Doll boots can be a lot of fun to dress your doll in, when you’re making winter raincoats and ponchos for them to wear in your fall dioramas. But if you’ve ever tried to buy vintage Barbie boots, you’ll probably already be familiar with this little problem:
Some sellers on eBay are experts at hiding the flaws in their products. Then, when you buy it and it arrives home, you take it out of the package and say, “Wait a second… is this a bait-and-switch?”
That’s why it’s always a good idea to look through every single photo offered by the seller before you buy. A lot of times they will leave the photos that show damage or stains (like the stains on the doll boot below) until the very last photo they upload.
Still, as I said in last week’s doll-shoes-topic blog post, eBay is a great place to stock up on doll shoes, for dolls of every shape and kind. Just make sure you know what you’re buying.
Let’s say, for example, you stumble across these cute little ice skates, and they’re labeled “fashion doll skates.”
Well, to say they are “fashion doll skates” would definitely be true, but they’re not just for any old fashion doll. They’re made for Bratz dolls.
For those of you who don’t know what a Bratz doll is, they are dolls that come with detachable feet that already have the shoe on them, as shown below:
So if you ordered those “fashion doll ice skates,” once they arrived, you’d look inside them and discover this little problem:
Yeah, I bought that sneaker from a seller on eBay who really knew how to play the game. I sent him a message that said, “Will these sneakers fit Ken dolls?” to which he replied, “I don’t know. They’re made to fit 1:6 scale action figures.”
Well a 1:6 scale action figure could mean GI Joe, Action Man, or any number of toys, most of which have their feet already attached, but (as I discovered after the fact) a few of which do NOT. But I assumed, “Oh, hey, if it will fit GI Joe, that’s good enough.”
And I bought them. Like an idiot.
Thankfully they do fit on my Bratz dolls, but that dirty scoundrel on eBay knew good and well they wouldn’t fit Ken. I mean, who doesn’t know what “KEN” refers to?
As you can see in the image above, though, those high-top sneakers make the Bratz dolls’ legs look sort of stubby. Overall, I was pretty disappointed that I fell for the old “I dunno” trick on eBay.
When that happened to me, I gave up on trying to buy myself a pair of Converse High Tops for my dolls and decided to just make myself some. And because of that incident, this pattern joined all the others here on ChellyWood.com:
And mine DO fit Ken! See…
That’s my Lammily Photographer doll on the right, so they fit Lammily dolls as well. Here’s a link to that pattern, if you want to download the PDF.
So hey, I made lemonade out of the lemons that I bought from someone on eBay without really knowing what I was going to get. Dolls are for having fun with anyway, so why not?
One of my happiest doll-play memories as a child was when I got a pair of red ice skates for my Barbie. I used to fill up a cake pan with water, freeze it, and then play “Dorothy Hamill, figure skater” with my Barbie for HOURS.
So… Much… FUN!
Yes, skates are super fun to pose your dolls in, as are boots and high-tops, but the moral of the story is… know what you’re buying before you buy!
Just look at these skates (below). If you saw the image on the left, you’d think, “Those are cute.” But once you see the image on the right, you can see that the paint is faded on one side of the skate.
So be wary of sellers who only offer one photo or who only offer photos taken at a single angle. Buy from sellers who let you see up, down, around, behind, and right inside your doll shoes/boots/skates, etc…
Now before we go, I want to mention my friend Dodi’s shop again. She’s an honest seller on eBay, and I’ve really enjoyed the “Little Extras” doll shoes that I’ve bought from her in the past. To learn more about these doll shoes, go back to last week’s Tuesday blog post, “Where to buy CUTE doll shoes.”
These are some of the shoes I’ve bought from her:
Dodi’s shop is called Barbie1959Pink, and she’s an honest seller with very fair prices for her hard-to-find Barbie shoes! She’s also giving my followers a special offer right now: “any of your followers that mention you in my store can get a discount prior to payment on my shoes.”
And now for my closing statement, which is (yet again) a plug for my paid course…
If you enjoy the doll clothes sewing tutorials that are free on my YouTube channel, you should have a look at my paid courses on the Creative Spark online learning platform. Here’s what people are saying about my course called “How to Alter Doll Clothes Patterns” so far:
Student 1: “I love this course! I am learning so much. You do a wonderful job. Thank you so much.”
Student 2: “This is more in-depth than I thought.”
To read more about my free sewing patterns and tutorials, please visit the “Helpful Tips” page.
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Ken and Barbie dolls are manufactured and sold by Mattel. Today Mattel holds the registered trademark for them (™).
Bratz dolls are products offered by MGA Entertainment, which holds the registered trademark for them (™). Please visit the MGA Entertainment website to learn more about their company and its trademarked toys.
GI Joe and Action Man action figures are owned and distributed by Hasbro Pulse, which holds the registered trademark for these toys (™). Please visit the Hasbro Toy website to learn more about their company and its trademarked toys. This link will also help you find Action Man figures specifically, and those figures are still distributed throughout the United Kingdom.
All the doll clothes I’ve designed on this website are marked with a Creative Commons Attribution mark. Any similarity to other companies’ or other crafters’ projects of a similar nature is unintended.
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Very good advice for doll collectors. Be aware of what you are buying.
Great to know that… informative post 😊
Thankfully most ebay sellers are honest, but I’m sure everyone can identify with the disappointing buys you’ve had. The bad sellers can be very bad, but the good sellers can be so wonderful and kind. As you point out, buyers need to read descriptions and look at photos carefully, and ask lots of questions.
Your sneakers look great, and thanks for sharing the pattern.
Thank you again Chelly. I hope people are taking advantage of all you great posts, patterns and classes. Also any of your followers that mention you in my store can get a discount prior to payment on my shoes.
That’s awesome! I’ll add that text to the blog post.
I also do a lot of my advertising on Fridays, so I’ll make sure this particular blog post gets a little bit of extra traffic from my Facebook followers as well. I love to support HONEST sellers on eBay — like YOU, my friend!
😀