buying a doll for the same amount you could buy 64 essences of rubeweed for [at auction] strikes me as .. odd, since with 64 essences one would undoubtedly get a doll along with lots of other profitable stuff.
@striatic, it takes alot of work and time to call the Rube 64 times (and apparently fiddling around with your inventory to get the perfect combination of items most likely to give you a doll). The only time I've ever gotten a doll is when I had a specific Rube-oriented inventory, which is admittedly annoying and frustrating to organize (but at least it gives me something to do).... Some people like shortcuts.
Yes, Winkerdal, it's one rubeweed essence per game day, so 64 game days = 16 real days (longer if you don't religiously log in and use the essence every 4 hours). Supposedly you would have several dolls after all of that, but, again, in my experience I only get dolls when I am making a conscious effort to only carry items the Rube will trade dolls for (plus some other stuff he won't trade crap for... the chance of getting a doll from a normal inventory is extremely small). I find it strange that few people want to buy rubeweed in any form right now... dolls are still being given out, and they're worth alot, so I don't know why the market for rubeweed has suddenly gone through the floor. Prices are dropping very fast, which is good news for buyers.