The odyssey of finding a doll in Spain
Hello ghouls and mansters, how are you?
Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I've been away on holidays with Mr. Monster visiting the beautiful north of Spain and running away from the local holidays of my hometown. While I was there, I went dollhunting, but I didn't find anything interesting, so I got an idea for this blog post.
First of all, I want to say that this is my personal opinion based on my experiences as an adult doll collector, and it's based basically on the dolls that I'm more familiar with, like Monster High, Barbie and Ever After High.
It all started with my quest to find Porter Geiss at a store. Besides Vandala, I got my Haunted girls (Kiyomi and River) at toy stores. However, it annyoed me that none of the stores I went to had Porter. I asked to one of the biggest doll collectors I know in my country if they knew where to find Porter and he told me to go to a store called Juguettos, because Porter was in there. Well, I might be the unluckiest person in this planet, because I've been to 5 or 6 Juguettos stores and I haven't been able to find him. I even asked some of the people working on this stores and they told me they never received a boy in the Haunted boxes, even one of the employees suggested that the boy could be released later, which I know is not the case with Porter.
While looking for Porter, it catched my attention the amount of old Monster High dolls that they have in the shelves at high prices, like for example the Scaris dolls at 28,90€. I also noticed that in Spain we seem to have problems to get the second wave of any Monster High line. Has anyone from Spain seen the New Scaremester wave 2 dolls in stores? I had to buy Catty Noir and Invisi Billy from Amazon.co.uk almost a year ago. But you can still find some of the New Scaremester wave 1 dolls in stores for 26,90€. Being this said, I have no hope to find Monster Exchange wave 2 dolls in stores.
And don't make me talk about Ever After High's distribution in Spain. We still haven't seen signature Duchess Swan, Lizzie Hearts or even Cedar Wood, that was released more than a year ago. They have also been removed from big retailers like El Corte Inglés, where one of their employees told me that "They don't manufacture them anymore" (read more about it here) which I know it's not true. Probably the reason is that they were not selling them, but if after a year on the shelves you are still retailing the Thronecoming dolls for more than 30€ each, parents are probably choosing a cheaper doll to buy for their kids.
Also, if we get a doll line, sometimes we get it like a hundred years later than other countries, even if they are sold at an international shop like Toys'r'us. For example, the Swim Class line arrived to Toys'r'us a year later (literally) than to other countries, or Iris Clops, that's been avaliable on Toys'r'us.com for a couple of months, but still hasn't been spotted on other countries.
I don't really like buying my dolls on line because I don't want to get the wonky eyed one and I prefer to examine the dolls before buying them, but if my local toy store doesn't bring the doll line that I want, I have no other choice than buying them at Amazon.com. And probably the most frustrating thing about this is that if I buy dolls on line from the USA and pay 18€ of shipping, I'm still buying them at a much cheaper price than in a toy store in Spain. How is that possible?
I really want to buy dolls in Spain, and I don't know if this lack of dolls on the spanish stores is the stores fault or the manufacturer's. I also know that I'm not an influential blogger and that probably very few people will read the whole post, but I hope my small post can help change the things in a near future.
Do you guys have the same problems in your countries? Tell me about your experiences buying dolls.
M.C.
Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I've been away on holidays with Mr. Monster visiting the beautiful north of Spain and running away from the local holidays of my hometown. While I was there, I went dollhunting, but I didn't find anything interesting, so I got an idea for this blog post.
First of all, I want to say that this is my personal opinion based on my experiences as an adult doll collector, and it's based basically on the dolls that I'm more familiar with, like Monster High, Barbie and Ever After High.
It all started with my quest to find Porter Geiss at a store. Besides Vandala, I got my Haunted girls (Kiyomi and River) at toy stores. However, it annyoed me that none of the stores I went to had Porter. I asked to one of the biggest doll collectors I know in my country if they knew where to find Porter and he told me to go to a store called Juguettos, because Porter was in there. Well, I might be the unluckiest person in this planet, because I've been to 5 or 6 Juguettos stores and I haven't been able to find him. I even asked some of the people working on this stores and they told me they never received a boy in the Haunted boxes, even one of the employees suggested that the boy could be released later, which I know is not the case with Porter.
