selling/buying a "character" along with a doll

If I'm famous enough that barbies are being made of my OCs there is no need to worry about them getting stolen. I'm not parting with them at all, no one is buying said barbie to pretend they made it up themselves...not to mention I would most likely be getting money continuously off this supposed deal. If this happened I'd be ecstatic since obviously everyone knows I am the one who came up with this hugely popular idea.

Selling a doll is so completely different. Who is to say once that doll is out of my hands that whomever it goes to isn't going to claim said character for themselves? A one time small price (because to me not one of my characters could go for a measly several hundred to even a thousand dollars) isn't nearly enough for all the time and effort that went in to even my most undeveloped character that I apparently cared enough to shell in a doll.

So no, I would not sell off my characters to another doll owner. Almost every doll I've sold was either ambiguous enough to be anything or anyone or not a character of mine anyway. The ones I have now would go blank if at all with no prior knowledge that they were ever anyone special. On the flip side of that, I wouldn't keep another doll owners character either, as I would be buying that particular doll for one of my own...for those few people who try to sell a doll and request that it stay the same, I just click the back button and exit out of those sales threads.

That said, if you want to buy someone elses character (that isn't mine) go for it! I have nothing against other people doing it at all. It's just not for me at all.

 

If someone sells a doll with the understanding that they're getting rid of the character, or the character issue is a "don't care" for the seller (since not all of us use dolls for character play), then this is a non-issue.

If someone has a doll that is a character, and they explicitly state that they're selling off this doll so they can re-shell the existing character into another doll, or make other big pronouncements that they don't want the buyer keeping the distinctive traits of their doll (such as, "I won't sell this doll with these special tattooes or faceup because that's specific to her character"), then that's a warning to the buyer that the seller is character-sensitive. So buyer is on notice that he shouldn't exploit the existing character, or assume he gets it along with the doll, and that maybe he should change the look of the doll as well so the seller doesn't get mad.

My personal opinion is that sellers getting all sensitive about their "characters" should maybe not sell dolls, or at minimum should wipe the entire doll and sell it blank. Then if the buyer chooses to make the doll up to look just like its previous character, we're into another debate thread about people copying other people's dolls. As it is, if you sell a doll that looks a certain way and has particular traits, then you're running a risk that those looks and traits, i.e. your character, are what's going to draw the buyer, not just the fact that you have a particular sculpt of doll to sell. The more so if you are expecting to get a price above blank doll price for a doll that includes a faceup, outfits or other features.

I've often kept the names for my dolls that their original owners gave them. Sometimes I asked permission if it seemed to be a super special "character". But really, it's irrelevant because I'm not going to be taking and posting pictures of the doll as Character X, or writing stories about Character X featuring the doll. If I come into "possession" of your "character" I'm not going to be doing much of anything with it and certainly nothing public (I might make, say, a locked journal post somewhere, in a journal that's highly unlikely to be seen or read by other "dollie people" just because I don't happen to have "dollie friends" who are that deep into my private business).

I can somewhat understand the sensitivities of people who like to develop characters as a large part of their doll play, or who just have dolls as representations of their characters, but I don't play that way, so while it's a sensitivity I recognize, I don't really relate or care that much about it.

 

As a general rule, I tend to wipe the faceups on my dolls before I sell them (done by me, so not wiping expensive or limited faceups), so keeping the same character would be difficult. Personally, I would prefer that the buyers don't keep the character the same, though I have no problems with names since most of my dolls have fairly common names. This is because I tend to have a strong emotional connection to the characters I create and their stories. For me, the stories come first, and the dolls are representations of that... rather than the other way around. (If that makes sense).

One exception to this rule would be close friends... because I know they understand the character and his/her personality and story.

I actually have bought a doll and kept the character/name the same, from one of my closest friends. When she put her Soo up for sale, I asked if I could buy her and keep the character. My friend and I are very familiar with writing stories together, so she allowed me to keep the character the same... she was actually happy with the arrangement, as she liked the character but couldn't really bond... and this way she can still "visit", so to speak.

