if sold.

I've actually found most just sifting through feedback, because for the most part, people leave feedback stating that they "bought such-and-such item from so-n-so, and the transaction was ___". So that made it easier. I'm sure there's a couple on my list that I couldn't trace back any further, but in all, for the most part, I have a pretty complete list.

It just makes it harder to figure out where your doll came from if the person originally bought them from ebay or somewhere else. Plus, as I said earlier, I try not to pry with personal questions. I think it'd be odd to pm the owner I bought such-and-such a doll from x number of years ago to find out where they got them and what adjustments they made to them. I know I wouldn't mind getting a message like that, but then again, I am the type of person to think everyone else would be peeved by such things.

^^; there's me, though. I'd post the list, but I really don't want to invade anyone's privacy.

 

Im always interested in this too! Most of the dolls ive bought have been new, but if I buy one second hand i always try to look up who they used to be, who they lived with etc. I definately wouldnt mind if people asked me these questions, but I always chicken out when i do the asking ^^; The only one i actually know a tiny bit of background about is a unoa girl im paying off in the mp. I noticed her up for sale one day, and wanted her really badly but by the time the person read my pm they had already agreed to sell her.. so I waited and waited hoping she would turn up for sale again, and she did! she didnt work for what the other person wanted so she was up for sale and I nabbed her but I tried looking her up and I noticed someone from the database had one with a faceup by the same artist and had deleted the post because she was sold... same doll maybe?? lol anyways, I have absolutely no idea on how to go about tracing them farther, except for searches person to person

 

8D I almost forgot about this thread!

I recently bought a trio of dolls from one person, and before even paying them off I asked about their history, explaining why I did ^^ she was happy to tell me. In fact, I was only going to buy one of the dolls, but when I learned that she had a best friend who was also for sale, I couldn't split them up ;3; They kept their old names, too :3 and if they ever get sold, their histories will be written down and passed along.

 

Let's see...Yumiko previously owned my ex-boyfriend who is still my BFF, Zetto's head was bought new at Junky Spot and I got his body from here, on the Marketplace. And Namiko...well, she's my first 100% new doll.

That's about the size of it. Oh yeah, my ex-boyfriend/current friend gave Yumiko her first name. However, everything else about her back story, including her last name, were inventions of mine. He never got into it enough to build up a back story.

 

Fate, who I don't own anymore (was my fave for 2 years, but I could no longer bond with him as he was).
Originally owned by: Nanyalin
2nd owner: Musesick
Then me ^w^

 

I want to make a chronological line of where my BJD was before and after I got them so I really want to know that sort of info ^^

I will not go as far as asking the last owner about it, but I would search the forum here and everywhere I can access to get the info I want =D

I am not really interested how "who" they were before.... but I'd still like to know where they went =D

My first second-hand doll... well he is double second-hand since his heed and body were both from different owners and are both more then a year older then when I got them =D
I also have my B&G Leile that is not second-hand, but was in the hand of a friend before I got her XD
And the body of my Shiwoo.... I do not really know much about it xD
And then there is the Glati that is shipping my way =D

So many of them xD
I'll need to get to there timeline soon so I do not end up forgetting everything I already know xD

 

I like to know who owned them before personally! Not for any reason beyond my own curiousity, but I do enjoy seeing photo's of them before I got them. I've traced the histories of nearly all of my second hand dolls, but there is one that eludes me and naturally he's the most interesting! He's a modded dreaming lishe from back in the day they came direct from CP, and I would DEARLY love to know who opened his eyes because they're the feature I adore the most and yet know NOTHING about.

Generally speaking, you can track a doll through feedback threads pretty easily, and I've even managed to get back 4 owners with my lishe, but before that remains a mystery sadly!

 

*COUGH* Victor *COUGH*

yeah things have changed since this thread was posted

as for me, i only ever kept one "character" i think and it didn't work out too well and i sold her because i think i couldn't bond w/ someone else's character. I kept the name but not the character of another (my Egyptian boy) and that worked out much better ...

 

Generally once I sell a doll I am fine with parting with it and no longer feel emotionally invested in it, but sometimes I do wonder what ever happened to say, my awesome Olivia Morgan boy with the amazing faceup.

I actually know where my old F33 Cloud Strife is. I sold the head, and then saw that the new owner had immediately wiped the faceup and put it on ebay. The new buyer from that sale then got the doll and repainted it and actually put it in the F33 database, which I am subscribed to because well, there have been all of 2 F33's on this board. I was curious since she mentioned buying the head off ebay in her database post and asked her what the FCS number on the headplate was. And yup, the number matched my Cloud.

Who is now a girl. Oh the irony.

 

Hahahahahah!! Very true!

(When Jola decided to sell Victor, we wanted to "keep him in the family," so he and his character/history/personality moved in with me. He's the one doll who has ever come to me like this, and he's a very special one because of all the good memories and associations that came with him!)

-- A

 

I find it rather fascinating knowing where my dolls have gone and where they have been. There are dolls where I have just not really bothered to find out where they have gone, and others that I have decided to go and find out what happened to them. It is pretty interesting! I also love seeing where my dolls have come from ( I am a stickler for knowing the history of my girls lol). The best is when I can trace a doll I currently own back to one I previously sold! I have been able to buy back a doll I have sold several years later twice now and both times were completely by accident (meaning I didn't track the doll down and didn't know it was my old doll until after I bought it).

 

I had to come back and completely rework this because things have changed a lot!

On the whole, I don't even want to know who my dolls were or may have been before because I like creating new stories for them from the ground up when I get them home, and I'm always afraid that hearing about their past characters will make my bond with them weaker.

My newest boy still has pics from his previous incarnation on the forum, and while I'm not really bothered by them, (he looks totally different now, so it's okay ^__^) I almost didn't bond with him when I first got him home because he had the same look. I ended up wiping him completely, cleaning him up, giving him a totally new face-up and selling off the wig and eyes he came with. Then he was properly mine and I could love him.

I don't mind seeing his pictures, or -Ed's old pictures for that matter- on the forum, because to me, it's nearly two different dolls.