Thursday, October 6, 2022

Collection Cycle 2022 - #27, #28, #29 - The Hazards of Collecting During A Dolly Drought

Saying that it has been a lean year for collecting Integrity Toys (IT) dolls would be a grave understatement, especially if you are referring to Fashion Royalty or Nuface dolls.  We are in the 10th month of 2022 and the W Club has just announced the second of five W Club exclusives within the last couple weeks.   There is still no word yet about the IT "Convention".  No major retail capsules have been offered in 2022.  What's a collector to do?

I have been tirelessly trying to organize my collection.  I am very proud of the fact that I have sold off over 30 dolls (and almost 20 ensembles).   This season has been an excellent time to find homes for some of my lesser loved dolls.   It has also helped me re-discover my love for some of my forgotten favorites.  I've gotten to the point in my decision-making process where I find myself waiting on the replacement IT bodies that were ordered months ago!

As I try to determine values of my dolls, I wind up visiting e-bay often and checking the prices of completed auctions and buy-it-now sales.   Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of danger to doing this.  It seems a lot of other collectors are also evaluating their collections.  Even though the prices of many dolls (especially Poppy Parkers) have escalated over the past several months, some collectors are selling some of the lesser desirable IT dolls from other lines NRFB for close to original price!  Sometimes these offers are impossible to resist.

When the W Club released the IT Anniversary dolls, The Originals, in 2020 I was just coming out of the Legendary Convention diabetic coma.  I passed on both dolls, even though Adele Makeda mold 2.0 is one of my favorite characters.  How could I pass up this doll NRFB at original retail price?  Apparently,  I couldn't.  Here is the promotion photo from IT:

And her picture in box.  Number 27 of 2022 is The Originals Adele Makeda (Edition size 450).

Also from 2020 is a very controversial doll.   I entered the W Club lottery for this doll but didn't win the opportunity to purchase it.  It was a new character mold named Iselin and she is wearing a miniature version of a Fall 2018 Jason Wu original gown.  It seems some collectors really like this mold and some collectors don't like it all.  I was able to snatch it up NRFB below it's original retail price!  (How do you pass that up?)

Here is the promotion photo from IT:

And a picture in box.  Number 28 of 2022 Fall 2018 Iselin (Edition Size 500).

The last doll is one that I acquired very recently but have been yearning to add to my collection for a very long time!   This doll was part of the 2005 Royaltini Convention.  She is an elegant doll (even without eyelashes) and rarely comes up on secondary market NRFB.  One of my favorite doll couture designers and good friend, Hoang Anh Khoi, uses her often as one of his models, which only made me pine even more to bring her into the fold.  

Promotion photo by IT:



And a picture in the box.  Number 29 of 2022 is Something Hot Kyori Sato (Edition Size 1100).


All she needed was a new body and a lovely evening gown by Antonio Realli!




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