Selling a doll with the expectation that it'd stay the same character?

If the seller does that, then they might as well keep the doll.

To expect your buyer to keep the doll as the same character is a bit too much, I suspect that most people would tell them anything they want to hear in order to be able to get the doll.

 

I agree. I think they are still attached and maybe need money or something similar. But the chances of this happening are very low, or people will look for another doll or say what they need and do what they want. They could complain to the buyer but after they sold the doll there nothing they can do.

 

What Elysion gear said is exactly what I'd do.

Unless they have me sign some kind of legally binding contract I wouldn't be obligated to keep the doll as is. In which case I wouldn't buy it in the first place.

To me it sounds like the want the doll and the money from it at the same time, even if they aren't the ones physically owning it anymore. I think they need to make up their mind and pick one.

 

I wouldn't buy the doll because my intention would be to change it. The personality of a doll is a personal thing between the owner and the doll (if that makes sense). That character only has meaning to the owner which is why they made it that character in the first place. A new owner wouldn't be able to understand the character like the original owner did.

 

When you sell a doll you can't expect that the person who buys it keeps the character.
Everyone has their own characters and their own way to see and make their dolls. Creating a character and materialising it into a doll is part of the bond the owner makes with the doll. If it is not my character, I feel it is not my doll.
If you do not want the character to change, don't sale. Because it is unlikely someone will buy it but not make them theirs by changing the look, the name, the story...

 

A long time ago someone was selling a doll from a photostory I was into reading at the time... If I had the money I have to admit I would have bought her.. and probably seen her as that character forever. I don't think I would have bothered to write or take photostories for them tho because I'm no good at it and wouldn't do them the same justice as the one who created them... But I just loved the way she looked.

The photostory ended a bit abruptly too which was a bit sad..

I think that was the only case where I was tempted to buy a doll with a pre-made character..

 

I've sold two dolls to friends who did keep their characters I had for them and it worked out very well. In fact, both characters blossomed with their new owners.

 

I kept the character of the one doll whose story I knew. I loved her and loved the character my friend had already established for her, so I kept her name and backstory. But I wouldn't expect someone to do the same with any of mine. The reason I sold the one I did is because I couldn't find her character no matter what I tried. So she's on her way to a new home with someone who can.

 

well... if I really liked a given doll I'd just tell the seller - 'omg, yes i'll totally keep the OC, bc I love it' etc, etc. and do what I want with it after it arrives. They can't sue me or anything...

But - there are a lot of dolls of other people with fixed characters etc and gorgeous makeups and all and I'd LOVE to have them and keep them as they are indeed

So - i'd say it depends. I mean - the seller may say whatever they want, and as long as they get the money they can go and... 'do stuff to' themselves, bc it's not their doll anymore, so not their business. And especially, they should respect it if e.g. their faceup skills aren't that awesome and e.g. wiping off the faceup would only do good, etc etc.

One last thing tho - out of pure human kindness - if the doll was unlimited, steady-seller and easily obtainable in where I live (e.g. I'd rather not buy directly from Japan or Korea cos the stuff from there always gets taxed etc. but I seem to be lucky with e.g. US, etc, etc.) I'd just go to the shop and buy a new thing instead of tearing the seller's heart by changing the doll as soon as it comes to me. But, in general, I dubt if I'd buy such a doll (unless I rly, rly liked it) bc such people usually price their dolls too high (oh, bc they're such precious, ultra-ooak OCs, right) So yeah... My opinion

BTW, it reminds me that I recently sold a doll head to my acquaintance. It was one of those faces of 'difficult beauty' (thus the sale), and I saw that she wiped off the faceup, which - in fact - was rather flattering the face and hiding the imperfections. I wonder how much she regrets it now (put some evil laughter here xD)

 

Honestly, it's up to the buyer. If you "buy" the character that's one thing, but to demand it seems a bit much.

 

That does seem unusual. I think I have more often seen people wanting to keep the character when selling the doll. People are generally possessive and protective of their characters. I know that if for some reason I had to sell my dolls, I would want to remove everything about them that makes them their characters and sell them as plain blank dolls (except for my default fullsets, I could leave them as is and they would be just like any other default fullset).

I don't think I would buy a doll if the previous owner wanted me to keep its character. I would have my own ideas and visions for it, and would most likely want to change the faceup on it too. In fact, I don't think the seller can put conditions on a doll and expect any buyer to keep them. It's not their doll any more, once it is sold.

