Should Comapnies offer resin sample chips?

I would love to have sample resin chips, and it would help me so much in deciding which doll to purchase. Sometimes it feels like I'm ordering blind.

I'm not sure it would be cost effective for the companies to ship that all over the place. It would be good customer service though.

 

It's an interesting idea. For people who are very concerned about resin matching, it could be very helpful. On the other hand, the companies themselves have differing views on hybridization and may or may not be interested in doing so -- which is fine, as something like that should absolutely be their choice.

For myself, I wouldn't bother, honestly. There's a lot of resin matching info on DoA plus I see dolls from various companies in person at meetups. Mostly, I'm not that paranoid about resin matches being perfect. If something is off enough to bug me, I have no problems blushing for a closer match. Body type matters more to me, and that's something that a resin chip won't help.

 

It would be awesome if they did! I know I stress a lot over hybridding! But for some companies it wouldn't work. Dream of Doll seems to have very inconsistant resin batchs.

But I have to say, it would save a lot of time and trouble.

 

My concern is less with the cost of the chip and more of the cost to ship. Unless the chips are able to be mailed in envelopes, you'll have to pay a shipping cost. Even if it's just mail, it costs money to buy envelopes, pay employees to stuff those, money to send them off to the owner.

The companies may need to charge a nominal fee to have the chips sent out, just to cover the cost. Even if it only costs a dollar to send a chip, just multiply that by the number of people who buy dolls AND the then don't forget they'll probably want more than one color to compare. In the end, it's a cost they don't have to pay now and that they probably don't want to pay later.

 

I would LOVE it if resin chips were available, like swatches. It wouldn't be that difficult to produce and even though the shipping would be cost prohibitive, it would be nice to get chips in something like group orders.

If it is cost-prohibitive, then another option would be printed resin color swatches on paper that they could include with purchases. In this day and age printers can print out true-to-life colors and it wouldn't be that difficult or costly to produce an entire swatch sheet, full bleed so that you can hold it right up to whatever resin you have to match colors.

 

Even the more reliable companies seem to have errant batches of resin from time to time that are a slightly different shade, so this isn't something I'd really rely on. Also, since a number of bodies are purchased secondhand, it may not really be a help if trying to match an older body, which it may or may not match.

I think this would end up causing more hassle and overhead than it's worth for most companies. Shipping for even a small item is costly internationally. Realistically, they could save money on casting new pieces by sending scrap parts instead, but there are problems with that, too.

 

Interesting question. I have heard of a few companies that have done this already (for sake of comparison against other companies' resins), but I don't think they offered it publically. I think that members asked them and they agreed to do so. It's an interesting idea, but it only works if the company has really stable resin colours.

 

It might be convenient but I don't expect companies to do it, and I suspect it would be a lot less convenient than you might think.

Resin varies so much from batch to batch that were companies to offer resin chips, I expect a lot of people would buy them, use them to determine whether something would match, buy doll parts on that basis... and then be upset that the parts they got, in resin from a different batch, didn't match. If I were a doll company I wouldn't want to deal with that nonsense -- even if the companies warned about batch differences, I see a lot of people pitching fits on DOA and contacting companies demanding refunds for problems the companies warned them about in advance (e.g. seam lines and marbling on tanned dolls).

Also I don't think there would be much benefit in it for the companies. I'm sure most of them would rather you bought ALL of a doll from them rather than part of a doll -- why would they make it easier for you to give at least part of your business to someone else?

Add the cost of international shipping (and the effort doll companies would have to make to ship out inexpensive resin chips) and it seems like a pretty pointless venture. I know it's not something I'd ever be interested in personally; resin batches vary too much and it's not worth the expensive shipping for me.

 

I think it's a cool idea, especially for people who want to see if the resin from different companies are similar enough to do a hybrid. Although, as you mentioned, with some companies it might not work because their resin differs too much from batch to batch.

