Would you ship a doll during the pandemic?

I've bought and sold like normal - haven't sold outside of my country because no ones ordered from outside, but I've bought a package from outside my country and it got to me in under 2 weeks.

I just make sure it comes with tracked shipping and let them know it could take some time

 

I have been buying and selling during the last year and a half. It's been fine. Things are taking longer for larger packages. I'm waiting for a big order from Alice's Collections and it is taking a long time despite being shipped EMS. So I'm a little nervous. It took something like 4 weeks for me to get an order of stationary from Hong Kong.

 

If I needed to ship a doll right now, I would as long as I'm not paying for shipping. I'm not mentally prepared for a surprise $150 shipping fee myself, but if someone else is, sure I'd ship to them!

If this never goes back to the way it was before, maybe finally I'll be convinced to enjoy the dolls I have instead of living off the adrenaline rush of buying more. I'd sure like to buy some more wigs, shoes, and other accessories but I'm still hesitant still because of the cost. I'd sure love SAL to come back.

 

Since the pandemic I do fewer trips to the post office, I did also pause shipping Internationally in the beginning but have since resumed.

 

I’ve been buying and selling for a bit now I feel like it just takes a little longer maybe than usual. I package well, label inside the box, and outside and make sure to double check the address. But I used to do all that already before covid.

 

I didn’t start destashing my collection until 2020, so by the data alone, I don’t know what selling in not-2020-times would look like. A buyer I had early in 2020 insisted they knew I could ship from Canada for less than I was asking (I was getting my prices via the canpost app) and after a bit of a Time there, they taught me to use the “print shipping label” service on PayPal. This changed my life.

before I learned to ship via PayPal, I was going to the post office for shipping quotes routinely, and then going back if the buyer wanted it. Now I measure a box, take 30 seconds to generate a quote and everything ships courier, with a printed label. I can’t tell looking at my PayPal history how many dolls/heads/bodies/etc I’ve sold (I do so much layaway) but I can tell you I’ve probably shipped >50 packages in the last 2 years, and so far, I’ve had no issues with the courier, and shipping is cheaper than canpost. I’m currently mailing heads to a beloved friend and faceup artist, I ordered and received my grail doll (who was high stakes to ship, because so few of her exist) and everything’s gone incredibly smoothly.

my one caveat: shipping to/from Russia, where my courier will not ship to. I have to use canpost, and I think, with the most upgraded shipping we could get, the buyer still ended up waiting multiple months for something that claimed “guaranteed 2-week arrival” or something like that. When it arrived nothing was damaged. The heads I’ve ordered from BlackCherry and DSDoll usually stop tracking for 2-3 weeks and then show up in Canada. So even then, I would buy from/sell to people there, just with a big warning.

TLDR: go to NetParcel and/or PayPal shipping. Use fedex, ups, and DHL, and stuff arrives fast and safe.

 

It has been proven that the virus does not live on surfaces for very long.

 

I've been buying and selling as normal. As previous posters have pointed out, the virus doesn't survive for very long on surfaces, and us Americans have the benefit of purchasing and printing shipping labels online from the comfort of our home. I can even schedule contact-less mail pick-up from my porch!

 

I've bought and sold as normal over the last year and it has gone well. Buying and selling internationally always stresses me out, but I haven't had any issues with it at all this year. Heck, some of my international packages actually arrived faster than my stuff from within the US when USPS was really struggling. Mail has actually been oddly good this holiday season, too, which is honestly the most shocking part.

 

I've been shipping and receiving as usual both domestically and internationally. Things have been taking a little longer in some situations, and in others I've been pleasantly surprised at how fast things either arrived to me or the person I shipped to.

 

Why not? I'm vaccinated, life goes on.

 

Now that the weather is cooler, I'm a lot less wary about potential heat damage. But I'm still too nervous to buy/ship outside the country just in case it gets lost.

 

So far I've shipped small bjd items overseas and never had any problems with the shipping. I even had a full 2nd hand doll sent to me during this Covid period. I was anxious at first. But it came within a month. I'm just glad it wasnt lost.

Just take an extra precaution, buy insurance if you're worried it might get lost.