Not that I know of. But parents of minors get $250-300 per kid every month on the 15th. It’s called a stimulus. But it’s actually just an advance payment of our tax refund. The money will be deducted from the total we would get back in the spring. So they call it a refund. But it’s just a refund advance.
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Completely forgot about this.
I wouldn’t want any of my dolls floating down the sales page looking like they sold for $100. People would get too excited. 
Besides that, I feel like it’s a hassle for my customers and could lead to confusion. I just send them an invoice and let them pay as they are able.
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I do the same as you. One invoice. They can pay at their own rate. But I’m not going to break it down to two invoices just so that it will show as a sale on Reborns. I have very few official sales on his site because even my dolls that sell on there tend to end up on layaway. But it never occurred to me that he would suggest the multiple invoices for his own sake. But yep. That’s probably a big reason for him suggesting that.
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I feel like it’s confusing for sure too. I don’t do it. It sounds sketchy to say here pay everything on this one invoice but your final one pay over here.
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That too. There’s a lot of scams going on right now. The last thing I want is for a customer to think I’m pulling a fast one and to back out. Some are nervous from being conned before
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I appreciate them.
I am one of those people who doesn’t pay attention much to who or what, just grateful that he doesn’t allow cheap knock off mass manufactured dolls on the site. I also like that he protects information. I do well there and I don’t pay for the months I don’t use the site. I am a big fan of it. I don’t do Ebay, it scares me and it’s cringe. I do use Etsy but not as much anymore, the fees were adding up and there were some fees that really annoyed me. Etsy has a bigger audience but reborn has a captured audience. I do get odd questions once in a while but its the cost of doing business anywhere.
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This is true and I hope people remember that come tax time that will effect the bottom line. I think it is good for people who need it now and don’t need it to offset taxes at the end of the year but this is not a gift, it is your money just paid forward a bit. We saw the same thing with the last admin. Hopefully people are spending it wisely and not on dollies.
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Dave does get babies to pop up on Facebook, IG, and Pinterest, so he is marketing not only his site but our babies. It’s a good deal for the money in my opinion.
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Gina your dolls are lovely, you deserve all the respect and sales receive, however, for those of us who have(me) less talent than you and may be starting out and improving, we don’t have the huge client following, it has become difficult to be seen even when paying extra to get on the front page. I do believe there are folks who can afford too spend less money and still purchase a doll that they will appreciate. But.mine are not being seen, and I do not have the option to continue paying for advertising when it is for nothing. Now I know folks can say ,well this is life, trying to sell your products is not for sissy’s, this is the real world. Paying for something we are not receiving just does not make any sense and I have to wonder if my continuing is making it easier for those like you that have a great and deserving client base to sell. This issues is not simple, but I do wonder if separating the different classes of dolls would make it more fair? Of course your beautiful work would still be classified with mine and I might still struggle to sell , but three years ago when starting out I did make sales. Also your work would motivate me to work harder!
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I was recently on reborns and tried to find dolls the kit and it was so hard. Artists had named the doll and it didnt come up in my search for specific kits as a result. I would always list them by the kit name, the collector will want to name the doll anyway.
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I always gave mine the sculpt name also, but in looking at the sight recently I saw the same thing so this last doll Orlaith I named and listed her as Maggie. I thought maybe everyone knew something I didn’t, maybe folks will look at a random name, It has made no difference. I also liked it better when sellers could see what adopted dolls sold for. I put Orlaith so she her price can be seen by sellers. So many strange changes this past year, not in the positive for me.
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On reborns.com, even if you give the baby your own name, searching for the kit name will bring up those dolls as long as the kit name has been entered in the Keywords section when listing. If the kit is named in the description, it will pick it up from there, too. I don’t like giving my baby girls boys names and vice verse.
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Thank you for your kind words. I don’t think I have a big client base and I am not doing anything special. When I started I sold babies in the 200 dollar range. I was new to this and there was a lot of “competition” and one of those years was painfully slow, 2019 I believe, someone can correct me. It was weird, some really amazing artists here on this forum could barely move babies and they were priced well.
Reborns isn’t “advertisement”, it is a selling platform. The advertising part is up to you mostly. Dave does get babies on FB, IG, Pinterest and that is really cool, not sure if that is an algorithm, most platforms do not offer that or charge you a whole lot of money (Etsy is 12% for third party advertising I believe).
Find your lane. Where do you want to be?
Here is an example (and this is just my opinion, I am an artist not a marketing person, I hate the business end of anything, if I won the lottery I would just make babies and give them away, I love doing it.)
