Soom Idealian 75cm Discussion Part 10

Even if international aren't their biggest customer based, most business would raise prices to compensate for exchange rates and/or openly start charging fees for certain payments (like Superbuy, Bhiner, etc) rather than cut off such a popular payment method. I'm more inclined to think its the prepaid rule or just the horrendous service Paypal has in general for sellers. I don't know how much Soom dealt with Paypal chargebacks, disputes or refunds but too many and Paypal can start freezing funds for future transactions and holding them days. They are a bigger doll company but still a small business overall, holding thousands of dollars for weeks will definitely put a strain on them.

Too many and they can also lose seller protection. That's also why those shopping services don't refund directly to your Paypal account but your wallet on their site because they can get their account flagged for refunds (crazy because refunds doesn't necessarily mean the company did something wrong but Paypal doesnt care). You then transferring money back to your account is considered a separate transaction.

Paypal is great protection for buyers and convenient as hell for us but screws sellers over a lot, especially small businesses. It definitely sucks for us, but I can't say I blame them at all. :/

 

Sooms biggest customer base is definitely international. It's not the West - but China. And seeing as China does not use PayPal, it likely was a decision meaning it wouldn't affect their largest customer base.

PayPal is a nightmare and a half for sellers as RebelViva mentioned above, and them heavily favouring buyers has also probably caused loss of money before for them in the past as well.

Although PayPal is convenient for most of us in the West, it's not the same across the world, and I wouldn't be opposed to new methods of payment appearing either that are more fair for both the business and the buyer in the future.

 

I just heard about this today and I guess Soom will not be getting my dollars. I'm very glad that I also got my Grail before this went into effect.

Also glad that I did not have any layaway pending with them, because with such short notice, people are screwed who relied on making their payments thru paypal.

 

What do you mean? Is there no way for usa customers to use layaway now or pay for a doll?

 

Some people can't use credit cards or don't want to jump through a bazillion hoops to set up a new payment method

It wasn't said anywhere but I would assume that Soom will allow in-progress layaways that were started with Paypal to continue using Paypal.

 

I guess I'll have to get any future Soom dollies second hand now.

 

here is the link to their notice. I don't use any of the other options mentioned there.

Notice of discontinuation for PayPal and bank transfer payment service - IDEALIAN

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Thank you for loving our doll.

We would like to inform that our payment service for PayPal and bank transfer will be discontinued provisionally on June 13th as follows.

Date : From 9:00 am on June 13, 2023(Korean time)
Details : Discontinuation of support for PayPal and bank transfer payments

If you send the money directly to our existing PayPal or WeChat account, payment confirmation is not possible, so please use other payment services such as Alipay, UnionPay, WeChat Pay, or Credit card.
We ask for your understanding and cooperation. Thank you.

SOOM --------------

and as @overlordu mentioned. Some people do not want to jump over hoops to join other payments or want their CC info all over the place where sites can be hacked.

 

This is a bit of a strange question, but does anyone have both the ID75 body and the Supergem (preferably the old sculpt) and could share photos of the feet from the bottom side by side? When I type that out, it feels even weirder, but I need to compare foot sculpts as I found a pattern for some Supergem shoes that I want to reference and modify for ID75, and outside of the obvious ID75 being a little more than a cm longer, I'm curious what the difference in proportions otherwise is. I struggled finding many photos, so whatever helps!

 

As far as I know ID72 and ID75 feet are the same, so- here's a quick picture of the newer (but not the newest) Supergem body and ID72 feet:

 

Fortunately there are still some work arounds!

A lot of credit cards are now offering "virtual cards" so you can assign specific stores a card and only that store can use that card. That way if someone did get hack the site and get your credit card info it wouldn't work anywhere else. If you are having troubles using cards on foreign sites I would try this method if available. It's actually the only way my cap one card will allow me to purchase from the Volks JP site, anything else gets flagged and denied lol.

Also, if you already have cash app or venmo account they have debit cards and you can just load on the card the exact amount you want to spend. PayPal also has a debit card you can get that is associated with your PayPal balance that you could use as well (so a way to still use paypal if you have funds available in your balance). Each of those can send you a physical card you can use anywhere. That would also be a good way to also pay and not have it be attached to an account that has a lot of money/credit available so if it is leaked the risk is a lot lower.

Additionally apps like Affirm work like credit cards for individual purchases. They generate only the purchase amount and a unique card number per purchase. If another charge tried to go through it would be denied. I used Affirm on Soom's site before directly through credit card payments and it worked. (I like to use Affirm over my actual credit cards at times to keep utilization down and my score up as they don't report to bureaus and sometimes give better APRs then my actual cards LOL).

