avoiding conspicuous consumerism in the hobby?

I'm afraid I don't relate. While every once in a while I see a gorgeous hanfu or wig I think would be perfect for someone, the overwhelming majority of the time, I look at something and just think, for X amount? Oh heck no, I'll just MAKE one. And that's not me thinking prices are overinflated or whatever, I know what kind of work goes into making those clothes and things. I would just rather pay half that and do it myself.

 

I am a collector, so collecting things makes me happy. I love buying for my dolls because I think it's fun and I like accumulating stuff for them. It has nothing to do with a perceived need to keep up with other doll owners because I really don't care what other doll owners do with their dolls.

Even if DoA were to disappear tomorrow and I somehow lose contact with any doll owning people I know, I'd still buy dolls and buy things for them.

Sometimes my collection balloons and gets a little too big, so when that happens I trim it back down the way do for all of my various collections.

 

I'm afraid I don't relate either. It's an expensive hobby - we all know that. Even the cheapest BJDs are still relatively expensive. As the joke goes, you know you're a BJD collector when you see a doll going for $400 and say, "Wow, what a great bargain!"

Personally I don't tally my spending with other people's, because everyone has different budgets, so I don't feel a need to "keep up with the Joneses". One of the things I like about this hobby is how non-competitive it is. Just because something is more expensive doesn't make it better, and personally I admire someone who saves up and cherishes their Bobobie dolls more than someone who buys Soom LEs purely as status symbols (not that I've seen much of the latter, though).

Also, for the record, I have not seen any "must-have" accessories. What are they? And as far as I know, character development costs nothing but imagination dollars.

 

Well, I have yet to see anything I would consider a "must-have accessory," I don't have a grail doll, there are very few limiteds that I like, and I generally don't feel any need to "keep up with the Joneses" in the hobby. I prefer to do my own thing. Which isn't to say that I don't ever succumb to less-than-ideal spending impulses, but I think I'm pretty good about staying within my means when it comes to the hobby. I just...don't understand the need to buy or have something because everyone else is getting it. I thought creativity was the point of the hobby, and it seems like "keeping up with the Joneses" by striving to have all the "must-haves" kind of stifles that.

 

I don't really feel any peer pressure. If that was the case I wouldn't be buying RS/BBB lol. But I'm big into collecting. So sometimes I have a hard time passing things up even though I know I shouldn't buy them. My problem is I want more dolls but I barely have enough clothes for all of them as it is lol.

 

I don't feel the need to "keep up with the Joneses" in this or any other hobby, I just buy what makes me happy when I have the money to spare.
I will admit that this hobby has made me spend more than usual but that has nothing to do with peer pressure, and I think about every purchase for a while before hitting the 'buy' button.

 

The only pressure I feel is the pressure to buy all the dolls on your wishlist right now! No waiting! Get them as soon as you find them! which is... somewhat resistable. At this point in time, there are several specific sculpts that I want to buy, and I will get them before I start looking for others to save for. So the only pressure I feel is to do that quickly, rather than taking things slow and saving up and not spending food money on them.

 

I'd say that yes, the hobby mentality has definitely shifted to be more consumerist as compared to the same hobby almost ten years ago. I mean, yes, as a luxury hobby geared around collecting a product, it was always oriented in that fashion, but the pace has definitely picked up, and not soley because we have more companies to choose from every other week, either, but because the hobby has proven to be financially lucrative so many years after it began.

Back when I first realized the hobby, most of the companies held maybe two events a year -- Volks had Dollpa in Tokyo and had just started doing Kyoto, if I remember the time correctly), and Luts had just started introducing the first Juri ever (that was in 2005, and when that proved a success -- it was 300$ and you got the head; no skintone requests, some were human and some had elf ears, and there were so many people trading at the time to get the gift they wanted! - they started doing the summer events with Nanuri!) - and perhaps released a new doll every three to six months. As newer companies started popping up, they also occasionally held events, but it was normally around holiday periods. Winter and sometimes another season. Doll companies have always had limiteds to influence the sense of urgency in buying -- we saw the proof of that, and still do, in the aftermarkets - and it was part of what gave so many dolls, particularly from Volks, value and grail status. There were some other quantity or time release limiteds from other companies -- Crobidoll had its F5D events, Luts had its elves and art full sets) - but what REALLY seemed to revolutionize the speed of events, the new onslaught of limiteds, was when Soom took their fantasy dolls and came up with popularizing monthly Limiteds.