While looking for Porter, it catched my attention the amount of old Monster High dolls that they have in the shelves at high prices, like for example the Scaris dolls at 28,90€. I also noticed that in Spain we seem to have problems to get the second wave of any Monster High line. Has anyone from Spain seen the New Scaremester wave 2 dolls in stores? I had to buy Catty Noir and Invisi Billy from Amazon.co.uk almost a year ago. But you can still find some of the New Scaremester wave 1 dolls in stores for 26,90€. Being this said, I have no hope to find Monster Exchange wave 2 dolls in stores.
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| New Scaremester Catty and Invisi Billy |
And don't make me talk about Ever After High's distribution in Spain. We still haven't seen signature Duchess Swan, Lizzie Hearts or even Cedar Wood, that was released more than a year ago. They have also been removed from big retailers like El Corte Inglés, where one of their employees told me that "They don't manufacture them anymore" (read more about it here) which I know it's not true. Probably the reason is that they were not selling them, but if after a year on the shelves you are still retailing the Thronecoming dolls for more than 30€ each, parents are probably choosing a cheaper doll to buy for their kids.
Also, if we get a doll line, sometimes we get it like a hundred years later than other countries, even if they are sold at an international shop like Toys'r'us. For example, the Swim Class line arrived to Toys'r'us a year later (literally) than to other countries, or Iris Clops, that's been avaliable on Toys'r'us.com for a couple of months, but still hasn't been spotted on other countries.
I don't really like buying my dolls on line because I don't want to get the wonky eyed one and I prefer to examine the dolls before buying them, but if my local toy store doesn't bring the doll line that I want, I have no other choice than buying them at Amazon.com. And probably the most frustrating thing about this is that if I buy dolls on line from the USA and pay 18€ of shipping, I'm still buying them at a much cheaper price than in a toy store in Spain. How is that possible?
I really want to buy dolls in Spain, and I don't know if this lack of dolls on the spanish stores is the stores fault or the manufacturer's. I also know that I'm not an influential blogger and that probably very few people will read the whole post, but I hope my small post can help change the things in a near future.
Do you guys have the same problems in your countries? Tell me about your experiences buying dolls.
M.C.
I can add some problems to that list specific to my country:
ReplyDelete- no famous store chains (lke ToysRUs,Target)
- only unofficial stores that get their merchandise through a hundred middlemen and the prices are blown accordingly
- originals and fakes on the same shelf and sellers who will try passing off fakes as originals
- no second-hand market (some flea markets, but they sell rags and garbage)
- low average income (my old monthly salary could buy 1, at most 2 dolls on a good bargain), there is little demand for expensive or good dolls
- no service from Amazon
- no service from Paypal
I better stop before the list gets too hopeless...
I think something that can make us feel better is to concentrate on the dolls we do have and enjoy them instead of obsessing over the ones we can't get. Of course, keep an eye out for any chances to get your dream dolls that come your way!
We do have Toys'r'us, but all the ones I've visited look old and don't seem to have as much variety as the ones in USA. We don't have other stores like Target or Walmart, so usually their exclusives go to El Corte Inglés, that tends to have more expensive prices than other shops.
DeleteIt also seems than in Europe in general we're not getting the new Ever After High dolls, have you noticed that?
Thanks a lot for your message
You from Spain? I'm also from Spain! And we are talking in english! :D...
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I also have troubles finding any kind of doll here in Spain. And when I find it, it's ridiculously pricey and I can't afford it. I recently found Invisi Billy in Amazon for 13,99€, and received him just today (been waiting to get him for a year, and never arrived to Spain), so yeah.
Glad someone can understand this problem we have here: low quantity of dolls, and all of them extremely expensive.
Hello Zilkenian! Yes, I'm from Spain, but I started this blog in english because most of the bloggers I used to interact with weren't spanish. You can write in spanish if you want.
DeleteIt's good to find someone that understand what it is to have such problems to find certain dolls in Spain. For example, the first wave of Project MC2 dolls just arrived to stores, while in USA they already have like 3 waves...
Sorry it took me so long to reply to your comments, I'm quite busy with university right now.