Through their new business, Jillson and Derrickson are also giving second chances to toys that would otherwise be discarded in landfills or lost in antique stores.
Most of the wares sold by Unsettling Toys come from people who’ve explicitly contacted them to remove the unwanted items from their homes themselves. If they live nearby, Jillson and Derrickson usually remove the toys free of charge. And, with every removal, they also promise to return and retrieve it again if it “ends up coming back on its own volition.”
The shortest adoption turnover Unsettling Toys has had so far was around one week. They’ve noticed that dolls that are antique, porcelain, or noticeably flawed sell the fastest.
“Some of them get snatched right up,” Derrickson said.
Though not all. Some, like Winston, a tattered stuffed lion, have been with them since they started.
The toy’s former owner, who received the lion as a house-warming gift, started experiencing nightmares about it within a month. In one, the man dreamt that Winston was upholstered with cat fur, while in another, he was convinced that it was actually human skin. After his third nightmare, in which he dreamt that the creepy toy was melting, the man reached out to Unsettling Toys to find Winston a new home.
Another longtime resident on Unsettling Toys’ digital shelves is a doll named Blue Baby. With cracked porcelain skin, stained blue clothes, and matted brown hair, Derrickson, Jillson, and their two kids found the toy so terrifying that they kept it locked in their basement for years after receiving it.
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