Horribly embarrassed at 2nd hand store

Hey everyone! This is beyond embarrassing on my end. I decided I wanted to sell one of my dolls. I honestly wanted fast cash and I thought what better place to try to sell than a 2nd hand geek store. I don’t want to name the place but I called beforehand and spoke to a lady and explained what I had: 1/3 vinyl figure from Volks. Slightly anatomically correct but nothing crazy. They said fine, bring it in. I took time out to drive down. Did the whole sign everyone (thumb print and all wtf) and waited. I’m always a little embarrassed about my hobbies and this was a major step for me to do. The lady I had spoke to was busy so I got a dude instead. This guy has anime girls all over his lanyard, and you would think “Oh cool looks like the characters I read”. He took one look at my doll, laughed, said they wouldn’t take it (didn’t even ask what it was) and tore up the agreement in front of me. I must have been red in the face..this store sells the most depraved manga and anime figures in the most lewd positions and pages and they didn’t even give my doll a chance😭 I am so embarrassed I want to cry. I understand this isn’t for everyone but they sell vinyl doll figures in super lewd positions with the removable clothes. I think he though it was a..you know what doll..

I would have understood (more or less) if it had been an Angelphilia, but a Volks... a behavior that was anything but professional.

14 minutes ago, Testament said:

I would have understood (more or less) if it had been an Angelphilia, but a Volks... a behavior that was anything but professional.

She was fully covered too in a bodysuit with a standard poker face type of look nothing sexual at all 😭 he could have been nice about denying it but it was just the pure “yea no haha” kind of verbiage that made me so sad. I think it was the manager too based on the reviews on the store. Their figurines also sell like hotcakes and the lady I spoke to said they have sold dolls like mine before I am beyond confused. Safe to say I’m pretty ashamed. Love my dolls and you would think one nerd to another would understand..

If it makes you feel better, I like sewing for my dolls and when I was talking about it with a coworker he asked to see a picture. So I pulled out my phone, showed a picture of a doll in a very normal, cute, modest dress. And he goes, out loud, in the middle of our workplace: 'IS THAT A SEX DOLL?'  Uughhhhhh. I feel your pain. It seems like a rite of passage for these dolls at this point... 

That's so awful. How unprofessional!

It is pretty hypocritical to sell lewd figures but act like a doll is somehow a step too far. (And that's not even a knock at figure collectors; to each their own)

I'm sorry that happened to you, virtual hugs 🫂 

I feel like people who react like that are telling on themselves more than anything. Sorry that happened though sheesh!

This is why I'm on this forum. People accept you.  As a guy who does factory work, I'd be laughed at forever if my coworkers found out. Don't put your pearls before swine.  

That is honestly such strange and unprofessional behaviour. I really don't get how people can even have this as their first train of thought, these are just high quality and high value fashion dolls when it gets down to it, and unless they are purposefully dressed in a sexy or provocative way there is nothing intially sexual about them.

Don't worry everyone, that cute little doll has made it somewhere that she will be well taken care of and treated with respect.  😉  Her name is Mami and she's a pretty little thing!

 

Billy

Great to know she's now in a good home with lots of sisters!

I never get how someone could ever look at collectable dolls and their first assumption is that they're sex toys, considering most dolls of that nature are silicone and far bigger. With their size I can't imagine it'd be practical either. Do they also view barbies and MH the same way? 

I hope its some consolation that you didn't do anything wrong here. He was being incredibly rude and unprofessional. 🙁

15 minutes ago, SaraCherie said:

Great to know she's now in a good home with lots of sisters!

I never get how someone could ever look at collectable dolls and their first assumption is that they're sex toys, considering most dolls of that nature are silicone and far bigger. With their size I can't imagine it'd be practical either. Do they also view barbies and MH the same way? 

I hope its some consolation that you didn't do anything wrong here. He was being incredibly rude and unprofessional. 🙁

I've been asking myself if it's even worth posting my thoughts on the matter, because the OP was clearly uncomfortable with the situation and it was undoubtably an embarrassing situation both because of perception and what happened.  And none of what I'm about to post is meant in any way to impugn or insult the OP, because I wasn't there and I don't know.

But my perception based on the limited information was that the store owner laughed not out of thinking the doll was lewd beyond the pale, but rather because he's a shop owner who is being expected to buy an item he very much doesn't see any way he can reasonably resell.  It was still rude of him to laugh in the OP's face, but my thought based on the description is that he was just taken aback by the audacity (for the lack of a less charged word).

The OP describes it as a nerd shop that sells figures.  They had apparently sold Volks DDs before, but I wouldn't imagine they had dealt in many of them.  I'm imagining a fairly general shop.  Even though anime merchandise collecting is a niche, dolls are an even tinier niche within that.  What of the store's clientele would even be interested in a Dollfie Dream?

Then there's the matter of the doll.  The OP only provides the details that the doll was wearing a bodysuit.  We can now see the doll, and I admit that I am not at all good at IDing a lot of the faceups, but she doesn't look to me to be a limited or character specific head.  And I certainly don't find any fault in any of that, but from the POV of a general anime merchandise store owner not even remotely specializing in DDs, it was a generic anime themed doll with no connection to any particular property.  I'm guessing without any packaging, and other than the mention of a bodysuit, I don't know anything about what wig or clothes may or may not have gone along with it. How was he going to be able to flip that?

