Question about face-ups

Am I supposed to buy a blank head and send it to an artist? Or is it like you buy an already painted head from someone? Does anyone have some links to great face-up artists?

You can buy blanks and either paint them yourself or have them painted. You can sometimes find heads with custom face-ups on ebay, Yahoo Japan Auctions and in the Marketplace here. You can also find limited heads for sale in all those places, and in some cases you may find limited heads that have had new face-ups done.

 

I can recommend Freya_21 here on the forum. She did this one for me: viewtopic.php?f=42&t=13436#p188285

 

There are other face-up artists here, and also on Den of Angels, but Freya is the only one who I have used personally.

Edited April 9, 2016 by Guest

Some faceup artists can or will buy a blank head to paint for you, to save double handling. That's how I've had all of my customs done. Other artists may prefer not to go through that and rather you post to them. Personally that is too inconvenient to me so I stick with those who are willing to buy the blank and have it shipped directly to them.

Is this a whole head? The price looks too low, but google translate isn't helping lol

Do I have to send this guy a blank?

http : / / page16 . auct ions.yahoo.co.jp /jp / a uction / u101004926

Is this a whole head? The price looks too low, but google translate isn't helping lol

Do I have to send this guy a blank?

http://www.jauce.com/auction/u101004926

It looks like this auction is for the finished head as shown. Sellers will frequently start with a low opening bid to get the bidding going. There's still over a day to go. There will probably be a flurry of bidding in the last hour or so.

How would I go about bidding on this site?

I've never personally used them, so I can't tell you how. I looked under their help center, and they don't have an obvious "first time user" guide, but they do have a searchable "knowledge base."

 

Since this appears to be a Yahoo Japan Auction there are a number of other services you can use to bid on this head. Each of these services has first time use guides, and I know other forum members have used these services and may be able to provide advice.

 

Buyee: http://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/u101004926?lang=en

Samurai Buyer: http://samuraibuyer.jp/en/

From Japan: http://www.fromjapan.co.jp/en/

 

I've personally used Buyee, and the service works similar to Ebay.

 

The key difference with YJA auctions is the concept of a Sniper Bid. I have never used it, so I wouldn't be able to give you a good explanation. Sniper bids are totally optional, but if you do a Sniper Bid it limits your ability to place a normal bid.

 

I've only used Buyee, so I can't give you a good comparison to the other services. I have never had a problem, but another user on the forum did have a major issue regarding a doll lost in the mail, and had a terrible customer service experience with them. viewtopic.php?f=46&t=13456&hilit=Samurai+Buyer&start=540#p189337

 

There are follow up posts in that thread where people talk about their experiences with Samurai Buyer, and From Japan.

 

Sorry I know that doesn't really answer the question you asked.

 

One caution: Paypal service in Japan auction merchants is often limited to bank account transactions only. If you choose paypal at checkout you don't get the normal Paypal site they just immediately deduct it from your bank account. If I want to use a credit card I always pick Credit Card as the payment option at checkout. Buyee and Mandarake are both like this. In these sites Paypal requires a special setup that enables them to deduct the money from the bank.

Anyone from America know the most inexpensive way to ship a dd head out of the country for a faceup?

If you're in NA, you should use one of the plethora of faceup artists there. Domestic shipping is relatively cheap and you are spoiled for choice on artists.

I haven't done a cost comparison, but I have found that using UPS, or Fed-Ex for overseas shipping can be very expensive depending on the country you are sending too. The US Postal Service is probably the cheapest option, but again it depends on the country you send to.

 

USPS can only guarantee speed up to the foreign border. Once it's in the hands of the foreign post it's out of their hands.

Can I get some links? I'm having trouble finding some on my own.

If you are looking for face-up artists you can find them here on the forum in the Marketplace.

Those are some old threads. Can I have some names or websites?

I recently sent a blank DDH-09 head that I got through Yahoo Auctions to x3Ashley (Lovely Dollie Faceups). I live in the U.S, and she lives in Australia. I used USPS International First-Class - it cost about $12, and there was no tracking but Ashley received it after 2 weeks. So it went pretty well.

x3Ashley does lovely faceups but the way, here's her page:

 

http://www.dollfiedreams.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=12002

 

Although, she's going on vacation soon (I think end of April to mid-May) and she won't be able to accept any other commissions till she comes back. You can contact her if you're interested. She also has an Etsy store

She does faceups for $60, and there's an additional fee of $2 to remove a previous faceup.

 

She's working on my faceup right now, and so far it's looking great. She sends progress images as she works on it ^^

The face-up artist I have used in the past is Freya_21 here on the forum. Her website is: https://freyasfaceups.wordpress.com/

 

She's located in England. I used USPS, but I don't recall the cost.