So i was a reborn artist for over 20 years. I stopped when the scammers took over and kept stealing my pictures and descriptions from my listings.
I have boxes and boxes of sculpts i bougbt before the scammers. All new and ready for paint.
Im just not sure if its worth it. Im not sure i can get what they are worth. I was selling for 500$ before…
I mentioned to my husband that maybe i should start again to get up some $ to pay down some debt.
He thinks i should just concentrate on the bears and getting good enough to sell them.
So my question is for those who sell higher priced babies in the current climate. Is it worth it? Do they sell? Should i jump back into making them? For reference these are some of my past babies. All sold.
Your babies are good and I like that they don’t all look the same. They did sell. If you really enjoyed it, I’d make 2 or 3, put them out there for sale and see what happens. Then decide.
You would probably be able to get more for your babies now than you did then. As someone who makes babies and all their clothing, you can absolutely do both at the same time. It just takes planning.
I’m not sure exactly when you started or stopped, so please consider this just general advice.
If you have long sold out and sought after kits (ex. Sunny Kazmierczak, Grayson Brown) those dolls will sell quickly and for high prices, no problem.
If you have kits that are so old that they don’t come with COAs and are from sculptors who aren’t super popular, it will take a lot more time for those to sell.
Anything in the middle is hard to predict.
You can use the reborns dot com “sold” page to get an idea of how things are selling these days. eBay has fallen out of favor.
Does painting babies spark joy in you? If yes, definitely dive back in. Your babies are pretty and well done. If you start with a couple of non-rares from your stash, you can gauge a few things:
whether you (still) enjoy painting babies
if they sell quickly
what they sell for
If the answers to the three above questions aren’t satisfactory to you, you can then decide the best way forward. Whether that be holding off for a bit longer, selling off some or all of your stash, or whatever else.
I would personally love to see you painting again.
So I would say paint again. You all ready have all the supplies…
Just dont think every one will sell fast. Hopefully they do but dont rely on it.
Also know scammers still suck. Photos are still stolen daily. MOST stolen photos I see are unwatermarked.
Personally the only photos I have seen of mine stolen were watermarked… The ONLY place I share my photos unwatermarked is on reborns. com. So it was not stolen from there.
Dolls never sold super fast for me aside from two. Both which were ones i wanted to keep but needed the. $ i just got so tired of having my pictures constantly stolen.
Your work is lovely! If you enjoy and have the supplies I say go for it. If not, then sell. I do agree that blank kits sell slower now days unless it is a very highly sought one.
I have all the supplies. I just got so discouraged when every time i would list a doll someone would steal the photos. It was like wack a mole. So many thieves. I lost the energy to deal with them. But i do miss it.
There’s so many photos to steal…I think you should paint if you love it. I don’t go searching to see if my photos have been stolen, I just focus on how fun it is to paint and then try to sell.
I think I sell in the mid high range, usually around $1200-$1400 sometimes more, sometimes less. Honestly my sales are pretty good, usually they are sold before they are finished or within a day of listing and my customs are booked solid until mid 2025. I do feel like it’s easier to sell in the higher range, I think there’s less competition for high end reborns. When I sold in the $500 range, it took much longer for my babies to sell and there were thousands of reborns in that same price range at the same skill level as me. It could be that I’m starting to get better known, but it seemed like as soon as I improved enough to start selling over $800 sales got easier and customers were better, less price haggling requests, etc…
As far as being worth it, to me it it is worth it. I’m not pumping out 2 babies a month, but I can complete 2 mono-rooted babies in about 6 weeks, 4 if I really bust my butt. I work full time from home, so can take breaks when I want, work in my PJ’s etc… I make enough profit to have a steady income. But honestly if I wasn’t married with my husband working, I don’t know that I would feel comfortable having this business as a sole income. You never know what can happen with the market and I have gone through slow sales periods in the past few years. But it’s a great 2nd household income for me.
