Undisclosed Modifications... has this happened to you?

Oh dear, that's no good. I second this statement.

~Anrui

 

I third that!!!! >.<
.
I spent over an hour eating away Gorilla Glue with Acetone because it was glopped onto the ears when the previous owner wanted the doll to have earrings.
.
Why Gorilla Glue?

 

Lord, if I sell a doll that has mods, even some sanding of scratches, I try to remember! If it's bad I send some money back for forgetting! But I generally do my best to remember. That's just bad!

 

Yes. When I bought an Elysium Hugo white skin open eyed head for 190.00 USD, EMS included from across the Pacific Ocean, I knew it was too good to be true. But at that point I didn't give a flying rat's bum because I'd wanted one quite desperately for a very long time now. I snapped it up before letting myself think it through. Most Hugo heads of any type were going for 2 to 3 hundred by themselves.

I was given pictures but for every time I ask there was a suspiciously long wait period before the pictures were produced. I.E. I asked for pictures of the head outside or in the natural light by a window with a piece of white paper next to it. That was about two weeks before two pictures were emailed to me. It was the head in a very natural looking light, alright but it was against a white sheet of some kind with no window in sight. Now, looking back at the pictures I saw that they were angled to best show-off the mods. @_@

The mods were not identifiable though because I didn't know what to look for. Well, they would have been noticed immediately if the head was put up against another Hugo head but by itself I couldn't tell. I just thought it was a gorgeous sculpt; I still believe it's a gorgeous sculpt and rather good modding job.

When I got the head, I immidately noticed how thin the 'shell' of the right ear was. Looking on top of it I saw that it had been sanded almost through. It was a startling mod but didn't detract from the head's beauty because it actually made the ear align with the other one. Just don't look at it too closely or it might break. >_< What I didn't know until I sold the head to a Eidolon Tree was that the lips, the nose, the inside of the head, the neck and the eyewell were all extensively modded as well. Eidolon Tree had an unmodified Hugo normal skin to compare it too.

I sold it to her for the same 190.00. (No matter how much I adored the odd resin color, she had a more concrete personality for it than I probably ever would. I'm happy it went to someone who knew what to do with it. XD It would have been a very expensive paperweight for me, otherwise.) I did send it to her, free of any commitments on her part, so she could look at the head's very, very slight green tint in person. If she didn't want it she could send it back to me no questions asked and no hard feelings.

I didn't want someone else to buy something that expensive and not know what they're getting into first. I was really disappointed with the original seller when Eidolon Tree told me of the extensive, permanent mods. I would've still bought the head but it would have been nice to know beforehand. I wouldn't have been surprised if she'd sent the head back to me. I wouldn't blame her at all.

I'd asked the original seller repeatedly if there had been any mods. Maybe I should have been more specific about the mods or something when I asked. I don't know, hindsight is 20/20 and all that. So, when it came to let the head go, I didn't want any misunderstandings between Eidolon Tree and I like there was between the original seller and me. ^_^ Of course, I trusted Eidolon Tree. I would never send something like this on faith alone to anyone else.

I'm now, and have always been, looking for a Hugo close eyed, normal skin. @_@

 

I bought a doll body, and while it wasn't really modded, it had a bad stain from a painted tattoo on it's leg.
I can cover it up, but I would have liked to know before I bought it.

Otherwise I have always been aware if the doll had been modded or not.

 

Yes: It happened this week!

My new beautiful beloved Heath has been modded. I didn't realize it, because like Damask, I didn't know what I was looking for. All I knew was that I was head over heels for that head and I wanted it. You know how it is

He's had his lips modded, and I suspect his chin as well. He also has scratches around his eyes which look like the remnants of an unfinished sanding job. I kinda like the mods, but it makes me feel like I don't have a "real" Heath. It doesn't make me like my modded Heath any less... but it DOES make me want an unmodded one!!!

 

I find it most disappointing when a seller doesn't disclose the condition of the body and doesn't price it in a way that reflects its damages. Some damage can't be seen by normal body photos, either, so it's not just an ignorant buyer's problem for not requesting photos.

 

any sort of undisclosed mods or damage is always a dissapointment, it is one downside to buying used. arghhhhhh

 

This happened to me once, too...
Although in my case, I literally wouldn't have the doll any other way (He wouldn't have had the right "look" and so wouldn't have been purchased-), and I don't blame the seller at all. The mods are very, very subtle, very well done, and I'm certain she didn't know that he had them.

The first time I saw the seller's pictures of Al, my BW Breakaway, I thought that something was different about him. I already had my NS Breakaway, Kessari, so I was pretty familiar with the lines of the sculpt and how they looked from different angles... but I couldn't really put a finger on *what* it was that was different about that particular head. I only knew that, UNLIKE every other BW Breakaway I'd seen go by, he was so absolutely perfect for the Alabaster Prince of Ashes that I had to have him.

I chalked the difference in his look up to the sort-of strange face-up he had at the time and the differences in resin, eye and blushing color. I bought him, got him, gave him a new face-up and all was well. I love him dearly, and he's even more perfect for Al "live" than he was in the pictures. It didn't occur to me to really try to figure out why he worked and none of the others had...

