Also, you don’t have to show the adopted price. Most don’t.
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I agree @Katinafleming. When I pay the $20 monthly fee it is not only to sell available dolls but to have my nursery handy to show my previously made & sold babies, regardless of where I sold them. I sell through Reborns, Instagram, Facebook, word of mouth & locally. My monthly fee enables me to direct potential customers to not only what is available in my Reborns nursery but to see what I’ve made and can possibly make again. I’ve gotten multiple custom orders that way. If someone feels I’m lying about what I’ve sold and for what amount, they are free to go to another artist’s nursery. The honor system may not always work but that is life. People take a chance buying anything. Not everything in life can be verified.
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People also show their babies that have been given as gifts or adopted on other sites as examples of their work in their nursery. I sometimes don’t list sold price because costs continue to rise. A baby I sold five years ago would cost more to make now. I don’t want potential customers to think that whatever I sold one for then is the price they should get now. There are many variables that aren’t dishonest or deceptive. There is no ‘obligation’ for adopted babies to show on reborns.com. It’s a choice that sellers make.
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Archie, Sally, Ava, and Charlotte ALL sold directly through Reborns dot com. But ALL of them were sold on payment plans. So why should they not count?
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I agree with @Katinafleming , Dave provides us a nursery to share our babies to make a hard fast rule on this would do more harm to us solid artists than anyone with a bad motive. That I can’t get behind. We as artists are struggling and dealing with enough negative situations in this industry we do not need it to get any more difficult.
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The fact that artists don’t always list the price a doll was adopted for is understandable. However, it makes things very difficult when trying to price a doll. Perhaps an adoption date displayed at the bottom of the page where the price is would be helpful. Artists could then leave their listing price up. A doll sold pre-covid could be much less expensive than one created now, which would naturally cost more due to product scarcity and supply costs having increased dramatically.
In the past, I’ve searched adopted reborns for the particular kit I wished to sell and of the options, tried to match my skill level with a doll of similar quality to determine my asking price. Now that many artists are choosing not to show adopted price, that’s very difficult to do. Looking at dolls still listed for sale is an option, but not an accurate indicator of what you should charge, as for whatever reason they’ve not sold.
As to the original topic, I have not yet paid for membership and listed a doll for sale on reborns. I have sold some dolls however, and made others as trades/gifts/keepers. I will list them as adopted so that I have a bit of a portfolio to show for my work, since I feel that’s also a valuable aspect of the $20 membership fee.
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Maybe I’m missing the point here, but is the underlying issue that you are having difficulty pricing your dolls because you feel that some sellers are being dishonest about what theirs are selling for @Slbrlb?
Ultimately I would say that it doesn’t matter. Price your dolls according to what you think they are worth. If a buyer agrees, they will pay it. If not, maybe consider lowering it. You will find your sweet spot.
If dishonest sellers are marking tons of dolls sold at high prices and yours are fair, they will only help you. If they mark tons of dolls sold at cheap prices, they are screwing themselves and are probably painting low quality dolls to begin with.
Why even bother worrying about what other people are doing?
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Not all that say adopted for me are verified orders, but the reason is that some buyers wanted to pay with a check instead of PayPal. I require immediate payment so I marked the baby reserved until the check cleared and then to adopted. I don’t think there would be anyway for an order paid for in that manner to be “verified.” Unless things have changed there isn’t even anywhere under orders for me to enter the tracking number since it is not a verified order. However, I am happy to accept checks when a buyer wants to pay that way as I don’t have to worry about a chargeback 6 months later.
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I just listed two under adopted that sold before I finished them. They showed in both adopted and my nursery. I don’t give a rats a$$ if they say verified or not. I just want people to see my work.
On another note, I used to show all my prices to help other artists out. People were asking me if I could make ‘whoever’ again for them. When I would give them the price they disappeared. I discovered they were looking at dolls I made when I was a newby thinking they were going to get that same price. Now I only show prices on dolls that reflect what I charge today.
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^^^^^^^ This. I had to go back and hide prices of older work because I was being bombarded with messages from people who thought they would get today’s painting at prices from 4 years ago. Only showing current prices has cut out all of that.
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Yes!!! Same!!! No one is getting my prices from 2+ years ago…
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I like hearing everyone’s opinions on this. I’m not going to suggest anything to Dave as I would not want to make it harder for any of the sellers to make a sale. It was just a suggestion as I didn’t know how to differentiate the true adopted ones from those who manually changed it. Hopefully the number of people manually changing are because of legit sales on different platforms.
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You can show the price to sellers only. I know prices go up with years but it’s a nice way to not get harassed by buyers.
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I agree that it was easier to price dolls when we could see the price after adoption. But it wasn’t really that helpful anyway when you think about it. People price their work based on their skill, not the kit. For instance Elijah…same kit can bring anywhere from $200-2000 depending on the artist.
And the same artist is going to have a huge variety of prices. Like you said, pre-Covid prices were lower. So were our dolls when we first started. I chose to hide my prices because I kept getting requests for big June at $550. They didn’t understand when I said now I wouldn’t make that doll for less than $1200.
Also, there’s an easy way to find the prices of sold dolls. Follow the artist. Most of us on this forum follow each other. When you follow an artist, you get emails when they list dolls. So, for example…if I want to know how much Tiffany sold that Huxley for, I just go to my email and type in “Zelda Ripley” it pulls up all of her listings. Voila. There’s Huxley’s price.
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This!!! That’s my reasoning exactly. People see your newby prices and get mad that you won’t make them a doll for that price.
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Nothing will ever change the shady people. But for the most part, we can all usually tell what artists are lying. Think about it, how many times do you see a crappy doll that supposedly sold for $500? Your brain automatically says “yeah right.” They aren’t really fooling anyone. 
But seriously, go follow a bunch of artists. Then you’ll get the emails for their listings. You will always be able to go look through the emails to see the list price. But do keep in mind that artists prices change as they grow. So like @DollyPardon said, don’t worry about other people’s prices. Your babies are cute. Price them however you want. If they constantly sell extremely fast, you’re underselling yourself and need to list them higher. If they sit for months with no interest, they are probably listed too high. Also, ask on here. We all help each other out. Before you list a doll, post it here and ask for opinions on pricing. This is sooooo much better than comparing to others prices. You will get good, honest feedback. And for most of us, that’s what gave us the courage to raise our prices.
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I use Reborns for Advertising purposes only. I have my customers pay through PayPal, unless I send an invoice instead.
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Because I want to keep all my work in my nursery for buyers to see.
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Thanks everyone!! I love the idea of following certain artists to keep track of pricing that way.
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I didn’t know that. I’ve never paid membership there. I wanted to wait until I have several ready to sell first.
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