My husband asked me last night if I sold any dolls yet? Mind you that I am still on doll # 1 cause I keep doing it over till I get it done the way I like it. He fails to realize that I never painted anything except walls before. It’s not like I can go into any art store and tell them what I’m doing and get an "Oh yeah, I can help you with that "without getting That Look.So I turned him on to ebay and showed him a $6K doll.Then he comes up with, hey try to sell yours and ask for 2K just to see what happens. I know, your laughing with me and not at me- right? Now my husband was an art major in college so he should know better. I then showed him 2 Spencer kits. One by Melissa George and another one online. The second one was asking way to much. I don’t care if they were giving it away, I never would of taken it. It was horrible. I tried to point out that it probably would never sell at the asking price…I wouldn’t want to damage my reputation before I even get one doing something like that. So, does anyone want to share their experience as far as how long it took them to make a sale after starting to reborn. And if you can only draw stick people like me, I would be very interested to hear what you have to say. My hubby thinks I’m being too hard on myself–No, that’s just me being me.
I started in November. I did not try to sell any until I had painted 10 of them. Then listed 2 on reborns.com. One sold within 3 weeks, the other is for sale still. I have since made 2 more for gifts, 1 for my friends daughter, and listed another. I also made a Character baby for the challenge, had her listed but discovered she has an issue and I need to work on her so I hid her listing for now.
Sorry if I rambled. I am tired and headed to bed 
I started buying my kits and supplies in October last year. I practiced on a two kits; painting and stripping them over and over until I was mostly happy with the outcome. I didn’t want to keep ruining kit after kit with practice so I chose to strip them. Like you, I didn’t want to start out ruining my reputation by sending out or even showing super crappy babies so it was several months later before any even left my nursery. I sent my very first baby to @AmandasBabies in February and since then I’ve listed and sold 4 online and another one here locally, thanks to my husband the doll peddler lol. Curently I have 3 listed for sale online and hoping they sale soon.
I started in January, gave my first one to my sister and then started selling online, it took about a week or so and then sales were fairly regular until recently. Reborning has been a pretty easy transition for me and I’m so very glad I started
I stockpiled about 10 and then got a booth at a doll show. I sold 4. These were my best work at the time but not compared to now. I thought oh, yeah, this is for me! lol Then i didn’t sell another one for months.
I sold my first few dolls on ebay. They sold pretty fast. I had to list one a couple times. Then I decided I didn’t like ebay. I’ve been selling on reborns.com ever since. My dolls have improved a lot and I’m slowly moving my prices up. I started in the $150 range and am now selling at about $350. My sales are pretty steady, even in hard periods like now. I don’t sell a lot of dolls because I’m just a retired lady who paints dolls for fun, so it’s not a business for me, but it certainly pays for itself which is more than I can say for any of my past hobbies, LOL.
I just had to look back and see when I started all this, It was four months ago this past January, 2016. My husband just has no idea what I’ve been doing.All he sees is doll parts all over the place!
Well, he needs to give you a dedicated studio room, right???
First I wanted to share that my husband is absolutely clueless as well. He wants me to sell at higher prices than I’m comfortable with and he doesn’t get that you have to spend money to make it. I got super lucky with my first baby, she sold after a week and a half to a prop master in NYC. My second baby has been sitting for almost 3 weeks. I’ve heard that it gets slow during the summer and around Christmas time everyone wants babies.
Once the full addiction kicks in your gonna need your own room and hiding places. 
. I started reborning 3 years ago this month. Took a year off and then got back at it. My first babies were for granddaughters. Then I sold my first 2 after the ROSE show last year. My husband wants to hire people to help me so i can sell them faster. 
My husband is by far my biggest fan. He thinks I should ask $1000 or more for them. 
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Lol mine complains until they sell
Awe I hate people that take advantage. I’m sorry it put you in a bind.