So lets say you do this in your free time, it’s casual, you enjoy the process, take it slow, you sell babies so you can keep making babies, maybe make a little extra Christmas money. Your goal is to make a nice baby, reasonable priced so everyone gets a chance to give a reborn at Christmas time, you feel good, they are happy it is fair. No big box opening, painted hair, just a nicely done baby.
You are happy to get 375.00, you are using sale babies from BB, babies go home in a onesie, diaper and simple flannel blanket.
You may be in the same pond with 100 people that have the same idea. That is ok. There are lots of places to buy a hamburger, usually all within a 1 mile radius, no one is going out of the hamburger business so far.
The (potential) customer will have 100 choices. Customers love to window shop. They are not going to look at the first page and pick. They are going to look at everything in their range, they are going to try to get the best baby for the money they have, they may also want a baby that looks like their daughter, or one with curly hair, or a preemie, or one that just grabs them by the feels.
I know how I shop, I will be the one that puts a heart next to what I love, look at everything there is and wait for what checks off the most boxes for me.
It’s a big purchase, 375.00 is a paycheck for a lot of people.
Reborns has a lot of babies, the filter gives people a way to not have to waste time looking at babies they don’t want or can’t afford.
(I hate looking on a platform and falling in love with everything way out of my price range)
You have to be patient and wait for people to fall in love with the baby you are making. You can also stand out in your particular lane (what ever that is). Price a tiny bit lower than your peers, offer something sweet like a personalized card. Sew your signature on the body of every doll, up your photography game, and you don’t need an expensive camera, just find some good natural light and experiment.
I don’t think separating by “class” would be fair. It is pretty subjective. I think it is kinda up to us to find out where we fit, where we want to fit and how to shine in that space.
You and I are painting the same babies, no one is better than anyone else, art is art, you don’t have to work harder, just be true to your vision. Selling is the hard part, we all struggle, we all find ways to make it work. It is frustrating but that is were we learn to shine and find our own style and voice.
Maybe I am making it more complicated.
I think people are going to decide what they want, the people who love your babies will find you, it doesn’t matter how many babies are on the site, how long you are on the front page.
Stay positive, do good work, price fair…
“If you build it they will come…”
I tell myself that every time I get frustrated or feel like I am taking too big a bite and no one will get what I am trying to do. Some people will, some won’t, just do you and wait for your people to show up.
I could be totally wrong but it feels right to me.
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When you list a baby your fill in the fields, name, kit name, sculptor…
Those should create options for searching. So if you named the baby “Knee Socks” and the Kit name was “darn cute” the artist name is “spent too much money” the sculptor name is “fancy fingers” then any those words entered in the search box should yield a result. If it isn’t shoot Dave an email and let him know, there may be a glitch, or I don’t understand this like I think I do.
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Dave used to be good at getting them on Instagram and Facebook. Now he just randomly puts some on there.
I happen to have 2 rare kit babies cross listed on Reborns and Etsy. So I just did a little test. Etsy Marcus shows up twice at the top. Reborns Marcus shows up after some random eBay and etsy listings.
Etsy Larry shows up at the top. But I don’t see Reborns Larry anywhere on the shopping search.
Both show more views on Reborns. But historically I’ve noticed that Etsy listings don’t get as many views. Neither of those platforms has gotten me any questions from buyers. But people on Facebook have messaged me about them. More often than not, my dolls end up selling on Facebook.
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Dave did that before, then (probably last year not even before that) he said that now he only do it randomly, not to all babies listed. How they get randomly selected - I have no idea and I didn’t ask him, but I know for sure it’s not 100% exposure, unless he changed it again.
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I am against any class separation. The last demand for alternatives separation cut the exposure to clowns (@Gabriell ), rooted creatures (@Katinafleming ), elves (@YelenaRey, @Gabriell , @Katinafleming ) - I am just using few names as examples. Yes, not as many people painting them, but they are the art dolls, same as any other reborn art doll.
If I am paying for them to be on Reborns, they deserved to be seen like aby other dolls (including pre-loved).
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Jinx on that. I should read further before I put my comment 
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I agree. And it seemed to start with @jlesser’s snail. It didn’t look like a baby. There was no convincing him that it was a 100% reborn from a reborn kit. He just wanted to be a d!ck. 
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I think if he changed it to OPT OUT it would be better.
That way people who dont want to see alternatives or gory ones can just opt out, easy peasy…
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