Would you consider this SCALPING?

I find that the second option is like scalping... the first option seems more like someone trying to make it worth the money they're charging for the item. another thing to do is to research the prices that the original company charges for those Items. If it does seem like scalping then just dont buy.

 

If the person works on the head, then who's the say the work they did isn't worth the extra money? If they sell the head that way, then someone obviously thought it was worth it.

As for just turning around and selling the head, it's only scalping if the head if from a limited doll.

If someone who wants the sleeping head can simply join a split and receive the head at the proper price, then buying the head and trying to sell it at such a steep markup isn't what I'd call scalping; it's what I'd call stupid.

 

I think the first option is not scalping in anyway. Doing work on a head, even painting it, can raise the price and imo should raise the price as people put materials and labor into the head.
As for the second option, I don't think it is scalping if that is the going price for a doll head. Just because they paid less does not mean that they should be forced to sell for less than what is the market price for a doll head. If I buy a limited doll, and it comes with an outfit, I will not just give the outfit away because it came with the doll. I will sell it for what people deem it is worth. On the same note, I would happily pay that as well.

 

I realize not everyone on this forum lives in the United States, but this is how we look at it. The free market system allows for anyone who is willing to buy an item at the price the seller is asking is not considered scalping regardless of the circumstances. Scalping is defined when a person buys up as much as possible in order to control the market. So if someone buys 1000 tickets to a concert, they are doing it to force the concert to be sold out. Then they sell the tickets for an inflated price. Most doll companies only allow the purchase of one of the limited items, so it isn’t possible to buy enough to control the market.

So that's my take on it.

 

Actually....on this board, we do have concerns about Limited Dolls - limited even to one - being bought for the sole purpose of the buyer turning around and auctioning the doll for an outrageous price. This is one of the reasons that the Marketplace rule about having the doll "in-hand" is so important to us. No one in the dollery wants to see that kind of business practice here.

Defining scalping in this hobby can be tricky. Of course any seller can slap any price or auction any doll for whatever number makes them happy - but will the market support huge markups? *shrug* Not very much in today's economy, but there is always going to be the rare doll that a buyer knows how much is worth "to them" and at that point, prices can become staggering in their inflation.

 

Sometimes limited dolls and limited items aren't limited to one person though. You could have bought as many Sards from Soom as you liked as long as the ordering period was open. Scalping the way you define it is very much a possibility in the doll market. There are also the people, as Zagzagael said, who buy limited items specifically to flip for more cash later on.

It's up to the buyer to decide what the doll is worth to them. I love Volks' new limited, SD16 Ami Ayase, but I won't have the money for her in time to enter the international lottery and I'm going to have to contend with the after market prices. I feel very strongly that $2000-$3000 is far too much for a doll, however, I might stretch that far if every other Ami Ayase has been modded and or split for parts, because the $2000 Ami Ayase is default right down to the last eyelash, whereas a $600 Ami Ayase might just be her head.

 

No, it's in no way, shape or from scalping. Modding a doll's eyes open is a ton of work, and frustration. Painting a face-up on that doll is also a bit of work. If you go by your deductions, and you subtract that 27.00 from the piece, it leaves 40.00 to be paid for the eye opening, and painting the face. Personally, i charge 35.00 for the face-up, and then 25.00 for eye opening if someone is commissioning me. I feel that I'd barely be getting any money back in profit for all the work that was done.

 

To the original post, the person is asking if an item should be sold for more than was paid for it. The general reference was to the use of the word scalping and the negative implications of the word. My husband wouldn't even find the buying of enough of something to control the market offensive.

The forum has every right to limit this activity if they choose, but they cannot control the whole marketplace. I know they seem to believe they can, but it just isn't true. If a person is selling a doll and another person is willing to buy it for that price it is still defined as free market. In fact it is the whole point of the collectables market.

I personally would never specifically buy a new limited doll of any type just to resale it. Since the market for the doll is not yet defined, it would just be too risky for me. However, it is my business to buy things for one price and sell them for more than I paid. My time at seeking the item out, cleaning it, and identifying it is part of the price I put on it. I also have expertise and overhead (as would anyone who paints or modifies a doll head.) Also part of the price.

 

I have a little question, and it's only to satisfy my curiosity :3

You buy a LE doll - let's say one of the SOOM MDs, love it, play with it but one day fall on hard times and have to sell it (as in, there's no other option). Someone you know is willing to buy the doll for the exact amount you paid for it, up front, no questions asked. However, you also know that there would be other people who really wanted the doll the first time around who would pay a lot more than that person is offering.

Is it scalping if you take a higher offer (presuming you haven't already agreed to sell to the other person) because you really need the money? Or is that just taking advantage of the collectible value of the doll in order to make sure you don't get evicted or jailed

 

In my world, no there is no problem with you selling it for more than you paid. In fact there is another whole topic about buying these dolls as investments. If that is how you justified the purchase, there should be no problem with making a profit. Also depending on how long you held the doll before re-selling it makes a difference, too. It is pretty obvious there aren't many business men/women/majors on this forum, however, money changes value, as well. It is hard to explain, but it boils down to inflation. The exact same item costs more today than it did ten years ago, because the value of the pound/dollar has decreased.

 

THIS. I agree here because it gives both method and intent. Otherwise, buying something that you expect to increase in value is called "investing."