Oh trust me, the addiction has already hit with a vengeance. I finally taken control of my “sitting room” aka–the front study and the family is staying clear of it. I’m pretty sure they are freaked out over my new hobby. Hubby is probably worried that I’m too hard on myself. However, I am enjoying it and don’t see any signs of stopping. He actually does show an interest when I show him what I’m doing and said he was quite impressed with what I have learned so far. I better stop showing him those dolls that are selling for $6,000, I’m just setting myself up. It is helpful seeing how everyone got started. Looks like many have artistic backgrounds and then again there are those like me. I got a feeling there is one common thread among us and that is the curse of perfectionism!
I have not sold any yet. My first 10 practice babies are going to family. two down 8 to go. Number 11 will probably be a giveaway with the grand opening of my business in September. I will sell number 12 for $300.00, I hope, lol.
I started in 2005 and it took me at least a year and many failures before I would sell them (probably at least 10 kits and I have four done babies that I kept). I have about three boxes of doll kits that I have destroyed. I am sure they can be stripped and repainted but who has the time. I started off on EBay and then would start them at .99 auction and run it for 7 days and made at least $100 off each doll. I haven’t sold on their for a few years. Then I went to Etsy, and I do have steady sales. Mine have sold up to $1,000.00. But those prices are few and far between. I do run a few sale dolls through out the year. I try to buy sale kits at $14.00 so my total cost is about $60.00 with supplies and sell them between $200.00-$350.00. Last year and the beginning of this year they sat on Etsy for about two weeks at the most. My more expensive ones just need to find the right mommy. The cheaper ones are to bring the traffic to my store. I do make my mom a baby each and every year since I started. But I think we are harder on ourselves then others are…
@DDDolly I feel the same way. I help homeless by handing out bags I call Little Blessing. My granddaughter and I came up with the idea cause we see someone almost every day I take her to gymnastics. The bags have things like tuna snacks, crackers with cheese, tooth brush tooth paste, body wash, etc. I started to explain to my granddaughter why we should give them money but before I could get the words out she said they might buy something to eat but the rest will go to drugs or alcohol. 
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I usually spend half of what I earn on the bags. I want to help more but I don’t know how to help without enabling. I’m about to sell more kits cause I’m out if bags. Hopefully they’ll sell.
That’s so Awesome! You’ and your granddaughter would fit in so well here in Ventura with my dog park group. We have a very high population of homeless people very young, very old and whole families. We have a park here called Cemetary park that has over time turned onto an huge off leash dog park and lots of homeless people congregate there. Everyone goes pretty much daily to let their dogs run, but twice a month we turn it into a huge picnic in the park and we all bring tons of food to share with the people there. It’s a lovely park and oddly enough the homeless people keep it very clean. You will often see them picking up poop (that careless pet owners have left behind), picking up stray pieces of trash, etc. We’re always trying to get new people to join the group.
I started reborning in 2002 and my first ones were to sold online on a doll forum, then I started taking custom orders. BUT reborning was very new to a lot of people back then, so it was a novelty: a doll that looked like a REAL BABY…LOL…I have to laugh now because reborning has improved by leaps and bounds over the years and while those early Berenguers were pretty cute, in no way did they compare to say, Realborns or you know, Saskia! 
It’s always fun to look back to where we started and see how far we’ve come but honestly, I hope no one goes into reborning thinking they’re going to make a living because unless you’re one of the well-known, high-end reborners that just isn’t going to happen. The market is saturated with reborners, good and bad; it’s tough to make a sale these days.
I hate hearing stuff like this. I am so sorry… Unfortunately I know exactly how this feels because I have spent so much of my energy and resources helping others only to get crap in return. Just the other day I was so upset behind this… There was someone who I have done SO much for over an extended period of time who I needed a tiny favor from. She ended up not having much time to help me, but has always had all the time in the world to run over here when she needed something. Nice. I’ve decided to take a break from people because I’m so irritated. I’ll just focus on my kids and my dolls.