Hopefully this info is helpful to those still looking for some extra protection now that PayPal isn't an option (though some of these might be limited by country).

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@overlordu Urgh no unfortunately I paid my Ender layaway today and there was no option for Paypal when I previously was using it. It is completely removed from the site. If it is in fact an issue with their account and not fees I don't think they would even be able to make an exception for layaways.

 

Thank you so much! Soom will open Hyperon very soon. I'll try with the methods you mentioned.

 

Thank you so much!!

 

@RebelViva Thank you for that very informative response.

 

When hyperon come out? How do you know?

 

@Forever We Are Young they just posted it!

Holy hell a bronze Hyperion and that artist faceup is insane with the skull and the hands? The eyes are amazing too. R.dean been out doing herself lately. Absolutely gorg, if I wasn't saving for a big trip I would be SOOO tempted. They really might have gotten me.

 

Oh my gosh I am obsessed with this style. It's giving me vibes of one of my all-time favorite book series too (not that that matters, lolol). I am currently debating about getting him. The skull set is everything! Absolutely love R. Dean's faceup work too!

Just wish I could use PayPal >..<

 

I was hesitated with their little gem Rang. And happened to see they posted Hyperon on the ID's website. Very surprise!

 

So I just bought a normal skin Hyperon. I tried to open virtual cards but didn't success; maybe because I am currently in China and using a VPN to access these websites. I eventually used my BOA credit card and I hope it's all gonna be okay. I missed him in 2021 and I don't want to miss him again.

 

I sadly missed it because I was busy at that time. Oh well there is always next time. He looks amazing though. The dark tan looks really nice. It seems the not limited one is sold out too. That's too bad.

 

Which can't be right - don't they have the non-limited always open for two weeks? Maybe they accidentally set a specific 'amount' on him like on the limited one.

 

It's possible that Soom may release a few more units with extended production time, but it is absolutely possible that it is sold out.

The popularity of ID75s in China grows more and more and the release of popular dolls is an endeavour which can turn a profit for resellers over there for anyone who missed out at initial release.

When Hugh was released, he sold over 1000 units on the first day, and Soom released more with an extended production time due to this. The same can also be observed with Serin and Rico on their Little Gem line, who sold all 5000 units before the first day ended. Again, Soom released about another 1000 or so of these dolls with increased production time, which once again sold out. Because they can't produce more without it having serious delays on all their productions.

Popular dolls in China can be sold immediately for a profit on the 2nd hand market as soon as order period ends, basically preying on those who did not have the money capital at the time to place an order, and those who decided they didn't want it at first, but changed their minds later. It has become a serious problem these days, and many players buy impulsively with a lot of FOMO, which is further fuelled knowing that if they change their mind, they can sell it for a higher price later.

Edit to add that it sold out once today already earlier and they 'restocked' it, and it's sold out once again now. I assume any additional units from here on, if sold, will be sold with an increased production time.

Edit 2: Soom has officially added 'The sale has been ended due to large number of orders' on Hyperon's page.

 

Yeah I thought it was weird the non-limited was listed as sold out. That seemed odd. I hope it get resolved if it not really sold out, but I'm not sure I don't buy id75 that frequently.

 

Oh wow I can't believe he sold out so quickly on all fronts--glad I saw him when I did!! They dropped him so suddenly and I just happened to see it as I was getting ready for bed lol.

I did end up grabbing his artist version, so super excited!

 

Care to cite your sources? Has Soom made this information public somewhere?

 

You can 'reverse' engineer how many they put up by putting them into your shopping basket, sometimes... and yeah, seems Hyperon actually did sold out super fast O.o

 

I don't think that's an accurate way to determine how many were made/ordered. I have an online shop and I can put whatever quantity I want, and mark it as sold out at any point. If I only have 20 units of something in stock, that's what I would put and I don't have to worry about overselling. However if it was a preorder I might put something ridiculous like 500, but if I feel overwhelmed after getting 50 orders I can mark it as sold out in order to stop getting orders. Using that "reverse" shopping cart method would lead someone to think I sold 500??

That method would work for something specifically marked as limited quantity or in stock. But if it was time-limited or an unlimited preorder, Soom can put whatever number they want, change it any time, and mark it as sold out any time.

 

I've noticed this! I see order transfers here every once in a while but I noticed they are super popular on xianyu not just for Soom either but in general. Depending how many end up popping up though sometimes prices aren't too much higher, if at all, then the original price. I've bought from a few myself for different clothes or heads I missed and the price difference wasn't much but never did one for Soom so likely a steeper increase there. There's always rare Soom dolls on there and the markup is hefty (they also love to bundle I noticed lol).

