What's the cheapest you've sold/bought a doll for?

This is Aleph, as he looks now. His head was a free event item and I paid $35 for his 70cm body because he was the junk remains of someone's mod project.

 

Last month, I managed to get a mib French resin Narsha for $150 when the original price was $379. I had wanted narsha since it was released in 2005, but the French resin was too expensive and an unstable material. Mine has aged to a light tan color where most I've seen are dark yellow.

Not the cheapest doll I've bought but one of the best deals. I've been able to find and afford many of my dream dolls in the last year due to the buyers market and a lot of inactive collectors cleaning up their collections. (I got 6? 2004-2006 dolls)

 

I have been an avid doll collector of all types since I was a kid. The one thing I know from experience is what I learned from a doll collectors book and have always heeded that advice, it went something like this... Only collect what YOU like, there is no way to know what will or will not increase in value.
I know that to be truer than true, not because I bought things hoping they would make me money later, but because I saw how true that advice was and is. To this day I do the same as always... by only the dolls that touch my heart because I want them not because they may be worth money later.
Stick with that my friends and you will never regret a dollar spent on a doll you love.

 

$60, she was a free event head Juri13 on a Impldoll body that was purchased second hand

 

I got my Ruth boy for $100 flat including shipping. I soon found out why. He reeked so badly of pot the drug dogs at my school went off on it immediately. I had to throw his box away and wash him several times. He was also as yellow as you could get and damaged in some places. It was a real labor of love getting him up to snuff. Now he's one of my favorites I could never ever part with.



He's the one on the left.

 

I got my Catish Reaa (certificate and all) for $150 including shipping, she was originally $358 for the fullset (though I got her nude). She was badly stained from a face-up with wax based pencils with no sealant, though -- the previous owner removed her limited edition face-up to try her hand at it herself. This previous owner was a teenager who I guess didn't know too much about dolls, she also shipped her (from the US to Europe!!) unstrung in a tiny box with just some wads of printer paper for protection and didn't actually include the string. It's a small miracle that Koneko made it here unscathed, a testament to Dollmore's nice, thick and sturdy resin I'd say.

And I bought Ky, my Soom Namu head, on the Marketplace for $15 plus another $15 for shipping. He was listed as a stained and damaged practice head, but once I got him all clean, it turned out that the stains and chips were pretty much just in the MSC that was still on him from a partially removed face-up. He is a bit yellow, but I bought him a NS-yellow FDoll body (which was on sale at Think Pink! for 150 euro) and it's an almost 100% match, so the yellowing doesn't bother me one bit. He is now one of my most cherished dolls, great surprise for a cheap practice head I'd say!

 

Not 'cheap' in the actual sense, as my boy is still VERY expensive, but I was able to get my Volks Williams for 1300 dollars, instead of the $2000-2500 he's usually going for. I bought him on Y!J in a 'buy it now'-auction and I still think the owner made a mistake when creating the listing, since it's customary to create a bidding auction.

Even better: I didn't have to pay custom charges for him!

 

Some of these are crazy cheap!! Where do you guys shop? I bought my MSD Loongsoul body (no head) for 142+ Shipping. Mint on card has them on preorder for $230 + shipping. I'd say that's a pretty good deal considering she was new, in stock, and from a genuine dealer(Jeeryama)

 

Some of you have done pretty well there, haha! I've come across some amazing deals over the years, although thankfully I haven't jumped on all of them. New from the companies, my Dreamingdoll Sally and Luts SDF Xylon where by far the cheapest as I got them for free in Christmas events. I still can't believe I got such amazing dolls for free. If all goes well, this year I'm getting a Delf Claus on SDF body in real skin brown

My best ever marketplace deal was probably a DreamingDoll Sweet Rio head with an Andreja faceup. With shipping I paid less for her than the head new from Dreamingdoll, so I got a discount on the head and a free amazing faceup that would have cost me a fortune with all the shipping etc. And both head and faceup were in like new condition. I got her a Mirodoll body that I've since modded and changed the hands on (free extra hands that came with my Maskcatdoll). She's my only SD that was under $250

As for selling... It's much harder now to get your money back than it was a few years ago. I never buy dolls for their resale value, but it's still a bit sad. Recycling doll funds isn't really an option anymore. However, I feel like I price fairly (thinking of how much I'd pay myself) and don't usually have to drop the price too much. I just sold a LTF event faceplate to a friend way under market value, though

 

Free, one of my first dolls was a trade actually. No actual money put into her, just some stuff I had that the person wanted. She was a project doll though. I put a lot of work into her in the end, but didn't pay a cent for her, unless you count her value in other stuff as her price.

