Dura-Craft Alexandria

[Minis On The Edge]

Marie, you are right and that was why I invited Charles to come here. I know on Ebay auctions (about 4 years ago) my listing kept defaulting that I shipped worldwide. I was pregnant then and shucks, I could not keep going to the Post Office with those heavy pakages (I used UPS cause they would pick up. USPS did not back then) so I changed it in all my listing and low and behold, it poped up again when I clicked relist!

Well, I found out later that I had SAVED it as my default settings and once I changed that all was okay. Sometimes it can be something that was overlooked by the seller like that. I had a lot of buyers upset with me because I just could not physically ship to them and my auctions showed I accepted bids from there country. I just did not know how to change my settings. ;)

[Oldeoliveoyl]

Hi all,

Bare with me.

A big welcome to Charles Rhodes of dollproperties.com and ebay's estatesinminiature. Good to have you here. I am sure everyone has a million questions.

I received an email from you. I read it this afternoon, and it was marked sent at 8pm last night. I am not sure if that was before or after we talked?

Right now I am on hold, lol. Please advise.

Janet

Oldoliveoyl

[debbie4159]

Hi Janet: was just browsing this site and had to register. I also had problems with a Dura-Craft dollhouse -- missing parts. I found a gentleman named Tim (I am going to have to research where he was located) and he sent me the missing parts at no charge. I believe he had a warehouse which still carried the kits and missing parts. He either bought out Dura-Craft's inventory or is still associated with them. I will look into this and get you the contact info. Another source is estatesinminiatures on eBay. I have bought quite a few kits from him and he is alleging that DuraCraft is going to be adding new kits sometime soon

Will get back with you, debbie4159

[Minis On The Edge]

Hello debbie4159 and Welcome to the forum!!

Thank You for the info!

[EllenInRI]

:lol: Hi everyone, I NEEEDD HELP PLEASE

And a special HELLO to a new friend of mine, Marie, ALL THINGS MINI hiiiii,

I am very new to the mini world. What recently started as excitement has now turned into 11 days and nights searching on the internet for MISSING INSTRUCTIONS FOR MY NEW AND FIRST KIT THE SAN FRANCISCAN SF 555

NO ONE HAS IT

I now have to look into the eyes of my daughter, 13, who says, "Don't worry about it mom, we'll find it." But her eyes tell a different story. I'm crying too because I won this kit at auction, BUT it did state that the instructions were missing. I NEVER thought I'd have a problem. And this kit is the older kit not the one I see for sale the SF557.

I'm willing to pay for the what ever if any parts that are missing. Only thing is, I don't have a parts list to go by. So even if I wanted to 'wing it' I don't even have a base/foundation/beginning to beginning with.

Now, I HAVE TO BE HONEST AND ACT IN CHARLES DEFENSE.

Yes, emails can be a bit behind, but I am a new customer there and in case he is reading this.....HI CHARLES, IT'S ELLEN D. FROM RI.

I've placed 2 orders from DollProperties and other than unavailable items, backorders I presume, I received my order in a timely fashion and I was very pleased with the quality of my items and THE PRICES WERE UNBEATABLE from what I've seen compared to other sites.

My next move was, because I have ordered from the site, I was going to explaine the situation to Charles and see, if he had one on hand could he please email me the parts list (hopefully with pictures to compare pieces to) and then, take it from there.

Folks, I know that this seems to be a dry post, trust me, ask Marie, my posts are NEVER short but I've been going on about 3 hours sleep nightly for the past 11 days and, well, I can't describe the disappointment my daughter and I feel right now after having been so very excited about winning this house. See, I'm partially disabled and when I won this house, or should I say if I hadn't won this house for the price that I did, we would still be waiting.

Now we have beautiful minis for the house and no house. Like being all dressed up, for an exciting evening out and the date never arrives......

Thanks for listening all.

Ellen D.

