Johnston Original Art Dolls

Hiya Kim, I have watched your little dolls on Ebay for quite some time. I love each and every creation you have placed on there and am always excited for you to see your dolls and figures sale. You have been one of my "idols" to watch each week. :-D I agree with you full-heartedly that it just takes time to build up a collectors base. Once you have established the trust of the collectors base with hard work and dedication, they will continue to come back if they like what they see and purchase and who they are dealing with. Stuff like that doesn't happen over night. *shrug* I am very happy that you are able to stay home and do what you do. That is my goal for myself as well...but, I know it will take time. In the meantime, I'll keep my day job. lol Atleast I have a steady paycheck. :-D Thank you for being an inspiration to many of us out there. You are proof that fairytales really can and do happen on occassion! Hugs, Lori Platt

Ebay has been my main market for selling my art dolls and miniatures for about 6 years now. With ebay it takes alot of time in gaining your own collector base. After 6 years I have a mailing list of about 300 people. These are people who have asked to be added, I don't automatically add people to the list. When I first began making my wee little creatures, children and fairies I started them at 9.95 I just wanted to make enough to buy more supplies, tutorials, and learn, learn learn. My sculptures have never only sold for 9.95 (LOL) Thank Goodness. I consistantly list though every week. The past 6 weeks I have moved to a new house and we are designing a new studio for me. This is the first time in 6 years I haven't listed every week. I can't believe I have not listed in so long. After beginning on ebay after about 1 year I was able to quit my day job and sculpt full time for a living. My sales for Fairies and Fairytale Vignettes now sell on average anywhere from 250.00 up to 1500.00. My 1:12th scales sell anywhere from 150.00 to 350.00. It's all about consistancy and finding your own collector base who enjoys your particular "signature" look. I am still growing and learning but some of the same people who bought those first little sculptures that were "less then perfect" are still buying from me now and paying alot more. =) Their collection has grown with my skill that I hope will continue to bloom and grow. I love what I do and wake up each morning and pinch myself that I can play with clay all day. =) I'm living my own fairytale and I owe my thanks to ebay for that.

Great Shirley! I'm looking forward to meeting you ! chris

Chris Thank you so much. I will see you there. I am going to put this on my computer calender so I can find it. YEA! Shirley

Hi Shirley, the Expo 2009 Doll Show is on September 26 and 27. It opens at 10am on Sat. and closes at 5pm. On Sunday, it closes at 4pm , opens at 10am. It will be located at Midwest City , the Community Center, 100N. Midwest Blvd. Mis Admission is only $5 and children under 12 free. This is the first time I have attended, I met the chairman Jody Cook at another doll show in Okla city in May this year. For more information you can go to www.ourvilladolls.com/pdbao. Shirley it would be great to meet you and anyone else who can come too! I am very excited about the show. Hope to see you there, chris

Chris, I live outside Oklahoma City. When is the expo in Midwest City? I haven't heard anything about one. That would be great to see and maybe even meet you. Shirley

Hi Aleta, thank you for letting us know how Ebay is working for you. I am not listing anything often on Ebay now. One week , I sold a miniature baby for $60 and the next week I put one on (much better pose than the one that sold) and no bids or offers. I had 7 watchers. I think the watchers are just people interested to see if it would sell. I am still sculpting and doing some large children( 18inches or so) and some minis (four or five inches). I was invited to a Expo in Midwest City Okla and am going to take my dolls there in Sept. Right now people are just not spending much money on dolls I think , unless they do have extra money to spend. You can see my work at www.chrisjonesoriginaldolls.com Anyone else who wants to report how things are going for them, or anyone who has questions, please speak up. We can learn from each other. chris

I have had some success on Ebay selling my Art Doll Sculptures. My genres being anywhere from Fantasy and Faries to Rock Musicians, and People that I find Interesting and Quirky. You can View my Gallery @ www.myspace.com/illusivewoman Like I say I have had some success,but it's been Subjective. My Beatles (Sargent Peppers Lonely Hearts Band)and Led Zeppelin sold, but Jimi Hendrix didn't, as well as some of my other didn't. It's hit and miss. What you might think is a sure sell turns out not to be. I don't know if it's the Subject Matter,the economy bein in the tank, people are cheap, or that they just don't know what goes into making an Art Doll,the Time and Talent required. My Prices average $375.00- $395.00 per Doll and up.. depending on the work involved. I start the auction bidding at $99.00 with a reserve...sometimes I don't get a bid...sometimes I just get one and they drop out, and then there's the one bidder that wants it and goes the distance...I have yet to witness a real bidding war.Right now I have an Auction running for My Bettie Page..with the $99.00 starting bid,2 days to go,2 watchers, and 0 bids...who knows? Please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions about Ebay.

