Second hand dollies- tracing their 'Geneology"

Kind of... both ways. When I got my Cyber Bohemian Shiwoo (through the Marketplace) I looked through the seller's other threads and found one that contained some "conversations" with him, quite clear about his name, species and tone of voice. I made a point of forgetting those as completely as I could. On the other hand, the same former owner had given him ear piercings, nail polish and several tattoos (including one in a place where, um, I'd never tattoo a doll), and it never occurred to me to wipe those; I just worked them into his new identity. I want to respect that he had a former life where he was very much loved, even though he has a new and different life now.

 

Judging by my love for thrifting and vintage shopping I think I would want to know a doll's history. I have no second-hand dolls yet, but I buy lots of second-hand stuff and I always wonder about the past of the items I bring home. The older the more intriguing.

 

3 of the 4 dolls I have at home, thou 1 isn't mine, were bought here on DoA.
My dolls tell me their character, I only give them the bais of a name, and that only after they spent some time with me. I bought them with an idea, but ideas can adapt, and no one can tell me that Jean Armand is anything like his namesake I wanted to model him after (characterwise). Lucius rebelled, he just did not waat to be here, unfinished. It took me months to accept him (my most loved and prefered sculp in the doll world) and even longer before we were confortable around each other. But I'm persisten, favorit mold and all, and in the end, Lucius is the diva I never imagend his character-inspiration to be...(not that my vision of Lucius Malfoy is very J.K.R., I read to much fanfiction for that).

So no, I do not research the previos lifes of my dolls. They come with them, with the love someone else put into them ingraved as characteristics of the doll itselve. When I look at a sellers picture, aside from the mold/faceup/quality of the pic, there is always a vibe to it, a good one ore a bad one, that makes me like it or not. I would not buy a doll whose picture I do not like the feeling of.

(I'm the strange and crazy doll collector type, don't worry about it)

 

I'd sure like to know who owned a doll I've bought second hand, what was the character he or she built for my dollie!

 

Almost half of my collection is adopted, and I do usually look around a bit to see if there are pics to show what a previous owner did with the doll, but it doesn't affect what I do with them when they come here. It's just nice to know that someone else enjoyed them, too.

Also, I just like to establish a chain of ownership to avoid bootlegs, although fortunately the types of dolls I favor don't seem to be popular subjects for recasters.

 

Most of my dolls/floating heads came second-hand and I've found out who some of their past owners were. I always change the faceup of my dolls when I get them, unless I like how they looked. I like my own faceup style and want to make a doll 'mine'.

Most of my second-handers had some pretty interesting lives before they came to me. I found out that one of my dolls arrived to the original owner on my birthday and has a twin brother and entire family. Another doll was sold to raise money for a charity at one point in time before I bought him.

 

Ah, now I feel like searching for the previous owners of the rest of my second-hand dollies!

 

Though all but one of my dolls came to me second-hand, I've never really searched for them in the galleries to see what their previous owners did with them.

For Alwyn, the previous owner was my sister. She was the first BJD I ever saw. She had never fit with what she was intended to be though, so I started pretty fresh with her. She kept the blonde wigs and pink eyes she had ended up with by that time. I created her character from scratch the moment I had paid for her.

For the two dolls I bought on the Marketplace I looked for the old owners' pictures but I didn't let any hints of the other owners' characters affect my own vision of them. I'm now getting one of them a custom faceup, so in my eyes, she'll never be that doll again.

I agree about looking through old owner photos to try to get a feel for the doll though. And it can be fun to see who they were before they were yours!

 

Most of my dolls are secondhand and occasionally I will do this, sometimes out of morbid curiosity (depending on what state the doll arrived in). It has definitely paid off though, as doing exactly this was how I found out I had bought a stolen doll! She's back in her rightful home now, but I never would have found out had I not gone looking.

 

When I looked up the sculpt of my vampire RS mini actual pics of her came up in google with her alterations, her previous name and all. I wasn't looking her up, just the sculpt. I just wanted to see the face closer. I had pretty much already decided I was going to buy her when she showed up on DOA, but it was nice seeing her as so and so in different outfits and I particularly enjoyed seeing how she was modified and once I saw how very pretty she was it really made me want her. Regardless of who she was though she's my fun loving, mischievous vampire Lucy now and she always will be because I have no intentions of ever selling her. She's mine now. I adore her and I rarely if ever sell a major doll, and the BJD's are definitely major dolls regardless of size, so she's not going anywhere, ever.

Most of the time when I buy a second hand doll I end up doing my own thing with it and they end up getting a completely new personality. Alba my first doll she certainly looks like a completely new doll after all the soaking and sanding I did with her. The Miro blue SD doll I just bought, I do like the idea of what the seller was doing to her and the basic idea of the face up, but I might tweak that a little depending upon what it looks like in real life and I have no qualms about doing that.

