Not to be a Gloomy Gus but do you guys ever think that maybe sales are slow because your average every day reborn artists are the bottom tier of a dying MLM? If not- don’t think about it, it’s too depressing. 
I don’t know what is MLM means, but I think 4 doll shows per year might be effecting online sales.
Or perhaps so many artists 
I know for sure that for 5 years that I’ve been here it’s always complains about slow sales, no matter time of the year.
The only real bloom happened during the COVID when people received free money and prices went up like crazy.
MLM - Multi Level Marketing???
5 Likes
Multi level marketing? How does that apply to reborns?
The problem I see is mostly an over saturation of the market, with a lot of it stemming from the Chinese fakes flooding the market.
9 Likes
Yes, sales have been “slow” since I started as well.
1 Like
I know that it’s not exactly a multi-level marketing scheme, but I think it is similar in a lot of ways. The market is saturated and knock-offs don’t help. Those are facts.
But it is like an MLM in that those at the top of the industry depend on more and more new artists enlisting and the existing artists are more than happy to recruit and train them, even though it goes against our best interests by creating even more competition and contributing to the market saturation we see. Eventually everyone will be an artist and no one will be left to buy.
1 Like
It wouldn’t be a traditional MLM, but there are similarities. Most things are this way with capitalism. During the Gold rush the people who made the most money sold tents, pans, food, lodging, intimate services…
This art form has a been around a good long time, I don’t think the intention was ever to get rich selling supplies to reborners, but it happened. Then people loved these dolls that could only be made by artists so more and more people started making them to sell rather than making them to make.
I think social media had a big impact on sales, it made the dolls more visible but it also made a whole lot of people think this was a get rich quick scheme.
I started making them by accident, made one for a friend who requested it, (I almost did not) had some left over supplies, made a few more, threw them up on Etsy and they sold easily. I made a few more, and a few more, and as my skills improved so did my sales. I still had my regular art job but I made more reborns than art for a while.
I am back to making more art as things have slowed down a little and I have lost interest in the marketing part of reborns. I make them now just because I love it. Sadly I don’t do it as much because of time constraints. I had a lot of fun.
Did BB and all the suppliers and distributers profit more than me? They sure did. They have a bigger business, staff, and capital than I do, and they have been doing it a lot longer, good for them.
I blame the drop in sales on a few things: Mass produced knock offs. Over saturated market due to knock off and mass produced dolls that highjacked (stole) our marketing. Social media, get-rich- quickers, an economic downturn for so many people, and boredom, people move on. I think these dolls will always sell, dolls do, people love them, there are still people who have never seen one in person or know about them but…the best days may (or may not) be behind us. We have creative people always leveling up the reborn game.
Painted hair alone has come a long way, silicones are getting cheaper to make, painters who have really awesome skills still do well. We have some awesome sculptures who continue to blow us away.
I do agree that there was a covid BOOM. That was wild.
5 Likes