It always seems that BDDs (Bad Dolly Deals, for those in the dark) revolve around people who send payments to sellers as gifts on Paypal and then they regret it after and talk about how they knew that they shouldn’t have done it. Yet people still do, and despite the best of intentions of sellers, things can happen and someone ends up with no doll sometimes.

How can you protect yourself in an online transaction (especially when it comes to that expensive NRFB Goldie purchase)? Here’s some tips!

1. Be truthful in your Paypal transaction – do not pay as a ‘gift’ because it’s not a gift. It’s a payment for goods. You cannot file a claim with Paypal if you state that your payment is a gift.
2. Talk to the seller, find out what shipping methods the person will be sending your doll by. Will there be insurance? How long will it take? Will there be tracking available? (Keep in mind, some countries have much higher costs for postage than others. Canada Post, for example, is a lot more expensive than the USPS.)
3. Document, document, document. And save all of your documentation. Even though it’s ‘just the purchase of yet another doll’, it’s still your money and it is still a transaction.
4. Both parties should be open to communication. Let the buyer know when you’ve sent out the doll (keep your receipts!). Let the seller know when the doll has arrived.
5. Be truthful on custom forms. Undervaluing an item being sent through the post is fraud (and illegal) and I don’t recommend undervaluing dolls at any point in time (after all, these are $100+ dolls, not a mass-produced paperback book). Make sure that both parties understand what it means if you do undervalue the doll and who’s responsible in the event that the doll is damaged or lost.

Blythe is a fantastic hobby and it’s a great way to meet people online, but it’s definitely not fun when a transaction goes sour due to miscommunication or sending something without tracking. Always talk to the people that you’re doing business with and send those dolls packaged nice and protected!

There is a lot to be said for bought doll clothing. It’s generally fast, you don’t need to know how to sew or buy your own supplies. Let’s face it: the cost of various colours of thread, different types of fabric and then some kind of fabric to line it so that the darker colours won’t stain your doll? It takes money to make those clothes, but also energy and time. I’ve talked a lot in the past about where to find fabrics or small prints, but when it comes down to the nitty gritty, unless we’re all ready to dabble in pattern design – we need to know where to go to find size-appropriate designs for our Blythes.

One great website is PuchiCollective.com, a lot of people recommend this site for newbies because it has a lot of sewing patterns (many adapted from old Skipper patterns) along with some great tutorials on changing eye-chips, how to do the lock-loop method for rerooting dolly hair and tutorials on how to take scalps off of the doll’s head.

Some other great sites to check out are:

• Orriettacat’s sewing patterns
• xoxo, Blythe
• Simplicity #2353 (not free, but a good resource if you can find it on sale!)

For non-sewing patterns, but these patterns will still aid you in expanding your doll’s wardrobe, check out:

• knitty.com – knitting patterns
• Shershegirl – knitting pattern (plain onesie)
• Shershegirl – knitting pattern (poofy pantie onesie)
• Stitch Journal – knitting patterns (links on side menu)

Dress made with the Blythe Empire Dress pattern from puchicollective.com

When in doubt, you can always do a quick search on Google for “free Blythe patterns” or “free Skipper patterns” (or another similarly sized doll). There’s a lot of resources that are available online, you can also find sewing tutorials (for machine and hand sewing). There are a lot of Japanese books available (although not inexpensive at all factoring in cost of the item and shipping!) like Dolly Dolly or similar books (these generally have patterns for Blythe as well as other dolls that are popular in Japan).

Please remember to read the terms and conditions outlined on each individual pattern. Many of them are free for personal use only (not for commercial use) and be sure to respect the wishes of the designers.

Used Blythes can be tempting: the prices are lower than a still-in-box Blythe, the doll may already be located in the same country as you (save on custom duties) and you have the ability to ask for photos from all angles. Many of these questions are written with the Takara and Ashton-Drake Galleries Blythes in mind.

