Dolls and Miniatures Need a Real Home on Etsy

A number of doll artists and miniaturists on Etsy are frustrated by the lack of category for listing our dolls. We'd like to see Etsy admin make a top-level category called "Dolls" or "Dolls and Miniatures" to give the artists a clear place to list their items and their buyers and collectors an easy way to find what they're looking for.

A number of doll artists and miniaturists on Etsy are frustrated by the lack of category for listing our dolls. We'd like to see Etsy admin make a top-level category called "Dolls" or "Dolls and Miniatures" to give the artists a clear place to list their items and their buyers and collectors an easy way to find what they're looking for.

We, the undersigned, would like to see a Dolls category added to Etsy. We feel that the addition of a Dolls category would benefit Etsy on all levels by providing the various doll artists and their buyers with a specific, easy-to-find location within Etsy for their particular kinds of dolls. This would also alleviate some of the frustration in the Art category since adding Art Dolls under a Dolls category would remove those listings from this already bloated section.

Dollhouse miniatures, art dolls, and reborns are just a few of the types of dolls available on Etsy with no proper category to list in. Our non-Etsy customers regularly tell us that they cannot find our items easily on Etsy without a direct link to our shops. Non-Etsy dollmakers frequently comment on how they think Etsy looks like a great venue for handmade items but they don%u2019t see the benefit of setting up shop here because there is no category to house their items. Etsy is losing a huge market by continuing to ignore the needs of these artists and buyers.

Here is a suggested breakdown for a category of Dolls. Subcategories have asterisks in front of them and subsubcats are in parenthesis:

Dolls [& Miniatures]
*Art Dolls
(OOAK)
(Editions)
(Fantasy)
(Primitive)
(Characters)
(Goth & Horror)
(Ball-Jointed Dolls (BJD))
(Babies & Children)
(Anthropomorphic)
(Animals)
(Altered Dolls)
(Assemblage)
*Toys (is it possible to have this as a subcat with all the bleeding that goes on here? Maybe dolls for kids? Playables?)
*Miniatures
(Animals)
(Art)
(Books)
(Figures)
(Houses)
(Fantasy/Spooky)
(Food)
(Furniture)
(Needlework)
(Plants)
(Pottery)
(Turnings)
(Other)
*Reborns
*Paper Dolls
*Artist Bears
(jointed)
(miniature)
(real fur)
(recycled fur)
(mohair)
(plush)
(felted)
(teddy bear friends)
*Plush
*Amigurumi
*Clothing
*Accessories
*Supplies & Tools
*Soft Sculpture
*Needle-felted
*Waldorf
*Recycled & Upcycled

Art Dolls as an art form have been growing in popularity for several years now. There are a number of magazines specifically devoted to non-toy dolls, including Art Doll Quarterly (http://www.artdollquarterly.com/) which has been in print since 2003 and is still going strong. Just browsing through their website will give you and idea of the broad range of artists and styles included under the description %u201Cart doll.%u201D

There are several artists on Etsy who have been featured in Art Doll Quarterly and a number of others that expressed interest in joining but wouldn%u2019t because of the lack of category for listing their items. Quite a few buyers have expressed to sellers here their frustration at not being able to find art dolls on Etsy easily. Having a separate category for art dolls will alleviate these frustrations and result in more sales, bringing more income to Etsy.

Here are a small handful of websites that exhibit some of the incredible art dolls being made today:
http://www.hellmangallery.com/
http://www.niada.org/
http://www.artdollguild.net/index.php
http://www.dollartists.ca
http://www.pmcdesigns.com/
http://www.creagers.com/
http://www.mad-sculptor.com/
http://www.scottradke.com/marionettes.htm
http://www.lisalichtenfels.com/
http://www.dabida.eu/

Many of these dolls, as you can see by checking their websites, can sell for over $1000, some for quite a bit more. A number of these artists sell on eBay and would probably be very favorable to selling on Etsy, as well, if there were a category for listing their dolls. None of these dolls can be considered toys (although some can be played with, see www.chomickmeder.com). Many, if not all, can fall under the art category and that's where many of us list currently, but most would list under Dolls: Art Dolls if that were an option because that%u2019s where many of our buyers/collectors look for items like ours.

Dollhouse Miniatures have been made and collected by thousands for decades. This is a well-established and recognized art form for it's intricate details and incredible representation of life in miniature. Miniature artisans and guilds can be found worldwide and are usually very active in collecting and purchasing.

Dollhouse Miniature sites that exhibit the incredible artistry of some miniaturists:
http://www.acquistosilver.com/
http://www.artistryinwoodminis.com/mini.htm
http://www.byannemariedolls.com/
http://www.kateadamsfineminiaturequilts.com/
http://www.tinypots.com/
http://www.miniplants.com/
http://www.autumnleafstudio.com/
http://www.pierceartanddesign.com/pages/miniatures.html
http://www.nantasyfantasy.com/ajs-creations.htm
http://carol-wagner.com/
http://www.igma.org/recognition/fellows.html

Art dolls and miniatures are only two of the categories of non-toy dolls represented here and on Etsy. There are a large number of dollmakers who needs are being ignored by Etsy because we have no logical place to list our items.

While eBay is not necessarily the standard we suggest basing everything on, it can provide some good statistics regarding art dolls and their popularity. This is, by no means, comprehensive statistics since these numbers were simply pulled out today and not averaged over a period of time that would include higher sales seasons and lower seasons.

Ebay has an overall "Dolls and Bears" category with over 125,000 listings at present. While some of these are resale items of collectible and mass-produced dolls and supplies, there is a very real presence of handmade dolls, plushies, reborns, and miniatures there--over 13,000 listings between dollhouse miniatures, art dolls, and reborns alone, not including plushies, bears, paper dolls, or any of the other non-toy dolls.

Completed listings over the past two weeks, in art dolls and reborns alone, include the following sales:
Character doll: $3,383
Mermaid: $1,726.08
Fairy: $899.99
Reborn: $820
Ball-Jointed Doll (BJD): $530
Santa: $950
Total of these highest priced Art Doll sales on eBay from the past two weeks = $6032.07

And those were just the top six picked to show a variety of the types of sales generated by art dolls.

We appreciate that there are a lot of aspects you have to consider before deciding to add a new top level category like this but this is something that has been requested for well over two years. We believe that you are losing a huge market by continuing to discuss the idea rather than implementing it.

We thank you for your consideration and look forward to a quick resolution to our concerns.