Disappointing Box Opening

"Um....Shannon? Come take a look at "your" body. I think there's been some kind of mistake!"

There's a bit of a story here to tell. Sorry that this gets rather wordy, but bear with me and I'll explain what that odd picture is all about.

Those who are regular readers of my blog are aware that Shannon and Candace have been sharing a body. Sometimes that has been a bit annoying. They are both beautiful (heads!) but I could never have them appear together, and one was always put away in storage while the other was out on display. When my knitting pattern sales finally added up to more than enough I thought about ordering Shannon her own body.

After doing a bit of  research I realized that it was only $30 more to get another head along with the body even though on the Marketplace (used doll thread) such heads can resell for $75 - $150. I kind of liked the idea of having a fantasy character that I could design and make princess, fairy, forest elf, and science fiction types of costumes for. You know, the kinds of things that the established characters of Candace and Shannon could never really wear. I figured if I ordered Karsh, an elf style head (with awesome elfishly pointy ears), it could mainly be stored away, but would come out occasionally to model the unusual, more fantasy type of clothing.

So anyway on June 1st I ordered a full doll. It was the body I needed for Shannon along with a Karsh head to be the occasional fantasy-wear model. The wait would be several months as these dolls are ordered in advance and must be made in Korea. In between the time of my order and the time I was actually invoiced for the doll I discovered an IN STOCK,"body only", advertised at the same retailer. Well! I figured here was a chance to get that in stock body in my hot little hands in only a week rather than the months I was looking at for the full Karsh doll. I could do without the elf, just give me the in stock body!

I quickly emailed and then phoned the retailer and had them change the order. Normally they can't do that, but the order hadn't yet been submitted to Fairyland for processing so they agreed. And then the wait began for the doll to ship, go through customs, and arrive at my door. All of that went smoothly and she arrived safely on the 11th of June.

Let me tell ya, waiting for, and opening, a box that you know only contains the body for an existing doll character isn't nearly so exciting as taking possession of a whole new doll. Still, I was glad the box had arrived and was looking forward to being able to make Shannon complete. That hope was dashed to the ground when I opened the box and looked inside.  *sigh*



WHITE!!?

Yeah, the body was not "natural skin" as the listing had shown, as the invoice had stated, as the shipping label had listed, and as the actual doll box was labeled. It was WHITE! And white skin would not work for Shannon no matter how much I wished it to. It looked like I would not only have to send the body back, but I would have to start the very long wait for a normal skin body to be made in Korea. Rats! So I called the retailer and asked them how I should handle the return. They had a different suggestion.

Yes, they said I could return the body. They were very apologetic about the mix up and would not only refund all my shipping costs, but also the taxes and postal collection fees I had incurred. But they also had another suggestion, if I was willing. They asked if I would rather have a FREE head from their collection of in stock, white, "gift heads" to then make this white skin doll complete. Well......I really had to think about that one. Oh sure, fine and great to have a full doll, but ...... what about Shannon? A free doll head did not get Shannon any closer to having her own body.

So I thought about it for a full day, meanwhile asking the opinions of other doll owners with more experience than I have. Some said keep it, get the head, and then sell the whole doll on the Marketplace for a profit. Others said to send the body back and recoup my money so I could then order the body I really needed. I must admit, realizing some sort of profit was tempting, but what if I got stuck with a white skin doll I didn't really want? What if it didn't sell or took a long, long time to sell which would then delay my ordering the natural skin body?

In the end I decided that I'd try a "toss of the dice" so to speak. I'd take the gift head IF, and only IF, they could somehow provide the much coveted "Juri '08" head, a very limited edition head that was only produced as a special buying incentive for the winter 08/09 sales. I LOVE that head! They are nearly impossible to get on the Marketplace and were only made, in limited numbers, for that one winter sale.

Everyone who was following my dilemma pretty much laughed at my request. They knew how rare the head is and how "impossible" it was that the retailer would actually have one, and even if they somehow still had one, that they would give it to me for free. After all, that rare '08 head has been known to sell on the Marketplace for as much as $350 mind boggling dollars!!....for JUST the head.

Those laughing friends were wrong! I was notified that YES the retailer had a Juri '08 in white and would ship it out to me!

So we come to the end of a very, very long story to say that I am now waiting for a limited edition head for my unplanned white skin Minifee body. And I am once again saving up for that normal skin body for Shannon.  ~~~ urgh! ~~~