Not until a couple of us were sitting at Starbucks after a meet and Chiba asked me if his eyes had been modded, anyway. ^_^

I didn't think his eyes had been altered (They weren't-), but when I got home, I sat him down next to Kess anyway and really LOOKED at the two of them. I wanted to know what, if anything, was really different.

'Turns out Al's cheeks had been slightly sanded and his jawline has been altered a little bit. The thinner cheeks and ever-so-slightly narrower jaw are apparently the only changes made... like I said, they're very subtle mods... but just that little bit of tinkering made all the difference in the world as far as having him look "right" for the character.

It's always good to know if a head's been modded beforehand, and if the seller knows they should be obligated to tell their potential buyers... but sometimes it works out anyway, even if no one realizes that the head isn't "stock" at the time.

 

A friend of mine bought a doll who had been modded. She knew about some of the modding, but it ended up being much different in person than she expected, due to photography, light etc. It all worked out ok, because we ended up changing his modifications anyway, but she was very upset when she saw how different he looked in person.

Luckily the seller was very honest, and kind about the confusion, and said friend has been reimbursed a bit, to pay for the re-modifications. Her doll is exactly how she wants him now.

 

Wow- I even let people know if I have sueded a doll or wired it. I can not fathom not disclosing a modification.

Lishe

 

My Umeko had a small dent on her shoulder, i bought her from a feeler thread and didn't think about asking, thus my fault. Oddly enough the dent is exactly on the opposite arm where I have a scar I love it XD I slightly wish I knew about it before I bought her but I dont care XD I still love the seller!

 

It's really important for people to mention these things - when I'm hunting for a particular headsculpt, I want that particular headsculpt, not a modified version. In particular I'm currently looking for a '05 Juri, and many of them have had their eyes modified. I've got good at spotting it, and so far every seller I've asked has been very open about what modifications they've done, but many people don't mention it in their original post and lots of people wouldn't think to ask.

People should ALWAYS try to be as up front as possible about everything they've done to their dolls when they sell them - even if there's a tiny chip in a headcap or something, mention it!

 

I bought a head last year that was modded without disclosure. it was a Luts dreaming head... and I could tell from the pictures that the eyes had been poorly modified at the bottom. I asked the seller several times if it had been modded, and she kept telling me no, that she was the first owner and had come from Luts that way. I got her to go down on the price a bit (with the mod I was doing to it anyway, it didn't really matter if the bottom of the eye was messed up), but when I got it in person I didn't see how it could have possibly come from Luts that way. And the seller still maintained it hadn't been modded.

I also got an LE doll that had "a small scratch over the eye." When I got it and removed the paint, it was a deep, intentional scar that couldn't be sanded out without changing the shape of the eyelid and brow.

My pet peeve at the moment is people selling "modded" heads that are actually more like "damaged." To my mind, a mod is something that was complete, intentional, and finished. If it's uneven, full of scratches, pitmarks, filemarks... it's just damaged.

I bought a "modified" head a few months ago... going on admittedly dark and dodgy photos. When it got here, it was definitely what I would consider damaged, for the reasons mentioned above. It was stained, it had big, visible sanding scratches, the eyes had been opened very unevenly (and to the point where they couldn't be evened out without making the eyes over-large), and it had a file mark that went from the corner of the mouth up onto the nostril. I definitely overpaid.

So yeah, disclose your modifications. And if it's damaged, say so. I buy damaged heads all the time, but I don't like to be surprised by them.

 

While it doesn't count as 'mods', when I recieved a doll I bought here, it turned out he had wee chips in his back-joint. Honestly, they're not even noticeable, and I don't have him traipsing around shirtless, so it doesn't really matter, and I ADORE the seller, who probably didn't even notice it's there. ^^; It's all good!

However, before selling a doll, it's a great idea to really, really look them over and look for weird little stains you got so used to seeing, you don't even think about them anymore- Or little scratches or dings that were just cute to you... Give them a good looking-over and clean them up as much as you can, and if there are dings or scratches from mods, say so and be honest!

To tell the truth, there are some people who want to mod, but don't want to damage a brand-new doll, whose eyes light up at that kind of thing. Really! ^^

 

I agree. I purchased a MSD from a reputable seller, and she has so many chips, etc. They weren't visible in the photos she sent me, but I won't use her because she is so damaged. I wish I knew how to fix her. She was my 2nd doll purchase, and I wish I had never purchased her "pre loved". Poor dollie was abused. But, I must do something with her soon.

Hugs
Mary-Lee

 

Luckily I've never had that happen my one modded was disclosed to me but I hope when I get up the nerve and cash to start looking for some of my limited or discontinued wishlist I hope I don't have that problem...

 

When I saw her my heart sank. I thought to myself, I wasted $350 + on her, and I feel violated. She arrived damaged as well, she wasn't packaged very well, or dropped. Just a snap on her head but still.

I hope this never happens to anyone either, very disheartening. The woman I bought it from never offered to refund, so caveat emptor. I stand behind everything I sell, wish everyone did.

Hugs
Mary-Lee