I am looking forward to the free online seminar tonight at 6pm. And , Jack, please dont forget to discuss "clicks" and how to buy a company to optimize your key words of your website. I am definiately interested in these two methods of marketing. thanks, chris jones

Thank you for your help, Jack! I just ordered the DVD from you, including more Prosculpt, I will try to log in on Monday April 6, 2009! Rene

I'm honored to help. I know everyone is having a hard time getting through this recession. We are struggling too. If we work together and work smartly, we will make it. I will speak to you on Monday night at 6:00 P.M. MST.

Jack the Marketing Video is very good! My husband and I watched it last night to get prepared for the online seminar on April 6th. Just want to let everyone know that if you have'nt got one it is worth your while to get it. The video is interesting and keeps your attention through out. The best part is that it has some marketing ideas that we can put into practice without spending a lot of money. Thanks Jack for providing the video to us for half price and for the free seminar! chris jones, www.chrisjonesoriginaldolls.com

The online Marketing Course is nearly full. We will have a representative from the Professional Doll Makers Art Guild and one from Doll Reader Magazine there to answer questions. I will give a lecture on Marketing in Tough Times and then answer questions. The course will take one hour. We will have 100 artists (and a few looking over their shoulders) participating in the class. When you log in just put your first name and sign in. You may use your personal Password for logging in. Once the lecture begins, please just follow along without questions. Once I've finished the lecture, I will open to questions. Once the hour long class is over you may stay as long as you like and visit with your friends and fellow artists. The forum is open 24-7 for your convenience, there is never a charge for this service. I look forward to sharing some of my marketing ideas with you. Your friend, Jack

You may have anyone you like join us. I think the "Chat Line" will take up to one hundred sign in's at a time. I may have to do the class on two nights to accommodate all of the artists, but that is okay. Let me know if you need anything.

Yes Jack I will remind you about those two methods of marketing. I think I am going to have my husband sit in with me on this online seminar. He is my major supporter and has been curious about this aspect of the doll making business.

I will be pleased to share purchasing "Clicks" from the search engines on April the 6th. I will also mention purchasing a company to "Optimize" your keywords and help move you to the top of the search engines. Both of these methods work exceptionally well. Like I've mentioned earlier, the methods are not cheap but they do work. If you can afford $100 per month for advertising then purchasing an optimizing company or purchasing clicks is well worth while. Chris, will you please remind me to mention these methods on the 6th. Thanks, Jack

We will continue to work on the new Ebay/Guild Gallery. Once we have it perfected we will announce it to the forum. It should prove to be a wonderful venue for all of our artist, not just the Professional Doll Makers Art Guild. By the way, try searching under OOAK dolls or polymer dolls, or polymer artdolls, I seem to have the best luck using these phrases.

Jack, the amount of new traffic that the art guild and art dolls site are getting is amazing! I know that I have gotten customers in the past who told me that they found me from your site, www.artdolls. I have heard of the "click hits", but I must say that I dont really understand how it works. Is this a method of marketing that you will be sharing in the April 6th free seminar?

It is our intention to draw people to the Guild site through our normal channels and then have the EBAY/Guild gallery as a feature for them to see a purchase dolls. We are getting around 1,000 visitors each day at www.artdollguild.net and about 1,500 at www.artdolls.com. If it works well, I will put the new gallery on both websites. We know there are a few of the same people visit both websites, but certainly not all of them. Between the two sites we are seeing around 2,000 unique visitors per day. Artdolls.com seems to draw mostly new artist and collectors who are looking at the current gallery and buying supplies. Over 60% of all of our sales are through new customers that have never ordered from us before. I advertise through: yahoo, msn, google and a company that specializes in putting us on over 100 search engines. I purchase hits by the "Click" and by the words. It is fairly expensive, but it brings me thousands of new customers and collectors. If you put in ProSculpt, Jack Johnston Art Doll, art dolls, doll making, doll maker or many other words related to our business you see www.artdolls.com first. I'm hoping we can improve the sales for our artists by creating this new Gallery. We will start with the Guild and then open it to the general public. We will likely charge the public a small fee, that will encourage them to join the Guild where there will not be a charge.