However, just buying a doll from the Marketplace from someone I don't know... I wouldn't keep their character. (The aforementioned Soo is an exception because I had been following her "story" and really enjoyed the character.) Nowadays, I usually surf the Marketplace looking for sculpt to fulfill "roles" in an existing story, anyway.

 

I would'nt mind if the buyer kept the name i gave the doll, but not the character.
ex: i called the john, he has blue hair and yellow eyes. he is kinda bitchy and like wearing jean jacket. (just made that up)
i sell this doll and decide to go see the buyer's gallery to see what he has done with it and its still john, with blue hair, yellow eyes and jean jacket and bitchy attitude, but the person changed a little something about it, he makes john wear girl panties!
i'd be like : NOOOOOO you got it wrooong!!
thats what bothers me if the buyer keeps the character i gave the doll. he/she will probably change a little something about MY beloved character that will probably annoy me as hell. if it was a whole new character (now he is david, has long black hair, purple eyes and wear skirts) it just would'nt bother me because its just a piece of resin, even though it used to be mine, its still just a piece of plastic (no matter how beautiful) and the person could've done it with the same mold but bought from someone else! but i feel that the character is more personal.... its MY personal idea that came from my twisted mind and it may even have some sort of backstory from my real life ...
or, sometimes i just sell the doll to give it a new mold. so lets say john was a volks kanata but i now think a migidoll jina would suit him better. so john still exist, and he is with me, but he just got a new face! but there is that old john somewhere on earth... Ôo also kinda annoy me.
there is only enough place for one blue-haired-and-yellow-eyed-bitchy john on DoA >:-0

i always write super long text but they pretty much never make sense xDD

 

Yeah, I think you're talking about 2 different (almost mutually-exclusive) camps of people.... People who wouldn't ever sell their OCs aren't the type to even get into that position, whereby they'd be selling their intellectual property into mass syndication deals. On the other hand, people who are into letting their characters go... probably wouldn't bat an eyelash at seeing a Barbie, Tonner, Bratz, Living Dead Doll, LEGO set, McDonald's drinking-glass, or My Little Pony that's been turned into their OC.

Since utterly nothing in this world is sacred, if I were in such a position, I would personally get a tremendous kick out of seeing a Barbie made of a character I'd created & sold the rights to. I wouldn't even have to like the end-result, itself.... It'd just be a kick on general principle. It's like volunteering to be an extra in a movie: you don't have to like the movie itself, and you don't have to like the 'person' (i.e. background-filler) that you're playing; it's just a blast to be in it & see yourself in it. You sure don't do it for the money ($35 + a free t-shirt ). But, if you're very particular about what happens to your image-- or your OC-- then you don't just fling it around & sell it off like that. You operate in a different scene entirely.

If I wanted to sell a doll without selling its character, I'd probably just go sell it somewhere more anonymous, somewhere I knew was less likely to have buyers who'd ever heard of me; for example, eBay or local auction instead of DOA Marketplace. Wipe the faceup unless it's an LE. Sell via an alias. Have a friend sell the doll for me. There are always ways.

 

I had to think about this a bit, because I didn't really realize I've bought and sold dolls and kept the names/characters already.

The first was an anime character, and I sold him to one of my best friends who loved and adored him just as he was. And I didn't. Das Happy End.
I sold another to another of my best friends, becasue she'd pestered me about him - because I complained I didn't like the faceup I'd given him, and he was just too "quiet" for me, and she adored him as-is. So she got him and kept the name and character, and I've been perfectly fine with it. He's getting much more love and attention with her than he was with me.
I bought a doll from her, and kept the name - and didn't realize he HAD a character, until I put him in a story and she expressed shock that he'd "changed". Crap. I felt bad then, but realized she hadn't told me any backstory on him, and he'd never been in any stories, so how was I to know? So, he just doen't make many appearances.
Then there's a doll that I liked well enough, but his story got told, he morphed into another shell, and I was basically done with him. But another close friend adored him to bits, so off he went. I made sure to let her know that she was free to keep his name and character, and use him in any stories she liked. He was all hers now.