 

Yes, I know. That was in reference to me *personally* rather than assuming everyone's experiences are the same. I have 7 completed hybrids, plus two heads that need bodies, and once I get some more people's hands replaced, that number will go up even higher. Out of all of those, most were decided on via pictures -- I think meetup situations helped with two. A couple I completely ignored color in favor of body type and simply blushed heads (because believe me, Ninodoll resin color is not even in the same universe as Elf Doll resin color without a thorough application of pastel, but hey, it worked )

Pics definitely aren't perfect as monitors can vary as well as lighting. And of course what batch those parts came from, but then batch issues arise with chips too. I'm not all out against the idea for people who feel it could help them. However, logistically I'm not sure that it will provide enough help to be worth the hassle. Some companies have better reputations than others when it comes to color being consistent, but it will never be an entirely sure bet -- and I'm not sure what the reaction would be if someone went through the trouble of getting swatch or chip, ordering a body, and then finding out that the body wasn't the same as the chip. And as surreality pointed out, it's little help to people who buy hybrid parts second hand.

My concern is that the chips would build up an unrealistic expectation when it comes to hybrids and resin matching and cause more trouble and disappointment in the long run. Imperfect resin match is always a risk people have to run when they create hybrids -- it's better for them to know that going in, then expecting to be able to get a near perfect match from a chip. Finding a close match could also mean requesting chips from a number of companies which could become cost prohibitive due to shipping from Asia.

 

I suppose I'm one of those people that, while I do hybrids every once in a while, that would like the resin chips just to get an idea of what the color is that I'm ordering. Say, if I'm waffling between NS and WS (which I am, right now, with Iplehouse >.<) I'd like to order a 'chip' of each just to see the difference, and which would work for me. Outside of hybrids, I can see how that would benefit people who don't know what a NS doll's color is, since monitor settings are really a killer sometimes.
I can also understand why doll companies wouldn't do it, of course, expensive shipping and possible disappointment among customers...

 

These are all good points. I think it could create unrealistic expectations in regard to hybrids specifically. There is so much trial and error with hybriding as well as gambling. I have six hybrids (#7 is on her way home) and it took a lot of research to figure out resin matching, proportion, and so forth. I've done it entirely from photos and word-of-mouth, but not without knowing from the get-go that it was risky.

 

Everyone brings up hybridizing, when only one other person in this thread so far has brought up a problem I personally am having: I don't trust the colors on my monitor to tell me whether I should choose AoD's "normal pink" or "white" resin colors for a character of mine. On the monitor for the resin comparison photo AoD shows, their "normal pink" is very, very pink. But the Ai Ai I got from them is this lovely pale pinkish tone. If their white skin is 'creamy' enough rather than super-pale white, I'd rather get that. But without seeing the difference first-hand, I wouldn't trust a decision made by the differences on my computer monitor.

 

I would like the chips but not for hybrids but for just knowing the color. Mainly like other's have said due to the monitor settings not always showing the "true' colors. No one wants to spend $300 or more dollars on a doll only to sell it cause they don't like the color. I know when I first got my first doll my monitor settings showed her as very pinky. And people were describing her as "pink". But to me she is a lot more yellow and I don't really see her as pink at all.

Buying dolls has been hard for me because no one where I am likes the same dolls I do most of the time so I have nothing to compare the resins to. Plus i'm lucky but some people live in areas with no other bjd fans. So what kinda of comparisons can they do?

In the end I don't think it would be practical or cost effective but sure helpful.

 

I agree with this point as the most likely reason doll companies don't offer resin chips publicly. If I were a doll manufacturer I would want my customers to purchase my entire doll on good faith rather than go through the trouble to send a resin chip, hope the customer was satisfied with the resin matching to a competitor's doll and would also want to go ahead and purchase the head/body parts from my company. There's just too much risk of losing a sale if you send out samples.

Also I'm afraid that it would make it easier for pirates to resin-match their bootleg dolls to the official company dolls so there would be virtually no difference.

 

Hm...it's an interesting idea...but I'm not sure how useful it would really be. As others have pointed out, resin colors often vary from batch to batch, so having a chip from a random resin batch may not really tell you what the doll you are thinking of ordering will really look like. I know that my Soom WS Heliot body is not quite the same shade as the WS jointed hands that I use with it, and ordered several months later. I also know that both of them are quite different to the resin Soom is producing now, which is much more shiny and slick feeling.

I do have a hybrid doll, but honestly I found all the information that I needed for him through DoA. In my case, I already knew that the head and body I wanted to use were not going to match, but I can safely say that I wouldn't have ordered the resin chip even if it had been available just because I know I wouldn't want to use my hard earned doll fund on a hunk of resin the size of a penny when I could find basically the same information for free from the lovely people on this forum.