I believe there is also a category , ooak-artist- character dolls. It is something like that because I tried using it one time. I think it has dolls that are more like just general art dolls, no fancy settings, or clothes. And the dolls there don't seem to get high bids. I see nice dolls that don't get high bids and not so good dolls get high bids through out Ebay. It seems mostly to have to do with building up a sort of fan club. I know a couple of years ago , I used Ebay a lot more than I do now. I did build up to getting fairly good prices for very small dolls. Then, my husband kept wanting me to get away from Ebay, and against my better judgement , I stopped using it for quiet a while. So, when the economy was better, I sold my dolls just on my website and by advertising on some doll forums. Then, whammmm! the economy hit bottom and I dont get the traffic to the website. So, back to Ebay to start over, and it has been very slow for me. I have gotten some very low prices. Thats why I think that the artist has to gain a following. I think that the Ebay/Guild Gallery will be the ticket to help some good artist get their work out in the market again.

We will continue to work on the new Ebay/Guild Gallery. Once we have it perfected we will announce it to the forum. It should prove to be a wonderful venue for all of our artist, not just the Professional Doll Makers Art Guild. By the way, try searching under OOAK dolls or polymer dolls, or polymer artdolls, I seem to have the best luck using these phrases.

I started watching OOAK Fairy sales on eBay over a year ago to see how art dolls sell so I can be competitive once I step out there. I started watching the fairies because I couldn't find general "art dolls" like we sculpt under you. The fairies sell very well and for quite a bit of money. I have watched new sellers become quite known with a very healthy following. There are some that can even post that they are in the process of making a doll and start getting bids even before pictures are posted. It is phenominal! It is a wonderful place to pick up creative ideas and see what poses, etc. sell. I know you are thinking "fairies" but it is the doll and creative scenes that I watch, not so much the wings. Naturally, the best sculpted dolls sell very well. Many of the sellers have reduced their auctions to 3 days and state so in their subtitles. Buyers seem to love it. If the doll is average, it will still sell but not for as much money. However, there are some people that think their dolls are good and they just aren't sculpted well. Search for "ooak fairy" and you can spot the good ones. There are about 7 sellers that have become very popular within the last year and continue to sell at least 1 doll a week. Some will produce and sell 2 or 3 at a time. I can provide you some eBay ID's if you want to see what their past dolls sell for and what they look like. It is nothing for them to get a $200 to $500 per doll depending on the creativity of the clothes and setting. A nicely sculpted doll is one thing, but the outfit and setting seems to play a bigger role in the sale. Photography also plays a huge part. I have seen nice dolls not sell because of bad pictures. There is also a huge market for male dolls. They bring several hundred dollars also and move fast due to a lack of them being sculpted. I'm not sure where people list their dolls, but I always search for "ooak fairy" and it seems to bring up a variety of items not just fairies. If anyone else knows better key words, please let me know because "art dolls" doesn't render what we sculpt.

Wonderful news, Jack! You are simply the best, Rene

Jack I am very excited about this new venue for selling our art dolls; I cant't wait until it is up and running. I am at home most days and near the computer, I can not do HTML code, but, if you or anyone else has anything I can do , just drop me a line at jj52650@yahoo.com

Hi Jack, I have sold a couple of dolls on Ebay. I would however, be interested in seeing how the Guild store front would work for all of us. Is there anything I can do to help?

We met with the Guild officers and several of it's members on the 19th. We have decided to research a store front for the Guild on Ebay. We will link the Professional Doll Makers Art Guild with Ebay to list and sell our artists work. We will not charge them anything for the service. We will also register their dolls for copywrite purpose. Three of our Master members are working on the new Gallery site. We hope to have it open for business within 30-60 days. I'm convinced this is the new frontier venue for doll making. It is by far the least expensive and even by further the most people in one place at one time. I can't say enough about the power of the Internet. I will report more as soon as I have it.

