Missed doll chances

Sometimes I look at doll listings online and kick myself for missing them. Usually I'm looking at second hand but first hand can also apply. What are some dolls or doll accessories that were great deals that you missed?

ShouShou Doll Cat Cocoa, Dream Valley Glen, there was also that Little Monica sculpt I really liked but don't remember the name of, and Doll Chateau Alva, that last one I had a great idea for.... That's just the main four, and I'm hoping for a rerun of Cat Cocoa since that's still possible....

Edited March 10 by RozenGermain
I forgot one!

Shoushou Doll Cat Coco for me as well! I have never seen a photo of that doll I didn't love. I also start a new job this week, juuust in time to miss out on the Coral Dolls Mantises OTL

The 7th Dragon Type 2020 and 2020-II dresses I really want were listed on Dollyteria in mint condition for near retail price around this time a year ago. I hesitated because it was a huge chunk of change and I spent too much the previous month and had a whole pile of expenses coming up the following month, but I told myself I’d check them out in person first before committing. The day I was going to go to Ikebukuro to see them they sold out and I’ve been kicking myself ever since 😭 

For me it was the Iris Collect doll Kazuharu Gakuen Seishin Girls High School Ver. / Sumire.

I generally like the Iris Collects, but this one was really cute. Can't find her anywhere.

The Rin (and Len) reboot... unfortunately released far too close to Kaito for me to feasibly spend that much money so soon after 😔 Might try to get her at some point in future but not any time soon. Now making customs is far more appealing to me at the moment due to the fact I can take as much time as I want to create them piece by piece and not have to stress too much about missing out on anything so it might be more likely that a custom Rin or Meiko will happen instead 😅 

1 hour ago, roro_robot said:

Might try to get her at some point in future but not any time soon.

There is a Rin for sale in the marketplace: 

 

I missed out on both the K-on Dollfies. They came up on ebay and the price was really good, I just didn't have the money to buy them.

The worst is when you have to prioritize and watch something slip by that you'll likely never be able to get in the future. It doesn't hurt as much when it's already gone by the time you see it.

This is a currently-being-missed chance for me, but maybe not for someone else? There's a tan mochi-ashi body (from the UK) on Ebay rn for GBP 235 (about 300 USD, plus a brutal 50 dollars shipping to the US).......the week I get sick and have to suspend my work-start date by a week. I've consoled myself by the fact I have no way to get a tan head and on further introspection would prefer a tan DDP anyways, but if anyone out there is really trying to find a tan body...

Lina Inverse. 😭 She is absolute perfection and I didn't even know how much I wanted her until I saw her... months and months after her release ended. I even saw her on eBay a while back, but for $1250 which I definitely do not have. Lina... please wait until I'm wealthy...

More my hesitation costing me quite large amounts of extra money due to having to buy popular dolls secondhand now, ugh, lol. I’d been eyeing DD’s since… god, I dunno? The early figure.fm days? None caught my eye quite enough until 2B was announced but nooooo, of course I had to go talk myself out of her.

Then came Y’shtola. I longed for her, she’s just stunning despite me not really being into the game. I looked at her everyday for about half a year and let myself miss the pre-order because ~I do figures, not massive dolls~ (insert massive eye roll here, please) yet still found myself looking at her about once a month until January this year. My husband caught me eyeing her again on Mandarake in January and was all “STILL HER?!” so yeah, that’s the story of how Stoli became my first DD as a Valentine’s gift after god knows how long. And now of course that I have one, she needs a friend or a sister or ten because my PureNeemos and tiny resins aren’t cutting it, haha. I seem to have a thing for the semi-realistics so was/am eyeing 2B as my second but her price keeps creeping up so may wait until the other FFXIV dolls are released and fingers crossed that I don’t hesitate on ordering them. Well, literal years after their releases anyway! 

26 minutes ago, Zai said:

I seem to have a thing for the semi-realistics so was/am eyeing 2B as my second

2B and 9S were still being sold new as recently as… last year or the year before? They were available at DD Fes 2022 and a few anime conventions in the US, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Volks brought out some new old stock at some point. It sounds like you really need 2B!

1 hour ago, ragnamuffin said:

2B and 9S were still being sold new as recently as… last year or the year before? They were available at DD Fes 2022 and a few anime conventions in the US, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Volks brought out some new old stock at some point. It sounds like you really need 2B!

YESSS! Thank you for letting me know! That would be amazing! 
I’m really curious about the DDdy body too so she’d be just perfect. And after looking at user photos, she looks so good next to Y’shtola! 

Watching her go from around 90k yen to 120k yen seemingly overnight on the aftermarket recently was a big ouch, ehe, especially after shelling out for a Y’shtola (and probably the upcoming adorable Miku Hanami Outfit). I wouldn't be unhappy with 9S either, I think he’d look great with a visit to a good spa for a makeover and a DDdy body… he’s a very beautiful doll. Okay okay, must get my head out of the clouds dreaming about dolls and keep sewing my poor Stoli some pants, lol. 

I missed Anjo from Anohana because I was out when the email alert arrived 😒.

I also missed DD Ram's outfit for a great price because Buyee was down.

Mostly though I've picked up a few incredible bargains. These include: Miku's glasses, Rin Senbonzakura (before it was re-released), Miku bodysuit, Mikuzukin for practically free (it came with assorted other random stuff), SD Mytyl's birdcage set and who could forget 10 wigs for the price of 2-3.