[judithfa]

For what it is worth, I have heard via other miniaturists to beware of DollProperties -- a number of acquaintances have gotten burned. :lol:

Also, I agree with Marie's response to Charles' non-shipping to Puerto Rico explanation.

[Minis On The Edge]

Welcome EllenInRI!!! You brought tears to MY eyes!! I hope you can find the instructions so that you will at least know if you have all parts or if some are missing and then, you and your daughter can assemble it.

I only have the Heritage & farmhouse 505 the farmhouse does not have all of the parts and I am thinking of just tossing it. The complete base was water damaged so those parts are missing and I have some trim parts missing. I have all walls (I think) but I think the box is so heavy but there are mostly missing parts. :lol:

My Heritage kit is complete so I am happy about that. I LOVED the Farmhouse 505 but I have so many parts missing it makes no sense to save it with the complete base missing. That's what I get for just procrastinating.

[luvmypoodle]

Hi HeleninRI have you had any luck trying to find instructions for the SanFran 555?? Does it look much different from the 557?? Maybe you could find instructions for that house and go by them. I thought I had an idea where I might find 555's but could not. Good luck.

[HalfPintRoo]

Does anyone here have any pictures of their Alexandria? The only pictures I have seen are the main ones on all the sites that sell it (the front of the house and the inside painted white) I'd really love to see one...

[lrp221]

This is Charles, I am the manager of DollProperties.com. As you may not know, Dura-Craft did go out of business- Bankrupt. I need to be very clear- We are not Dura-Craft nor did we ever own Dura-Craft. We simply bought their inventory out of Bankruptcy. I feel like the comments on this site are based out of the game "Telephone."

Please do not assume Dollproperties.com can just provide you with free parts, we are not Dura-Craft. We are a business like any other business and we only have a limited amount of each house left. Now, as a reasonable service, we are providing parts for those who are willing to pay for them. We have to part out a kit to retrieve parts for others who need them, rendering the kit almost useless if we do not sell all of the parts.

$12.00 is reasonable. A box costs $1.00, labor costs $2.00, the part could cost $1.00 to $15.00 (we will give you up to 10 parts for that price), shipping costs a minimum of $2.00 for these parts. PROFIT= $0.00 and sometimes is a loss. I must say again, we are providing a service that would otherwise not be available for those who purchased a Dura-Craft dollhouse from someone other than us. Dollproperties.com always provides FREE parts to our clients, people who have purchased from us,,, PERIOD- no questions asked.

What other website do you know that provides free shipping on everything, even a $1.00 order? Ther are none, they don't exist. To this extent, my heart is kind of broken listening to the comments made here. I provide great, great, great prices for the miniatures industry. Never have we scammed anyone.

On Ebay, we are that seller who is starting the auctions at $1.00, EstatesInMiniature. Look at our rating, over 600+. Point proven by the rating, what you bid on is what you get period. Never have we not refunded someone's money if they are not happy on Ebay, NEVER.

Puerto Rico-

I would have loved to help the lady from Puerto Rico, but shipping is not the same... I have been shipping to that area for years and it is expensive for freight. An average dollhouse costs $80.00+ for over the water shipping. Have any of you ever shipped to Alaska? It works the same way. She didn't seem to understand that. She has also been bidding on my auctions, when they specifically state Continental U.S. on the Ebay shipping section.

I like her, I do not have any problems with her, but it concerns me when someone isn't understanding and does not see the whole picture before speaking. This is a tough world as it is, we do not need to hurt people's businesses or slander each other. The facts are very important. Please remember, histeria breeds histeria, and in a world where life, death, and consequence mean very little these days, all we have is each other.

Please reconsider your thoughts now that you know the facts. I am a member here, I was invited by the moderator to join. She has bought many items from me in the past and she can attest to our legitimacy and great prices.

Thanks,

Charles

Puerto Rico- Call me, we can work something out.

Can you give me a number or address I can contact you on purchasing missing parts for my SF557 San Francisco I'm missing pieces SF12, SF13, SF15 and SF16.