I know a lot of people don’t think reborning can or should be a real business, but I’ve found when I put in the work/hours and really treat it like my business, that my income reflects it
This is something I’d like to do. Do you have a tax number/ID or whatever? How do you get what is needed to make it a job? I have no clue. It’s just been a part-time hobby since I began homeschooling my son 9 years ago. I’d like to get up with the sun and start painting while my son is making his own breakfast (home economics and learning independent living). Do you start early in the morning? Paint 8 hours, sometimes more, or less? Your babies are beautiful. I’ve never had the courage to ask more than 6 to 7 hundred for mine, and a few have been bid up to $800 on eBay, but that hasn’t been the case since about two years ago (haven’t been able to sell them for more than $400). My husband has a great job but I’d like to help supplement for the grocery bill. My son eats like a horse.
Since you have all the supplies on hand, go ahead and paint, you have nothing to lose. As far as scammers and pics being stolen, well, it’s the world we live in now, unfortunately.
People have stolen entire listings from me and it’s so, so annoying BUT there’s nothing I can do about it, so I just keep going. Maybe I’m a simpleton but I don’t waste a lot of time worrying about it. Any buyers that buy from scam sites aren’t my buyers.
Mine sell in the $400-$600 dollar range but I usually only paint BB babies since I have a huge stash I’m trying to get through.
I do have a tax number and business license, I just got my tax number from the IRS, it’s free and you can apply online, my business license I got through my county. But the bigger thing is just treating it like any other full time business that you need to promote. I have a decent set schedule, I work from about 7am to 3pm M-F (although I do work more sometimes) so I still have family time, time for appointments, etc… Not all that time is spent painting or rooting, a lot of time goes into the actual business side. Social media following is so important, and that takes a lot of time, building up a public presence, which is my least favorite part! But it plays a huge part in sales, I have a little over 7k followers on FB, which isn’t the most, but it’s enough that when I’m posting work in progress photos someone will want to buy the baby before its even finished. There’s other stuff too, you obviously need to put out good quality babies, have good business cards, a nice website, etc… But even if I had the best babies ever made, if I didn’t invest the time into getting my name out there, no one would see them, recognition plays such a big role! I’m still working on other aspects like my photography skills and always trying to improve my skills. But I can really see that I get back what I put into it.
I wanted to ask about another aspect. How do you feel about painting custom’s babies?
People asking me about taking custom orders, but I just can’t bring myself doing it. I want to paint those whom I want to paint.
I guess if you treat reborning as a business it’s a whole different perspective to it, but still…
Social media thing it’s another big Monster. Sometimes I feel like you (and those who is doing it regularly every day) HAD to post to keep your audience entertained even if a post is not reborn-related - that is not for everyone also.
I’m going to be honest here and hope a customer never reads it I HATE doing customs! The pressure is just unbelievable, I feel like a lot of times people have unrealistic expectations for us to recreate a prototype or someone else’s work. I started don’t soft customs only last year, like they can choose the sculpt, hair color and basic style as far as clean complexion or blemished. But even that is stressful and it really sucks when it’s a sculpt you don’t like! I’m actually quitting customs, but I’m booked out so far that I won’t be able to stop for over a year The guaranteed money is really nice, but I miss painting the sculpts I want to paint in the vision I have for them, and knowing whoever buys it will love it, because they chose the finished version.
And girl you have no idea! Finding content is the worst, I’ve actually taken a huge step back from Facebook these last 2 months and I’m so much happier! I still have to post occasionally, but I’m only posting once a week or so now, when I have something to show or say. I got so sick of focusing on my stats and having to post 3-4 times a day. I know I needed to do that to get my following up, but it was so exhausting and time consuming. You can only maintain that for so long, it’s a full time job in itself!
Even with that, as a follower I surely missed a LOT of your posts. I try to like ones when they pop up on my newsfeed.
Social media algorithms are so finicky
- that is not for everyone also.
I HATE doing customs! The pressure is just unbelievable, I feel like a lot of times people have unrealistic expectations for us to recreate a prototype or someone else’s work. I started don’t soft customs only last year, like they can choose the sculpt, hair color and basic style as far as clean complexion or blemished. But even that is stressful and it really sucks when it’s a sculpt you don’t like! I’m actually quitting customs, but I’m booked out so far that I won’t be able to stop for over a year 
The guaranteed money is really nice, but I miss painting the sculpts I want to paint in the vision I have for them, and knowing whoever buys it will love it, because they chose the finished version.