Restoring and Reselling on Ebay

[joelanddeborah]

Hi!

My ALMOST (ha) fourteen-year-old daughter wants to buy the poor, abused AG dolls on ebay and learn to restore them to sell for a profit. I told her I didn't think she would really get much money out of it, but I know it would be a fun thing for her. Have any of you restorers/resellers felt like financially it has been worth it to do this, or have you just felt like it is more fun than anything else? She is looking for some interesting ways to earn money. She makes pretty jewelry for me, her sister and her friends, but she gives it all away!
(I think my main concern would be that she wouldn't have the heart to sell them when she was finished--nor would I! But we have twelve Ag dolls now, and if I let her do this...who knows what we'll end up with!!)
I'm looking for some advice on this, and she seems really excited about trying it--with my credit card, of course! [img]smile.gif[/img]

Deborah

[wrxgirl]

I can say that after restoring my first ( Josie below) I had it in mind that I was going to resell her when I was finished... now that she is done, and being she was my first restoration, I am having a hard time even thinking about selling her! LOL
I have way too many dolls as it is, but I think its because I got to fix her up to my liking, etc....
I have seen a few of the dolls on ebay that have been restored that I know went for a pretty good profit, especially some of the felicitys with new wigs, etc....
Wigs are really not that expensive, depending on what you buy, glue is cheap, etc...
I guess I dont really know what to tell you, except for the fact that after restoring, its hard to part with them! [img]redface.gif[/img]

[joelanddeborah]

THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I'M AFRAID OF!! You should hear her when she looks on ebay with me: "Oh, Mom, she's so sweet! Oh look at her poor hair! Oh, can we get her? Oh, I can't believe someone didn't take care of her, etc. etc."

<font color="#051E50" size="1">[ January 23, 2006 02:01 PM: Message edited by: Deborah and Girls ]</font>

[jenndon]

I would do this, but I would set limits in my head--what I would pay in order for it to be "worth it."

I have to say that with my Molly work, it didn't take too much work (or $$), but at what I paid for her ($52 I think), I wouldn't be able to resell her for too much profit.

My realistic numbers on a resale would probably be to buy under $50 and hope to sell for over $60--so it's basically $10--unless you do really well on one end of the numbers.

And, yes, there's the wanting to keep her factor!!

I would encourage your daughter to keep looking and tell her if she finds one for under xx, then you can buy her and try.

[TaffyCheerful]

Given that the prices of old AG dolls needing restoring and the price of new-ish dolls (MIB or such) on eBay are not waaaay different, then I think the "profitability" of restoring AG dolls is pretty low.

Curiously, the difference between working and non-working Chatty Cathy dolls is substantially more than the cost of materials necessary to get them working and polished up.

Taffy