But if I tend to like waiting until the doll comes out to buy on there cause there are some amazing faceups people get from local Chinese artists then resell, especially if I don't have a super particular faceup in mind for my character. I've gotten some gorgeous heads with faceups from there. I paid almost $500 for my V.Amor head on there but he came from Inklinginging with their faceup so worth it to me, he's so gorg.

Thats interesting to find out about Hugh though cause he didn't seem to be that popular in the west had no idea he was such a big hit in China!

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@fate_xo You got the artist version? Ah! Super excited for you congrats! I am glad someone from the west managed to get him so we can see more pics.

I was also up late too when he came out but I forced myself to be good so I will live vicariously through you haha.

 

These numbers came from the Chinese agents who have direct contacts with soom and have been organising group orders with them for years now. Although I cannot confirm it with certainty, I don't doubt the information as they seem to always know the upcoming releases slightly before it happens and have info beforehand shared to their chat groups usually. They would also be able to measure the volume ordered through themselves as well, even if they're not numbers coming directly from Soom.

Serin and Rico have always busted sales in China, and there's many well know cases where players bought up to 5 in the previous releases only to sell them all later to desperate buyers at a higher price. If you play the market, Soom is profitable in China, and if you win a limited edition doll, it can sell for up to 60,000RMB (such as LE10 scar garion). The recent brown tan voids are going for 50,000RMB.

@RebelViva Hugh busted sales because everyone begged for years and years for a release of Hyun in a human skintone, and Soom did not deliver that with the latest Hyun release. Hyun is worth more than grey Hwain in the 2nd hand Chinese market these days. His prices range from 12,000rmb to 16,000rmb, and he will sell on the lower end of that, too. Because Hugh looks similar to Hyun, many people jumped on to it and they had spare cash to blow after being disappointed with the fantasy only Hyun release.

While it may be beneficial for us overseas to buy dolls with makeup already applied from Chinese artists, it's a hard market for local Chinese players who don't find that makeup markup worth it since they're domestic to the artists.

 

@RebelViva I was really struggling LOL. I was going back and forth, but I think I have held back pretty well and a tan artist ver. of Hyperon is a grail for me!! Soom almost got me a few times this year though some of the releases have been so to my liking haha. Anyways I am glad I managed to grab him, I wonder if he was up for a bit longer (for an artist ver.) since the release was so sudden. I didn't even know they had dropped the artist ver. until I checked the site haha.

I'll definitely try and post some decent pics when I get him!!

 

Everything Setsura is saying is correct. From my personal experience and from talking to others, overseas friends, Soom and stuff, and my experience with the Chinese side of the market - that's exactly what's going on.

I think for where I'm at (personally) mentally with this is I just wish they would say something IS technically quantity limited. Or make is harder for people to organize G.O. or multiple shipments to same addresses, etc. Because this problem is heart breaking and thinking of it becoming the norm really sucks. Especially with ID who don't have a release calendar or give previews, it's hard for me to know right then and there if I want to buy something, as I often need to chill the hype and come to my senses and decide a bit later. I refuse to drop 2k without thinking.

Unless it's Garion.

Please give me a non CW Garion lmao

 

Yes! I cannot wait until they offer a Dokkebi Garion (romantic or not) in any color other than Peony White.

 

Slowly raised hand from the back of the room, I would buy a peony white Dokkebi Garion. Please?

 

I don't think they have ever had this problem for non-event items before though have they? For Peony White Garion they did put up a warning saying they might sell out, but I believe Garion did not sell out before the limited purchase period of like a day was over. But they released Hyperion, Ender, River (51cm), Hugh, Hyun and Void all back to back all which are popular sculpts (not sure about the Aragon demand), so they have likely had more strain then usual on production.

Personally I feel the 2023 releases have been all pretty quality for the most part with great faceups, themes, etc. Imagine they are able to be more flexible not releasing a schedule as they can then move around certain releases that aren't ready yet and allocate resources better. I do wish they would give us more warning though, seeing as it is monthly releases they couldn't give us too much and remain flexible but a 4-7 days would be nice. I believe we usually get 1-2 days lol.

I bought the white Dokkebi Garion but I would buy a fantasy color in a heartbeat. I'm still a bit sour grapes they released Hyun in fantasy colors when people wanted general/white and Garion in white when people wanted fantasy, they definitely dropped the ball there. But then we also might have experienced the sell out problem earlier.