I do know however where she came from. I have her first out of the box pics and her first face up pics and a sense of her history and I do think that's fun. I do have a name for her and an idea for an outfit and some tweaks I want to do to her look. When she gets here from then on she's mine and I'd like to hope that the person I bought her from will like what I plan on doing with her but ultimately I feel it's my doll and my call to make after all what she ends up looking like. I think she will actually approve. She's coming to a very good home with me and the seller I think knows that. I just wish I could have bought her Lilac sister too but money issues just totally precluded that. It's been a really lean month work-wise and I just could not rationalize getting them both so I had to let the idea of having both dolls go unfortunately and of the two I definitely wanted the blue girl the most so she had to be the priority.

I tend to look at BJD dolls as being a bit like little resin Time Lords. They regenerate from time to time, get new faces and new lives. Who they were is still part of them but ultimately they have to live in the now and be the dolly person they are now.

 

Learning enough to assure myself the doll isn't a recast will automatically lead me know 'who they were before'. But only one doll I've bought 2nd market keeps an attribute of who she was. The Bee in my UNOSS name is the sound of the first letter of her old name, Belle. It was a serendipitous connection because I already had the domain she symbolizes, Genki Bee, and had known when I got Unoss that her name would be Genki (pun intended)...but being an android, it also fits that most of her personal memory was 'wiped' and her past left behind.

 

I do not really care about a second hand doll's history. Well, I care to SOME extent and it can be interesting, but I feel that if I do not start over with a blank slate, the doll will not feel like my own. That is why I would avoid looking into the history of the doll and the past owners.

 

My newest boy is secondhand, and he happens to also be the boy who got me interested in BJDs! 2 years later, the owner announced she was selling him and I HAD to buy him! I'd never dreamed I would ever own him myself, so I was thrilled to already be familiar with him and know where he came from. He has a different look and personality with me, but I still keep old pictures of his 'past life' on my computer. He also had a girlfriend at his previous home, and I. Have a few pictures of her printed out and mounted on his corkboard. I think it's interesting to know who your bjd was before! Especially because he just kind of 'came into' his new character so easily.

 

I think it's fun to trace back if it's at all possible! At one point, I discovered that I owned three dolls that another DoA member bought and had customized in the past (one of these dolls switched hands 2-3 times after her before this dolly got to me, talk about similar taste!), and became friendly because we had the same doll aesthetics. I even ended up selling one of the dolls back to her years later, and I think that's so awesome to discover another individual who shares the same grail dolls with the same face-up style as you.

 

I LOVE getting a used/old stock/secondhand BJD that has a history, a past, and needs some TLC!
I also research the heck out of them beforehand... learn their old name, who they were, what they were like.
Then I begin to mold them into their new selves.
I think it's fun, sometimes cheaper, and gives them character!

 

My first doll, the one who made me sink in this hobby even if it's off topic, was a secon hand doll. I still keep the photo of the selling auction even if I modified her face-up and used her head on a different body (and her body with a different head...she became two dolls). I searched, because I was curious, but never found any other photo of her previous incarnation, and I'm a bit disappointed. I'd really like to see how she looked like (her auction photo was without wig and dress) and what was her name.

 

I already posted in this thread a couple of years ago, but I wanted to post again I would love to find out more about the former homes of my second handers (most of my collection) and I would [/i]love love love[/i] it if any of the people who own dolls I sold on wanted to contact me and ask about their history I can't provide pictures, but almost all of them had extensive backstories

If I own a doll you sold feel free to get in touch too!

 

Moreso than the character they previously were, I love finding out where they came from. I've had dolls that traveled the world before coming home to me. It's fascinating seeing that she had started in Japan, went through Australia for awhile, then went to the UK, next to Canada, and then home to the USA. I get a kick outta knowing that my dolls have done more traveling and adventuring than I'll probably get to accomplish in my whole life.

Personality-wise, I like seeing photos of them, but I shy away from photostories or RPs of them.

 

Personally I think it's fascinating to see where your doll has been. For me, I really like to see all the locations it's lived in, and how far it's traveled!

Edit: Woops! Aiko-chan basically said that exact same thing right before me (/ω＼*)

 

Oh my god, I LOVE this! This is exactly it to me. Even if you're the original owner, dolls still go through phases like regenerations--new faceups, acquiring a wig that becomes their new default, etc. So moving to a new owner is just a more drastic form (I guess particularly rough regenerations!)

Agatha I got off the marketplace, direct from her original owner, so I know what she was like then. Her original owner had only had her a couple months, called her Kasuga, and had her as a sweet but sophisticated lady. She went through a pretty drastic change into a mad scientist when she got here; I knew when I bought her that's what I'd be doing with her. Still, I consider Kasuga her middle name, and think deep down her character secretly admires the poised sort of person her old character was, though she probably wouldn't admit it in a million years. So she mostly got a fresh start, but has echoes of the "old" her.

Nanoha came from Mandarake, so I don't have any solid info on her previous life. However, her stains were very clearly from her default outfit, and nothing else, so I suspect she was a "shelf baby". That's definitely different, as there's really no such thing as a shelf baby in my house!

My next two I'm getting new, so that's almost weird in comparison. I also have some ideas for another doll in addition to them, and he's definitely going to be a hybrid; time will tell if any of his parts are secondhand or not. (If they are, that Time Lord concept is going to be particularly apt, lol!)