Shopping San Francisco / Bay Area resources?

There had been a mini BJD con that I went to (too shy to socialize much) years ago in Orinda... I forget the name of it. I'm not sure if it's still going or if it's been moved/on hiatus.

Not sure how your transportation is/where exactly in the Bay Area you are, but Sac has some meetups plus cons too. As for cons, the major ones seem to be Fanime and SacAnime. But here's a whole list.

I believe JunkySpot is still based in the Bay Area, online only though. Before they moved they were in South SF, which is where I have some family so we often visit. Would have been neat if it was a physical store. XD

 

Speaking as an SF Peninsula resident, though one who hasn't gone to a meetup in a bit, I can say that the conventions usually have at least one day where people get together for doll meetups. For this particular area, Clockwork Alchemy (Steampunk themed) and Fanime (anime themed, of course) are the next two conventions really close to here, depending on your transportation capabilities.

I can't speak for meetups as much, as I only started re-dabbling back into the hobby recently, but I'm keeping my ear to the ground in case anyone organizes something. If it comes to it, I am typically not against a random "hey, let's drag our dolls over here for coffee and talk" type stuff, where there's only a few people and we just do the like-minded chat thing. Those are often easier to plan than a full-up gathering, and can be a little bit less intimidating for people like myself who run in default hermit-mode.

 

There's a store called dollhouses, trains and more in SF. I would not recommend buying from them unless you inspect the things in person though. They sent me a kitchen set that was super old, wonky doors and oven screen that came off the moment I took it out.

 

@wli2012 Do you mean the one in Novato? I can't vouch for what they ship but OMG that store is definitely worth visiting in person! But then again I like miniatures, and Hubby introduced himself to the R/C hobby. Most of what I saw seemed to be more geared towards the traditional 1:12 or 1:24 miniature scale, sadly. Then again it has been over a year since we visited...

 

Yes I was talking about that one. I was really disappointed with the quality of the kitchen set I bought ): I can’t really say that the damages were caused by shipping since even the plastic part of the box that the kitchen set was in was undamaged. But I can see from the site that have many nice items. It is more geared towards 1:12 and 1:24 but they have 1” - 1/4”. They also have gardening stuff and wallpapers, etc.

 

There’s a doll shop up in Petaluma called The Doll Mercantile- I haven’t gotten over to it yet because they’re closed on my days off though. Looks to be very focused on antique type dolls from the pictures I’ve seen, but they’re supposed to carry more stuff than just that. I’m hoping they’ll have an assortment of doll clothes and other accessories at the very least.

 

OMG. I realized that there's one other doll vendor I just realized was semi-localish: Monique Trading....they're in Hayward, but I don't know if they have a physical storefront or not. My assumption is that they don't, but maybe someone knows something that I don't.

I go to them for wigs, typically, especially their synthetic mohair. I ordered Thursday and it got here today, which made my head spin!

 

I’m heading to SF in a week and am curious about this as well. I’m hoping some of the hobby stores in Japantown might have a few things.