Hello y’all! Please provide your advise on where to buy finished dolls and how to avoid a scam. I’m new so please forgive my newbie questions. I know a low price is one way to avoid a scam but how else can I tell the difference between a credible artist and a scam?
*I’m looking to buy two painted dolls asleep with eye lashes, white skin tone, approx 20”, small amount of light brown hair, soft body, vinyl limbs, flexible like a newborn.
Thank you
What @Sony72 said, Reborns.com I have a couple that might be what you’re looking for, but haven’t renewed my membership. Here’s the link to my nursery if you want to check them out ShieldSquare Captcha
You can look on Ebay too…look at the seller’s feedback and stay away from the cheap babies.
I would recommend reborns.com also. Its where most of us sell our babies, myself included. My nursery is ShieldSquare Captcha.
Welcome to the forum. For simplicity I suggest you just stick with Reborns.com. There is a variety of all price ranges and lots of legit artists. There are also amazing dolls on all these other sites…eBay, Etsy, Instagram, and Facebook. But unfortunately you have to weed through a lot of scams and fakes on those. If you’re brave enough to look on those sites, here are a few tips. Avoid customs where the artist uses prototype pics or has a long turn around time. Basically don’t order a custom from anyone unless you fully trust them. Some artists scam you into a custom with a 9 month wait period. By the time you realize you are being scammed, it’s too late to file a claim. Also avoid anyone who asks you to pay by PayPal friends and family or an app like CashApp. Watch for words like “silicone vinyl” there’s no such thing. And any site that shows you a doll but let’s you add multiples of it to the cart is a scam. These are one of a kind. You can’t order multiples. To be safe…if you find one you like somewhere, come back and post it on here. We can tell you if it’s legit. And we can point out red flags that you may not see.
Hello, @MrsRoberts So, I’m pretty new to the reborn community. I only discovered it this past summer. I have purchased my reborns from reborns.com and think it’s the best place to get them because it’s a safe, dedicated website. The website owner Dave is really great and can answer lots of questions.
Reborns.com has a pretty wide range of quality. I personally think the best dolls for the money start at $600 and go up from there. Definitely save up and buy higher because you get what you pay for!
I recommend reborns.com as well!
Reborns.com is the only place I shop for reborns as well. Besides here, of course. Sometimes artists post them for sale here or post pix while they are being worked on. You can always ask in a private msg if certain ones are already spoken for. 
Well said, I 100% agree.
Hello, @Sony72 Nice to meet you!
I thought about what you said and I’m eager to respond! I’m going to bullet them here so hopefully we can talk more about them because you bring up some interesting topics! (Please bear in mind the below is mainly from the perspective of buyers looking for vinyl reborns, not silicone, when I talk about price points.)
In my opinion, this is where babies are priced when created by experienced reborners who have spent considerable time mastering their craft.
Considering how tenuous the market is with lowlife scammers flooding the internet with lies (deluding buyers into thinking they can get amazing babies for dirt cheap) – I think real artists should stick to their higher price points in order to keep themselves in business. I personally have paid $900 and up for reborns and did so with the belief that the price was FAIR. What I wanted could not be found below $600.
While you may have seen poorly created dolls at high price points, I would say this is not the norm and that – usually – the buyers out there will push the price lower on these poorly made dolls since they won’t sell. While I get that higher-priced dolls might take longer to sell than average dolls somewhere in the $300 to $500 range, I think these “average buyers” so to speak will eventually migrate to higher priced dolls since once they get their reborns of average quality, they may eventually realize they actually wanted a higher quality doll. Buyers remorse, so to speak, may be driving the market in buyers wanting better quality dolls and – if sellers stick to what they are worth – should keep the higher price tag on their work, not out of greed, but to be fairly paid for their time and skill, and to keep themselves in business.
Hopefully, this sparks some discussion! I may come back to edit a few lines since what sounds clear in my head might not come out that way. I tried!!
Respectfully,
Rachel
Oohhhhh!!! Interesting!!! I can’t wait to hear other thought on this! Thank you and @Sony72 for both sharing your views.
What a great discussion!!!
Hello again and good morning! We definitely have a lot here! Thank you, let’s keep this going and maybe we can get a few more thoughts in here. I like that you’re coming from a position of someone who’s been here a long time and seen the reborn community evolve, and I’m a newcomer with an outsider’s perspective.
Some topics:
Disposable Income .
Collecting quality reborns can definitely become expensive and this pushes some buyers out of the market, granted. I’m wondering if you see a gender bias in this typically female hobby? I personally don’t see any difference in spending top dollar on reborns compared to men (like my uncles) who like to spend thousands on restoring classic muscle cars or my dad who’s really into building RC airplanes. I’m only bringing this up because it seems from your post that quality reborn collectors are wasting money and that you “can’t justify spending exorbitant amounts” on this hobby. I don’t think we should shame people who have the money to spend that money on this hobby. I’m not saying you’re shaming them – that’s a strong word, but it gets the point across, I hope.
