What should you keep if your doll came without a CoA?

box and flyers. digital copies of invoices are good too, but make sure you have a backup of that. You could trash the box, some people do, but personally I wouldn't buy secondhand dolls without box.

 

I would hang onto the invoice, order number, and date of purchase. If digital keep it in multiple places/computers or print it out. I have like this insane excel doc with all that information that I have copies of on multiple computers in case of crash. Same with my invoices. Also sometimes, if you ask nicely companies will send you a CoA if you provide your invoice

 

I generally keep the boxes but to be honest, having bought secondhand, just having provinance is usually enough for me. Being able to pinpoint when you purchased it and from where. So many dodgy sellers can't do that, they'll just say "i can't remember" which is always a red flag for me, more of one than no certificate.
A lot of dolls still don't come with a certificate or come with one that's pretty easily forged anyway (Blue Fairy just come with a name tag on brown paper for example) so while they're nice to have they're not always a guarentee of legitimacy unfortunately.

A digital invoice or reciept can also help but again, isn't a guarentee. When buying and selling secondhand without all the original bits you really have to just sorta... trust your best judgement. Does the doll look correct? Are the insides right? Does the seller's story check out?

I admit, I usually back track any seller online and do some google stalking to figure stuff out hahaha. So being able to link a seller with their DOA account is really helpful, as are "box opening" photos from them.

I'd just record everything you can. Take a lot of pictures, hang onto your digital reciept etc.

I kinda wish more companies would do like Spiritdoll do and have their "authenticity mark" INSIDE the body. It's really clever.

 

I keep boxes & online receipts, but also I like to keep the import/shipping label on the outer box. It’ll have my name & address, the date and the value, plus the sender’s (ie the company or reputable dealer) name & address. All helps with provenance. I got a Dearmine lupy who came with no CoA, but I have the emails from them and the outer box which is Dearmine branded & has the shipping info from them to me. I’ll just keep doll bits in it since it’s only small. Some of my dolls are custom & have no CoA so I asked the sculptor for a little handwritten note. To be honest, with boxes, I keep the prettier & bigger ones as storage boxes. I chucked some of the plain cardboard ones.

Some companies will verify authenticity from other details. I got a migidoll Ryu head second hand. I contacted Migi with the seller’s details and photos of the head and they verified it’s legit and sent me a new CoA!

 

Well, I think that deciding on what to keep if your doll doesn't come with a coa mainly depends on how much storage you have. I always keep the original box, any official paperwork (even promo flyers or restringing guides) and note down everything about the provenance of the doll.
And if the doll originally came with the default face-up by the company and you at one point decide to wipe it, I'd advise you to take some photos beforehand just in case a potential future buyer would like to see it. Some company face-ups are very detailed and quite complicated to recreate in the recasting process...

 

Keep the box and any paperwork that may have come with the doll, as well as a head plate if they come with one (they fall out easily sometimes). I like to print out a copy of my online receipts to send along with the doll if I sell it with any personal info besides my name blacked out. I keep a file of these with my other important files.

 

I kept the original boxes when I bought my larger dolls in 2007, back then nobody asked for a CoA because recast didn't exist. So the only "proof" I have now are the boxes, the postcards and booklets thet came with them and my posts in forums that luckily still can be seen.

 

Keeping boxes just isn't always practical, but hanging on to any paperwork that came with the doll along with a copy or a print-out of your order invoice is a good idea.

 

Ringdoll heads will come with a booklet-is thing and a paper receipt. Ringdoll states (or at least they used to on their site somewhere) that is equal to the COA (which only comes with full dolls) and should be kept with the head. The box is ok, but as long as you keep the paperwork, you'll be fine.

 

Back when I bought all my dolls, no one asked for any kind of CoA as recast didn't exist at the time and it wasn't necessary.
I bought most of them second-handed in here, but unfortunately the only register of those purchases are on my feedback profile (as they were bought +10 years ago and the PMs got deleted long ago) and probably on my paypal account

As I came back and seeing the huge amount of recast dolls out there, I wasn't sure if I'd buy any doll that didn't come directly from the official store, so this is a really helpfull thread for me, I'd say

 

I have a small number of dolls that did not include a coa. I was wary of what I bought, but some were bought through Mandarake. Which I see as a tad more legitimate than just winging it online. At least there, you have account history. A lot of certain models I am hunting or hunted for were limited, or discontinued. I am prone to buying full sets. As risky as it can be with recasts, I look for as much information on the particular doll I am buying. As others might do, keeping screenshots of online commerce in connection with a doll, if you are selling is important. If I could, I would keep the boxes from my dolls. I have a small place of living and no extra storage where I could've stacked them. I try to photograph as much of the doll as I can when unboxing for the first time. To provide legitimacy. I look for signatures on one offs, headplates, any other identifying marks on a doll to further bolster it's legitimacy if it does not have a coa.