Coronavirus concerns mega-thread

My package from Japan sent in April arrived today. I hadn't kept up with tracking since it seemed stalled for so long. Welcome surprise.

 

My package coming from Austria mailed April 8th finally showed up, completely out of the blue, without tracking ever updating. Now just waiting a bunch of stuff from May, including quite a few packages from Russia, which I don’t expect anytime soon.

 

Ooh congratulations!
My pain are parcels sent from Russia and stuck in “Released from Russia” Status from 30 of March. It’s too concerning. How long yours was held by Russian customs?

 

@Eva Brown from May 15 to June 16. So... not nearly as long as yours. I would contact the seller/dealer if I were you!

 

I had a package arrive from Russia today that was shipped May 22nd. Oddly enough, all of my other packages coming from Russia that were shipped at the beginning of May have shown no movement... though it’s entirely possible they’re all from completely different parts of Russia. Idk, everything seems to get stuck in Moscow.

 

@Swifty yes, I said sellers and all of them wrote claims to the Russian post. Some of packages have been changed status from «release from Russia» to “prepared to shipment from Russia” after they contacted post office staff.
Russian post said that it’s on our side (Japan) customs wont accept parcels, and border closed. I know Japanese paranoia, so it sounds reasonable. But I also know how Russian post works, and I’m pretty sure they can lost many stuff without any pangs of conscience.

@dxgirly Oh, it’s good to know that some moving from that part of the world. I hope everything will come safely.
No matter which part of Russia, all packages collecting now in Moscow or St.-Petersburg. Is there any difference between packages way of shipping, EMS or airmail?

 

@Eva Brown not sure which ones were EMS or airmail, but the one that came in yesterday was shipped out from St Petersburg, rather than Moscow, where all the others seem to be

 

@dxgirly so there is some hope! I’m also waiting some packages from St.-Petersburg.

 

Russia post is in chaos. I'm waiting on a doll from St Petersburg sent on 16th April, The seller did a search and was told some are being sent by sea! Still no tracking update and the postal services there say a search can take up to 50 days. Prioirity mail is the worst but EMS is also bad. It's just not worth buying from Russia right now

 

@lilpuss absolutely agree, it’s a chaos there. I don’t want even think that Russian post can intentionally lost many packages and still hope that everything will be fine, but almost 80 days without updates it’s not funny.

 

Russia post is crazy. I'm getting another package from there though since one of my products broke in shipment and they're replacing it... its a stretch but I personally wouldn't order anywhere overseas for a while :/ after all my packages arrive, I'm just going on a buying hiatus

 

I sent some head dolls to an artist in China to face up and she received it last week. I think they put restrictions on business airplane but not delivery one?

 

Totally this. I’ve been waiting on some shipments from Russia since the end of March. It has been a long wait and I’m honestly over it. I’m not even sure if I’ll be happy or upset when the stuff finally arrives because of how long I’ve been waiting. I’m totally with you on the buying hiatus unless it’s within the US or something I absolutely cannot live without.

 

@KikiBJD i'm surprisingly still happy with my order, despite all the broken and cracked parts (yeah, she started cracking, too...). i was afraid i'd start to hate her but nope!! still love her, just mildly miffed lol. i have one more thing to pay off from DDE then after that, welp, it's hiatus time. i won't even look online at stuff!

 

My orders from Korea to Czech Republic (no airplanes, no packages) have been waiting for six months (for now). I guess it's not over yet... The package from Russia has been sitting at Sheremetyevo Airport since 13 June and refuses to move.

 

Yay, my May package from Granado hit New York last night!!!

 

Oh no! I hope she’s able to be repaired or have those parts replaced because that’s really a shame. I totally get where you’re coming from. At least shipping within the US has been okay for me, so DDE and Fabric Friends have been my number one go tos right now.

 

@KikiBJD Luckily I'm getting the parts replaced. Unlucky that its coming from Russia haha. I stick with DDE, they've been very quick and kind to me!

 

Oh gosh! I wish you luck on a timely delivery! Russian shipping has been a mess from my own experience. I agree! DDE is an amazing service for all of us here in the US!

 

I have a doll sucked in Korea for half year. Waiting for long time and infected number is rising every month.
I put it on my sale list as i am not interested on the doll anymore.

 

One thing I've noticed here in Canada is that package costs have skyrocketed if you need to mail overseas. I tried to mail a package to a friend in the UK, the package was 2kg and it would have cost $150 CAD to mail! This makes shipping BJDs really complicated..

 

There are several dolls on the Marketplace now that I would love to buy, but the chaos USPS has been in lately makes me afraid to have things shipped to me. Now I'm stuck hoping they won't find buyers until the situation is resolved.