Sort of off-topic, but it’s interesting to see how the entire reborn market is performing in the United States (where I live) considering the vast wealth inequality here and the financial depression we’re going thru (due to COVID, job losses, etc). I get that many people cannot afford to collect reborns (or spend money on expensive hobbies in general), but those that can, I think it’s great because they are providing income to small businesses!
You mentioned you work full-time and reborn as a hobby. That’s really cool and I’m glad you get some extra income. I personally also work full-time. I’m an accountant for a pretty big health insurance company, and while I’m not certified as a CPA, I do make a lot of money. I have a pretty high stress corporate job so for me it’s totally worth it to have a hobby like reborn collecting which – as you know – many consider these babies “therapy” dolls. I just think this idea is abused by some buyers who try to pull heart strings, asking for reduced prices on babies because of it. Again, I think sellers should price their babies fairly and cover their expenses.
Pricing Reborns
You said “$300-375 for a $29 dollar kit is a pretty good profit for someone”. On the face of it, I totally agree, but I think this is misleading. I’ve recently decided to not just collect reborns, but paint them. This was a huge undertaking I’ve learned. There’s a lot of start-up costs and practicing itself (with paints, hair, etc) by buying different painting supplies, rooting materials, etc can really start to add up. Your expenses are not just $29. The main point is what is harder to price – skill level and the time it takes to create a doll. I really just want artists to get paid fairly. This is pretty subjective, I get that. We live in a society that pays basketball players millions and millions of dollars, but teachers and nurses barely nothing in comparison. I think reborn artists bring a lot of joy and they should be able to make a living doing that if they can.
Apology
I’m sorry if you felt my post was personally attacking you for underselling. I was mainly looking at the viewpoint of artists trying to sell higher, but perhaps being “forced” to sell lower due to pushy buyers. I think it’s noble to have this hobby and not look for a huge profit margin on your babies. I get that you think BB kits are not as valuable, but it’s like the materials versus art factor. Pricing art is really subjective so maybe that’s why we see so many ups and downs in how babies are selling and arguing over what people think a baby is worth.
Proto-type Artists
I totally agree that you won’t see their babies on reborns.com. I’ve watched a few ebay auctions out of curiosity and it seems vinyl dolls will sell for $2k and upwards, but this is mainly because the kit itself is new/rare and the artist has a “celebrity” status. I do, however, think there are top quality dolls on reborns.com, even though many don’t sell that high. Many are very comparable with that proto-type quality of realism and hair rooting. I’m wondering what you think of these proto-type artists? How often do artists “move up” into this rank? Has it been dominated by just a few artists? I don’t know and am interested in hearing more.
Respectfully,
Rachel
I agree with every word. I think if you don’t at least take a look at well done babies under $500, you are really missing out. Yes, you have to weed through, but I think you have to over $500, as well.
The high quality buyers are there on Reborns. I just recently asked a customer on Reborns where she found me and she told me directly from the website. My doll was $1125. I was under the impression that I was driving the traffic to reborns myself (mostly the case) but sometimes the collectors are already there. I just like using Reborns as a safe way to check out and an easy way for buyers to pull the trigger. I don’t always renew. But it’s fairly cheap to just have it. They have to look through a lot of lower quality options there, but if they look hard enough, they will find some prototype quality babies. And if they find one for a low price, that’s great! Sometimes it happens when artists aren’t looking for profits and just have a hobby.
A lot of the artists and dolls on Reborns.com are just as nice if not better than some prototype artists. A lot of time with prototype artist, you are just paying for the name.
I like you a lot, Rachel. Please stay forever.
Im in agreement that if a doll is under a certain price range there must be something wrong with it. That it’s a boo boo baby, or badly painted or cheaper quality supplies used. Filled with sand instead of glass beads or craft paint instead of artist grade paint. Why infiltrate a place where artists are selling thier work to pay thier life expenses just trying to cover your hobby?
That’s pretty offensive to us that feel like we make quality babies at affordable prices. I hope you didn’t mean to be insulting.
True! I have sold all my babies on eBay except one. You have to look at feedback, avoid cheap dolls (as in China knock-offs and poorly painted dolls), and ask for close up photos if you a seller doesn’t show any. Many good quality reborn artists still sell on eBay.
My flippant answer to why I sell to cover my hobby is, because I can. Everyone has their own reasons for creating their art and pricing how they see fit. To try to tell others how and why they should do theirs seems, well, arrogant.