It changed so many things; buyers were encouraged to collect map pieces to win a chance at a free doll, aftermarket prices swelled -- Sard, for 3k, anyone? - and each new doll was only available for a short order period. Some people started making money of this; in the style of Volks after dealers, we saw users perpetually buy limiteds for resale right in our very own aftermarket. Waiting rooms were popularized and collecting was encouraged, endorsed in discussion, and social collectors started popping up (people who were always in on an ordering period, would make friends with collectors in waiting rooms, then resell once the doll arrived and start again) and impulse buys were at a huge high. It's also around this time other companies started getting in on the idea -- we recently just saw Fairyland do what, 4 back to back events, with the prize incentives (no longer really in the spirit of gifts, but incentive to splurge more) with dollar goals set higher (600$+ for a head) to match. - and now we are where we are.

Our attitudes towards endorsing compulsive consumerism are greater than ever -- our secondary market is still proof of that, with so many dolls being bought and sold to make room for new dolls, upgrades, updated collections, etc. - and our market bubble has swelled, and popped due to this and outside influences (the real world economy being as low and poor as it is), beyond the addition of new companies with new wares to peddle being introduced into the mix.

We all buy dolls because we like them. Many of us are making stories and finding appropriate shells for characters, but I think we're way more influenced by our consumerism than we realized. It's not uncommon for doll plans to change or delayed so an owner can, in their love for a newly released doll who is often limited, stall already made plans in order to purchase a doll they might have a hard time finding secondhand. Or for owners to 'cull' some of their herd for a rerelease of a doll they've always desperately wanted to shell.

I'm not saying its a bad thing, not at all. But have we shifted to a greater velocity of consumerism in the hobby? Absolutely. The competition between companies makes the environment ripe for that, and the diversity in product selection resulting means we have more choice to contribute towards our stories in a better way than before. We can't even say that it is the minority of collectors who are effected by it, because consumerism dictates rules of supply and demand. If there weren't a market for it, it wouldn't be offered. And we all vary so much in degree of taste and aesthetic that there is a product -- a doll - for essentially, each of us.

(Just my two cents and observations over the last few years! Sorry if it came off as a rant or a debate or something. It's not. Just a very excited point of view, I guess! .)

 

Great question. I was just pondering an idea very similar to your post. In my former life I was in marketing and sales - and something I think these companies do very well is marketing and selling the dream. Shiny objects are dangled consistently with limited purchasing windows and no guarantee it will ever be available again thereby triggering potential impulse buying. I often wonder how many/if any are going into debt because of this model.

Being compelled to spend more:
I'm new to the hobby, but not new to collecting and curating. A couple things I always do however is give myself a total investment/spend limit and be really specific about what I'm collecting. I have a lot of hobbies so I have to be particularly wary of spending. I can admit to doing a few things in this hobby; 1. buying an insane amount of dolls in a very short period of time (acute consumerism), 2. being compelled to make a decision sooner rather than later because of purchasing windows. That said, I am completely confident in my "compelled spending spree" because I gave myself a budget and a limit on the number of dolls ahead of time. Believe me I have a huge wishlist but will only allow myself a small number.

I agree that in this hobby there are so many "must-haves" but with a hobby like this that spans so many other hobbies it's easy to see. The choice to spend endlessly or not (if money is not an obstacle) I think is personality/emotionally/psychologically based in my opinion. I think it depends largely on the type of collector a person is. So personally while I see nothing wrong with a collector that collects endlessly as long as they don't loose the house and starve etc.; I'm just not that kind of collector. As impressive as mega collections are. I prefer smaller collections of things in the less than 8 range.

Peers:
As far as what my peers are doing in the hobby, my purchasing decisions are not influenced by what others are doing, buying or what's popular. And so far from what I've seen, most of the dolls I have aren't all that popular. And to be honest it never occurred to me that people might feel pressured to own a certain type of doll, collect LE or exclusively buy from a single company because of what others are doing.

