Recasts and Fake Certificates or Headplates

Recasts sometimes come with fake certificates or headplates. The recasts that do, that I know of offhand, are Iplehouse, Soom, and Volks dolls. This is not a legal discussion, but just a helpful guide.

*new info added at the bottom of the post*

Volks are probably the number one recast doll, perhaps possibly tied with Soom. The recasters often include fake plates with Volks dolls. The metal plates can be determined as forgeries fairly easily (though I don't have access to a legit Volks for further detail this should help):

Plate reads: 1012/DP24

• Plate is ill-fitting
• Plate is of low quality
• Plate lists a Dollpa that never happened or won't happen until a future date
• Plate lists a Dollpa that does not correlate with the Volks doll (a year when the doll wasn't produced)

Here is a pic of my fake Volks' plate (I did not make this plate, nor do I even know how to find them).

Here is a link to a photo of a legit Volks plate. I don't want to post the actual photo as it is not mine and I don't wish to make the owner uncomfortable.No direct links for the same reason.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lullipop/8458862710/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/57236688@N05/6867984195/

Another Lady Sylvie plate, legitimate, from
Derpypaws. `(She has two Sylvies.)

Legitmate Volks plate from a Volks Lady Sylvie,
courtesy of `Derpypaws.

Legit IH Luna Tamer plate,
courtesy of Derpypaws.

Livejournal discussion on fake plates: http://lavenderapple.livejournal.com/151180.html

Dollmore legitimate heads look like this:

Photo courtesy of Meanae.

According to Meanae, the writing was more visible when the doll was purchased in 2009.

Soom doll recasts come with fake certificates. They look pretty much identical to the legitimate ones from what I can tell (I don't have access to legitimate certificates to compare though), and they usually arrive blank.

Soom has a system, I've been told, where you can go to the website and plug in the serial number on the certificate and it will tell you whether or not that certificate is genuine base don this number. That doesn't really help you if someone just jacks the number of a real doll and uses it again however. I don't know the likelihood of that occurring, but it is something to keep in mind.

Soom's doing it right, in my opinion, and I would hope other companies start doing the same.

Links to legit certificates (again, not direct for a fore mentioned reasons):
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6088/6036604508_b9941228bf.jpg
http://www.kimsworldofart.com/dolls/customizeddolls/2005/graphics/uyoo/fullsizedphotos/photo7.jpg


Fake cert (used for and will only be used for reference purposes; I did NOT make this certificate, I don't know how to get them, and I won't help make them):

Legit Iple Headback

Iplehouse dolls normally have a rounded sticker or hard plastic thing in their head caps with the Iplehouse logo on it. The recast version I've seen is too small for the head back, is a different color, and is more or less a puffy sticker. I haven't paid too much attention to other fake Iplehouse stickers sent with recasts to know if those also come in different colors. My thought is that it isn't consistent, and could be a good point of comparison to determine whether or not the sticker is legitimate or fake.

Recast Headback

My legit Tania came with what amounts to an owners certificate, but it has no numbers or anything on it, just the date of purchase. A Souldoll owned by a friend came with something similar when legit, but I haven't seen anything like that come with recasts. Other legitimate dolls sometimes have these as well (Pipos may, for example, though this is possibly only with fullsets or limited releases), and like all indicators of legitimacy, one cannot rely entirely on the presence of or lack of a certificate or plate to prove authenticity. Don't see the certificate or plate and assume it's legit, and don't assume that the lack of one means recast.

New info, courtesy of some wonderful gals in the Haven group:

"Ringdoll is sending their dolls together with a purple and golden plastic card (like a credit card)...there's an embedded number on the card, like "NO.RD0000xxxx", and on the back is a field for "baby name" and "babies birthday", that you can fill out yourself. They don't send other paperwork. Their dolls only have a faint "R" on their headbacks (on the outside)." --Meanae

According to Meanae, Dollmore also sends certificates, and I should have more info about that soon-ish. From what I can see from pictures, they are white with writing and signature.

Derpypaws has given us a few more pictures of legit plates and headbacks. I've added these to the relevant sections of the post and credited her beneathe them. ^_^ 

I shall update this post as I collect more information on CoAs and head plates.

Any other tips to share? Post below!

Thanks for viewing, and  happy (and safe!) collecting. :)