 

personnaly I am willing to pay arround 80$ for a sleeping head because you can't get those alone on the site. so it's kind of a hard to get item. if you want one so badly and are only willing to py 30$, you will have to order the rest of the doll too, or open a thread for split and possibly wait months to have the other pieces taken. I don't think it's scam. especially since it's still a good price!
and for those with mods, well some people pay other to do that for them. it cost about 60$ so then again, still a good price if the person sells it 80-90$

 

Market value is always set by the consumer. If someone is willing to pay the asking price, then the buyer wins. If someone believes the asking price is too much, then move on.

The fact that people are willing to pay 5 or 10 times the retail amount for some limited dolls or heads or fashions is the reason buyers will ask the prices they do. I personally don't get that mentality and am not going to pay those prices, but to each his/her own.

Fact of business...consumers set market price. People cannot 'scalp' if buyers aren't willing to pay the prices.

example - I used to collect smaller fashion dolls and one in particular was considered very limited for its genre (edition of 500, I think). It retailed at about $85 and I knew people who paid upwards of $10,000 for that doll. Not hand painted, not custom crafted and was just a variation of another doll in the same line. I never understood it. But hey, congrats to those sellers, I suppose.

 

Honestly im going with the crowd but still agree that it is scalping here. I think if if a sleeping face has been modded in good quality to be open eyed, it can sell for maybe the price of the original open eyed. Faceups if they are quality can be much more as well. But if someone did a shoddy mod job on a faceplate, i doubt anyone would purchase it anyway. Certainly I do count it as scalping if the person bought the faceplate just to sell at a higher price but i do feel that its very similar to just being payed to do a mod... on your faceplate. So if you think about it its technically scalping but theres nothing really bad about it. Its just like taking a modding commission.

Granted this is only if you dont overcharge ridiculously. Say a faceplate or head that is open eyed is valued at perhaps maybe $100. Someone does a mod on the sleeping version to make it open eyed and tries to sell it for $200. I think thats ridiculous (granted this is saying that the mod was ONLY to make it open eyed).

Face ups are a little different. Face ups ARE expensive. And people can charge whatever they think their work values. So faceups as long as they have a buyer cannot count as scalping.

 

Ijust bought an heavy mod Shiwoo head (MSD size).

I paid 70€ for it (around 100$).
Its former owner had the nude mold for free in a Fairyland event. She opened the scar eye, thinned the cheeks,made the make-up. She did the mod I asked for to the make-up before my payment.
The nude scar face eye closed without any mod was sold between 40 and 50 € on the same site and on Ebay.
Do I feel it was scalping in my case ? Definitively no : my seller is usually paid 45 € for an ordered heavy mod, with shipping to add twice, so in my opinion I paid only 25€ for the mold itself, and the difference for the beautiful artwork which made it one of its kind !

 

Let's say you sell the doll for retail price. What's going to keep the new owner from selling the doll for a much higher price? If you know the resale value is higher than what you originally paid for the doll, why not haven an auction with the retail price as starting bid. You can't be "blamed" for what the highest bidder is willing to pay.

 

If the mod and faceup its nice than not, there was work on it and they're only asking to be paid for it
But simply selling a blank head... I think that's even against the rules if they do it right after a split

 

In a long shot, whos to say that the modding or new faceup isnt something someone would love but cannot do themselves? Ok, the buying and selling without changine it at all is totally scalping. But when there is some kind of difference in the head, it might actually be something the buyer loves or would love to happen but they cannot execute. But thats just my opinion. =D

 

I think the whole "scalping" issue itself is a very emotional and subjective one. Sometimes I look at prices for LE dolls on the secondary market and think: "this price is ridiculously inflated". That doesn't mean that this is wrong, bad, or anything, though - it just means that I wouldn't buy or sell this doll for this price (the latter because I would think it very unlikely for someone to buy it). But if there is someone who does, where is the problem? The buyer is happy to get the doll, the seller is happy to make money - no one is really hurt, and everything they do is their own choice. It's not like you are forced to buy a doll, even if it is your "grail doll", you still will not die without it. So be it scalping or not... I have difficulties with seeing moral or ethical issues with this, because a doll is a luxury item and not a necessary one.

Now for the sleeping heads... I cannot imagine that someone buys them on purpose additionally to their full doll just to sell them, somehow. It is more likely that someone wants to use the head additionally, but then notices that they hardly do and it sits in its box all the time, so that they decide to sell it afterwards. But if they just buy it so they can sell it right away, I think it could be considered scalping. But it is not limited... and is available on the manufacturer's site... and also more than once in the marketplace on this forum and others... then they will probably not be able to sell it for a higher price anyway. Usually, there are more than one person with similar ideas.

I agree with others on this thread that adding a modding and/or a face-up to the head, if done well, significantly adds to the value.

 

Personally, I think if Fairyland were to ever offer the sleeping heads as a separate part, they'd charge more than $27 for it. And while the sleep heads are more costly secondhand, the buyer always has the option of buying a full basic doll then reselling the doll to get the sleep head cheaply. Most people aren't willing to do that for an extra head/faceplate, hence why the resale is higher. I bought a Fairyland Littlefee Shiwoo Elf for $50 and was happy to pay for it. I knew it was a gift head, but I loved the sculpt and wanted to own it. I've got no issues about the price or feel that someone has scalped. The Shiwoo Elf heads are hard to get hold of and I feel I got a bargain at the time. People pay what they feel the doll/head is worth.

I've gone to sell a limited doll, offered it to someone I knew who was wanting it at a higher price but still under market value at the time. She refused and I ended up putting the doll on ebay where it sold for double the money I'd originally asked for it. I received numerous offers and they were all above original market value.