But apparently none of this bothered me, since I had to think about it before realizing I've DONE the buy/sell doll + character thing.
Or... it's just another indication that I'm getting Old-Timer's.
Pfft.

 

I gotta admit that sounds like the 2 Luts I brought :P. And if it is the same 2 I got, they are still happily a couple after all this time . If a seller wants me to continue a dolls character I really dont mind. I never sell so it's hard for me to comment on this for myself xD

 

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As some have said (From what I read) I think it depends on the seller. But I also thinks it depends on the buyer as well. From what I have seen, most people just sell the doll as just the doll, and not the character they had for it. I mean, if you take the time, consideration, and love (If the old owner has love for their characters they create) most would rather keep their own characters than just give/sell them away. Some owners think of these characters that they create as their own children as well, and as far as I know, not many parents would want to sell their children.

But on that note, there may be some owners who may create a character for a doll for the sole purpose of selling them as a whole. But you could never guarantee that the buyer will keep them the same as well. So it seems to me to be an iffy situation either way.

 

If it's just an anime character or a doll based on a pre-existing character that was not my own, then I have absolutely no problem with a buyer wanting to buy my doll and keep the character and name the same.

But I personally wouldn't agree if a buyer asked to keep the name and character of a doll they're buying if the character is one of my original characters. Sorry, it might seem silly, but I write short stories and invest quite a lot of time in fleshing out my characters and unless I know the person I'm selling it to (as in, they're my friend in real life and already knows about my OCs in great detail), then I really would be quite upset if I ever sold a doll to someone and later found out they kept the character (name, personality and all) the same

I know, once the doll is sold and shipped off, it's no longer mine... but it would still irk me if the above scenario ever happened to me.

 

Hey, was that you who bought Keizo & Mitsu? If so, that makes me extra happy they're still a couple... even though they weren't even my dolls! However unnecessary "character preservation" may be in the long run, I still like to witness it. Because I'm a romantic sucker for a happy ending (true love prevails, indeed).

 

Well I would never 'sell' a character along with a doll, i mean unless someone was familiar with me and my dolls they would have no idea who she/he was to me. My original characters are too special to me to do that, especially if I was planning on 'moving' that character to a new doll. Of course if I ever wrote a book/movie using said OC and someone made their own doll based on that character, well that would be flattering ^^

Now there are a few characters (one from an anime, one from a book) I want to make into a doll and if I ever did and then sold then they yea I would probably advertise that theye were created to be that person.

Now I wouldn't but a doll if someone was insistent that they keep their character, unless I was really interested in the character. I would feel bad changing it and probably would have bonding issues.

 

There really are two kinds of doll people... People who buy the doll and turn the doll into someone, and people who have a character, and shell their character. It makes far more sense to me that people wouldn't mind letting go if they bought the doll for the doll's sake, and started blank, than people who shelled their character. And also when it comes to friends, it would be REALLY hard for me to change a doll's name and personality if I personally knew the doll, and it WASN'T being reshelled by my friend. If its being reshelled, the doll becomes blank anyway in a way, but if they aren't going to continue the character, i'd kinda feel like I was killing the character if I changed it xP

If I sold my boy and wasn't reshelling, I wouldn't really like seeing someone I didn't know with his character, cause it'd always make me sad that I had to sell him... but if it was to a friend who I still saw all the time, I would probably prefer that they DID keep the character...

 

Well I actually have one preloved doll at home of which I DID keep the xhar, but I changed the name.

the person i bought her from had introduced het char on a forum I am on, I immidiatly loved the doll, and the background story (a ghost of a french noble girl who was killed in the french revolution). and other than that I loved the "tim buton" type style she had been given.

So when the doll came up for sale, including: face-up, wig, shoes, and dress I just had to have her home and bought her. while she was on shipping to me I actually met her previous owner at a meet, and told her how much I loved the doll she modded, and the story as well. She actually told me she would feel happy for me to keep the story.

