avoiding conspicuous consumerism in the hobby?

When I first got into dolls I experienced this! The months of November, December, and January were very awful months for me financially. After I got my first doll I went on a doll binge and got too many clothes and extras too fast and at the end of January I was totally poor and had to go back to my mom for support. >_<
It's my fault!
I've learned a lot from it though. On top of that a large amount of money was stolen from me. So I really came to appreciate the worth of a dollar. And now I have learned to recycle and sew and paint. And I got my grail doll... so IDK what else to do with my life!!

Oh as for keeping up with whats cool... I could care less. I don't know anyone who is in the doll community in real life, and dont value the opinions of strangers on the internet much. xD One time someone insulted Bobobie and I was sad... but that was at an IRL meet and mostly I was embarrassed.

 

ahhhh I'm relate! I always feel like I have too many dolls but my craving doesn't stop! I really wish I didn't have this hobby sometimes because of all the money, I spend but they just make me so happy I do envy people with large doll families and I do get the craving to buy new stuffs for them...

 

Well, fortunately, I don't really care for most of the popular Soom Monthly Limiteds. Some make me go "oh, would be nice to have - maybe". But there's none of that "OMG how pretty, must buy immediately!!!" that some other doll-owners seem to feel whenever Soom releases yet another limited doll in their preferred size. I do have my share of dolls (eleven now) and some of them were impulse buys - more or less. Before getting a doll or doll clothes or whatever else doll-related, I make sure I actually got the money to be able to afford it. Like - extra money that'll be left when all bills are paid at the end of the month.

Other than that, I'm pretty good at holding on to my money. Now and then, I'll get into a spending mood (like when I found out about Volks DWC and theri DWC-head and proceeded to buy some other stuff from them, too). But I'm saving money for multiple things right now (LLT's Ludwig - whenever he'll be released - and yet another Hot Toys action figure - Coulson, cos when you got Hawkeye and Black Widow, you also need Coulson to keep them in line, right? Right) and thus, I'm trying not to buy too much new stuff. (Also, in my tiny flat, space for more stuff is strictly limited, soooo ...)

 

I definitely think I went a little doll crazy when I bought my first doll. I binged, definitely, and ended up with I think 6 or 7 by the end of 2012. I've culled quite a few since then and haven't made many impulse buys (thankfully) but it's certainly a learning experience. I'm now saving quite a bit more than I used to and have set much stricter rules and boundaries for myself. We're human - we all make mistakes.

Soom definitely pushes my buttons though - I'm a huge sucker for fantasy parts.

Anyway, I don't feel the need to follow any trends (or keep up with the Joneses) on the internet. In person is a way different story. In our local group, it's a big thing to make your doll Korean because many in the group follow K-Pop. Many people's incoming dolls have Korean names or parts of their collection have something to do with K-Pop. Every time they get into a discussion about it, I feel a little left out because I don't follow that sort of thing and none of my dolls are Korean. Sometimes I feel compelled to make them Korean but I don't have any Korean characters. I know that's kind of random but it's a good example of the Joneses, I think.

 

I am not big on the monthly or limited dolls. Probably because I see those dolls as being a complete set and not customizable like the continuously made dolls if that makes any sense. I also only spend on my doll when I need to like eyes and wigs. Everything else I make myself.

 

Since I've been in hobby for 7 years now and literally doubled my collection in a years, I've been thinking about this subject. Splynterhayde and mdonline03 both made great points about how consumerism, whether we notice it or not, is a part of the hobby. There is a rush about buying and/or getting a new object, whether it is a doll or simply a new outfit for an existing doll. The thrill of acquistion is powerful but my experience is that it quickly disappears. The temptation isn't to buy to belong so much as it is to buy to complete your person vision of your collection.

As for peer pressure or the desire to 'keep up' with other collectors, I haven't really experience any of that. Yes people congratulate you on your new purchases but they also congratulate you on anything that goes well in your life that brings you happiness. On the topic of limiteds, which can lead to impulsive buying as they are only offered for a short time period, they are less desirable to me personally. The moment I see the doll is limited to a set period of time or amount, I will debate how much I want it. I will also search out basic or unlimited dolls that resemble what I like about the limited doll.

I try to plan my collection out in advance and talk about those plans with other collectors on my Livejournal and on a smaller forum I'm a part of. While as I said, my collection doubled this past year and I spent more money, it was done with the intention of bringing my collection closer to what I had always wanted it to be. Talking to other collectors sometimes leads to buying things you were on the fence about but I've found that writing out your thoughts makes it easier to say 'no' to that little voice in your head that says "You have the money now, so spend it!"

 

I always laugh at the phrase "keeping up with the Joneses", since that's my name and I don't really see people fighting to keep up with me. :P But I also don't feel the need to keep up with others. I'll admit, I DO have a large collection and I DO spend a lot of money on dolls and stuff for them, but it's because I want this stuff, not because I feel pressured by others to buy "just one more thing". I'll be the first to admit, I'm a materialistic person. But I don't think this is a bad thing, as it's not hurting others or me. I live within my means.