For my wallets sake though I hope they don't release anything that tempts me too badly. Right after Garion was paid off Ender preorder started and I paid off Ender this month so I'm scared for July LOL.

 

Ha, but that was the color of their last two releases! And it was the only color. I just want a little variety haha.

 

ID51s are a crapshoot which no one likes to buy due to being an odd scale and Void/Aragon are not popular sculpts in China. What busted production is mainly Hugh, all the little gems, and the brown tan being a special colour along with the interesting skull concept of the latest Hyperon.

Unfortunately, the CEO of soom is a stubborn old man who from many various accounts (from people who have worked there/are close to those who do) does whatever he feels like, saying his company is great when a sculpt sells well and blaming the directors when it doesn't sell as well. He's also said to have no regard towards customer wants and releases whatever he feels like knowing he has the grip on the market. As well, he's been known to say that idealian is not his favourite dolls of his brand.

When Chinese customers begged for Hyun in a non fantasy colour, the response was that they release it 'based on themes' so the answer was a hard no to add a normal skin colour despite how many people begged. They dont really care that much about pandering to what we want over releasing what they feel like. Currently, the latest Hyperon in normal skin is being scalped on the Chinese market for an average of 8000RMB, straight after release.

Them not telling us what the releases are is part of their shitty FOMO marketing plan, and it pretty much further fuels the impulse buying on release, so they won't change it unfortunately. A lot of customers these days are scared if they don't buy it first day in release they'll miss out, so it's hurting everyone all around now, sadly. They seem to have a boner for Peony White this year, and there's been a lot of backlash over it, not that soom really seems to care.

 

Makes sense, especially seeing as they haven't ever updated the Idealian body type. For as expensive as they are we shouldn't have to be wiring and hotgluing. Also I saw 4 box openings of Garion and they were strung so tight when opening the box all the torsos were popped off to the left, including mine. Don't get me started on the hands. Doesn't seem like we will ever get those quality of life changes if the owner is an old coot lol.

LOL you are right though the FOMO plan they have now is shitty. That said, I'm not sure if buying something just to buy it for clout is bigger in China but I am assuming the non scalpers want certain sculpts in particular (given the demands you've told us about) and not just to have the newest Soom release. If thats not the case though then Soom's current strategy would work better for them simply for the fact its less work and people are buying everything popular anyway.

Although I still do think they would see an increase of sales overtime announcing for the less popular dolls.I've heard a lot of "passing in case xxx releases", if customers knew the popular doll wasn't releasing in the next 2-3 months they would be more likely to budget another doll in while they wait for their "grail". It wouldn't really effect Chinese market aftersales either as they would still be capitalizing on people who couldn't afford the release popular or non popular regardless given its time limited. Plus Soom usually only releases a sculpt once a year, if that, so the FOMO aspect would still be there even if you knew it was coming as it wouldn't be returning for a year or so.

But from everything you told us looks like as long as they can get money through the door they don't care about anything else.

 

Are there any idealian bjd groups on facebook?

 

The ID75 is, technically, an update - although a very, very, very late one (single jointed knees from 2010 to 2016 for +70cm dolls, like... guys, please). The ID75 does pose better in some regards, and I didn't have to wire or suede mine to be honest. The ID72 though needed some work to be... well, poseable.

Thanks for the insight @Setsura - that pretty much explains the whole soom-only thing with the constant rereleases. It makes money? (Another) Rerelease in a year! It doesn't? Rerelease in a few years to see if people still don't want it.

I'm keeping tabs on Sooms releases for a few years now in a handy spreadsheet, where its very, very obvious that Hyperon is the most rereleased doll in Sooms history ever (18 rereleases at the moment, followed by Gluino [15] and a tie between Ender and Shale/Adamelli [both 13]).
Which makes me wonder why they were so seemingly unprepared for the recent Hyperon release? It's not rocket science to allow only 2 dolls per person and do a background check on addresses (to avoid people using multiple accounts to get more dolls) - there are tools for that. But well - in the end, money wins.

 

Hyperon has long been plagued with problems prevalent in the Chinese community but not in other doll communities nearly as much. This has lead to a decrease in his popularity among older players (but not newer players who do not want to pay the market premium for him and those who do not care as much). As far as what these 'problems' are, players in China are very very very sensitive to the shrinkage, resin changes and mould differences of rereleases. Let me explain the situation a little -

Since the mould is fresh and new for new dolls and dolls that haven't been cast as much, it stays very true to the original image of the doll. This is considered the 'true' image of the doll and the closest to the original image of him that everyone in China wants. Because Hyperon has been cast over and over again (being arguably one of, if not the most, popular ID sculpt), he has experienced many minor changes in his look. To mention a few top differences that are consistently mentioned in China, the resin on the old sculpts, while not as high quality, was thicker and more durable. The head of Hyperon has shrunk more and more in subsequent releases. In the latest FCE release of him, his nose came out wonky and his eyes and lips look different. There is minor increasing loss of detail overall in his face. It's simply exactly what it is - the original mould is deteriorating over time, and SOOM hasn't taken any measures to fix it.