Summary:
To sum up I'd say these companies do a fantastic job of driving consumerism whether we are conscious of our choices or not. I definately feel the pressure from the marketing (everything looks so yummy). But I have a limit because of personal commitments I've made with myself and this hobby. And fortunately I don't feel the any residual pressure from peer activity.

 

Yes, thank you, mdonline03. That's exactly how I feel in regards to the hobby. Well (and very technically!) put!

 

It's an expensive hobby and acquisition is a fairly large part of it. That's just the way it is. I don't feel the need to keep up with anybody -- any pressure to buy is strictly coming from myself. Sure there are times when I've spent more than I should, but there are other times where I've been pretty frugal (this whole past year or so). Sometimes life circumstances don't give you a choice. Doll companies are of course going to try and get us to buy their products -- that's how they stay in business, and there's a lot of competition right now.

 

I do not feel the need to keep up with other collectors, I just always get suckered in by the words "limited edition". I have yet to get ANY of the standard dolls on my wish list, because when I find myself in a position to get one, a super awesome limited doll comes out and there goes all the money I had saved up!

Then once I find myself with a new fancy limited doll, I have to then of course get it eyes and shoes and at least one outfit. Thankfully I have been on a tiny kick recently and basic dresses for the girls are not all that hard to make and fantasy parts lead to me not having to get shoes... still...

Confound these dollies! They dive me to spend!

 

I don't feel the need to compete with anybody else. I own these dolls because they make me happy. Every doll I buy, every outfit they wear, every aspet of them is because I like it and because being around them makes me smile. This is a very expensive hobby, and being on forums like this automatically make you feel more active in it, thus increasing the chance of purchase for some people.

 

By 2005, Volks was definitely having 4 Dolpas a year and at least one Sato event. I'd need to look up to see when they started doing spring and autumn Sato events. So Volks was definitely churning out LE's and events long before Soom.

It's an expensive collecting and customizing hobby that centers around dolls we buy and the things we can buy for them. There's simply no way to get around that fact.

 

Well, those who think it's important to "keep up with the Joneses" are probably not giving two hoots about whether they're being consumerist or not, but for those who are concerned, then it's pretty simple: Buy second-hand dolls and clothing. You can get quite nice things years behind the trends for a fraction of their cost. Another way is to make your dolls' clothes. Yeah okay it's hard sometimes to make wigs, eyes, and shoes, but some people manage it.

There are all kinds of ways to get attention in this hobby, but the best way to do it is to create unique and beautiful dolls. You can have all the latest most expensive dolls and their commercially-made clothes, but that's not necessarily going to make people go "ooh ahh" in this hobby. Anyone can spend money, but if you have the talent and drive to create beautiful things yourself then nobody cares what you've spent (or haven't).

But the best thing of all, is to just do or get what pleases *you*. If pleasing others pleases you more than anything, then you're destined to failure. That goes for pretty much anywhere, though... not just in this hobby!

 

Thanks for the correction on the amount of Dollpa they had by 2005. Always helpful to have your facts straight!

I actually meant by my post that Volks did start out with the events and Limiteds way before Soom, but Soom really popularized the concept monthly limiteds, which accelerated the release of other events by at least some other companies as they tried to keep up. Volks has always done their own thing, but they also have more events as the hobby fan base expanded. They're two separate ideas I was mentioning, sorry for the confusion.

(So essentially, I agree with you. I'm just clarifying.)

 

I don't have a problem with overspending on dolls, my crappy job barely covers my bills most of the time but I wish I could buy new dolls and doll stuff all the time. If I was randomly rich or something I'd have no problem with it...

 

'Keeping up with the joneses' and current trends are something that make me run very far in the other direction because for me they both cheapen and diminish the pleasure an already costly hobby brings to me.
I think its true that the acquisition in itself can bring an addictive buzz for some people and there can be a flock mentality towards a new and fantastic sculpt being released but I am still not sure that many people actually do care too much what people, despite the incredible amount of time spent on DoA it is such a personal hobby and surely it is simply an extension of the personality types we already are in other walks of our lives regarding our views to consumerism. To me its a balance of the acquiring what I need, the odd luxury desire now and again and then a whole lot of creative input which is mostly recycled, low cost or free then now and again share or just immerse in the pure personal enjoyment...whatever......I certainly don't give two hoots what those pesky Joneses are up to