Best buy was probably Saber's normal outfit set, unopened and with the lion. This can fetch grail prices even without the lion. I think I paid not much more than the original Volks price.

I won't mention Ribbon Girl or Yor Forger's cozy set 🥵🥵🥵.

On 3/14/2024 at 5:35 PM, honooko said:

Lina Inverse. 😭 She is absolute perfection and I didn't even know how much I wanted her until I saw her... months and months after her release ended. I even saw her on eBay a while back, but for $1250 which I definitely do not have. Lina... please wait until I'm wealthy...

Yes! Lina is my "One that got away," too. Slayers was one of the first anime I ever watched, after Sailor Moon and Pokemon. And they did such a great job on her! But there didn't seem to be away to get her online direct from Volks when she came out. Or if there was, I missed it.

The most depressing part is that I was at Anime Expo in 2022, and Volks always has a booth there. I didn't think they'd have Lina at the con, as she'd been sold out for quite awhile at that point, so I didn't prioritize getting to the booth right away. Got there on day two of the con, only to see a photo of the Lina doll with a big ol' "Sold out" sign across it. I asked the person running the booth and was told they'd had a few but had run out the day before, and that was all they were going to get. I was GUTTED! If I'd known, I would have beelined for them as soon as the doors opened on day one. I'm still kicking myself over it almost two years later.

I've been looking for her at cons and doll meetups ever since. She's shown up a lot on eBay, but not only are the prices pretty high, but the listings on eBay all use the same set of photos, which is super-sketchy to me. Occasionally I'll check on Mandarake, but no luck there, either. So I'll have to pine for her a little longer.

This happened a lot to me, then I started buying dolls too quickly. It's a really weird balance. I mostly buy on manadarake so you sometimes have to be quick, but not too quick? Regrets either way sometimes.

Funnily enough my own missed doll story involves a doll I saw on the DoA mp and only wished for years later. This was a specific mod based on a character from an anime I hadn't seen at the time, the only reason I remember seeing the ad is because it was a technically considered a gore mod and I clicked the link despite the warning only to be really grossed out by how the mod looked.

Years later I'm obsessed with the anime and the character, and I found the doll again posted on someone's Instagram. I'm glad they have a new home and I don't plan to put any pressure on the owner- it's their doll now and I accept that- but damn, if I had known I'd love the character this much at the time...

I would love to try a similar mod though someday, perhaps on a different sculpt that might suit the things I love about the character a bit better. It's really complex though and I have no modding experience so it's safe to say it probably won't be happening for a LONG time.

Still, when I realized it was the same doll I had rejected the look of so much when I first saw them... XD

On 3/12/2024 at 4:00 PM, Stupid_Hoomun said:

I missed out on both the K-on Dollfies. They came up on ebay and the price was really good, I just didn't have the money to buy them.

They're up on Mandarake now (1/2) fyi!

5 hours ago, fingerfloss said:

They're up on Mandarake now (1/2) fyi!

I saw them. I managed to get them both last month from Mandarake. I paid quite a bit more than the 2 listed now but they arived in really good condition with no damage to the shoes and guitar straps.

5 hours ago, Stupid_Hoomun said:

I saw them. I managed to get them both last month from Mandarake. I paid quite a bit more than the 2 listed now but they arived in really good condition with no damage to the shoes and guitar straps.

Oh, awesome! Hopefully the girls I linked find another good home 🙏

I've been in the hobby long enough that many of my missed chances eventually came back around and have since been acquired; the ones that I've still missed I've mostly become pretty okay with by now. 

Examples: Nanoha I missed several auctions on YJA for, later snagged her on Mandarake for below retail. Fate also slipped through my grasp for years, before I lucked out and snagged her from a fellow forum member. DDS Marisa was also another lucky Mandarake find, though she wound up costing me some extra since her original body kind of. . . disintegrated, so I had to get her a new one. Most recently, after years of hunting and missing the chance, I finally, FINALLY snagged an Azone Kaname Madoka to go with my Azone Akemi Homura. Ten years of wanting her before she finally came home. But it did happen!

Some I've become okay with missing out are Saber Alter (she is very pretty, but many of the features I like in her are ones Miku actually has too), and 9S (wanted his noggin for an OC of mine, but once owner photos came out he actually wasn't as good a fit for the OC as I had thought.)

One I do kind of regret is there was a resin head years ago that looked remarkably like David Tennant. I don't even remember the company or mold name now, and it's since been discontinued, but having a 10th Doctor running around my house would have been really fun. 

As for outfits that got away, I'm still kind of miffed I missed out on the Volks Steam Signal Red outfit. That set turned out to be incredibly rare, I hardly ever see it. That said, maybe it was a good thing, because the corset was in pleather, and it probably peels something fierce. At this point maybe I should just make an outfit inspired by it instead. 

I've missed out on a couple of really good deals for DDS Anthy that I'm still kicking myself for, but we just weren't in the financial position for me to jump on them at the time. However, as Poofiemus said, once you've been in the hobby long enough, you learn that things generally crop up again eventually. As such, I'm keeping my eye out on basically every platform for her and if she comes up for under my top budget, I'm jumping on her.

Just missed this listing for a DDS body with TWO Len heads, dyed....for 10,000yen or 67USD. Pain!!

I recently had to pass on a damaged Jeanne d'Arc (Ruler) for only 50,000 yen. She's one of my favorite Fate characters ever but I need to save money for Dolpa LA instead. I know there will be other deals in the future but it was definitely a little painful.