People get separated from their hard earned money every day. Many sellers are honest and do their best to disclose important things we need to know before thinking about bidding.

But what about the bad apples? How can you save your money for a good doll buy?

There are some warning flags to look out for.

1. Does the seller have private bidding on each and every one of their auctions? All the time?

2. Do all of their items get bid up on the first day of listing? Although this is a seller's dream, it doesn't happen in the real world very often. The majority of the bidding gets done in the last few minutes of the auction, especially for highly desirable items.

3. Is everything they list mint? Pristine? Rare?

4. Do they seem to have a never-ending supply of above mentioned items?

5. Do they have photographs of the doll that tend to make the item look better than it really is?

6. Vague, flowery words used in the description. Words such as beautiful, breathtaking, and blushed (when it comes to cheeks or other body parts), and "not a hair out of place" are subjective and are often used by some sellers to detract your attention from the fact that the item has been reworked within an inch of it's life so that it appears in very nice condition.

a. If the doll is described as beautiful and lists no specifics as to the actual condition or describes any restoration being done, ASK. Ask about craze concealer used on compos. Ask about non-original parts being used to put together a doll (such as a Muffie or a Ginny with dress-me doll arms, etc.). If this person exclusively or mainly deals in dolls, a question such as "Please tell me any non-original parts of the doll, wig, and outfit, and if any repainting or touch-ups have been done" should cover it.   

b. Doll's cheeks are beautifuly blushed? ASK. Ask them if THEY did the BLUSHING with a pot of  rouge, artist pastels, or paint.

c. Not a hair out of place? That may be true, but there's a chance that's because it's a REPLACED WIG. Ask. Ask about glue residue from the remnants of it's original wig. Ask if it's been replaced.

d. Doll described as wearing "her skating outfit" or "her party dress". Well, I guess you could sit a doll on top of an ice cream machine and it would be hers.
Ask if the outfit is tagged. Ask if the outfit is ORIGINAL to that DOLL. Ask where the outfit came from.

e.  If in any doubt, ask "What have you done to this doll"?

If they don't answer your question, or reply that they don't know (such as a reply of "I am not the original owner of this doll and I don't know" or "I can't tell"), RUN RUN RUN. Hit the back button on the auction page.  Don't let them take your money.  They know exactly what they're doing. If they only sell dolls, they should know better, especially when they're represented as mint, rare, pristine and HTF. If they know enough that a doll is rare, they should know enough if the wig's been replaced, if the Lissy skating outfit was freshly ripped off of a new discount store porcelain doll, they should know if they penciled in new eyelashes, if they replaced hair lashes on sleep eyes, if they slathered on compo concealer, and if they blushed the doll to heck and back to make it have a 'desirable high color'.

Read all you can about the dolls you like to buy. Get to know what IS original. Don't take a seller's word for anything that you can't back up with your OWN knowledge.

As soon as you win an auction, print out the auction listing so you'll have the pictures that were included.  Some sellers remove their auction pictures (if they use an outside image host) immediately after the auction is over.