What makes you NOT buy an item on the secondhand marketplace?

PayPal fees is the big one for me. If you want a certain amount for your item, do the calculations before and factor that into your sale price. If I look at the sale page and it says you charge fees on top of the asking price, I just leave no matter how much I want that doll.

Also I'm not going to pay extra for "special" faceups or anything because they never fit what I'm going for character wise.

 

Other: Seller is too dar away. I feel bad inquiring when I assume shipping will be too high.

 

I buy a lot of dolls second hand (on Yahoo Japan and Mandarake, primarily). I don't have issues there.

On the marketplace or Instagram, I am always shocked when someone will list something for a high price, with one or two, poorly-lit photos. The doll may even be wearing a wig that is partially obscuring their face or turned in a way where I can't properly see them. Or tossed on a sheet in a dark room with their limbs all sprawled out.
It's always a favorite when in the description there is something like "very yellowed, damaged, two cracks here, nail polish residue" etc, but absolutely NO photos of said damage. I hate messaging someone for more photos of something that, IMO, should be a part of the base description. It's an immense waste of time.

On that note, completely out of tune prices are also a turn-off. With a lot of long-standing companies, such as Volks, I think a lot of owners don't realize how low some of the prices have come. If I can get the exact same doll, which I know is legit, from Mandarake with the box, papers, and original items for half of what you're asking, I'm going to do it. Obviously the opposite is true for rarer or desired sculpts as always, but a common or standard release doll from 2005 isn't going to hold much value, unfortunately.

The last thing that bothers me is people not laying out how they're going to pack and ship. As a seller, I always go over the top with packaging and I explain I will ship in a box (or two), with padding, full tracking and insurance. Some sellers give me the vibe of like "I'm going to toss him in a bag with some stamps glued on the outside, good luck!" and that scares the pants off of me. Obviously that isn't always the case, but if you don't tell me how you're going to pack, I'm going to assume the worst and get nervous about it. I have seen some THINGS

I don't personally mind paying Paypal fees, because I know some people use it as a way to advertise a "better price". At the end of the day, you'd be paying the same thing, but I know it can come off as misleading. It only breaks Paypal's TOS in certain countries, and it's expected to put them separately for others, so I try not to fuss about it.

 

Shipping would be a big concern for me, I'm always worried the dolls will get damaged during shipping since the shipping process can get pretty rough.

 

I think for me mostly it's "trust" I always have this fear that they'll just take my money and run off. lol. That's why when i sell something. I always keep in touch and update my buyer on regular basis.

 

The thing I dislike the most is when I send a payment for an item- and then hear nothing back from the seller for several days. It has happened quite a few times and it always makes me worried. I mean seriously, if someone sends you a payment for something- then at least make the effort to reply to the buyer within 24 hours that you have received the payment and will ship out on this or that day.

Another thing that's an absolute turn off is when I have agreed to buy an item and the seller then suddenly mentions that I also have to pay the Paypal fees. Again, this is something that has happened quite a few times for me and it's a serious turn off If you want the buyer to pay for the Paypal fees, then at least make it clear in your sales thread.

 

Yes, I think the common theme here are PayPal fees, especially when it is not disclosed in the listing and is then suddenly added once you have made a deal.

Also being from Australia, sometimes shipping costs can be prohibitive, especially for lower costs items, the shipping itself can cost just as much!

 

I never buy when the seller mentions I need to pay the PayPal fees. If you want the buyer to pay the fees so badly, then just add them to the price instead.
I'm also fairly certain making the buyer to pay the fees is against Paypals rules

 

Some people just don't keep all the extra paperwork. I'm like that, no place to keep all that stuff & I don't keep boxes either. Once again, simply no storage space.

 

Secondhand is always something that I'm afraid of.

I'm scared that I'll get scammed, I don't get the doll or even receiving a recast because the owner faked the CoA. You never know if the doll is secretly damaged or has other issues that you'll only see when you get it or problems will show up shortly after you received the dolls.

It also feels wrong to buy a doll that was a loved character of someone. I don't want to erase their identity and remodel the whole character around this doll again. Looking at her and knowing she was someone in her life before feels extremely weird.

I can say I'm not a big fan of buying second hand, for myself! It's just not working out of me in many ways.

Once I was ready to buy secondhand but I have the feeling that dolls are often sold too expensive. Of course, it's something that your heart is attached to, you don't want to sell it for a few dollars.

 

I get confused by prices that appear to be... well, basically identical (or higher) than the same item brand new. It seems like if the price difference isn't large and the doll is still available new from a dealer, I'd just buy from a dealer rather than second hand.

 

I don't mean the physical paperwork; I meant the non-physical data you get when you make the purchase, such as email receipts, Paypal receipts, order numbers, tracking numbers... Literally anything that is digitally provided to you when you make the order.

