What did poor Duffy do to deserve this?

[Wondering]

Considering your earlier post, I'd like to think you already know.

[DuffyDaisuki]

…And to be honest, having been in a lot of places where people customizing is normal, when someone -doesn't- list who customized it, it has -always- meant that's because the person selling it customized it. It's never been something that needs more info so I honestly don't think people would mix it up.

My thought is different. I'm not questioning your experience with customized collectibles, but that's not a world I'm unfamiliar with, either. The people I know who do customs for sale have a generally higher quality product and a generally higher class presentation. They tend to start auctions for a reasonable price and let the unique quality of their work be its own intellectual property protection. For writers and digital artists, the ease of copying does give some fair incentive to assert your copyright when sharing work online. But as a fully 3-D product, if what you make is so easy to copy, maybe it's not ready for profit from.

As for the authentic thing, well, that IS what it's customized from. And that's actually important to mention when customizing.

I'm sorry, Wondering, but I don't see how you're disagreeing. It's not just like they're "mentioning" authenticity; they're shouting AUTHENTICITY in a way that has huge potential to be misleading. I just can't believe anyone would be willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a poor dye job and a magnet. Maybe I'm wrong but it seems unlikely to me that someone would pay so much for something they could easily do better themselves.

But yes, obviously, people like them, but if you guys are worried they're misleading, we could always send them a message saying they should add more info?

I did ask for details. No reply yet.

I honestly don't think these will decrease the value though :/ They're customs. People do this. People also have made customs before of official releases. It shouldn't decrease the value at all. It's not like they're mass-producing them…

It's not about the number; it's about the potential for confusion. I really feel it's there. It's about the way this strongly comes across — at least to me — as something made, not by a Duffy fan, but by someone with means and opportunity to take advantage of Duffy fans. Stuff like this really bothers me. It would be like if I charged 2000% mark-up for Duffy Post and justified it by including a postcard. In fact, I even felt like giving something extra even with my very reasonable service charge, and from the response, I'd say no one was all that impressed with my mug/spoon sets. They wanted their official stuff. I can't help thinking that when people are paying this much for these items, they must be somehow confused.

[Wondering]

My thought is different. I'm not questioning your experience with customized collectibles, but that's not a world I'm unfamiliar with, either. The people I know who do customs for sale have a generally higher quality product and a generally higher class presentation. They tend to start auctions for a reasonable price and let the unique quality of their work be its own intellectual property protection. For writers and digital artists, the ease of copying does give some fair incentive to assert your copyright when sharing work online. But as a fully 3-D product, if what you make is so easy to copy, maybe it's not ready for profit from.

And I've seen wonderfully high quality ones too (ones that have gone for several thousands of dollars for example). I've seen both high and low and some of the high ones actually start at 300 dollars, which is a bit overpriced, but people still buy it and it sells. Not everyone starts cheap. And I don't think that's a fair incentive either as that...to be honest, throws that a lot of stuff that sells quite a bit. For example, I know someone who makes all her own Build-a-Bear. They look exactly like them and if she hadn't told me (and it wasn't for the missing tags), I'd never know. Similarly, I've seen some beautiful Duffy and Disney Bears people have made from scratch that look ridiculously close, if not exactly, to the original. According to you, if it's easy to copy, it shouldn't be profited from, but there are so many things that people have such an easy-time being able to copy--it's why there's so many alerts about bootlegs and things.

I'm sorry, Wondering, but I don't see how you're disagreeing. It's not just like they're "mentioning" authenticity; they're shouting AUTHENTICITY in a way that has huge potential to be misleading. I just can't believe anyone would be willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a poor dye job and a magnet. Maybe I'm wrong but it seems unlikely to me that someone would pay so much for something they could easily do better themselves.

And I honestly can't understand why this seems to have exploded so much. I don't think it has the potential to be misleading--most of their font used was huge, and as I said, it's actually a big important thing to say what it was customized from. If it's not listed, people tend to worry it's a bootleg or not a Duffy at all and just designed to be one. As I said before though, it really depends on what people like. Dying isn't always the simplest thing (I've tried dying things before--the best I've done is a tye-dye shirt) and maybe the people winning can't do that. Or maybe they just really like them and would rather have it--not make their own.

