I wanted to provide a little more transparency around our pricing, especially as we have recently been bringing back items that were discontinued many years ago.
Some folks have noticed that an item returning after five years may not return at the same price it had before, and there is a fairly simple reason for that: it doesn’t cost the same to make anymore.
When we return to a vendor to manufacture something, even if only six months have passed since the previous production run, we increasingly receive a revised quote. The reasons vary. Increased wages, materials, energy, and general running costs all play a part. The weaker yen also affects many of our Japanese vendors, because materials, components or equipment somewhere along their supply chain may originate outside Japan.
When a long-term vendor tells us that they need to increase their price to continue making something for us, we generally accept it rather than push them to find ways to make it cheaper.
Our own costs have risen too. Where possible, we try to absorb those increases and keep retail prices where they are. Sometimes, however, the difference becomes large enough that we need to adjust the price of a product.
Prices Can Move in Both Directions
That’s one kind of price change, driven by rising costs. There’s another kind too, not simply driven by rising costs, and it can move in either direction.
Sometimes we may adjust the price of an item as it approaches the end of its production life, particularly when we don’t know whether, or when, we will be able to make more. Materials become unavailable, suppliers change, minimum production quantities increase, and some manufacturing processes simply become more difficult to arrange over time.
Prices can also move in the other direction. We may reduce the price of something when we have more stock than anticipated, need to make room for upcoming products, or for any number of other production and inventory reasons.
This does mean that somebody may purchase an item only to see its price reduced later, just as somebody else may wait and find that the price has increased or that the item is no longer available.
We understand that this can sometimes be frustrating, but we can’t predict future pricing or guarantee that waiting will result in a lower price. The price shown at any given time reflects the circumstances of that product at that point in its production life.
Classic Smart Doll
One place where we have deliberately resisted price increases is our Classic Smart Doll lineup in the primary skin tones.
Despite production costs increasing and our margins gradually shrinking, we have maintained the same price for these dolls for the past nine years.
We can’t promise that will remain possible forever, but keeping the core Smart Doll experience at a relatively stable price has been important to us.
Things We Choose Not to Charge For
Pricing isn’t only about deciding where we need to charge more. It’s also about deciding where we don’t want price to be the deciding factor. Here are a few places we’ve drawn that line.
Medical and representation options. Our Median Sternotomy, Mastectomy and upcoming Upper Arm Limb Difference busts are products that cost us money and time to research, develop, prototype, manufacture, inspect and supply.
The same applies to medical and assistive accessories such as our feeding tubes, hearing aids and crutches. Some of these may be small parts, but they still require research, design, prototyping, production and handling just like any other Smart Doll product.
However, we continue to provide these options free of charge to folks who live with, use, or have lived through the experiences they represent. We would rather absorb those costs than put a price on somebody being able to see part of themselves represented in Smart Doll.
Free patterns and files. We have seen a decline in apparel sales since we began releasing Smart Doll apparel patterns for free. We knew that was a possibility when we started doing it, and we will continue releasing patterns anyway.
If somebody would rather make clothing themselves, learn from our patterns, modify them, or use them as a starting point for something completely different, we think that’s a good thing.
We also release various STL files for free so that folks with access to a 3D printer can make certain Smart Doll parts and accessories themselves rather than having to buy them from us.
Smart Doll Isn’t for Everybody
We understand that some folks will look at our prices and find them unreasonable, and we agree that Smart Doll isn’t going to represent good value for everybody. That’s perfectly fine.
One of the great things about this hobby is that there are now many alternatives at many different price points. There are also incredibly talented independent creators on places such as Etsy making dolls, apparel and accessories that may be a better fit for what you are looking for.
Our job isn’t to convince everybody that Smart Doll is worth the asking price.
Our job is to make sure that the price allows our small team, and the craftspeople and vendors we depend on, to continue making Smart Doll in the way we believe it should be made.
