Are dolls selling well?

Depends.

Some dolls always sell insanely well. Fast, and for their original price. Like Fairyland MNFs.
Other seem to sit on the marketplace forever, even if you drastically lower the price you can be glad if it ever sells.

So far I got everything sold I ever tried to sell, sooner or later. Not always for a great price, but you gotta be realistic

 

I feel like the secondhand market has been slowing down, personally. When I joined the hobby in 2008, it seemed like I could list a doll and within a week, I'd sell it at near the original price. I'm not currently selling any dolls, but the last few that I have, they've been listed for weeks or even months and I've had to sell them at $75-200 less than I originally paid. I'm not sure if this is due to market saturation, ease of getting new dolls, the economy, the cost/time/instability of shipping, or maybe that I dolls I've recently sold just didn't hold much value--most weren't fullset, limited or hard to find dolls by any means.

 

I haven’t sold any, but having kept an eye on the secondhand market, I’ve noticed my grails (whom I can’t afford to get yet) getting listed and sold within minutes. Seems like there is also a trending preference for certain scale sizes of dolls at current too.

 

I sold two obscure dolls recently, both gone within 24 hours for my asking price. It was actually a shock to me, I thought I'd have to wait months for someone to buy them.

Now everything that ISN'T dolls, on the other hand...

 

I feel like the secondhand market is slow in general, unless you're selling a highly sought after item. Most of the dolls/bodies/heads I've had up for sale have have sold. However, some of my items have been up for months, often times with me lowering the prices over time. The dolls I sale aren't the most popular, so they usually don't go that quickly.

 

Isn't that the truth
I have so many clothes, eyes, wigs and stuff I'd love to sell but it's not worth the hassle. Usually it won't move, or shipping makes it uninteresting for buyers...and my local community is too small.
Sigh. At some point I see myself tossing things

 

Yeah a few years ago good quality eyes and clothes weren't that hard to sell (wigs too, if they were ~$100 or more). Shoes and normal wigs always felt like throwing stuff into the void but at least you new you could sell eyes and nicer clothes/wigs. Now... Nothing is moving.

For stuff I couldn't off-load, I did have reasonable success with "free, but you have to pay shipping" in the past.

 

Definitely way slower than in the past. But I haven't had too much trouble recently. Some things I expected to sell quickly are hanging around, some things I expected to languish sold immediately! I've gotten doll accessories to sell when I mark them down a lot, which is fine with me honestly. I've basically given up on recouping what I spent on wigs, clothes, etc unless it's brand new and unused.

 

There just seems to be such a high selection now as opposed to 10 years ago, but I see things I like move fast. Dolls come and go but clothes are another thing, I don't see clothes selling as fast as the dolls.

 

Not on the DoA Marketplace, but I find if you sell your clothing/wigs in lots for a reasonable price, they seem to move...but I guess it depends on what is in the lots. I recently sold my YoSD lot of 9 dresses + 1 hoodie + two pairs of shoes very very quickly while my MSD boy set didn't really sell (I guess a lot of people own minifee boys?). I sold a lot of about 10 wigs also very quickly as well as my SD13 boy lot (sets instead of individual pieces of clothing). I always put in a condition that I can sell them individually but make the price so that buying the whole lot isn't that much more expensive.

As for dolls..for what I sell...it's a bit of crapshoot. Most of my dolls are limited, but they are mostly animal/anthro/creature dolls and I know not everyone is into them and they don't sell very quickly...I might sell one once every few weeks. Still have a couple of dolls from March I'm still trying to offload even with reasonable prices.

 

It's surely slower for dolls though some certain brands/ sculpts like Fairyland are still doing well. Even discontinued dolls don't sell very fast if the seller dont reduce the price

 

It sure has been slower than previous years but not by terribly much, depending. Most recently I managed to get a good trade offer for my fairyland Cygne hybrid in less than a week. On the other hand I also feel like less people are actually listing their things??? Like, guys... guys please, don't hoard your things??? Try to sell them if you want them gone, I beg you. I've had SO much trouble buying things I want secondhand. I just need some new eyes and clothes for my boys...

 

It's a hit and miss - depends on if you're dolls are in the current niche market. A friend and i have had dolls sit there for years before just taking them off because lowering the price anymore would not even be worth while selling.
Where as i could list something that people are currently into and i'd sell within a week.
Wig and Clothing bundles unless MSD seem to sit around for ages.

But in my opinion, no i think the market has slowed down alot. Specially in price for rarer uncommon dolls. Which is a shame because i prefer buying second hand over buying from company!

 

I sell very well on Facebook sites and hardly anything on the Marketplace. I had a couple of dolls listed on the marketplace for almost a year and finally took them down, then sold them within a month on Facebook. In all the years I've been listing dolls on the Marketplace, I only sold one doll, and that was about 5 years ago. On facebook sites I sold 5 dolls and numerous clothing items within the last 6 months.

I also get annoyed that my photos in my sales listings are always disappearing on the Marketplace, but on Facebook I don't need to go through a hosting site and can upload photos directly from my computer, so they never disappear or get messed up.

 

Like some other people have mentioned I believe it all depends on if it's a limited or not. But it really is a crap shoot to see if your doll will sell or not here on the MB. Most of my dollies are limited edition because they're heads are minimees back when DIM [if they're still around] use to have the service, I miss that. But I use to be super active back in 2007 to 2009 and yes the MB was booming. If I were you I would try to sell on FB groups. I belong to a BJD Facebook group called Dollfie Dream adoption and chat. I think you can sell more than DDs to be honest. But I haven't sold anything on there to be fair and I haven't really paid attention if anyone is selling resin. I've been hunting down my grail for a fair price and a layaway option. So maybe you can give that FB group a chance?

 

If you sell on Facebook....how do you know if your buyer (or seller) is legit and trustworthy? I mean, here on DOA you have Feedback...as also on sites like ebay...but not on Facebook or Instagram.

 

I tend to look at their facebook, to see if it’s real. If they communicate well, their name doesn’t pop up on the dolls transaction gone bad group and they do exist in BJD groups, they are okay.

 

There are indeed bjd feedback groups on facebook. Ask them if they have a feedback thread they could link you to. You may have to join a group to view it.
I think people on instagram also make feedback posts for people to comment on, although I don't use IG I was linked to one before, not sure if it's the norm there.

 

@Naomicamlux and @Novalyna - Thanks very much for the information. I don't go on Facebook very much...so I had no clue about any feedback groups. I guess it's good to know the community you participate in and build up trust over time.

 

it can be a gamble honestly. Asking for feedback on Instagram or if there is anyone that can vouch for them especially when it’s a really big purchase is helpful. And ALWAYS pay PayPal goods and services.

 

@Feywildchild - Good points! I'm probably not at the point where I could buy a doll from Facebook...as I don't know that community at all. I did once buy a head from a seller on in Instagram and definitely used Paypal. It all went very well...but still I would be very hesitant to do that very often.

 

I honestly prefer buying on instagram cause it’s much easier to see someone’s following and how they interact with people especially people in the doll community versus what you can see on Facebook.