It's not about the number; it's about the potential for confusion. I really feel it's there. It's about the way this strongly comes across — at least to me — as something made, not by a Duffy fan, but by someone with means and opportunity to take advantage of Duffy fans. Stuff like this really bothers me. It would be like if I charged 2000% mark-up for Duffy Post and justified it by including a postcard. In fact, I even felt like giving something extra even with my very reasonable service charge, and from the response, I'd say no one was all that impressed with my mug/spoon sets. They wanted their official stuff. I can't help thinking that when people are paying this much for these items, they must be somehow confused.

I'm sure your sets were awesome But I don't think it's right to judge someone without knowing for sure. Like I said, depending on where they got the bear and it's current price, the mark-up isn't huge. Not to mention some of the other customs that have gone up have started at 70 dollars and 99 cents so not everyone is pricing them at that either. I'm not saying the price is justifiable, but it's not actually that big of a mark-up. If we say the Duffy was about 30 dollars on average + the custom-made outfit...that's another 30 on average + 10 dollars for accessories + the cost of dye... it's actually not that much increased from the total.

And honestly, I think the only way people could be confused is if they didn't read the description--which just like when signing a document or doing a deal, you always read the fine print. While I'd feel horrible for anyone who did make the mistake, it's not fair to blame just the seller when the description should've been read.

I remember a long time ago there was a news article about how an Xbox box (yes, just the box for the console) went for about 500-600 dollars since the system was sold out. It was clearly listed in the description that only the box was for sale and the system wasn't included. The person who won obviously didn't bother reading and thus, the whole thing blew up. I'm not saying either was right, but we don't know if the person with the box was necessarily trying to scam someone (They did say what it was in the description, started it at a low price, and having made stuff out of all kinds of boxes and things myself, maybe they preferred to sell it over throwing it out) and if the person who won read the description, they wouldn't have messed up to begin with.

[gurgi]

I know I started this whole thread, and I'm still of two minds on this. This particular auction/seller, I'm not happy with. It's not the fact that it's a custom. Several of you have made valid points about fan customization. I don't have a problem with that. There are many custom costumes and props made by Japanese fans for Duffy. I've seen so many creative ideas. The thing is, they always make it known that it's their own homemade design. They fill a void where there isn't an official costume. Or, they recreate with exquisite details, the character costumes from special events. These US sellers are not doing anything that detailed. Maybe the seller here is proud of their creations, but the way it's worded and named makes me think they did it to take advantage of Japanese buyers who might not know it's history. I mean, even the name "Pinku" is trying to make it Japanese somehow. Neither Duffy nor Shellie May's names are Japanese, so why "Pinku"?

Hopefully whoever bought it is truly happy with it and knows exactly what they got. Still, I would prefer more honesty in these custom dye-jobs and less of a "me too" feel of the older, colored Disney Bears. Notice, they are not dying them any "new" colors. So far, they have been purple, red, aqua, etc. These are all colors that are rare and official. Why not an orange Duffy? What about Kelly green? I'm just a bit suspicious, sorry.

[gurgi]

Ok, so she's getting a little bit better about being "different" from any previous Duffys.

NEW Teal FAIRY Disney Duffy Hidden Mickey Bear RARE-17" | eBay

I'm not crazy about the color, but that's just my taste. I'm also still not crazy about not stating more bluntly that this is a dyed bear. Still, she's done enough different things, like the pink nose, the crystal mouth, special tag. I can see she's trying to make something her own. Hopefully she'll just keep getting better, and maybe have better descriptions.

[DuffyDaisuki]

Ok, so she's getting a little bit better about being "different" from any previous Duffys.

NEW Teal FAIRY Disney Duffy Hidden Mickey Bear RARE-17" | eBay

...I'm also still not crazy about not stating more bluntly that this is a dyed bear...I can see she's trying to make something her own. Hopefully she'll just keep getting better, and maybe have better descriptions.

I think along these lines, she oughtta say "One of a kind" or "OOAK" rather than "RARE" in the title and description. It is, again, misleading. But you'd have to be pretty ignorant to be confused by this one, it's true. It's certainly more work. Let's see if it sells for as much...

[Wondering]

I think along these lines, she oughtta say "One of a kind" or "OOAK" rather than "RARE" in the title and description. It is, again, misleading. But you'd have to be pretty ignorant to be confused by this one, it's true. It's certainly more work. Let's see if it sells for as much...