He may not have been thinking along the lines of it being perverted or anything like that.  Unless he said something specific along those lines, considering he runs an anime shop which from your description carries lewd figures and possibly carries Used lewd figures, I'm sure he  has seen far, Far, FAR worse than even the picture painted of a Dollfie Dream in nothing but a bodysuit.

I only offer the idea as a potential alternative.  I fully realize I don't know and am armchair quarterbacking.  

 

I Had the Owner/Operator of a Collectables' Shop Laugh in my Face in a Similar fashion

over a Minty 1983 Vintage STAR WARS BOBA FETT Figure i attempted to Offer him about 25 Years Ago...

23 hours ago, SaraCherie said:

Great to know she's now in a good home with lots of sisters!

Thank you!  She definitely has plenty of sisters here to play with and have fun with.    

As for the original post, I think the main point was that the OP was treated very poorly and the manager/employee was extremely rude about it.  Whether they thought they could resell the doll or not isn't the point.  I was in retail sales for over 15 years and doing something like that to a customers face is completely uncalled for, cruel and mean.  There are plenty of ways to explain that you cannot resell an item that do not have you laughing at them and tearing up paperwork.  Whoever that was has no business handling customers.

But I am thankful that guy did because now *I* own this adorable girl and she will never have to deal with that kind of blatant stupidity ever again.  😉 

 

Billy

On 7/9/2026 at 6:13 PM, Gabriel said:

I've been asking myself if it's even worth posting my thoughts on the matter, because the OP was clearly uncomfortable with the situation and it was undoubtably an embarrassing situation both because of perception and what happened.  And none of what I'm about to post is meant in any way to impugn or insult the OP, because I wasn't there and I don't know.

But my perception based on the limited information was that the store owner laughed not out of thinking the doll was lewd beyond the pale, but rather because he's a shop owner who is being expected to buy an item he very much doesn't see any way he can reasonably resell.  It was still rude of him to laugh in the OP's face, but my thought based on the description is that he was just taken aback by the audacity (for the lack of a less charged word).

The OP describes it as a nerd shop that sells figures.  They had apparently sold Volks DDs before, but I wouldn't imagine they had dealt in many of them.  I'm imagining a fairly general shop.  Even though anime merchandise collecting is a niche, dolls are an even tinier niche within that.  What of the store's clientele would even be interested in a Dollfie Dream?

Then there's the matter of the doll.  The OP only provides the details that the doll was wearing a bodysuit.  We can now see the doll, and I admit that I am not at all good at IDing a lot of the faceups, but she doesn't look to me to be a limited or character specific head.  And I certainly don't find any fault in any of that, but from the POV of a general anime merchandise store owner not even remotely specializing in DDs, it was a generic anime themed doll with no connection to any particular property.  I'm guessing without any packaging, and other than the mention of a bodysuit, I don't know anything about what wig or clothes may or may not have gone along with it. How was he going to be able to flip that?

He may not have been thinking along the lines of it being perverted or anything like that.  Unless he said something specific along those lines, considering he runs an anime shop which from your description carries lewd figures and possibly carries Used lewd figures, I'm sure he  has seen far, Far, FAR worse than even the picture painted of a Dollfie Dream in nothing but a bodysuit.

I only offer the idea as a potential alternative.  I fully realize I don't know and am armchair quarterbacking.  

Just for context, I looked up reviews on the store afterwards and that happened to be the general manager. They also happen to be a rude person to deal with. I was being ambitious trying to sell to a store that was t fully aware of what I had. But again, I did call, I did explain, and they said they sold them before. The situation was embarrassing and a waste of time. The guy could have nicely told me “I’m sorry, but I don’t think we can purchase something like this. I appreciate you bringing it in though”. This wasn’t what I got. This shop sells $$$ worth of everything anime and also sells a variety of collectibles for every fandom. Again, I called and I asked before coming in. They could have done a simple search and said “can’t take it”. I won’t ever shop there again just due to the interaction. I’ve dealt in customer service where we buy items and there are some unbearable people but I’ve never embarrassed a customer even when they brought in something that had drugs in it (fun story cops came out didn’t enjoy the day at all).

Nerd stores (my lifetime experiences are mostly with comic and tabletop RPG shops) are notoriously run and staffed by people with low social ability and there does seem some level of natural selection towards those with low empathy.

 

Yeah, I genuinely couldn't imagine treating a customer like that, it just goes against basic respect. I'm not super into the figure world but I know some companies will just release figures of random pretty girls, so the fact that your doll was not explicitly related to any IP shouldn't have been THAT much of a factor. There are garage kits, which in my opinion are similar to customizing a Dollfie, and that was actually the market Volks targeted back in the early days. These dolls are literally posable figures anyways (that's where the name Dollfie comes from. Portmanteau of doll and figure.)

You asked beforehand and he still treated you like that? Oh my God. I wouldn't be doing business with them in the future either. If you haven't already I would leave a review. That behaviour deserves to be called out.