Wait Times Doll Family-A Wait Times

I ordered my DFA doll from ACBJD in took a little less then 4 months. I did get the doll blank. A faceup or full set would take a little longer, but not that much.

November does seem like long time. Hopefully you paid through PayPal check the date can see when the PayPal guarantee expires. You can always get PayPal to refund you, so that you do not lose your money, and order from a different dealer. I wouldn't want you to lose your chance to get a refund. PayPal will attempt contact with the Dealer to send the doll if the Dealer does not comply you get your refund.

If you ordered directly through your bank, you might be able to explain to your bank the predicament. I'm not sure how that would work.

 

A friend of mine ordered the DFA 75cm merman body, blank/unpainted, in grey resin with translucent purple tail. They ordered directly from DFA's Taobao store, and the doll shipped within 3 months.

DFA is known to be fast at producing dolls, at least when ordering through Taobao. The delay may be on your dealer's end.

 

It can be quite tricky to get companies based in China to ship to overseas dealers in a timely fashion. They prefer to do so in bulk, to save on shipping in the long run (so sometimes they'll store up people's orders until there are enough of them to lock in a deal on shipping overseas). Typically, for purchasing from bjd artists and companies in China, I prefer ordering through Christina / Clover Singing, as she's based in Beijing and regularly ships overseas. She offers shorter layaways.

If the doll company is large enough (Ringdoll, etc), and pricey, US based dealers are a good way to go, but if the company is smaller (DF-A, Telesthesia), it can be better to do a layaway with Clover Singing vs. waiting forever for the company to ship to the overseas dealer.

That said, polite but regular inquiries don't go awry. It's fine to ask (politely and kindly) every other month (after the typical waiting period for the company - in this case, it looks like +4 months from time of purchase) if the dealer can check in with the company about the status of your doll, and when they'll be able to ship.

 

Oh, wow, 2023?? It sounds like something has definitely gone awry on the dealer's end! I ordered my merman via ACBJD on 9/29/2024 (all white on both halves, blank) and he arrived on 01/12/2025. Quick turnaround time compared to my others.

 

Not the same company but same kind of situation. I’m in the UK and we don’t have many dealers to choose from. I ordered a fullset Dream Valley Gloria from a local dealer in May 2021 and received her June 2022. Dealer had to wait a long time to get my doll and there was one point where she sent me a picture of a blank saying ready to ship which had me panicked. During that time I ordered a Dream Valley Lami fullset through Alice and got her in 6 months which was what I was expecting.

Because of the longer wait times for small dealers, I tend to now stick with just Alice collections, they get enough business that they can get their wait times on the lower end. I would love to support local dealers but the hobby doesn’t seem to be that big anymore.

Fingers crossed things work out and it won’t be too much longer! It’s so scary waiting such a long time for a dolly.

 

It's actually the dealers who store up customer's orders to save on shipping, not doll companies - Chinese doll companies are happy to ship just one doll out, since the dealer pays postage on it, not the doll manufacturer in China.

Typically dealers will be given a 30% discount by the doll company, on the list price of a doll, so if a dealer has just one doll to order from that company that month, the postage and customs on it will completely wipe out any profit they can make.

Smaller doll dealers will therefore be reluctant to place an order until they've got at least 3 orders for that same doll company, so they can make a profit. Unscrupulous dealers will prevaricate endlessly, and if they cease trading, you lose your money.