Tracing a dolls history, creepy or cute?

A half year a ago I found a souldoll Diammah on the seconhand market in white skin. I was in love with her on first sight.
But this was my first purchase ever secondhand so I was worried she would be more yellowed then the photos let believe.
When she arrived though she was in great condition. And the person who I bought her from was the first owner.
The cute thing tough is I bought her to be a twinsister for my other souldoll. I expected her to be older doll but according to the certificate they really are twins.

 

I've never really been interested in tracking my own dolls' past histories, but I have had several other people contact me over the last couple of years asking questions about doll sthat had been in my collection before I sold them on. In one case, I was the first owner, so the current owner's search ended with me... In the other, I was able to point the searcher in the direction of the person I'd purchased the doll from. I didn't find it creepy... Just sort-of interesting.

 

I think this is a really interesting idea! ^__^
I don't see why people would find it creepy. After all, there's plenty of legitimate reasons to want to track down the original owner (main one being to check that it's not a recast). I certainly wouldn't mind being contacted by the owner of a doll that was formerly mine! I would be really interested to see where some of my old dolls have ended up over the years, where they've lived, and how much they've changed. I've only got one doll that has had more than one owner before me, and it wouldn't be possible for me to find the original owner, most likely, as the girl who sold the doll to me has left the hobby herself, so I have no way of contacting her. Ah well!

 

I see it thinking about it more kind of like...Doll Genealogy..Like Genealogists look for a family's history to put together the bigger picture, when we trace our dolls history from owner to owner we have a similar scenario.

 

This thread just inspired me to investigate the origins of my Bobobie Weylin. Thanks to people leaving proper feedback after sales and so forth, it was fairly easy to discover that he was probably made around 2009, that I am at least his fifth owner and at one time his name was Igor. (And presumably "hale" because that word/name is scratched faintly into his forehead just above the wig line.) The little tramp gets around.

It's pretty awesome to know, really! Some of those who owned Lysander in the past are people who I've seen around the forum a bit and even talked to, and never even knew it. I like to think he had to go on such a journey to find me! It's a happy thought.

 

i dont think tracing a dolls history is weird, i think we all like to know our own histories, including our dolls. i've purchased two preloved dolls here on the marketplace, but one was brand new in his box. the other however i'm sure was with his owner for a bit. I'm kind of curious to see what his life was like before he came to me, i just tried searching an found that the sales post is no longer on doa and his previous owner doesnt look to be active anymore sadly :<

it is interesting to see how many dolls have exchanged hands and been world travelers

 

Honestly, I've been curious. I've only sold one doll, a Puki Pipi, and I've often wondered what happened to her. I wouldn't mind if somebody contacted me to ask.

As for dolls I've bought, I almost know the complete history of all three of my SD heads.

My first SD, my FL CP Breakaway was bought right from the first owner in the UK, soon after they'd bought the doll in '08. She got him for his body He was part of either a Midnight Blue or Midnight Sun fullset. I do wonder what happened to his dreaming head, as it was being sold at the same time. May still be with its second owner (I just looked up!) The irony is, the character the head was bought for lives in the UK...

My most recent SD doll (head and body), my CP SS Soony was also from her first owner, made in '09. She spent the first part of her life as a part time clothing model, so I have lots of pictures of her. I also know who did her eye-opening, and who did her faceup.

My second SD head, however, is a bit more of a mystery. He's a CP Moon head (are we sensing a theme here?), made in probably '07 or earlier, and I'm his third owner. While I'm not exactly sure who his first owner was, I know it was a friend of the second owner who I bought from, who got him in a trade. I have no clue what happened to his original body, or if he was part of a set or not. I know who did his faceup, but apparently he just didn't fit in with what the first owner wanted for the character. I have no pictures of him from his previous life, other than the sales photos. I'm not sure, but he may even rival my first doll in age!


I actually keep my own 'Dolly Database', in which I record all the details, dates and names associated with that doll. It helps me keep track, as it can be difficult to remember everything over the years.

I list: Name, Doll Mold, Ordered From, Arrival Date, and Extra Info.
I'm trying to do something similar with all my wigs, eyes, shoes and clothes, but that's a lot harder...

 

Ooo this is an interesting thread. A lot of my dolls are second hand and I in the past I would "rescue" all volks mimi's that came on the market place... I've had to stop looking ha

but they would arrive in such a state sometimes I would think of where they have been?

I didn't record it but one of my dolls was sold from England to USA then back to England, and it must of been somewhere before that to get to England in the first place.