I do agree with FastFeet, about asking friends about things. I often ask my bff or sister before making a big purchase. I'll still get it if I really want it, but sometimes, they know something about a company, item or seller that I don't and their input helps me make a better in formed choice on whether to buy or not. I might have been ready to click 'buy', but knowing about bad quality, odd sizes, bad service, etc might prevent a mistake.

 

well when i joined this hobby i only inteded on having two MSDs and i have already sent that goal crashing by the wayside, however this had nothing to do with a desire to impress anyone, keep up with anything, show off, or just because im a shopaholic or anything (im actually painfully frugal and thrifty generally)

i can honestly say 90% of my dollies happened by accident! the first two accidents where me attempting to find a doll to match an OC but neither of them worked out and i had fallen in love with them and couldnt let them go...

the third one FINALLY worked for the OC i was trying for all along!

my fifth and sixth dollies where gifts from my darling boyfriend for our first anniversary and my birthday since he wanted me to have girl dolls as well as boys and while i havent really bonded or done anything with either of them they are cherished gifts and home to stay!

my seventh and eighth dolls were rescue projects that i took on to practice my hand at dollie restoration, however one of them is soon to be a gift for a friend so technically only one of them was an accident i couldnt part with... so i guess this technicall only counts as my seventh doll LOL!

my ninth doll and my first SD was a body i ment for my second OCs head (when i finally gave up on ever finding this OC as an MSD) but when the head didnt fit and i had four floating heads i traded one of my floters for a head that would fit the body so i could sell it as a whole doll but then upon putting the head and body together made the mistake of falling in love with him...

my tenth doll was similar to this as i traded one of my SD heads that had failed to work as my second OC for a friend's MSD head... i didnt even want the MSD head but she really wanted my SD head so i traded anyways... and then decided to go for it and get the head a body... and then to go ahead and keep it even though i hadnt really wanted it in the first place???

my eleventh doll is currently a floater but his body is on layaway and he is the (finally) sucessful sculpt of my second OC that ive been searching for for four years!

then my twelfth doll is my only tiny and she was a gift from my penpal in germany and is treasured for this reason...

finally my thriteeth doll is a floating head at the moment and is my attempt to re-shell the first OC character as an SD so he can be on level heigth with my second OC who is an SD

and my final floating head is simply my first mod project, and i only got him to see if i had any skills with modding or not... and halfway through the modding process i fell in love with him... so hes home to stay too...


and while it has been an overwhelming expense at times i am careful and do everything in my power to never spend money i dont have, and while several of my dolls were new from the factory when i got them several also came from the second hand MP and while i have a few limiteds/event/discontinued dolls im not the type of person to throw myself at expensive LEs even when i find them painfully desireable because in the end this is a hobby for me and hobbys should never become something that you throw your money at whenever and risk it interrupting your life as a whole/in general.

and as for clothes/wigs/eyes... from time to time i see things i want and if i can afford them i buy them, most of my dolls clothes are handmade from swaps of which i am an AVID participant (and this becomes a whole nother expense since while i am getting in a sense "free" outfits i am also spending money on fabric and materials and shipping which can be PAINFULLY pricey sometimes if im shipping overseas!) but because of all the swapping i do i have too many high-quality outfits that my dollies dont wear and these are often used for trades for the wigs and eyes and shoes and even faceups my dolls also need, there have even been rare occasions ive traded for dollies/parts as well but i can honestly say that when i trade for resin there is a 99% chance im trying to help a friend get their first dollie, since i have gifted several people their first dolls in the past which has earned me the nicname amongst my friends "dollie-dealer" since they all joke that im getting people addicted to dollies LOL!

but again even if i do gift a doll to a friend i will only do so if i can either trade for it or get a good enough deal that it wont financially upset my own life in any way!


however i will admit to being guilty of falling to peer-pressure once... a friend of mine is an open eliteist in the doll hobby and after hearing her drop a line about my dolls being "cheap" (which is not the case in my opinion since i am in the middle of dropping $600 into my LM Kliff, have owned an IOS garsh, and i dont consider dollzone a cheap company either which is my favroite company and i own several dolls from... just because i own a few resinsouls and dolls from other "cheaper" companies doesnt cheapen my collection and besides theyre beautiful dolls and i love them so i still cant beleive i let myself be hurt by her comment) so i actually went and started browsing the MP looking at Soom dolls for sale and debated buying one even though i didnt want one... and after realising i just didnt like any of the sculpts and after getting over my emotional rollercoaster i realised what i was doing, kicked myself for it, and did not buy a soom and ceased to care what other peopl thought about the costs of my dolls!

 

I would frame it more as the acquisition of stuff rather than specifically conspicuous consumerism (since you could easily be making clothes and wigs and still end up filling your home to the brim with them), but yes - I think there's quite a bit of encouragement out there. That said, I think that's true of virtually all collecting/creating hobbies, since acquiring things (or making things) is one of the primary goals of the whole thing.

Personally, my collection more than doubled the year after I got on DoA, but I think that was less because of peer pressure and more because I was suddenly made aware of the events of dozens of companies rather than the four that I'd been following on my own. I am somewhat conflicted about that, but that's more because of the fact that I'm conflicted about collecting-based hobbies in general than it is because of being conflicted about consumerism in this specific hobby.

