Advice - What to do with old dolls with no certifications?

COAs are just one way to verify dolls thankfully - company boxes, receipts, engravings, headplates and stamps, other pamphlets that are known to come with certain dolls, and even seamlines (in some cases) are also good proof. I think with older dolls it's always good to provide as much info and images as possible anyway to show the condition they are in - and if they never came with a CoA then noting that in the listing + showing other legitimacy markers should be enough.

 

Just some experience as a buyer, but some things that helped me decide a 2010 FL girl who I know has been recast (seen her on eBay) was legit and worth purchasing were the original box, and a chain of provenance. They could tell me who all the past owners were, when those owners had her, and I looked up their photos, and traced her back that way.

other people’s standards may vary from mine, but I think being able to show time-stamped photos of them from different years if you’re the first owner might be good evidence of their age, which would make them more likely to be legit!

 

Fyi, some companies today don't issue COAs or have gone through periods of not, then providing, then not again. Boxes too can be misleading, as there was a period of time before we disallowed the selling of company boxes by themselves. I believe that rule to disallow came about after circumstances of bogus duplicated Soom COA's and boxes was attempted by a recaster.

Old photos with exif info, especially if they were posted here, are good not only for provenance but sometimes to remind an owner when they got a doll, as many of us who were feverishly buying 15 years ago forget dates. For secondhand purchases, saving a copy of the original sale page is always useful. Later on, photos will likely be gone, and listings themselves may not be available or at least distinguishable by text alone.

We do require that members returning after a long hiatus take their first 30 days back to get caught up and have a chance to return to activity as a consistent, posting member of the forum community. Only after that may they request to get back their expired marketplace access flag. This also helps the member, as other members are likely to question an inactive account that suddenly comes active only with regard to buying/selling.

 

Some old sculpts were never recast, so even without original packaging, or receipts - a sculpt might speak for itself it just depends on the time a certain sculpt was released. I wouldn't rely on this but for some sculpts there isn't a choice. Some of those older companies don't even exist anymore.

 

Oh yeah, some dolls are just old enough that even when the problems really picked up it wasn't done with some sculpts. You can always post in Ask the Mods,and when i had a doll I had to verify, I also did a ton of research by myself online and in the company's pics to try and see how old the body I had was.

 

I do own one Fairyland doll, I believe they started issuing CoA's only after recasting became a problem. The only way I can prove mine is legit is her default faceup and original box. I also own an old well two actually (15+ years) Luts event dolls that went through at lest two or three different owners, it only has a plaque behind the head, I don't believe event heads get recasted but it could be difficult to prove the body's origin.

For some older dolls it might not be necessary to prove anything, recasters mostly target new and popular brands so not all dolls or sculpts have copies around.

 

That’s a brilliant idea. I will be dredging the wayback machine for the original listings of several of my dolls, because I didn’t think to save listings in 2015 when they were purchased. It’s good to keep that kind of information at hand!! Very helpful for things like Soom releases, where different parts/different resin colours are from different releases. Knowing when it was released in what colours can be another precaution a person can take to know they’re getting a legit doll when they order.