When do you consider their "arrival" date?

I personally consider the arrival date to be the moment that the doll's package ends up carried through the front door of the house. Oddly specific maybe, but that's always been how I saw it.

 

I record everything---arrival dates, where I bought a doll's eyes, wig, etc. Mainly for insurance purposes, but also because it's something I enjoy. It's funny in a way because I'm pretty disorganized when it comes to my daily life.

Personally, I view an arrival date as the day I am able to officially start bonding with a doll. 99% of the time that's the day said doll's box plops onto my doorstep.

Going with the perception I shared above, in a case like this, I'd call Christmas the doll's arrival date. If I have a doll in my possession but am unable to work on customizing, etc. then I don't exactly view it as "mine" yet. Does that make sense? An example is the RS Ju my sister bought me years ago. I knew she had arrived (my sister told me because she's horrible at keeping secrets, heh) but I didn't actually unwrap her until Christmas Eve when my sister gave her to me. In my records, her "arrival date" is 12/24/2010.

If it were me, I wouldn't count the missed delivery.

 

Wow. I'm a total slacker in comparison to you guys. I only keep track of the year the doll was manufactured (if I know it-) and the year they arrived... That's all my insurance company wants as far as dates go, so I've never been any more detailed with my record-keeping than that.

 

I totally get what you're saying about a doll arriving physically versus arriving in your heart (haha), but just for the sake of keeping it simple, I count it as "arrived" as soon as it crosses the threshold into my house. If anything, you could keep a record of the "bond date" too. XD

 

I'd count their arrival date as the day I bring them in the house.

If a delivery was attempted, but nobody was there to sign for it, I wouldn't count that as an arrival because yeah they were at my house, but they didn't stay.

If they were delivered and I didnt open them until Christmas or another date, I'd still count the day they were delivered as the arrival date, the opening date would just be different than arrival. c:

 

Generally speaking, I count the day I pick up the package from my PO box as the arrival date, unless there is a large gap between that arrival and me being able to pick it up, in which case I might prefer to count the day it became available for pickup, for the sake of accuracy when it comes to a company's wait times and whatnot. But that's just me really! I think all methods are valid in their own way. With your example of only opening a doll at Christmas, I'd probably save both dates in my records, something like "arrival - X date, opening - Christmas".

 

I don't keep track of the days, only the year and maybe month, but I would consider the arrival date to be the day the doll first enters your house. Even if I am saving a doll for a holiday or occasion, I still open them the day they arrive to check for any damage or mistakes so I can deal with it before it's too late, so arrival and opening are always the same day for me anyway.

I just think of it like:
-Arrival Date: Day the doll first arrives at your home
-Opening Date: Day you open the box and see the doll for the first time
-Ownership date: Day you fully pay off the doll OR day you receive the doll as a gift
-Joining the Crew/Family/Collection Date: Day you first allow yourself to have the doll and play with, paint or modify it (Like if you ordered in February, it arrived it August, but you save it for Christmas, then this date would be December 25.)

 

I agree with many of you--
Arrival Date: Package arrives at my home/picked up from post office/etc. Basically--doll is in-hand, even if it's still all wrapped up in the box!

Box Opening is sometimes later (sometimes it's too late and too dark, or I just can't get to the Opening on the Arrival date... which is crazy, but happens!

Other dates I keep track of--
Order Date
Paid-In-Full Date

Bonding--not so much, because that doesn't often have a hard date I can keep track of (plus, I'm an easy bonder... which is why I have a doll hoard...agh!).

I think I mostly record all these dates because sometimes people like to know that stuff in doll profiles...

 

I usually count when the package arrives at my door and I have it in my hands the arrival date. I usually open it the same day I get it, and even for my hybird both parts showed up on the same day, so so far it's been easy to remember the dates.

 

The day the doll is delivered / handed to me is recorded as the arrival date, even if I do not open the parcel / unpack the doll on that day. I will record the box opening / unpacking date if it differs from the arrival date.

 

I, too, keep track of my dolls arrival dates or doll parts, like a head and body separate. I count the arrival date as the day I pick it up from the post office. Homecoming day. I always open my packages same day. I never wait. Why leave packaged goodness untouched?

 

I don't record the date my doll arrives. I know roughly what year they were made (in my head but not written down) and that's about it. The arrival date just isn't important to me.

 

Great question! With mine there does tend to be some blurriness, since I rarely if ever write down when exactly I got my dolls. I used to be embarrassed about not remembering the exact day and month, but nowadays I get kind of fuzzy about the year they arrived, so...it puts it in perspective.

Also, with a number of my dolls, the day I received them is not the day they arrived at my house, because they were either gifts, or because I was living in an apartment away from home. Then there's the issue of the dolls who were bought piecemeal (i.e. the floating heads who've been lucky enough to be embodied).

Generally I don't stress exact dates either way, but for the dolls I do remember, it's fun to celebrate.

 

I consider it to be the actual date of arrival. Nothing else really seems to make sense to me.

 

I admire all of you who know your arrival dates! LOL

I get too excited that I hardly remember what month the doll got here let alone the exact date, but with some dolls I have a general window of time because their arrival coincided with some event or time of great significance. ^__^

 

With the dolls i have purchased on their cert there is a production date and i consider that to be their birthday and the arrival day is when the box is in my hot little hands, regardless if i opened it or not.
I hope you were metaphorically speaking about the Christmas wait. It would be torture having a doll arrive now and the having to wait until Christmas to open it

 

For the personal information I'd say that the arrival date is when you start enjoying the doll - if you wait until Christamas to open the box, well, the doll arrives at Christmas then I wouldn't count on the postal service to deliver e.g. a Christmas gift right on time, so I would have it ahead and wait some time until the date happens to make the gift.
In terms of the secondhand sales and other "business" stuff like modifications and hybrids I'd count the physical arrival date as the moment when the doll arrived, to avoid any misunderstandings and such.

 

I've always listed the arrival date as the day delivery is attempted, even if I'm not able to be home that day and end up picking it up later. My reasoning for that is for accuracy in recording the delivery time for that company in the waiting rooms and such.

 

I used to be much much on point about this when my job was less stressful and draining. Anywhoo....

Arrival date: The date the doll arrives at my post office awaiting pickup (80% of the time I need to pick my dolls up).
Official arrival date: The date I open the box and meet the doll

Other stuff I keep track of....
Order date: Date I ordered the doll
Paid date: When the doll has been paid for in full (some artists request 50% upfront and then the rest later as standard process)
Shipping date: Date is beings the shipping process. I like to keep track of how long an item takes to ship on average.
Clothing, accessories etc. per doll - what I've ordered for which, from where, price, shipping method, tracking, etc...