.

Hi!

I believe that being in similar kind of situation is part of the hobby, I mean, one would spend tons and tons for their beloved collection/ hobby because that particular thing provides satisfaction and fulfillment. Being able to spend for yourself is a different aspect though. In fact, there are other individuals that would splurge on something, not limited to BJD (ex. limited edition figures, cars, paintings, luxury bags, etc) without depriving their personal necessities and I think the way you perceive things really is a great factor regarding this. Moreover, as you go on with the hobby + the continuous expenditure, you're becoming more and more practical with every penny you bring out from your pocket: buying only the needs, as it was drastically differentiated with wants and of course, you know your limitations as to how much you could spend.

It is really a challenge for us who keep on balancing financial situations. I, myself have been going through to becoming "more practical" outside the hobby. However, on the other hand, this is what makes me happy and nothing bad will happen if I do this (aside from savings deduction lol). If you really really are committed and passionate with it, you're going to be at peace as you will never be guilty about buying things for your dolls and be fine as you will never feel odd

Regards~

 

Space is definitely one for me as well as the money thing. I tend to get rid of thing I haven't used in 6 months to save space but giving a whole room to storage for doll clothes , props, and doll crafts is fine . "Oh hey! Here's a great deal on an SD chair. who needs a guest room. They can sleep on the couch. "

 

I find this so funny, but honestly it all just boils down to your passion and interest for certain things. This hobby, for us, is FUN. Plain and simple. We get enjoyment from it. And sometimes, that feeling does not have any boundaries or price tags because we put value into it. It is of an importance to us. Some of my female friends put lots of money, time and effort into designer clothes, makeup, hair, or fancy shoes, or nails....or even home decor. Me? Dolls. I like dolls. Will spend my last on dolls and dolls accessories Lol $500 on a handbag? Crazy! $500 on a single doll...totally a bargain LOL

 

As far as non-money things go I think Time is my huge exception
like I can't spend hours on end doing anything else, I need to budget it and take breaks
(even my other hobbies like art and cello)
but with dolls, it's like "Oh man restringing a doll for two hours then repositioning the eyes for another hour? totally reasonable"

 

I feel I can devote my time to my army of girls, for different reasons. Say, giving everybody lashes at the same time....there will be heads on the dining table for 2 months at least. Re-dressing 2 or 3 in one sitting ok! Hours of my evening galore! They take up a good part of my extra activity beside my cat, Alma. Alma is best boy. The dolls are great too though.....

 

I feel the jeans thing in my soul! I get 90% of my clothes from thrift shops and am very picky about pricing (60$ for a T-shirt can kiss my butt) but I will find a way to rationalize a $60 pair of shoes for a doll lol. For reference, I get most of my shoes for 15 bucks at Walmart.

 

In terms of acceptance in non-money terms, I think of non-acceptance, or perhaps more accurately, disbelief, by family. Some just grunt and shake their heads. Others will nearly faint at the bjds themselves.
Even when I try to explain the dolls are art forms that can be personalized, some family just don’t get it. So now I don’t share the dolls anymore.

 

I have a strange yet vast collection of very colorful jeans so I can't speak much to that regard but I do find myself looking at pricetags a bit less frugally because I know the team of people that made what I'm looking at is just so much smaller. When I pick up something at a store I know that it was backed by a big company, traded hands through shipping routes maybe hundreds of times and likely didn't mean much to the creator. I look at doll (and other hobby stuff) more as a labor of love than anything else.

 

Honestly the fact that I have spent close to $400 on some of my dolls baffles me Also the fact that most of the floating heads alone cost me between $100-$200...and I am ok with those prices!

I remember balking at the cost of my best friend’s PG Unicorn Gundam Kit. But now my dolls are equally if not more expensive!

As far as non-cost related things, I think can spend way more time window shopping for BJD stuff than anything else

 

Omg! You are so right about this. I never even considered it before. The hobby is totally worth taking a little bit of a risk to me.

 

Shipment costs. I routinely order all my skincare in Korea, and any seller that does not have free shipping for orders over a certain sum, even today in lock down, gets an instant pass... And no, thous are not small packages - I usually get half a year worse of supplies and a lot of them are liquids in glass bottles - doll stuff is not much bigger and often lighter.
And yet I cringe but pay the shipment costs that right now can be very steep... Just to day ago I sighed and payed the extra invoice Dollmore send me AFTER they accepted my order - in any other situation I'd just cancel the order altogether if they where not clear about the shipping costs up front.
I althou wanted to add that doll clothing is usually hand made and often to order - if you go to a seamstress and order a similar outfit hand made for you it will cost considerably more than the one for your doll. Comparison with mass produced jeans and t-shirts is not really fair in that way, and same goes for shoes - made to order artisan shoes cost a peaty penny
As for waiting times, again - dolls are artisan goods, exclusive and made to order, anything fitting that description takes a while to produce - my other weakness are corsets (for me) and I do mean authentic steel boned ones, not plastic stuff, and it takes similar amount of time to have one made and shipped, so I'm used to that part at least... Still - never really had to pay that much for the shipping.

 

My clothes are half thrifted (name brand jeans for $7 I’m all over it), 1/4 regular hot topic and etc kind of clothes, and 1/4 hand made artist-crafted clothes I really like. I haven’t changed size in anything but jeans in years, so yesterday, I spent $550 on a dress, a smoothie cup, a coffin shaped suitcase, a shirt and a Victorian overcoat form a small goth store that gets artist-made clothes, and prices them around what some of the bjd clothes I like cost, or a bit more, because they’re human-sized. The difference between my clothes and doll clothes is that I can also go get $7 jeans and $5 shirts—not everything comes from Red Moon (the goth store). Those thrifted options don’t really exist in the hobby though, So I equate my doll clothes with my new Victorian overcoat. Someone somewhere brought that to life on a sewing machine, and it took a lot of time and a lot of work. That’s how I justify the fact that, barring Red Moon trips, I don’t like clothes that cost more than like $25-50, but will far exceed that for doll clothes. I can thrift what I need.

For outside the hobby services, I also think that’s justifiable because of the difficulty of getting it fixed by the company relative to doing it yourself. If the lawn maintenance misses a strip, I’m allergic, and cutting it and getting grass juice on my skin will make me break out in hives, not to mention the asthma. Sanding a seam can be a blight, but with the mods I’ve sanded, it doesn’t seem so bad. I’d throw on the respirator, and since I like working on dolls, I don’t really mind doing it.

as for your third point, I actually really don’t like insecure sites. If I can’t use paypal, I’m not doing it. I only do F&F locally, when I’m physically picking up the item and sending the cash with the item in hand. I grew up with an IT guy in the house, so I’m paranoid. If an insecure site sends me to paypal though, and paypal is secure, and a real paypal URL, I’ll buy without hesitation. I won’t directly input credit card info, or bank transfer, because I’ve heard too many horror stories from my dad. I respect people that do though, because there are many trustworthy artists, and many good artists that for x reason can’t/don’t use paypal. For me that just runs against what was pretty much drilled into me as a kid.