Things you should consider asking about the doll:

1. Is the current owner the first owner? (This is important, they may have received the doll in what they believed to be stock condition when the previous owner had done some changes.)
2. Any damage done to the make-up? Is the make-up stock or has it been spray matted, sand matted or completely altered?
3. Are there any changes to the eye-chips? Are there any visible scratches on the eye-chips or eyeballs? If the eye-chips have been changed, what type of glue was used?
4. Does the doll have sleepy-eyes?
5. Has the doll been gaze-corrected?
6. Has the doll been boggled?
7. What kind of method(s) have been used to open up the doll’s head?
8. Are there any gaps where the scalp should be meeting the head?
9. What kind of condition are the screws for the Blythe’s head in? Have they been replaced or stripped?
10. Are there any scratches to the plastic of the front or back faceplates (not necessarily where the make-up was painted)
11. Have there been added ear piercings? (Some people will add ear piercings to their dolls, to mimic the ones that come with ear piercing holes stock, with a drill.)
12. Has there been any changes to the hair of the doll? (Hair cut, trims, scalp-swap, missing plugs, etc.)
13. Is the doll on the original stock body?
14. Are there any markings on the doll’s body?
15. Does the doll’s knees bend? Do the knees hold in positions?
16. Are there any stains on the body? Has there every been any stains present (but later removed)?
17. Has the doll ever been exposed to pet dander, cigarette smoke or anything else that may be an allergen for you?
18. Has the doll ever been exposed to fabric softener, moth balls or heavily perfumed substances?

Additional questions for those wanting to buy a 1972 Kenner Blythe doll are:

1. How many lines are on the back of the doll? (6 or 7?)
2. Are there any missing plugs in the doll’s hair?
3. Is there any yellowing to the plastic of the doll?
4. Is the string/ring still present?
5. Do the eyes still change when the string is pulled?
6. Are the eye chips clear or cloudy?

Provided that the doll has met all of your conditions (eg. you don’t mind any of the damage reported), you should really consider asking how the doll will be packaged. It’s very surprising how some people will package dolls to be shipped across a country or overseas.

Some questions to ask about shipping are:

1. Will the doll come in the original box and shipping carton?
2. What kind of methods will the shipper be using to secure the doll?
3. What kind of carton will be used?
4. What kind of packaging filler will be used? (Newspaper? Styrofoam peanuts? Cotton? Fabric scraps?)

These are some of the misconceptions that I had about Blythe when I was first entering into the hobby, I find that many of them are shared with many other people in the community as well. How many did you believe to be true when you were a newbie in the dolly community?

1. You will only need/want/have 1 Blythe doll, ever.  (I have seven dolls now.)
2. You will only create/sew/design your own doll clothes and not buy any. (While I have bought fabric and other sewing supplies for doll clothing, most of my dolls wear stock clothing or things made by other people or commerically produced doll clothes [eg. Skipper].)
3. You will find customizing incredibly easy and not nerve wracking. (So no true. Sticking hot glue sticks to an expensive $$$ doll’s eyes makes me so nervous!)
4. You will not be mildly ridiculed by your family/friends/assorted loved ones over a doll purchase. (My sisters all kind of shook their heads at me. My parents think it’s “cute”, but a waste of money. My boyfriend thinks they’re awesome, besides the evil looking eye colours [orange and pink, which looks red when the lighting is off].)
5. You realize that there are a lot of acronyms in the hobby and there is no way that you will never be able to know what most of them mean. (Too bad my brain can’t hold onto information about physics like it does doll acronyms! BDD, EBL, CP, FBL, GDD, BK, TIB, VM, SP, LM, MML, DD, AA, ABe, RR, ADG, KB…)
6. Your photos will never look as good as [insert name here] or [insert name here]. (Okay, this one is true, but I can, on the very rare occasion, take photographs that I’m not ashamed of putting online for others to see! Natural lighting is a huge help, same with having clothes that don’t clash with a doll’s hair.)
7. You will be the youngest/oldest/oddest person in the Blythe community. (While I can’t give you any guarantees that you won’t be the oddest, there are a lot of people in the hobby and chances are that there will always be someone older than you or someone younger than you.)
   
8. You will be able to stop after that 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th Blythe. (Yes, I thought this too. I justified some dolls as they were older releases/inexpensive!/limited edition, but I always seem to have my eye out for that 8th member of my doll family!)

Please refer to this chart whenever you are considering a new Blythe purchase (hopefully it will help to keep you within budget!).