To restring or not - that is the question

[beccachris]

Ok ladies - I need your advice.

I have a white bodied Samantha I purchased from ebay (the one in the album I posted yesterday). Her legs are loose (she will stand, but you really have to work at it, and I would be afraid she would just slowly fall over), her arms are slightly loose and her head seems to tilt downward.

Should I restring her? I have shown the webpage to my husband about restringing and he thinks it will be easy and has offered to help. I'm a big chicken though! I wondered how much the AG hospital would charge to restring her?

I probably would never do more than "display" her and periodically change her clothes. So - is it worth it, or should I just leave her be for now?

Even though I bought her on ebay, it almost feels like she is my childhood doll and I just want to take care of her. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[lynet44]

I have the same problem but with my Tess doll. Her legs are very loose but I don't have the guts to do the restringing myself. I called a doll hospital close to my parents' house and they charge 15 dollars to do it. It's not bad price but then I wonder if I even need to do it. She's my doll so all I do is display her and have her around me. But it does bug me that she has very loose legs. Her feet are always pointing all over the place.

I think I am taking her to the doll hospital. But I won't leave her overnight. They claim to be able to do it while I wait in the store. I just hope they don't scratch her or anything like that.

Lynet

[Shawniec]

I don't know if this helps, but I called customer service when I was thinking about gettting the legs of my Samantha (actually soon-to-be DD's Samantha) re-strung. I specifically asked if the cost ($20) was per limb. The woman I spoke with said no, that the $20 would cover restringing of all the limbs. She also said that they would give her a general cleaning. From what I have read in the past, if you do decide to have all limbs re-strung, you should probably write a note asking them to do so.
I have decided not to re-string our Samantha. I am not sure if I would have been brave enough to do the re-stringing myself, but I was considering it, and I will consider it again if DD eventually wants it done (Samantha's toes point in a bit).
Good Luck!
Shawn

[beccachris]

Shawn,

That's encouraging news on the price. I just assumed it would be $50 or more. I may call CS and double check that and send her in. I'd have to buy the stuff (tools and parts) to do it with anyway.

[LindaL]

Rebecca -

When we were in Colorado on vacation in June 2003, I had my oldest daughter's Kirsten fixed in Denver at the TLC Doll Hospital (a leg had fallen off) and had my younger daughter's Molly restrung. It took them about an hour or so to do both, and I think it cost about $18 or so a doll. They were nice enough to do it while we waited (especially after I explained that my oldest daughter wouldn't leave her Kirsten anywhere since she said people went to the hospital to die--an attitude she got from her Daddy's death earlier that year. They did a wonderful job (I highly recommend TLC Doll Hospital), and the girls and I had a blast picking out stuff for our dolls while we waited. I think I ended up spending close to $100 including fixing the dolls, but we got loads of stuff for the price.

The dolls are much "sturdier" now, and have held up wonderfully so far.

Linda

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ January 19, 2005 09:54 PM: Message edited by: LindaL ]</font>

[beccachris]

I called CS and she confirmed the $20 price for restringing the whole doll. So I went ahead and got her boxed up and off she goes in the morning. I'm really nervous about the whole thing - LOL - I can't believe how attached I am to her (and I've only had her for about 2 months and she's been hiding in the closet so my daughter wouldn't see her most of that time)!

[Shawniec]

Rebecca,
I will be very interested to hear how everything goes!
Shawn

[beccachris]

Shawn,

I'll be sure and post when she gets back. I made sure to include a note telling them to restring all limbs and make sure to leave her neck string intact. I thought I had read that they might replace it with one of those plastic zip tie things. Plus I gave them several numbers to reach me in case they had any questions about what I wanted done.