At least one of the sellers has been putting OOAK in the title which is nice.

But yeah, it's good to see them labeling better too.

[Kritter]

I barfed.

That is absolutely horrendous!

[alicein1derland]

I am SOOOO disappointed. I'm one of the suckers that fell for this bear! I'm sooo sad. I got ripped off with a pink dyed bear. Please add "susanspicks" to the list of fraudulant sellers of dyed bears. I could just cry. I should have know when in the listing it says "not for children". Duh... Does anyone know of an honest person that would sell me a colored bear for a reasonable price? And (sad that I have to say this,) not rip me off??? I'm so depressed. Please let me know if there is a kind heart anywhere out there!!! Thanks, Tiffany

[gurgi]

I am SOOOO disappointed. I'm one of the suckers that fell for this bear! I'm sooo sad. I got ripped off with a pink dyed bear. Please add "susanspicks" to the list of fraudulant sellers of dyed bears. I could just cry. I should have know when in the listing it says "not for children". Duh... Does anyone know of an honest person that would sell me a colored bear for a reasonable price? And (sad that I have to say this,) not rip me off??? I'm so depressed. Please let me know if there is a kind heart anywhere out there!!! Thanks, Tiffany

I'm sorry you bought one of these custom bears and were disappointed. Can I ask you a couple questions to figure out what's going on though? Were you looking for one of the colored ones specifically and found these on Ebay? Did you believe they were the "real deal" and thought you were getting one of the original colored ones? I'm asking only because I want to know how people who might not be familiar with Duffy/Disney Bear history are looking at these auctions. It's hard for me, because I know what to look for, and my "suspicion" radar goes off immediately if something doesn't look right. However, for lots of new Duffy fans, I'm curious how these "custom dye jobs" appear to them.

When you got the bear, was it more obvious that it was dyed? Does it rub off easily?

As for getting one of the real colored Disney Bears for a decent price, I'm sorry, but that's probably not going to happen because of the Japanese fans who want them. Whenever an authentic one goes up for sale, they always sell for high prices. Personally, I would kill to own one of the original lavender colored bears, but they are always WAY out of my price range. Unless you luck out and find one at a yard sale, or estate sale, I don't know how you can get one cheaply.

[Wondering]

I am SOOOO disappointed. I'm one of the suckers that fell for this bear! I'm sooo sad. I got ripped off with a pink dyed bear. Please add "susanspicks" to the list of fraudulant sellers of dyed bears. I could just cry. I should have know when in the listing it says "not for children". Duh... Does anyone know of an honest person that would sell me a colored bear for a reasonable price? And (sad that I have to say this,) not rip me off??? I'm so depressed. Please let me know if there is a kind heart anywhere out there!!! Thanks, Tiffany

Gurgi already answered about founding a reasonably priced one... heck, you can even find a real pink one here.

And while I'm sorry you bought it thinking it was something else (that always sucks), it does say right in her description that it's customized. Even if you feel you got ripped off, the seller technically didn't do anything wrong nor were they fraudulent as the bears really were dyed from real Disney Bears.

[gurgi]

Gurgi already answered about founding a reasonably priced one... heck, you can even find a real pink one here.

And while I'm sorry you bought it thinking it was something else (that always sucks), it does say right in her description that it's customized. Even if you feel you got ripped off, the seller technically didn't do anything wrong nor were they fraudulent as the bears really were dyed from real Disney Bears.

See?? OMG, that pink bear is over $1,000 already! There is absolutely no way I could ever justify spending that kind of money.

[Wondering]

It's rare for the original colored bears to go for less than 1,000. In fact, I think the only ones that do are the "Princess" Yellow and Pink versions which go for 500-800.

More often than not, they usually even reach 2K. I remember hearing the purple is actually the most wanted, followed by pink and then aqua.

[LilTeacup]

I dont like that the seller was mentioning "Meet Duffy and Shellie May's new friend.." because I feel that if the bidder wasnt familiar with the franchise, they might misunderstand and believe this is an official new companion or something.

[Wondering]

I suppose that could happen, but the seller did say it was a custom and it's actually not unusual or rare for a seller to say that if the custom is a specific character.