As a waterfall effect, this has lead to the price of many early releases being more expensive and coveted than new dolls in the Chinese second hand market. Old heads with the jagged 'sawtooth' design tend to have thicker resin - this is worth more. Dolls prone to mould changes and shrinkage over time such as Hyperon, Amor, Narmer, Zak are also worth more in their older versions.

I think if it wasn't for the brown tan skin colour which is a rare release for SOOM and the new skull head design, the latest Hyperon wouldn't have been nearly as popular with the chinese market due to the aforementioned reasons. People were already very upset over their FCE OE Hyperons having wonky noses. Another reason is that brown tan Scar Hyperon did very well, and those who missed him and didn't want to wait longer bit the bullet and bought a brown tan OE Hyperon instead.

With regards to who is popular, I can't speak for the west because I don't see that many idealians here, but the leading sculpts in China are without a doubt Hyperon, Hyun, Hwain (for those who can snag one), Narmer and Garion. Zak and River are probably somewhere pretty high up the list, too. As for the unpopular ones, aside from those that barely ever get released, Gluino and Void are probably quite low down.

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Regarding the update of the ID75 body, it's actually not the worst to be honest. With a little work it's fine, and it's not actually that much worse than a lot from many other companies. A lot of mistakes or difficulties come from handling it, which can be overcome if you get a feel for it and learn how to balance him properly. An ID75 is capable of carrying another ID75 on its shoulders with 0 wire, 0 sueding if you just string it correctly and centre the balance correctly.

I do not know how much truth is in the following statement, but I have heard that the ID75 will never be updated due to the original sculptors not working with it anymore. The rumour is that the original sculptors main expertise was not large male dolls, so it is not an area that they wanted to rework on again. However, you can take this with a grain of salt.

 

@meanae Oh yeah I was only referring to the ID75 body only and getting an update for that specifically. With all the new bodies coming out so much more functional and even different versions (more slim/muscles) it's just a shame ID75 is being left in the dust design wise. Would love even to see some variations from them.

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But Idk my ID75 bodies are more recent since 2022 so ymmv but mine cannot stand unassisted right out of the box. The are by far the worse posers/standers I own compared to LUTS, Volks, LoongSoul (68 & 73), TD, TheVoice, Vings and DFH 68cm+ bodies I have owned. They are functional after some adjusting but for the price point I still stand by it being insane we have to adjust at all. My Luts SSDF and my TD 74cm body stood on their own from me plopping them down right out of the box with 0 adjustments. My big top heavy The Voice dolls can lean back in heeled shoes with little to no adjustments other than getting them in the pose.

I have 3 teenies from back in the day around 2008-10 and got another one last year and they've always were stable and functional for the size but they are smaller so easier to design I imagine.

I'm not holding my breath at all for an updated body or any body variations but it would be a nice surprise if they did.

Not having too much faith in how my Ender will come tbh.

 

Honestly, poseability just isn't one of Soom's strengths and it never has been. Of the bodies that have been updated, the new version is usually an improvement but it's still bad compared to other companies like Luts. Resin and casting quality is also not one of Soom's strengths. I've always thought it was hilarious that they got as popular as they have, because of all the dolls I've owned, Soom dolls are some of the worst quality TBH sometimes Soom's own dolls look like recasts lmao. And it's not even like this has gone downhill- I ordered my first Soom doll in 2010 and the quality was bad.

Well, I don't wanna just dump on Soom. Most companies have their pros and cons. Soom's sculpting is beautiful and their concepts and designs are lovely! They've had unique ideas that set lasting trends in this hobby. It was basically luck, but I'm happy for them that ID75s are so successful. And if people are snapping them up like crazy, there's no reason why Soom would change their ways, because their strategies are clearly working. If fans want Soom to do better, they have to complain AND stop buying.

 

Most people don't like the ID75 body (they often refer to it as 'paralysed' lmfao) including the Chinese buyers snapping them up, but there's no way to get a head without also lugging the body along with it. The bodies are basically worthless in Asia with prices pretty much averaging at $330USD in China down to less than $200USD in Korea. But Soom would rather eat shit than sell the head alone. The only part of Soom's dolls worth anything is the head really, aside from very old models who had designs also on the body (which contrarily are worth a shitton these days).