 

Looking at my collection, the average person wouldn't think my cheapest is one of my SD sized boys, but he is! Morgan is an Akagidoll Lan head that was $25 and his body is an old Angel of Dream body I found on the MP for $100. The body isn't much for posing, as he was cast very thick and heavy, but I modded one of the elbows as a test and it's much better now. Other than that, I'd say my Soom Flint Chamomile was a steal at $280, considering she came virtually new with the Soom faceup, limited silicone soom eyes, and a lovely wig from rRabit.

 

The cheapest/best deal I've gotten was the napi winfred on SDF body for $260. He also had a beautiful custom faceup by the artist kappa. I ended up having the face up redone to better fit my vision for him but it was still a great price.

The cheapest I've sold a doll for was the souldoll Paulo head I sold for $60, that had originally cost me full price. He just didn't look anything like his photos in person to me, and it seems others felt the same way as there was a glut if them in the marketplace around the time they were arriving from the company. I had listed him for a higher price several times and got very little interest so in the end I just listed at that low price. After that I got several people wanting to buy him within minutes of the sales thread going online. I'm lucky that I didn't invest in him as a full doll.

 

Dad bought me a tiny, Tiny was 25 dollars.

 

It was 99-105 dollars. Cant remember which. Won a full set DZ Ani2 on ebay for a STEAL. Ended up selling her to save for a new doll..sold her for about the same, only doll I ever broke even on.

 

I bought Muninn, my Luts Bliss, for a song...
I don't remember the exact price any more, but it wasn't more than $200.

He was definitely a restoration project, though, and came with some pretty extensive damage and (very) uneven yellowing. What I didn't spend in dollars on him was probably more than made up for in the "sweat equity" it took to get him back into decent shape. I had a lot of fun working on him, though, and he ended up becoming one of my favorites, so the work was worth it, I'd say.

The best deal I've ever offered as a seller? I had a 60cm Fantasy Doll body I'd used as a temporary bod for one of my Floating Heads. Once I'd gotten that head a proper, permanent body, I decided to sell off that old one... Until a friend mentioned needing a temp bod that matched white CP resin... Which mine did. I said she could have it if she bought lunch.

 

Erm, I brought a damaged junk-head for 50$ after I had fixed him up I put him on a older Luts body and sold him for 200$.

 

I sold my Angel of Dream Rao for $100 to friends who were giving it to another friend. It was her dream doll, so I had no problem offering a deal. Besides, I only paid $125 for her on eBay, so it was probably my best doll deal ever. The seller wasn't in the hobby, and I think intended to use her for a project they never got around to doing and she had spent a year in a box in the closet before coming to me. That was before recasts were really a problem on eBay, about 2007 or 2008, so I know she was legit.

 

I think the cheapest I've SOLD a doll for was the Nobility Doll fiasco Custom Muscle body that I spent a month or so of work turning into a lovely and functional doll body... only to sell it at just what I paid for it, about $300. In relative terms that counts to me as cheap, since I put over a hundred dollars worth of custom work into that body and didn't raise the price accordingly, so that she'd sell more quickly.

 

I bought a head on ebay auction direct from the company and with shipping I paid 9.09, it came with a COA. I put out a WTB damaged body, and got one for 50.00, the body was dyed brown but didn't take the dye well, one thigh was in three pieces, and two calfs were sanded back to normal resin color.
Now I have a utterly unique doll for 59.09 but I've probably done a hundred hours of modding on the body and face. Best deal for a very unique OOAK that probably no one else would want.

 

I bought a Soulkid head for $20 and a Volks MSD body for $70 and made an awesome hybrid. Granted, both head and body were pretty dang old, but I still think it's a steal for a mini from (relatively) pricier companies.

Also recently bought a fullset Doll Leaves tiny for a third of the original selling price!

I love buying secondhand and I love old dolls, so it's fairly safe to say I am a Marketplace addict.