 

Very sad, but very common situation.
International Russian post have been lost my quite desired head I order in may.
it’s still not any updates. I’m not sure I’ll be happy when I’ll get it . IF I’ll get ever

 

I've sent a couple of dolls within Europe without problems, but I'm afraid to ship to other continents because all the troubles I read here about delays, customs, returned items... It doesn't feel safe at the moment

 

I have recently sent a few parcels and registered letters overseas. Most of them have already arrived, to my impression most of them even sooner than e.g. a year or two ago.

 

I think Europe really has been saved the postal misery of some countries. No increased prices or even any extreme delays. I recently shipped out a doll to the US and it arrived there in a week costing only 35 euros to ship, including tracking.

 

I've had things from Russia get really delayed. And America is both delayed and has gone up in shipping costs massively on some sites and not at all on others. I'm delaying doll no.3 because I don't want him lost in postal limbo. A few countries have shipping bans to certain places and Australia falls on many of them - Spain, Japan, Belarus. If a place is limiting who they are shipping to then we are usually left out. It would be really stressful for those with pre-orders and layaways in those countries that are nearing completion.

 

Yeah, we seem to be lucky. I have had no problems mailing out.. but receiving has been another matter. Great big delays.. but I can safely say now thank god everything has arrived. But I did have to upgrade to express a few times -at double the cost- since it was the only way to ship out (thats when the mail goes on cargo planes in stead of shipping or waiting for commercial flights to take it) Atm it seems ok again, but with rising numbers and a new lockdown I think we are going to be in trouble again. Costs to Canada and the US have gone up severely since the start of covid, all other parts of the world seem to have returned to somewhat normal shipping prices.

 

Finally my doll arrived in August, but already sold
My latest trouble is an outfit sent abroad but no updates on tracking for nearly 2 weeks.
The buyer is asking for refund if nothing is received in November.
Post Office just repeatedly said nothing they can do.
Bad luck

 

Hi everyone, I've been on hiatus for a bit but am slowly catching up with some of the threads on DOA. I didn't find anything about this specifically, so I'm just curious: Do you do anything differently when you receive your dolls post-pandemic? It could be used or brand new dolls, but do you wipe down their boxes or the dolls themselves? Are there any COVID precautions you take when doing box openings?

 

Me, personally, no, because generally things I get in the mail take longer than 24 hours to reach me, and most viruses don't survive that out in the world, but you should do what makes you feel most comfortable c:

If you want to wipe down your packaging or dolls, just be careful with alchohol wipes on your dolls, because you could potentially damage body blushing and faceups. Otherwise I would say if you bought a doll that was heavily blushed, and worry about viruses, wear gloves and place the doll somewhere in your house to quarantine for 24 hours, and that would work too.

 

The virus has not been proven to survive on surfaces for more than a few hours, if that. The doll should not have any risk, just like we found out pretty early on in the pandemic that you don’t have to disinfect your fruit when you get it home from the store. Postal carriers wear gloves and shouldn’t be risking the package either, and if it’s left in the sun, UV rays also kill the virus after a few minutes. Take your normal precautions as you would when purchasing anything from a store or getting your mail.

 

I'm not doing anything special. COVID particles don't survive for very long on surfaces without a human host (roughly 3 days on plastic according to the NIH, which is longer than the standard shipping time to me), especially when exposed to the elements like heat and sunshine. I'm also fortunate enough to have gotten my first dose of the vaccine and I'll be getting my second dose next weekend. That said, I wear my mask and wash my hands if and when I need to sign for things or exchange packages with my postal carriers to minimize exposure and spread risk.

I agree with @FrozenSunset - you should absolutely do what makes you comfortable, but you're probably better off quarantining your doll somewhere in your house for a few days than trying to wipe them down due to the nature of faceups and body blushing.

 

Most of the things I order come from either Russia or China, and I live in Switzerland (and I pay for tracking, not express shipping time). That's at least 1-2 weeks of shipping.

As the virus does not survive long on surfaces, I am not worried about the items themselves, but I do discard the cardboard quickly. If there is a risk of contamination by surface, it would be through the local postal workers, not the international ones.

 

I advise my customers to leave the package for 24 hours or so just to be cautious.

 

Well, I stopped licking the packages the moment I received them...if that is what you mean. XD (Just kidding, I have yet to lick a package). Honestly, the time anything in the mail is taking to get to me kills off pretty much anything that requires a host to survive. If you mean from the fact the courier put it on my doorstep, well I honestly never thought about that. Most of the time our couriers are using gloves, but I don't think I could make myself wait to open up a dolly box even if I wanted to.