I dont have a problem with the ID75 body, it's still my favourite body to date and I will die on this rock, but I also restring and wire every single one of them as soon as it comes home. They do well after the hazing process though and I've become very accustomed to handling them so I don't see it as a problem personally. Rather it's become the opposite for me these days where a body doesn't act like an ID75 and it annoys me (lol).

But @overlordu is right, Soom has never really cared much for posing, and the majority of their success has always come from their designs and styles rather than the former. It's undeniable that they have a very specific and recognisable style you pretty much can't find from other companies, and they've basically pioneered their way through everything on this alone. And you gotta hand it to them for that.

 

Thats super interesting to know @Setsura I remember that there was a big debate in the western community when Dia (or Sard) were released again and the sculpt looked... wonky. The cheecks were slimmer and the eyes looked a tad different.
heard about mold deteriorating over time, but I thought that Soom, the ultimate "we rerelease everything"-company, would take proper care of their molds...

@overlordu - Soom doesn't even do the casts themself :/ I remember stumbling over a chinese casting company on alibaba (that I'm 90% sure off doesn't do recasts, because everything they offered in their shop were casting services for big companies) which had pictures of piles of Phonolus heads in a bucket, lol.

(Now I'm a bit mad at myself that I sold the first release Dhampir Hyperon head last year... )

 

May I ask what wire you use for wiring your Idealians? I've been thinking about wiring my idealians since I usually struggle with posing them ^^;

 

You can just use coated aluminium plant wire. Theoretically you can make it as thick as the channels can take, but it's easier to install inside if it's thinner of course.

 

@Setsura does the resin consistency (or lack their of lol) also play a role in the price being so low? Or is it strictly posing? I imagine it would since it’s even if you didn’t mind the bodies it would be hard to resin match between batches when the color is off lol. Especially when they can easily send in headcaps to other companies for resin matching.

But now makes sense why the price for heads and bodies are flipped on their second hand market. $600+ for a head makes a lot more sense now if they are also compensating for the body being worth so little lol.

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I had been waiting for Soom do an another D Hyperion re-release but since Mori 9 released Lyra that is scratching that itch for me. I would still love a rerelease to get the outfit!

The new red Garion release looks lovely! I’m really liking the outfit too but I’m a bit surprised it’s over $400 more expensive then the Violet Garion fullset and the makeup and the clothes looked a lot more detailed for that release

 

Not really, it's just because there are other body options that are cheaper or ones that people prefer more, and there's an overabundance of bodies in comparison to the demand for the head. The head is worth about 2/3 or more the cost of the entire doll, the body is just like some nonsense you have to buy to also get the head. There's also a lot of people who only keep like 1-2 bodies and have like 20 different heads they just swap. It may be 'cheap' and considered 'paralysed', but because it's easy to find clothes for and super abundant, and being the most 'standard' 75 body you can buy, it's still a very popular choice. A lot of people find it too hard to sell as well so they often just keep it. If anyone's selling clothes and there's only one size, it's always going to be ID75.

With regards to matching, DFA jointed hands are extremely popular as matches for SOOM ID75s, people will often send in a recent batch and you can join group orders to get hands that match the specifc recent doll. As far as other kinds of matching go, the standard is usually SOOM 20 NS (yellow toned) and SOOM 21 Tawny (red toned) which you will find as the regular soom match for all big companies such as DFH, DFA, DikaDoll, 2D Doll, TD etc. 2020 NS and 2021 Tawny are considered the 'standard' soom colours, although bigger matching companies like DFH you can ask for more specific releases such as the latest Tawny Narmer or the latest bronze river etc. These days, the trends seem to be Voks/Soom for NS, Switch/Volks for WS and Soom 21 Tawny for tan options when you buy from independent artists selling heads only.

The new Red Garion looks gorgeous, but I'm disappointed to see they went back to the first come first serve shit again. It's just going to be a bloodbath of servers going down cause their site can't handle shit and sold out before you can even refresh the page lmfao. And the price tag seems really high, to be honest. As you said @RebelViva, the costume this round is not nearly as elaborate, and while the makeup is also nice, it's also not as elaborate as other LEs have been either. It feels like they're purposely capitalising on the popularity of red garion lol. I can stomach the LEs in the 2XXX price range, but when I see the 3XXX, you gotta really bring it home with SOMETHING to make me not feel crazy lmfao.

 

Wow, I'm gonna be in the market for an ID75 body soon, I wonder if I should figure out how to buy from somebody in China??? Sounds like they're dying to get rid of them!

