What not to do: Google "buy BJD", you'll literally get a ton of Ali Express listings of knockoff BJDs.

You will have to do some research up front, you need to know what company you want to buy. For that, you can go to the BJD hashtag, here, on instagram, sometimes even Twitter, and see if there is something you like. Usually people also tag the company and sculpt, and if not, asking usually gets the reply.

You can also go to one of the many official dealer pages and just click through their dolls to see if you find something that you like.

Stay away from Ali Express and Amazon. Both of these pages are riddled with knockoffs. Idk if there are actually any legit sellers on Ali, if there are, they are few. I think Dollzone sells on Amazon, but seriously, most of the dolls there are fakes.

Ebay and Etsy are also full of recasts, but you can find some legit dolls there.

So, how do you spot a recast store? Let me show you some hints, that are usually a dead giveaway.

A lot of different styles.

This is the header of an etsy shop. While the two on the left might be from the same maker, the other two are very different. (The one on the right is a doll from Fairyland, one of the, if not the most recasted company out there).

Different styles only make sense, if the seller is a distributor/dealer. If it's not a dealer, back out.

Which brings us to the next point:

Generic names.

If a shop were a dealer, they would give you the names of the companies and sculpts.

Example from an official dealer:

See how you can choose the company, size, and then the sculpts? Recast shops don't give you that (there's one exception, that I'll mention later).

They give you "1/4 BJD Doll MSD", "Girl BJD 1/6" or if they wanna go all out "1/3 BJD Doll 60.5CM Full Set BJD Doll With Clothes Resin Toys Best Gift for Girls Hand Made Doll Custom Dolls OOAK Art Doll diy Dolls".

They want to stay as generic as possible, so the newbies that google for "buy bjd" will be redirected to their pages.

If you find generic names, back the hell out of there. I don't know a single company or dealer, that do not tell you what doll exactly you're buying!

Short production time

BJDs take time to make. They are not mass produced dolls, they are casted, sanded, strung and packed by small companies. Even the big names in this hobby usually are just a hand full of people. So it takes time.

Usually between 2-6 months. I don't know any company that actually gives you an estimate below 60 days. Sometimes they ship faster (maybe it's a popular sculpt and they have actually made some for stock, maybe they didn't have a lot of orders during that time, etc), but they don't usually give you a shorter timeline.

If your listing claims the doll will be shipped in 1-2 weeks? Bad news for you, that's pretty sure a recast store.

Price

I hate to say it, but this is an expensive hobby. Dolls usually cost at least $200, oftentimes more. There are some companies that have cheaper prices, but if it goes below $150, I would definitely have a closer look.

Now, the price is usually the last thing that I mention, because before the price tag, you should check for all the things mentioned above. Only if you have a consistent style, specific names, and a timeline that makes sense, then you should check for the price.

I say that, because I know of one Recast store, that tries so hard to look legit, they actually put effort in it.

And that is the BJD Shop.

Look at that. You have company names, you have sculpt names, it looks like a legit dealer (if you ignore that their production time is 1-4 weeks).

But now look at the prices.

Not taking into account that this specific sculpt isn't even available from Fairyland anymore, the price? Is not even $100 (for blank doll).

Now let's look at the actual price by FL:

Rule of thumb: If a price is too good to be true, it very likely is.

So I recommend actually looking for the doll company, if you find a dealer you're not sure is legit, and compare the prices.

A good page for information is Den Of Angels. It's a forum, but a lot of things are easily available without account through Google. For example their dealer list. Is it complete? I don't know, maybe not, but it's a good start.

Base: Penny's Box birdman bjd: body+ face+shoes from crane, hair from blue flycatcher . I wanted to wait for bird legs but PB was taking a long time so I went "Screw it who cares the dress will be long anyway"

Mods: no sculpting this time,and no changes to the face,but dyed the wings from flesh to a yellow -> orange -> red -> brown -> black gradient, painted the shoes and bird in her hair

Clothes and Stand: made by yours truly from scratch, it deviated a lot from my initial ideas,but keeps the vibe intact. There's 4 mesh pieces at the back to emulate tail feathers,brought together with charms and chains. The stand is made from acrylic,resin and thick wire,I tried to make it look firey. The choker is a leg accessory from a Penny's Box antu deer, that I widened and shortened to fit the neck, and added a charm as a pseudo-closure. I'm honestly really happy with how everything turned out!