Guide to selling Fashions for BJD on Ebay

OVERVIEW

Many people create and sell fashions for BJD, maybe you are one of them and are interested in getting involved in selling your creations but don't really know what information your buyers want, and would like to increase your odds of selling your fashions. I cannot guarantee you bids, but I can give you tips from both a buyer and a seller standpoint. You can use these tips and apply them to your own auctions, and see for yourself the difference the small things can make.

Many of these tips could be applied to any doll fashion market regardless of the doll size, but this article is geared towards meeting the needs of the BJD collector.

QUALITY VS QUANTITY

Each seamstress has her/his own forte when it comes to creating fashions.  Some have the ability to create lots of fashions or items within a reasonably short period of time, while others will pour hours of intensive labor into one outfit.    Does this mean that the items made in a short period of time are lesser quality than those that have had hours and hours of work put into them? Not necessarily.  An experienced seamstress with years of sewing regularly under her/his belt could produce a high quality outfit in a reasonably short period of time.  While the same outfit could take a less experienced seamstress more time and be of lesser quality.  At the same time a very experienced seamstress may create something of shoddy quality while the less experienced seamstress may make something that is truly a work of art.

Quantity doesn't necessarily mean quality.  Just like in fashions for humans, you have your walmart designers and your chic hollywood botique designers.  While each market has its purpose, it is important to know which market you fall into.  Word of quality flies in the doll world, if your outfit is shoddy quality and over priced people will find out, the same goes for high quality and reasonable prices.  This can make or break your business.

• Fabrics:  the fabrics you use to create your fashions not only affects the color and texture but the overall appeal of the fashion.  In determining the value of the fabric you will want to consider the weight of the fabric, the fiber, how it feels on the skin,  and the weave of the fabric.

• Construction: the way you construct the outfit can greatly affect its value.  You will want to tell your buyer if the fashion is sewn by hand or by sewing machine.  is the garment lined?  what kind/color of fabric is it lined with? How is the garment hemmed (eg: lettuce edging, hand hemmed, rolled hem, double stitched hem, etc)

• Closures and details: The type of closure (none, zipper, button, snap, velcro) has a definite impact on the quality of the item as well.  Typically velcro is found on lower end items while you will find zippers and buttons on higher end items.  No closures and snaps should be reserved for mid range quality items.  if your fashion contains interesting details such as silk ribbons, to scale metal parts and/or eyelets, this also would increase the quality (assuming of course they are attached and used properly and do not detract from the overall appearance)

• Seams:  In the smale scale, typical seam allowance is only 1/4" (.64cm)  in doll fashions.  This means that there is less fabric between the raw edge and the stitching line.  If a gown is made from say silk, it typically freys pretty badly, thus potentially shortening the usable life of the garmet if the seams are unfinished.  Tell your buyers how your seams are finished (eg: liquid stitch, pinked seams, serged, zig zagged, double stitched, top stitched, etc)

• Care and Cleaning:   As a general rule of thumb a good quality outfit will survive being washed and cleaned.  If there are any special considerations for cleaning your garment be sure to make your buyer aware of them in the auction listing.

• Fit: well fitted or tailored fashions tend to sell better than ones that are not.  Fabrics that are stretchy of course can most likely fit a doll with minimal construction, but fabrics that have no stretch require more work and pattern pieces to make them fit, thus the quality is generally higher on a structured fit fashion than a stretch fit one.

• Originality: Is it an original design by you or did you work from a purchased pattern?  If you worked from a purchased pattern it is common courtsey to credit the designer of the pattern in your auction listing.
  

PRICING YOUR WORK

Experience should play a vital factor in your pricing.  It is quite common for an artist or seamstress to have trouble pricing their work.  There are a number of formulas out there for determining the price of handiwork.  One of the most common formulas is shown below.  I would only apply this method to Buy it now or fixed price listings.

Auction Formula

For traditional auction style listings I find it best to price items without multiplying for profit.  People shop auctions hoping to find a deal, and/or a great value.  So for auction style listings the formula would be as follows


If you are new to the business you may consider only doubling the materials + time until you establish your customer base.  If you have more work under your belt and as a result can construct things faster you may want to consider tripling the materials + time.  Overhead may not be applicable for everyone but it would include the costs to keep your business running.  Below are a few examples of how to determine the cost of your materials and time.  The examples below do not include overhead.

