To me, the Blythe community is pretty close-knit. If you’re part of the community, you know someone, who knows someone who knows whoever you’re wanting to buy and sell with. Which is great, because word of mouth positive references is always a good thing when you’re doing sales online and not on websites like Ebay or Etsy – where people need to have accounts and have feedback listed right then and there for you to check.

The problem comes in when you’re dealing with someone that you haven’t dealt with before, or you don’t know anyone who’s bought or sold things with this new person. That’s where Livejournal Communities come into play. There are three in particular that you should really go and check out when buying or selling to someone and for all of them, you can do searches for someone’s username.

The Dolly Deals Communities

Bad Dolly Deals – This is a community where people post up their negative interactions with other sellers. You can find out what the story was behind the transactions and if the seller was able to quickly resolve the issue (with a refund, partial refund or eventually came through with the item). If you have a negative experience with a seller, be sure to document it. Also when you’re attempting to buy something, save all of the messages passed between the two of you until the item has been received. Take screenshots, if necessary, of the original item listing and save them onto your computer.

Good Dolly Deals – Where all the happy transactions come out in the open! If you’ve had a successful purchase (or was able to successfully sell) of a doll, clothing or anything else related to the doll hobby, be sure to post it up here! It acts as positive feedback for the seller. Make sure you mention the person’s username, where you bought/sold to them (i.e. forum name, community name) and what the item was – was it a doll? stock clothing item? Be sure to share your experiences!

Failed Dolly Deals – This is a different sort of community where people post about their failed dealings. If you made an agreement for something and the other person backs out at the last moment, this would be the place to share. People who constantly flake are a pain to deal with, especially if they drag it out and lead people on. Be sure to document the correspondence and the lay out the time line for everyone when sharing your failed dolly deals!

Just so you know, you do not need to have a Livejournal account to view the postings – some people do make their posts on the Livejournal communities private, the majority of them are for public viewing. If you wish you post up your own BDD, GDD or FDD, you will have to make a Livejournal account to post it up or find the contact information of one of the administrators.

And it’s not always about selling…

So you don’t think that all the Livejournal Communities that I’m highlighting today are just about dealings and transactions gone south and haywire, there’s also one more Livejournal Community that you should check out…

The Blythe Doll Community is a place where people post up when they have new Blythe stock in their Etsy or Artfire shops, they post questions about what fits what and queries about Blythe and some people even post up when they have a doll they’re looking to sell or customized dolls they’re looking for feedback on. The people who post there also talk about when they get a new doll or post up photos of their dolls, just because.

In closing…

How often do you check out the BDD, FDD or GDD communities? Do you check out every buyer/seller that you’re trying to strike a deal with?