 

I've done this a lot, mainly because I wanted to find out the actual age of some of the older Delf dolls I had out of curiousity, and in one case which I still have yet to solve, who painted a particularly gorgeous faceup on my El. I had an interesting one recently, tho, when a group of dolls turned up on ebay in a job lot, clearly being sold by someone who had no concept of what they were. I recognised the dolls immediately (mainly because I had actually handled one of them in person and they'd belonged to a distant, overseas doll friend that had left the hobby some years back) but it took me a few days to track down photo's and confirm who they had all once belonged to as a collection, and that the owner had just vanished from the community. I asked the seller and they said the whole collection had been handed in to their thrift store, in a plastic bag. They sold for what I thought was actually a rather excessive quantity of money but quite what happened to their owner that those dolls ended up so badly damaged and in a thrift store will, I suspect, remain a sad mystery.

 

I watched that eBay lot as well and felt like I recognized the b-line mnf . But ditto on the tracing history just to know the age. I suppose someone could find it creepy if they got a pm asking about a super old fs thread so that you could go farther in your dolls history but I don't think it's that bad.

 

At first I thought it sounded a bit creepy, but reading through this thread I now think it would be interesting to see the changes in a doll over time. I'm still not sure how I'd feel if someone contacted me about a doll I sold years ago--I think I'd be more than willing to provide them with information, but a bit unsettled.

That's actually really cool.

 

Creepy. I don't know why, but is is more interesting for me.

 

I have 4 second hand dollies but all the people who sold them to me were first owners, if they have been the 2nd or 3rd owner, I'd be interested in tracking down the former owners too...just out of curiosity^^

 

When I consider buying a doll from the MP, I always go read thru the sellers feedback to see if they are someone I will be happy doing a transaction with. This is one of my rules for making second hand purchases. And often, while scanning the feedback I will see when they received the doll & who they got it from. Like someone has said, it is reassuring to see the doll's history in this age of recast concerns. It also lets me get an idea of just how old the doll is in some cases.

In the case of a Ciel head that I had for a while, I was able to see that she had had 2 faceups done & who the artists were. Which is great info to me as I loved her with the faceup she had when I got her. Matching a body to her resin was a nightmare so I finally sold the head, knowing I could always hope to someday get another Ciel & contact the faceup artist for something similar. X0

I've never considered contacting past owners other than the seller. Like someone said, who knows if it would bring up happy or sad thoughts. But I'm glad to hear that so many folks have had pleasant responses from former owners.

 

I love this idea, it's so interesting to know

 

I think as far as a collectible goes, it's nice to see where it originated from. Its always nice when you have all the details. Who did the mods, faceup, how old the body is, ect.
Volks doll history interestes me, and early CP dolls too. It's amazing to me how many real volks fans didn't know the inside of the bodies are stamped with the volks logo. When I asked for some verification on the bodies, they didn't even know about the imprints.

 

This reminds me of that "Where's George" thing for dollar bills. It's kind of cool to see where your doll has been and who had it. It's like ancestry searching.

 

I have a few that have long and involved histories of bouncing back and forth between me and one or another of the other doll-collecting friends. (I think Leaf (an Esthy Peroth) has made the trip at least three times that I can recall off the top!). Aside from that, I often remember who I bought a doll from because I had fun during the transaction or because I got to know them as fellow collectors).

Unfortunately, when I first got into the hobby there really wasn't the need to track whether or not a doll was "legitimate," because who on earth would consider reproducing a sculptor's work without permission? There were a few isolated and well-known issues, but that was all. These days? I think tracking the history is becoming more and more important. And that's sad. So yeah, these days I try to keep track of where a doll came from (often by tracing back my feedback thread here!) but on occasion your guess ends up being as good as mine because it just wasn't important to do at the time.

 

With some of the issues recently with recasts/suspected recasts, I can understand why someone would want to track a doll's origins. Besides, it's interesting to see where else they've been. One of mine will soon be going to a new home in New Mexico. It makes me feel better about not ever being able to bond with her knowing that she's going to a friend who already adores her. And I'll even get to see plenty of pictures of her in her new home.

As for mine - I do know the story behind most of my secondhand beauties. My DT Seola has actually had two other homes. In her first she was part of a large collection and more or less a display doll. She was there for about six years (and apparently spent a fair amount of time in a box rather than on display) before being either sold or consigned (not sure how they do it) to DDE, where the friend I eventually bought her from got her.

My PKF Mio originally came from DDE as well - I have her box with the price sticker - but her first owner lived in Las Vegas.

My PukiPuki Flora originally came straight from Fairyland. She came to me from eBay. At one time she had a close encounter with a puppy - she still has a tooth mark on one leg. (I knew about it when I bought her.)

And my DC Ada came from the DoA marketplace, all the way from San Jose, as the saying goes.

 

I've only bought one doll second hand. But now I'm curious too lol. I only know the previous owner wasn't the first either and started modding the boy to a girl.

Sent from my SM-G900R4 using Tapatalk