Materials

The actual cost of your fabric should be factored into your pricing.  For example if you bought 1 yard of dupioni silk for $24 and made 2 dresses from that fabric, your fabric cost per dress would be $12.00.  If you paid a $3 for a yard of cotton fabric the fabric cost per dress would only be $1.50 per dress.  On both types the notions (trims, closures, thread, etc) are the same cost, $5 per dress. 

• silk dress materials cost = $17.00
  
• cotton dress materials cost=$6.50

Time

Personally when I started sewing for dolls 6 years ago I took the rate of pay I earned at my last 'traditional' job and used that to determine the value of my time. Just like a traditional job over the years I have gotten a few raises.   For this example we will use the minimum wage in the US which is $5.15. If the dress above took 4 hours to complete the total labor for the dress would be $20.60.  So taking our amounts from above and our time figure here are 2 calculations that show typical pricing for this dress in particular.

• silk dress total cost to create= $37.60;  $37.60*2.5=$94.00
• cotton dress total cost to create=$27.10; $27.10*2.5=$67.75

In the land of fashion there are other factors that can influence prices.  The originality of the piece, the number of pieces that you will create in the same fabric/style, the amount of detail in the fashion, and the number pieces each ensemble includes.   For example an original design offered as a one of a kind in a unique and hard to find fabric that is a full ensemble (includes everything needed for the buyer to create the same look at home) would demand the greatest price in the market.   At the same time a basic outfit with little detail, of which 2 or more identical sets are made with minimal accessories (eg: single item, or a basic top and bottom) will demand a considerably lower price on the market. 

In the example above, if the dress was a fairly simple gown with minimal detailing  that took 4 hours to complete there is a very high chance that it would never sell priced as above, regardless of the time taken.  If the dress was quite detailed and original and hard for someone else to duplicate it is fully plausable that the dress could realize the value or exceed it on auction.

Get to know your market

Study and look at the other items on auction that are similar in style and size to the items you will be offering, compare the pricing that you have come up with for these items to the items you find.  If your prices are more than 15% higher than the market average, the ensemble likely will not sell; if the pricing is 15% or more lower than the market average this again can affect the likelyhood of your item selling.   If you do not know your market you will not be successful in your endavors.

LISTING DESIGN

The layout and overall appearance of your auction should compliment the item(s) you are selling.  For example, if you are selling a pretty pink and white floral sundress, a black background or one with a busy pattern would detract from the ensemble.  The more coordinated your auction listing is, the easier it will be on the eyes.   Make sure you include information about the Quality, craftsmanship, and items included in the auction.  You will see many auctions that also include a disclaimer that states the items that are not included in the auction.  Be very clear with your description and let your buyers know exactly what is included, which dolls that it will fit, and the shipping charges whenever possible. 

As a seller I want to include as much information as possible, but as a buyer I tend to stop reading after 3 short paragraphs.  So as a guideline I try to only include the vital and necessary information so that I don't bore my potential bidders. 

For auction style listings, a mid-range quality outfit typically starts between $45 and $70 on ebay.  Lower quality or less pieces would start lower on average and higher quality would start higher.  When you have determined where you fit in the market it will greatly help you determine where to start your auction prices.

Include photos whenever possible, personally I have never bought any item that did not show me what I was buying.  This is discussed in greater detail in the next section.

PHOTOGRAPHY

From a sellers standpoint:

The value of photography in your listing cannot be stressed enough.  The better the quality of your photos the better the odds are that your item(s) will sell.  Photos are of vital importance, as it is the only visual reference that a potential buyer has before they buy an item on auction.  Unlike a traditional storefront or doll show they do not have the option of touching, feeling and inspecting your item for the quality and detail. So it is really needless to say that you need quality photos of a decent size so that the potential buyers have a very clear idea of what they will be recieving when they buy from you. 