 

My family asks that we wipe down the outsides of any packages we bring in, so the shipper gets a nice little wipe—their rationale is that it’s been handled at the sorting facility and by the courier the day I get it—the doll itself, as the fastest arrival I’ve had was still 3 days, I’ve never worried about disinfecting.

 

I take none, other than trashing immediately the outer box! Anyway my stuff comes from abroad and takes weeks to be delivered, the virus won't live that long. But the outer box can be infected recently by the postman, so that's the only thing I get rid of immediately.

 

I work in a library and we’ve been ~quarantining~ returned items for 72 hours... and it’s a waste of everyone’s time. You’re not going to get Covid from a surface; you’re going to get it from the jerk wearing their mask under their nose or chin, you’re going to get it from another customer in a restaurant, you’re going to get it from the gymbunny who lies and says they’re vaccinated and that wearing a mask while exercising is just *so hard*.

Also, it’s racist to assume that your overseas package could be infected from Covid, but not mention anything about your domestic packages. Why is a box from East Asia more worrisome to you than something delivered by an Amazon worker (a company notorious for forcing their delivery drivers to pee in bottles because they won’t even give them necessary bathroom breaks)? @lyaam12 was right; if anything, it’ll be your local posties ~contaminating~ the package.

 

I don't think anyone here said they're afraid of the virus cause the package comes from abroad? Everyone, if you read, literally said they're more scared about their local postman than for the virus to miraculously survive from abroad (which everyone knows well it's impossible, since it dies fast on everything that's not a human being).

 

a lot of us aren't just doing that with international/East Asian packages. I get that this is a really charged moment in terms of racism and violence against East Asian people, but most of us have mentioned concern only about local couriers--I specifically mentioned the sorting facilities/couriers the day of arrival, and rurimas mentioned something similar. Erinreynolds, and lyaam12 (who you cited) mentioned this too, AshbelEro mentioned postal couriers as the concern too--this is what a lot of use are explicitly talking about.

Amazon hasn't come up because we're talking specifically about doll shipments, and amazon doesn't deal with those, and carries a minimal amount of wigs/eyes/accessories, so I don't see it mentioned a lot here. but rest assured, those get wiped at my house (and their contents too if it shipped the same day-- their warehouse conditions are generally unsafe for their workers, and likely end customers depending on the arrival time). I don't think any of this has shown any explicitly or implicitly racist concern, especially because a lot of the concerns are locally-focused, but I also read comments here in good faith. It's helpful to bring this up as something to think about, but I don't think this is anything the people talking here have thus far been complicit in.

 

As a person of East Asian descent, I didn't feel offended with any of the messages posted on this thread.

Regardless of the origin of the virus, it is potentially dangerous, so I think it's normal (and sensible!) to be cautious and to ask questions if there is uncertainty. Better be safe than sorry!

On another note, I never shopped with Amazon (I just noticed that all my international shopping is either doll or book related) and I am a bit shocked at what I read here...and I will do my utmost to avoid shopping with it after reading this!

On an extra-unrelated and disgusting note...I can somehow envision a male Amazon worker peeing in a bottle, even though that labour practice is very questionable. But how do you pee in a bottle as woman?

 

Yeah, pretty sure the OP was not thinking of the packages being from East Asia being a factor... the US is way more of a hotbed and we all know that.

 

This comment is a bit harsh. I'm actually of Southeast Asian descent and have also been directly hit by both COVID layoffs and anti-Asian hate. I personally don't feel that any posts, including my original one, were directed towards any individual or community or that any were inflammatory against anyone. Regarding domestic vs international packages, I think most people do buy new or used dolls from outside of their own country and many of the popular BJD companies are in Asia so a lot of people's comments here were based on that experience, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are being anti-Asian.

I do want to make it clear that I made this post because I am curious about any new safety precautions in light of COVID, especially as this hobby always has a lot of safety warnings (e.g., regulators while sealing, etc). I stayed away from making dolly purchases last year, but am contemplating both buying and selling so your comments have been super helpful. So far, everyone's comments have been awesome and it's great to hear what people have been doing!

 

I’m not doing anything differently. The shipping box goes in the trash unless it’s a good one I can reuse, then it goes in the closet until I need it, but that’s always been the case. I work retail and feel if I’m going to get the virus, it’s going to be from work, though I am fully vaccinated so things are slowly getting more ‘normal’ for me again.

 

I was wiping stuff down at the start, but now (especially being vaccinated and all), I just treat them like normal. The one time I might still wipe is if it is plastic and the dude literally dropped it off minutes before.

 

I don’t bother with wiping packages down but I do sanitize or wash my hands right after handling or opening the outer carton.

 

I think living in a bubble is not healthy. Do what you feel comfortable with. Everyone is different. Stay safe!