Once she came home the only thing I changed was her name, from Marie to Josephine.

 

I often offer a doll I'm selling as her 'complete' self, but I also almost always offer a 'basic' package option too... without any wig/clothes/etc. This way if someone really liked her as I had made her they can purchase her that way, and if they wanted just the basic doll to transform into something new they could do that also. I'm not possessive about any of it; once the doll is ready to travel she can do so any way it happens. ^_^

Once in awhile there are eyes or a wig I won't let go of, in which case I usually offer a substitute, but usually these things are replaceable.

Raven

 

E.Hadrian - I think Hadrian did a great job summing up the two different styles and I liked her logic.

 

See, that's really interesting. I've run into a lot of people who don't want to sell the doll with a specific faceup or tattoo or name because that's "specific to his or her character". Some of the most unique dolls have a whole bunch of mods or tatts that relate to the character. The unique look of the doll is what draws me. Regarding the name thing, some dolls have been given names that I either think are just perfect for the way the doll looks, or else the doll has been so heavily photographed and posted around on the forums under a particular name, say "Seraph", that I would have a really hard time if I tried to stop thinking of him as "Seraph" and start thinking of him as some other name like "Fred".

But as far as the backstory of the doll goes, like whether he's a 100-year-old vampire who was in love with three different angels and is now in human form and going to college, I usually don't even have a clue what that is, and certainly don't want to appropriate it since I don't do story play. I can see where someone would be definitely bothered by another doll owner buying a whole storyline when that definitely wasn't offered up for sale. It's one thing to assume that you can get the faceup and tatts with the physical doll, or recreate them; the storyline is not physically attached to the resin, though.

 

I think there are also ones who fall for the character and then want it. I've met at least one who cannot seem to see the potential in a blank or default doll and come up with their own characters, who wants the full character and name and everything. That works if you're buying fullset LE's or collecting action figures or dolls based on existing anime or game characters, but gets tricky in the marketplace here!

I personally would be livid if I sold a doll to re-shell a character and the new owner kept everything including the name and character the same. If I was all done with the character or leaving the hobby or something I might not mind at all, but I would expect the buyer to ask, first. In that situation I might be thrilled for someone who liked the character to keep it going! But if I'm keeping the character I would NOT want there to be two around. The one doll I've bought that had a very specific faceup had a character that was staying with his original owner and going into a new sculpt. I was careful to change his look and name and character because those did not belong to me. I kept the unusual faceup (that's why I bought him), but everything else changed and he became a new character with me.

I would hope the buyer would ask or let me know if they were keeping the same name, also, just as a courtesy. I would do the same, if I had a character planned and the doll I found to fit that character already had that same name. Most of mine have fairly common or ordinary names so I have no claim on them. But to see the doll with the same look, name AND backstory and personality around would be very strange.

Of course, if my doll was based on a pre-existing character that belonged to someone else, I wouldn't care if the new buyer kept it the same. It's only if it was an original character of mine that I would get annoyed.

Really, if I was selling a doll but not getting rid of the character, I would not mention anything about the name or character in the sales thread, and would also not sell it with it's eyes, wig or clothes unless it came as a fullset. I'd switch the eyes out for one of the spare pairs in a different color, and sell it bald. If the faceup was unique I'd wipe it and either sell it blank or give it a new and different one. I think that would be a pretty clear indication that I was selling the doll and not the character.

Luckily I have no plans to sell my dolls unless there's no other option, so this is all hypothetical.

 

I agree with most people here that if I sold a doll I would not want the buyer to use my back story and character. I'm selling the doll, not the rights to my story line. To me that would be the same as reading someones story, then writing the same story and signing your name to it.

There are many dolls on DOA that have similar back stories. That's to be expected as no story concept is unique. It's all been written before, but to use the same name/exact back story is plagiarism.

I doubt anyone would want their much thought out, lovingly written down concept to be stolen.

That's just my opinion!