If your photos are blurry, dark or hard to make out detail it makes it hard for a buyer to determine if your fashion is one that they will purchase.  Photos serve the purpose of showing the buyer what they will be getting. If that is not shown clearly through your photos the potential buyers will likely continue on to shop somewhere else.  Typically as a seller, I like to include 5 to 10 photos of each outfit, and a gallery image.  A gallery image is a great tool which invites buyers to come in and see a bigger view of your item.  If your gallery image is not relevant to the auction it will decrease your odds of sales, if your gallery picture is uninteresting it will not entice anyone to come in and take a look around.

From a buyers standpoint:

When I look at fashions on ebay for BJD I look for a number of things, primarily I look for quality pictures, photos that show details and that show the outfit or item from a number of different angles.  I want to see what it is  I'll be getting.  I also like seeing photos that are artistic and interesting but that do not detract from the item that I will be buying.  I want to know that the money I'm spending is going to get me a neat item that I will enjoy owning and that will look good on my dolls.  When I was on dial up internet access I absolutely hated auctions that took forever to load because of the size of the photos and would leave the auctions before they were finished loading.  As a buyer my attention span is about one minute per auction, if the page is still loading after a minute of sitting there or I find the overalll look unappealing I leave and continue on to look at something somewhere else. About 95% of the auctions I take time to look at include a gallery image, the ones without a gallery image typically get less of my time if any when I go to look. 

Photo Tips

SIZE:  keep photos large enough that your buyer can see what they are getting but small enough byte wise that it doesn't take forever to load.    Do not use an auto resizer program for your photos as this reduces the image quality manually resize the photos in an art program and save, this way you have control over the quality of your image (this will help reduce pixelation as well)   There are many browsers that are set to optimize images to make pages load faster, if your images are too large in an auction they will come out distorted on the computers with their browsers set this way.  On many browsers it is a default setting. 

An Important note about using the basic picture service from ebay, even with 'supersize' pack of images, ebay auto resizes the images for you which can result in image quality reduction (that top stitching you worked so hard on may not show up well with this service)  Ebay offers a paid photo subscription and management system ebay picture manager the fee for this service begins at $9.99 for 50mb of storage space.  This is one option for hosting photos where you have a little more control over the size of your pictures without having to leave the ebay site.

There are a number of other 3rd party hosting sites out there, as well as a fabulous one just for doll auctions called the doll page.  Their hosting service is free and they have a number of album options, including temporary and permanent storage choices.  Due to guide restrictions I appologize that I cannot include a link to them per guide policy.  But if you can work a search engine you can find them. 

LIGHTING:  take your photos in the right light, this will help the details show up, and whenever possible avoid using flash photography as it tends to wash out detail.  Typically the best light to use is natural sunlight either direct or indirect.  If you do not have access to somewhere that you can take photos in natural sunlight I suggest investing in a sunlight replacement lamp like an Ott-lite .

ANGLES:  I love to experiment with angles, and I highly suggest that you do as well.   The best way to figure out which angles show the outfit in its best light is to play and take lots of photos.  Typically I take 100+ photos of every fashion that I create, only about 10 of those actually ever make it to be seen by others.  Generally 10 to 20 photos of each pose that I do, but I do not allow myself to take more than 2 photos from the same angle.  This exercise will also encourage you to be more adventureous in your photography and will help you to develop an eye for what looks best.

POSING:  A big pet peeve is seeing the same pose and angle in every picture.  Subconciously this entails that something isn't right somewhere or that the outfit will only look good on a doll posed that one particular way.  Try poses that are exciting and that show the movement and flow of the fabrics used.  It is my personal opnion  that a straight pose with arms to the side and head looking straight on is the most mundane pose ever.  This isn't to say that this pose will not sell outfits, but spice your posing up a little by taking advantage of the posing ability that these fabulous dolls have. In the photo examples below Unoa Sist is modelling the same outfit, in the first photo she is standing straight on, but her chin is tilted slightly down and her elbows bent slightly to add dimension.  Her legs are also slightly spread to  reduce the rigidity of the pose giving her a softer look, in the second photo she is obviously laying down and considerably more posed than in the first two photos and as a result has more 'life' to the photo'.  Try sitting poses, poses with the hand on the hip, any pose that adds life to the photo.  As a collector myself, I can honestly say that my BJDs hardly ever take that 'straight on no movement' pose.  Show me what the outfit looks like posed and you increase my interest and the possibility that I would bid on your items.