Things That You'd Never Do Again

Wow, as somebody who is still waiting to purchase their bjd this is all very useful info. Thanks! No curly or super long wigs - got it.

 

Ugh, I wish I had thought of this before I went shopping on ebay.I was temporarily blinded by the price - which really... isn't that much cheaper. I guess I'll just have to wait to see how bad the damage is.

 

Never again buy something cheaper instead of the one I really do want. You lost money and time


Can somebody explain me why no curly wigs?

 

They look lovely but they are harder to maintain than non curly wigs.

 

Never dig out hot-glued eyes with a metal knife! It slipped and made a gouge in the corner of my girl's eye, chipping the faceup as well. Luckily I found a faceup artist who also did mods and she fixed it all up, better than before! But still, I was super shocked and upset.

Also agreeing about the super long wigs! I have a few that look gorgeous, but I never actually use them.

 

Never restring when tired. I learned that it is no fun spending hours hunting around the carpet looking for a tiny S Hook that pinged off somewhere. Damn things aren't magnetic either... ¬_¬

Never take photos on windy days. It might be the first sunny day in weeks, but the wind will mess up wigs and make standing dolls precarious at best. T_T

Never skimp on quality art supplies. I'd have saved myself a lot of dramas when I first started doing faceups, if I'd gotten high quality pastels and brushes instead of reusing my old supplies~ ^^;

Never pay for a transaction by 'Personal Payment' unless you know the person or are absolutely certain about them (and even then...) Paypal fees may sting, but forfeiting buyer protection and loosing all your money is even worse... u_u;

 

take pictures (or let anyone else take pictures/pose my doll for pictures) without someone nearby to catch her if she falls, she's fallen twice in the past 2 weeks and both were because of this
the first time her head plate fell off (I re-glued it later) of her head cap and her wig and head cap flew off, the second time only her wig fell off so overall she's alright but I still feel bad that I let it happen T^T
also, check and double check her clothes before and after putting them on/taking them off and thoroughly check people's hands and places before I let them hold her/sit here there, her pretty DollHeart dress has a mysterious stain on it now and I have no idea how I'm going to get rid of it

 

Oh god. Somewhere I had a list of things I did so wrong and would (or at least should) never do again.

For sure a few of them are:
Restring with a skirt on. I hold dolls with my knees and legs while restringing...doing it a skirt hurts. Lots. My dolls bite.
Restring with a hook of any kind. Hooks also hurt. I haven't bled on a doll since I eliminated hooks and started using wooden chopsticks to hold elastic at hands and feet.
Leave a doll standing in a group of other dolls withOUT the aid of a stand. I got really, really lucky. That's all I'm saying.
Do faceups in the rain. Except I'll totally do that again. With my dolls only.
Spray MSC in the wind. (I'll do that again too)
Leave a floating head in a wig with a black wigcap and nothing between it and the head in a drawer for days/weeks.
Try to sand a doll before unstringing it.
Cut a wig before putting a towel around the doll (oh wait, I just did that again two days ago. DAMMIT I CAN'T LEARN!!!)
Use cheap materials for my faceups. It shows.
Use an actual eraser on my dolls to clean them. On their faces. Yeah...not a great idea.
Use a real colored pencil instead of a water colored pencil (in my defense this was a total accident. It was in with my WC pencils and I just didn't notice until it was too late)
Go anywhere without a magic eraser in my purse.

I'm sure there's more. I also have a list of things I really shouldn't do but most likely will anyway....I'll save that one for another thread....

 

I am curious. Why do so many threads on the marketplace say buyer pays paypal fees, since it leaves the buyer with no protection?

 

I've actually aways wondered about that. In fact, since I wasn't sure, last time I wore nail polish and had to wipe a faceup, I removed my polish first. So glad I did!

My list:
-Definitely no more curly wigs. I just can't deal with them.
-No more restringing when tired, especially when it's late and I have to work the next morning. The injury I got was just not worth it and it took hours and I lost sleep over it.
-No being SUPER cheap with faceup supplies. I find my supplies don't have to be the top brand and most expensive but if they're super cheap it just always come back to bite me.
-No more buying for a doll if I simply do not know what their style is. It just leads to a bunch of useless clothes/wigs lying around.
-No more rushing faceups. Every time I rush a faceup, it comes out looking horrible, especially if I have no set design for it in the first place.
-No more impulse buying a doll for a ridiculous reason. I bought a doll because of a dress. Needless to say, it didn't work out and I can't believe I did that.

That's all I can think of for now.

 

Buy an unplanned doll on a whim just because the price is right. It was a very disappointing box opening. She's grown on me ....slowly.

 

This! Yes, I bought my DC Hilary thinking she could suffice for my lust for leek world mikhalia....buy, was I wrong. Little bugger has grown on me though!

Most assuredly, curly wigs. Oh, and no wig caps. I need to remedy that quickly"

Also, I have made lambswool wigs using the glue and cloth and loose wefts method. They fit nicely, but I cannot get the very top just right. That and the whole spitting out loose wool for a week is a bummer! Next time, I'm trying it in tact and sewn!!

 

A lot of these I agree with, but I'll try not to be too repetitive and just mention the ones I haven't seen yet...

First, would be to not attempt to carry too many dolls at once. Especially up or down stairs. As good a grip as you think you have, you're wrong.

Second, leave my dolls sitting on a desk next to my lego minifigures that my nephew loves to play with when he comes to visit. And then not be home when he comes to visit. And come home to discover dolly on the floor with a cracked kneecap.