Linda S.
galatia9

 

I have done this--traded a doll to a friend with the expectation that she'd keep everything the same. In our case, we had a role play going for years, and I lost interest in continuing to play my character, and she offered to take him so he could still be attached to her dolls' characters. However, if upon receiving the doll, she decided to completely change him into a new character, that would be perfectly fine---at that point, he's her doll, not mine.

On the other hand, I generally keep my characters, even if I don't keep them shelled in a doll, so unless I specifically tell a buyer they may keep my character, I wouldn't be okay with that. There's always a chance I'm reshelling the character in the future and it would be awkward if someone else still had my guy.

 

I can only think of one case where I might do this, with my current collection--though I don't think I'd ever sell the doll, because he's been modded to specifically look like a well-known character, and the mods are pretty irreversible, I would expect (though certainly not demand!) that anyone who might buy him would be buying him to keep him the same character. But of course, in this case, the character isn't my own creation anyway, and in fact there are other owners who've created the same character (in their own ways).

With any of my OCs, though, I'd never sell them with the expectation that the character remain--the characters are mine, they were here before the dolls arrive, and if I ever for some reason left the hobby and sold everything (again, unlikely!), the characters would still be here.

And when it comes to buying, I'm purchasing dolls to fit into a group of existing characters, whether it be the ones based on existing, well-known characters, or the ones of my own creation. If someone's absolutely demanding that I keep the character of their doll, while it's true they can't stop me from doing anything I want once I purchased it and had it in my possession, for the sake of avoiding the inevitable drama that would follow that, I'd just move on and find another seller of that sculpt.

 

Is it possible the seller thought that the extra info and backstory was a selling point? Many doll companies do this and we enjoy reading about the character. Unless the person specifically said they would only sell to someone who was interested in the character - I wouldn't necessarily think that the seller expected the buyer to keep the dolls char and back info.

 

I agree with mdonline03, that possibly the seller just decided to include the character info and backstory to add an element of "interest" to the doll and put some extra info on the sale page. If I saw the doll and liked it and the price was right, I'd buy it. I prefer to order my dolls blank, as my biggest interest in this hobby is the customization aspect. Most likely, I'd quietly wipe the existing faceup/blushing and re-do it myself in order to create the look I desired. In the case that the situation became tense because the previous owner expected the character to stay as-is, I'd probably send a short but sincere apology note to assuage their hurt feelings and move on quietly with my customizations. I'd rather keep the drama to a minimum in such a situation. If for some reason the seller decided to push the issue, I'd probably just block them, play the avoidance game (I'm an expert, lol), and be done with it. When you buy something, it is yours to do as you please.

 

As a buyer, if I liked the doll the way it was and thought it was an interesting character to keep as a whole package, then maybe I would keep it as is before purchasing. But otherwise, no, I would not consider purchasing the doll as it is more than likely that I would alter the doll somehow to make it my own. As a seller, I would always expect that once the doll is out of my hands then it is up to the new owner to do whatever he or she wants to do with it even if I would rather have that doll remain intact. But I totally agree with you that if the original owner wants to keep the doll intact (character, personality, and all), then they shouldn't be selling the doll.

To digress a little, if the seller was selling a doll that was a character that the original company made, like a Volks' Rozen Maiden Suigintou or any number of the Iplehouse character dolls, then I could keep that doll intact because I have a thing for keeping limited edition dolls intact even though I would totally love to make my own character out of him or her.

 

I've no interest in taking over someone else's character either, so I would never buy a doll that had to stay a certain OC.
The dolls themselves are just vessels, and our OCs are their souls.

 

It's totally possible... but I think that most people don't keep the character and backstory presented on a manufacturer's website either.

I think that if the seller takes the time to ask the buyer to keep the character, that means they are serious about the buyer actually doing it. Possibly they do it because they put a lot of work and mods into the doll's look and don't want to see it undone -- but if I loved a doll enough to put that much work into it, I'd be inclined to keep it. Tastes change, and I can see why someone would decide to sell it. They can't expect the new owner to keep everything they did, though.

Linda S.
galatia9

 

The idea of a seller expecting someone to keep a doll character they've given a doll they are now selling is unrealistic. There is no guarantee that someone who buys a doll from you will keep the character and as they now own the doll there is nothing the previous owner can do about it. If I really liked a doll, i'd buy it and personalise it the way I wanted. It may be the case that I might not want to make any changes to how the doll looks but as for character...well I wouldn't bother with that as most of my dolls don't have characters anyway. I don't have to have a character in mind for a particular doll to want to buy it, if I like the way it looks, that's enough for me.