Where can I buy used porcelain baby dolls to sell later? I am in Antioch, Illinois.
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The best way is from estate sales run by the family, not a company. I have gotten fabulous deals on all sorts of things.
It depends on what you are looking to do.
Are you interested in buying, restoring and redressing, and selling really old dolls back to their original condition--like those that need new hair, face painting etc? Or are you trying to buy new in the box dolls that have sat on shelves and in closets for years and flip them for a profit.
If it is the second one, don't bother. I don't mean to be rude, but there is almost no value in the 1970s-1990s porcelain dolls. You can read through hundreds of posts on this site (Thrifty Fun) of people asking for values on porcelain dolls and you will see comment after comment of the low, low, low values of the "old" dolls.
You can literally buy dozens of these dolls at any Goodwill on any given day for $5 each and they will sit in your eBay or Etsy store for months and months and not sell at any price. There were way too many made in the 1970s-1990s, so they just do not sell for much at all (huge supply, very low demand = no or LOW value).
If it is the first one, then estate sales and sometimes swap meets are good places to find the "heavily loved (AKA broken) dolls". You can also look on eBay with searches like "as is dolls" "doll parts" "broken dolls" and make a best offer price to the seller. Some sellers will counter, some will deny outright, and some will accept the bid.
If you are doing the restorations, be very aware of creating the doll back to the exact original condition so it can then fetch the most in resale. You MUST tell people it is a restoration doll and not try to pass it off as an original doll. If you don't the buyer is going to be VERY unhappy when they get it and you will not only get negative feedback, they will want their money back which means you will lose money.
Please post back how your venture goes!!
Please know that I am not trying to crush your dreams. My intent in my post is to protect you so you don't go down a rabbit hole of losing money. I have been selling things online since 2001 and at flea markets and such for close to 50+ years so I have many years of experience with this and I hate to see people losing money on things, since I have been down that road.
What I should have added to my comment is that there is money in making doll clothing especially if you make them from vintage fabrics.
There are over 9000 sold auctions for handmade doll clothes on Ebay at the moment and some fetch nice tidy sums:
www.ebay.com/
If it was me and I was trying to make money from my love of dolls, this is where I would focus my energies. There is money to be made in this venue.
Sending up lots of good wishes for you!!
You want to buy my collection, willing to sell at reasonable price
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