 

I rarely buy dolls/parts second hand (def have, just rarely), but most of my things apply to dolls or clothes.

- "unknown" info. If it's listed as "SD Black Boots, manufacturer unknown" and no further info, I'll pass. If you don't know what it was made to fit or where it's from, listing what it fits (or doesn't), gives me an idea of who it will fit. SD dolls have a variety of sizes now. I personally keep tags/info for items in case I want to look up others from that manufacturer or sell it. Particularly with wigs I keep tags that read "on (dollname)" in the bags with the netting/shaper ball/product tags.

- Lack of pics of items on and off dolls, front/back and detail pics of the item directly (doll, clothes, etc). Particularly for draped/oddly cut items. It's not uncommon that I can't make heads or tails of clothes laid out flat and even those I do I want to see the intended fit, even if it's just a link to the company product shot. Soom and Souldoll original outfits seem to be the biggest offenders for this as I have no idea what I'm looking at if it's laid out flat with no notes as to the item name that I could look up.

- Extreme modding. More common with dolls than clothes, but if it's been altered, unless it's real specifically what I'm looking for, I'll likely pass. If a shirt's been tailored I want to know what it's been tailored from and to in detail with shots of the alteration and on what it was tailored to.

- Doll heads/hands in fantasy or hard to match colors. Separated heads in blues, greens, or even a lot of tans are tough enough to find a matching body for I don't want to consider it.
Honestly at this point with me, I'm real iffy about hybridizing in general, even within a company/line makes me hesitant. I really prefer to get a head/body that were made together. I make some exceptions, my Soom FC girl in NS has WS paws I bought second hand, but that particular change doesn't bother me as I don't mind the feline "socks" look.

I know you mentioned recent, but moral here: save screenshots or the like of your doll order info.
I realized recently that some of the manufacturers have made changes or refreshed their sites in recent years and either cleared or archived orders. My two Soom dolls bought direct I have only my own screenshots for (my 09 Chrom no longer shows up in my order history at all and my 2012 FC order for Galena/Vesuvia mix is only a number and no openable order info). Those two won't be going anywhere, but it's making me double check all my saved doll info.
This feels extra true for anywhere with customization order options (Iplehouse myChoice, Soom's occasional FC, Fairyland's a la carte, to name some) that might flag as "odd" to a quick pass without the info.

 

I actually straight up download the pages anymore. I keep copies of sales pages (secondhand and company/artist site and pages), receipts and order info, PMs/DMs, Paypal receipts; basically if it relates to a sale, I download it, save it and do the same with everything I sell. I have info for dolls I sold back to 2015.

So coming back to the original point: if someone has a doll/head/other part for sale that say they are the first owner of and they bought it in the last year, but don't have proof and/or can't provide it ... why?

 

I don't know how you would keep all that without printing it out. Once I receive the doll, I erase all that stuff from my mailbox. I collect dolls, not ephemera. I'm always glad to take a photo with a note if the buyer wants that. I simply do not keep anything except the doll, with the exception of my tinies. I keep their boxes with anything physical that comes in those as they are small & that group is limited to 8 only.

I understand the concern these days with all the recasts but I've been collecting practically since BJDs arrived on the scene. In those days, folks didn't seem to worry about all that extra stuff so much & I still don't. I do require good feedback for the seller though.

 

I just get nervous buying things online especially vinyl dolls because of the smoking smell that could be on there.

 

I agree with most of the posts here! Early posts mentioned a lot the over priced... it feels kind of silly when someone prices a head (with their own bad face up?) for more than the original value. That irks me.

Obviously I just don’t buy and move on, people can list things however they want... but i always find that one kind of hilarious.

 

I'm surprised I even have to say this one, but people need to take pictures of the items they're selling. I don't mind stock photos added in if the doll has the company faceup and/or came as a fullset, but most of the photos should be your own. I've only been checking BJD listings for a month, yet I've seen this come up often enough that it's just baffling. You'd think this would be obvious, but no?

 

The thing that prevents me from buying a doll form the marketplace other than not having the CoA is the lack of the date the doll was made or bought. I understand sometimes the seller could be a second owner of the doll and might not know the exact date he/she got the doll. But sometimes we have bjds listed on the marketplace and the seller listed himself/herself as the first owner and still don't put the date the doll was made.

I personally like to know how old is the doll I'm planning to buy. So, I don't believe when the seller all of the sudden forgets the date the doll was made or bought. At least they should tell the buyers how many years they have owned the doll. This will give us an idea how old the doll is.

If they don't put the date the doll was bought or made I don't trust the seller. That's a big no for me. This lead me to believe that the seller somehow is dishonest or have something to hide.