String Fairyland Minifee arms too tightly. Those little magnetic ball thingers are not held in place by much at all, and it apparently doesn't take much force to snap the bit of resin that holds the S-hook in place. From now on, arms will be semi-loosely strung and sueded if needed.
Luckily (??) this happened within 24 hours of the cracked knee cap, so I was able to get both parts replaced at once. For a hefty charge.

Attempt to do more than 2 faceups at a time. I have this OCD thing where if I give one doll a new faceup (or get a new doll that needs it's first faceup) I feel like I need to re-do them all. Foolish I know, but I can't seem to help it. I've learned that if I try too much at once (like 5...), 3/4 of them turn out looking like crap (and identical) because I get tired and bored of doing it. Which just means I need to wipe them and do it again, waste of time and supplies. Two faceups at a time is perfect, I can work on one while the other dries, so it doesn't take much longer than just doing 1. Three of my dolls sat blank for about 5-6 months because I felt like I needed to do them all at once.

 

They totally botched our custom order, especially mine. I had to work for months to correct what they did to my poor doll when I did finally get her. Worst casting job I have ever seen on anything made of resin, and I own other dolls that were made without pressure tanks during curing- hand/garage casts.

 

Oh my god! I could not agree with this one more! I think it's because I forgot I did this in the first place. When I moved to my current apartment, I had the grand idea to put ALL the SDs I own into one box and just carry them to the apartment. I figured since I was just moving to the front of my apartment complex and on to the 3rd floor, while it may be cumbersome, I could easily manage it. I was so wrong! First of all, each of my SDs weigh about 6-9 pounds, depending, so I was carrying about 13 of them which was easily 78-117 pounds of resin. Second, the box was unweildy and shouldn't have been carrying that much weight, I am so glad they didn't burst through the bottom. Last, but not least, I can barely manage a 40-pound box of litter up multiple flights so I have no idea why I thought I could manage this. I almost couldn't bear the weight and, going up the stairs, I almost tripped and flung the box out of my hand! Could you imagine? :-(

So, no, never doing that again. And I wouldn't recommend anyone else do anything like that either.

 

Oh I did this too >.<
I only had about 5-7 dolls at the time and was trying to carry them all back to my room at once to save a trip. I dropped a tiny BBB and set one of my dolls on the table to pick him up. The doll launched itself off the table and broke an ear...my first breakage. It was horrible! Luckily it was a removable ear and I was able to buy a new pair...

 

1. Add me to the list of no curly wigs...wavy is fine though.

2. No more teeny-tiny dolls for me...nope, no matter how cute they are I always wind up selling them. Ditto with SD's...they're just too big. I'm obviously a YOSD to MSD size gal...and I've learned this lesson the hard way!

3. No more grand, well-thought-out dolly schemes...followed by a hunt for the perfect sculpt. While fun, once I've completed my grandiose vision, I always get bored and sell them. The dolls that stay are the ones I see and just immediately fall in love with without a clue who they are! For some strange reason, if I fall inexplicably in love with them, then no matter what happens down the road (a character change or a new look) I still adore them. For me, falling in love just works way better than intellectualizing a purchase...and it only took me 7 long years to learn this about myself!

 

My list
Never ever ever will I sell a doll I love, for any reason, only to regret it later. I have done this twice now once because I was strapped for cash, the other was because my husband didn't like the doll, and I am on the hunt to replace both in some form or another.

Buy a doll without a Face up clothes and a wig!! I have two dolls and one floating head I have never gotten a wig or Face up for because I am not a painter and I have read WAY to many bad transaction threads now and I'm a little nervous.

I will never allow some one to put something in my doll curio cabinet! It's now full of stuff that is not mine or doll related.

I will save to buy a doll not get them on impulse. I have terrible grabby hand syndrome the second I see something I want I have to have it that second, and I have learned the more time I spend looking and shopping and really deciding I like the doll and my choice so much better.
Oh yeah and-
I like curly wigs but I'm a hair dresser playing with hair is what I do

 

Same as OP. I once had a doll wig what went down about mid-calf, as I wanted. But it was way too much trouble and I ended up cutting it to her butt (still too long and annoying). Never agaiiiin.
I also avoid 65cm+ dolls and most curly wigs like the plague! And hard cap wig are the devil >.<

But the most important one : I will never attempt to dye a full doll again. No matter how small. Now matter how light. Just nope.

 

Buying any doll smaller than MSD: Too dang small, no clothing options I like, and half the time I was afraid of breaking fingers. >.<

Playing with Delf ankles: ....Ashera will happy with that one. Took me almost an hour to restring his foot because I wiggled it off the resin hook. (But then there was a little bit of resin left over beneath the hook which is why it popped off in the first place... didn't realize this for the first 45 minutes of my adventure.)

Leave dolls/wig caps/wigs/clothes out on the couch or my bed for any length of time, even if I'm just turning my back for a second. (Our cat didn't earn the name 'Bushytail Bandit' for nothing.) She tried to pick up one of my KDFs by the head but only made off with his wig and a wig cap). Thankfully I'm keeping a pretty good watch on my doll inventory lately and a VERY close eye on my boys. >.<

Expect 'quick' delivery from Alices Collections. (Maybe I'm just unlucky but it took almost 2 months to get my order of a pair of MSD shorts and a MSD-sized jacket from the day I placed it... and this was not around Chinese New Year or any major US or Chinese holiday. I ended up selling the jacket because I didn't like it in person. xD )

I also second the long-long-long wigs. x.x Ashera's wig (He is a Delf Claus) was down to his ankles and was such a pain to manage... Had to cut it to around his mid-back to be to my liking. (And to fit his character)