I'm glad you rescheduled the meeting, I tried to get on last night for hours. I thought I was having some problem and finally called the 800 number and talked with your mom, Jack. I check this forum often, dont often say much , but I am here.:) chris

We have rescheduled our meeting to discuss the Guild/Ebay Gallery for Thursday night at 6:00 p.m MST. If you are a member of the Professional Doll Makers Art Guild or have knowledge about marketing on EBAY (and are willing to share) we would like to have you join us. We will have an open forum at www.artdolls.com and then click on "Chat Line". You may put in you personal password to gain access. No one but you will know the password, but it will let you in. I hope to speak to you Thursday night the 19th of March, 2009. Thanks, Jack

We apologize for the server outage that interrupted the planned chat.

I'll be there Jack; it will be very interesting to hear what everyone has to say. I am CST and we are presently in Daylight saving time, so, I need to do a time search and see what time 6pm MST will be here. chris

I would love to join you on Monday night Jack, is it by invitation only? Thank you, Rene

IF you wish to join us this coming Monday night you are welcome. We could use your knowledge in the meeting. It will be made up of the officers of the Guild and four invited artists who know and use E-bay. We will be meeting at 6:00 P.M. MST at www.artdolls.com. Then click on "Chat Line" and put in any pass word you wish to use. Your password will not be seen by anyone but you. I hope to see you there. Jack

Jack anything you can do will be appreciated. Exposure for the artists will be a giant step in the right direction. thanks, chris

I hope to build the Ebay sales gallery in conjunction with the Professional Doll Makers Art Guild. We are encouraged by the fact that because of our not for profit charter we will be able to help burgeoning artists as well as professional artists. We will have our meeting on Monday evening and should know much more at that time. At the worst we should be able to get more exposure for artists and that does improve sales. I will report back as I have more knowledge. Jack

Jack what you are trying to do is most appreciated! Selling on Ebay only seems to work for a few people. I think it is for those to have built a following thur the years on that site. They have worked hard and they deserve the customers that they have aquired. I love to make babies, but I also like to make older children and right now there is no place to sell my art dolls. I do have my website, but , my customers tend to be middle aged and senior ladies , and they have bought many dolls from me before this downward economy. Now, like everyone else , they are having to watch their pennies now and can't buy dolls when they need food or medicine. Anyway, I am looking forward to hearing what you have to report after the meeting. I wish you good luck with the project! Chris

I have no success on Ebay selling my babies. Yes people comment on my babies in a positiv way, but place no bid! Hopefully in time, it will get better, however I am not very hopeful, Thank you for helping us Jack! Rene

Thanks for your letter, yes your reply does help. We are trying to learn all we can, so we can provide a venue for artists to auction their dolls through. We will be having a meeting next week to help create just such a venue. We have three experts joining us for a teleconferencing meeting. I will report our findings and eventually hope to provide a venue for all of our customers to sell and purchase dolls. Thanks so much for your input. Jack

Well Jack I listed a tiny doll on Ebay last week at what people consider Prime Time , late Sunday evening . Ran it for 5 days. It didnt sell. So , I relisted this week, not on Sunday , but still late in the evening for one day only. I probably should have ran it longer, but I did lower the price and it still didnt sell. I am guessing that it is just did not have the appeal to buyers that it needed to sell. It is a tiny baby about 2 inches. However, I see a few ladies selling miniature baby dolls about 5-6 inches with for a good price. I saw one sell a couple of weeks ago for over $300. One sculpted by someone else, for over $200 and there are a couple this week that are up to over $100 and the auction has a few days to go. From what I can tell, it is only a particular type baby doll that is selling well. It seems the buyers like the younger looking babies. And it apprears to me that on one particular doll forum ( not this one) that the ooak dolls are not selling well at all. I see many people listing their babies and toddlers and usually they dont even get a comment, which is not normal. Most of the time, even if the members are not interested in buying, they will comment on the cute babies. It appears to me, and I am just one person, so I would love to hear everyone else's experience in these matters to speak out and let us know if things are getting slower in their doll clubs, forums , etc. I am planning on going to a small doll and toy show in Okla City in May and giving it a try there. I hope this post helps you.

Have you had some success in selling your dolls on E-Bay? We are interested in helping artists sell their dolls on E-Bay. We will start with the Professional Doll Makers Art Guild and try an auction experiment. We will not charge a commission to sell dolls through our store on E-bay. We will try it at stores.ebay.com/Discount-ProSculpt-Store. If it works we may open our store to our customers to help them sell their dolls. Let me know if you have some knowledge about selling on E-Bay that you are willing to share. Thanks, jack