 

Thank you!

 

@Setsura Thank you again for the info!! That was especially insightful for matching artist heads cause they will say Soom match but I havent seen anyone say what year yet until Mori9 recently lol.

Lol yeah I almost feel like the Hyperion fullset was worth more than the Red Garion just out of value of the detailed faceup, eyes and skull head. Definitely feels like they are capitalizing on its popularity.

@overlordu if you have a taobao account you can make a xianyu acct and buy through superbuy but I know most have trouble keeping them open. However I know Christina from New Clover will search for you on there if you dont have an account of your own. Her service fee for xianyu/taobao is pretty hefty though at around 30%. Bhiner will also do searches for you too for like a 15% fee but you have to bank transfer them money for xianyu purchases, and that was a hassle for me not really worth it, although they are faster to respond/process than Christina.

 

@RebelViva When companies refer to SOOM NS or SOOM Tawny, you can pretty much always assume that the NS is on the yellow toned side and the Tawny is on the red toned side. I've yet to find it to be otherwise so far. There are older batches of tawny which are still red in comparison to other companies dolls (SOOM has always erred on the redder side) but VERY yellow compared to newer tawny. These older tawnies will absolutely not match artist head tawnies or new tawny at all. New tawny is almost comparable to bronze in some cases, and new bronze gets colloquially called a 'sausage' for being extra red lmfao.

@overlordu The base price might be good, but remember you also need to factor in any proxy costs and the intl shipping cost as well. Keep in mind most people in China will NOT unstring the body or be willing to accomodate for this request. So you will need to pay the cost of the box and the full strung body in a lot of cases, which may end up being better to just buy it locally for yourself if you're in the US.

As a general rule of thumb, I also don't recommend buying off XianYu if you don't know what you're doing and don't recognise the terms or cultural sales rules there. There's a lot of recasts and conditions to a lot of sales, and if you don't understand what you're doing it's easy to offend someone or pick a listing which you may not realise may be a bunch of terms. It's a 2nd hand market, so like all second hand market purchases, you're liable to losing out completely if the other party is a scammer. Please remember to stay educated and purchase with discretion.

 

Armature Wire (I think around 1/8-Inch?) is also pretty nice for wiring Idealians!

I really have liked buying off Xianyu, but it is a secondhand market, so make sure you're getting pictures and CoA-- do the same due diligence you do in english speaking markets. I found that both Superbuy and Spreenow will communicate questions and get pictures before buying-- and they're less likely to offend, since they speak the language and know the culture! They also have caught conditions I didn't realize when using google translate (also don't forget the app can take pictures and translate from pictures! If there's anything written on the pictures, this is such a lifesaver).

But other than that, I've LOVED using Xianyu. They have a much bigger secondhand market, with the popularity of ID75, and that extends to outfits, sculpts, accessories, everything. Additionally, it seems like so many sculpts come with such pretty faceups. There's definitely a lot of cool upsides to Xianyu.

 

Yeah I’ve only had positive experiences from Xianyu too. I’ve even done transfer orders and custom wig orders. 1+ for screenshots and the use Google translate as well! It comes in clutch! I would never chat anyone directly. If I have a question I will just get my agent to ask/clarify.

I know Superbuy has an entire custom packing process to ship international so if you wanted them to trash the doll box and repack it unstrung or folded they would do that for you. I've never done it but I would just be VERY specific on what exactly you want them to do and how you would want it to be packed, as they primarily don’t deal with dolls so they wouldn’t know if you expected every piece to be individually bubble wrapped, etc, etc. Side note, even purchasing I would be VERY specific in your request you understand what you are getting. When I ordered LLT gloved hands from Xianyu my agent was like "Is this what you wanted?" once the item arrived LOL. I am sure it was odd to them just to see expensive doll hands being delivered.

I’ve gotten full dolls shipped before and it’s really not more expensive than it would be to get a new doll from a company shipped. They actually give you a ton more options when it comes to shipping companies so it could be cheaper if you didn’t mind waiting a bit longer with ChinaPost or Superbuy saver, etc.

I'm curious what are the sales conditions people find? I haven’t encountered any sales conditions on Xianyu other than people bundling in other items when selling a popular item or wanting to trade instead of straight out selling. Or sometimes a listing will be more of an advertisement for a sale that will take place on Taobao or Weidian.

Honestly I don’t even ask for pictures. You can see how many transactions people have had and their rating and see what else they have listed/sold. Xianyu is tied to social credit so you are less likely to get scammers if people have good reviews/history as it just wouldn’t be worth it to them to tank their credit/reputation suddenly. I've made a lot of purchases and everything I’ve gotten has been legit and came with COA. But there are still scams or recasts to watch out for.

Also +1 for faceups, I see the most gorg work on there, not a sharpie faceup in sight lol.

 

Of course there are many good experiences, I personally buy there and talk to sellers frequently. However, the reason I advise discretion is due to various incidents which have caused even the Chinese to suspect their own market in some cases, and seller rating is not always a direct reflection that a seller is good. I advise caution because I don't want anyone to go diving in (because it does look amazing from the variety) unaware of consequences.

There's a famous scam incident on XianYu that pretty much all Chinese ID75 players know of. As @RebelViva has mentioned before, transfer orders are common. What this is is basically when someone buys a doll, they might for example buy an ID75 with both heads, and then transfer the 2nd head to someone else at a cost slightly higher than RRP. This benefits both players in that the 2nd person gets only a head they want without the burden of the entire body (as I explained earlier why they don't want it) at a slightly increased price and the other person cuts a slightly better deal for taking the body. Basically what happened was back in the day when IDs only came with 1 certificate for the entire thing, a famous and well known player with a good reputation decided to take advantage of this. It was common that during this kind of transfer order that the person taking the whole doll would get the real certificate, and the person cutting the deal for the head only took a photocopy of the certificate. This famous player decided that because their reputation was good, they wouldn't be suspected of a fraudulent transaction. Which they weren't at first. They swapped the heads of those who bought only the head part of the order with recasts and sent it with the photocopy certificate. This happened for quite a while until eventually they were found out, and so they were blasted off the face of earth and basically witch hunted by players (for obvious reasons). Due to this, even nowadays, some players refuse to buy ID75s from their own market out of this fear. The tl;dr is, mostly you are safe, but don't even think about buying anything without a real certificate there (and even then there have been cases where a real certificate was given but the doll was swapped with a recast). As @overlordu mentioned earlier, sometimes the quality of SOOMs genuine sculpts are so friggin bad that it looks like a recast. And being some of the most recasted dolls, even the Chinese admit difficultly sometimes in telling real and fakes apart. So I advise caution for this reason.

Recently, my close korean friend initiated a trade for an LE5 doll. She had an LE5 Lim which she wanted to trade for the LE5 purple Zak. One of my Chinese friends wanted this doll and decided to pay the Scalpers price for an LE5 Zak on XianYu, which is 35,000RMB. After completing the transaction with this player, who has an immense amount of feedback and sales, she took over 1 month to send the doll, and after sending the doll, she only then advised my Chinese friend that the jointed hands were 'missing' and she wouldn't take responsibility for it as the Zak she bought was 'new in box and unopened' (therefore it's not her fault). She also overcharged my friend 4x for the delivery. After my friend received the Zak safely, she argued with this seller over the price of shipping and the jointed hands, and after hours with this person, who on the outside by only looking at their profile seems like an extremely reputable seller, admitted to stealing the jointed hands for herself and that the Zak was not new in box (because my friend could see it was repacked not in a way soom would pack it on receival). We managed to get the hands back which were completely in pieces and not new at all (but undamaged). Ratings can only go so far sometimes, and this seller has always been known in the community to be shady, but my friend wanted the Zak bad enough to trade for the Lim that she risked it despite social media warnings about this seller.

Of course, most sellers will be honest and you won't have direct issues in most cases. But please be advised that sometimes things like CoAs and good seller ratings aren't enough. As I mentioned previously, even some Chinese are too scared to buy from their own market, hence the begging of Idealian to re-release and crazy buying on release drop.

You won't have an issue on XianYu mostly, but please note the aforementioned in the back of your head and as always, buy from 2nd hand markets with discretion.

 

You've spoken him into existence!! Brown tan and normal skin!

 

Is this real life?

I finally got Garion in anything but white, and I managed to snag the brown artist set. I'm so happy I could cry!!

 

Man Soom, I literally just bought a cream white human Garion off the market and they go and release a Brown Tan human one (my dream colour) *facepalms*

I guess my house is going from 0 garions -> 2 garions, and over 20 ID75 heads now... goddamit soom.

 

HE HAS BEEN SUMMONED ha! I love it. I wonder if fewer people will pick him up after the Hyperon Reaper release

 

I'm so excited. I've been waiting for Garion for so long and thought I would have to wait longer because of the limited red one. Got both heads the moment I saw the release.

 

Congrats to everyone that has been waiting for Garion! I would have liked to get him but unfortunately I won't be able to after the Hyperon release!

Two back to back brown tan releases