 

I have a pretty large collection... but then, I'm a collector, and I'm not going to apologize for that no matter how many people on the internet wring their hands over "consumerism", or shake their heads sadly and proclaim that I really ought to be ashamed of myself for not giving all of that money I spent on the crew, their outfits and their props to starving, orphaned wombats.

That said, I don't allow people on the internet to influence what I DO buy, either. I know exactly how much space and how much money I can comfortably spare for the dolls and their "stuff", and it's not so hard to stay within that if you approach potential purchases with limits firmly in mind. It just takes some thought before you hit that "Buy" button and some self-control. If you're in short supply of either, avoid temptation by staying away from the Marketplace and the company web sites. If you know you're likely to be influenced by DoA squee-fests, LOG OFF THE SITE and go read a book or something... It's really not rocket science.

 

I think there's a lot of consumer encouragement--if you ask a friend who also like dolls if you should buy something, they'll almost always say "yes!" There's a lot of enabling. It's easy to be enabled and enable others when you're surrounded by people engaging in the same behaviors.

I try my best to be aware of this tendency, and thus avoid it--but thankfully I'm not easily enabled in general. Spending money is fun, after all, so it's easy to do it for fun and have it get a little out of control. Even if you aren't spending yourself into bankruptcy, if you feel uncomfortable about buying then you may need to reevaluate your habits. I think the consumer-basis of the hobby can't take all of the blame for negative associations of consumerism.

 

I do not relate with that type of person. I saved my money for a long time just so I could buy one doll and I could buy him case bills and medical needs come first. I got into this hobby cause I love how realistic they are. I plane on making my dolls alot of his clothing and crafting him things. dont get me wrong I am goin to buy him cute outfits but I am limited on funds so it takes time and patients to get my doll.

 

I do relate to this subject a lot!!

Yes, yes yes! I've been avoiding looking for new dolls because there's always one doll I'd like to bring home. Last year I bought 5 dolls in one month!!! but only two dolls stayed with me and the other 3 went to new homes. This made me realize that I can't just buy ANY beautiful doll I find, so this year I've been controlling myself and every time I see a doll I want to buy I just stop to think "do I really need it? do I really really want it?" in that way, I end up not buying any doll and I just go to play my babies here and I feel content

 

No peer pressure or keeping up with the Joneses here. I could care less about what other people are doing with their money or what dolls they are buying or how many.

BUT I think it's dangerous to hang about in forums and doll sites because there is a lot of temptation and lots of enabling going on--seeing all the dolls and seeing people sell dolls and clothes and such.

I will buy what I want to buy, though. I don't care if others think it might be too much or too little. It's my money, my life, my dolls... or doll.. or no doll at all. Why should I worry about everyone else in the world when it doesn't matter whatsoever?

I'm sure there are people who think I might be buying the wrong types of dolls (limited, not limited, cheap, expensive, Asian, non-Asian, small, large--whatever!). It's none of their business really.

 

I can definitely relate to this - although it didn't exactly happen to me, but almost!

I found my first doll who I will be getting this week (yay!) but during the long process of waiting I spent a lot of time looking at clothes and stuff, and also other dolls. I ALMOST bought one of the Soom limiteds...I was SO close so many times with the "omg he's so cute! " and then I snapped myself out of it I was like ok I've already spent the budget on my girlie I can't do this and I can't dip into next months budget...or can I? Then I thought everything would be fine once the duration of the limited sale was over..NOPE! Soom said "let's extend this a couple more days for you!" I'm just like...why me? Why? Was it a sign? Maybe, but I resisted.

The idea of limiteds...yea it's kind of cool but he was just a little baby panda.. ._. I don't need him but I really wanted him, it's sad to know that I can't get him in the future unless it's secondhand. It was too much pressure in such a short time, I'm glad i didn't spend the extra money but it's also unfortunate that they wont still have something I probably would have bought later on in the year once I had settled down with my new doll/gotten more spending money. Maybe if they didn't have things as "monthly limiteds" they would get a significant amount of money in the longterm, but it seems that they would prefer getting 'enough' money in a short amount of time. I dunno.

Right now I'm keeping up with no one, I don't have a doll even yet - but I do have a lot of clothes and things I've made! I think that would be what would get me if anything..who has the prettiest outfit or most detailed whatever. (which wont be me because I'm just learning to sew x3)

 

I don't feel a need to "keep up with the Joneses" so far. I didn't even think of buying a second resin doll until I got an idea for one that I was very excited about, even though a friend at a doll meet had asked me when I was getting a "companion" for Tandrelim, my RS Long. I guess she thought he was lonely as the only resin person in the house. I do this hobby at my own speed and on my own terms, no one else's.

 

I think that other people do influence my purchases at times, but it's not peer pressure. Here's a generic example: Two dolls are released. We'll just call them "A" and "B". I see a news post for both dolls and am mildly interested in both (I may think "Oh, pretty doll, but nothing special"), but not enough to buy them or even go back to their sales page for a second look. One month later, no one bought doll "A" and I have completely forgotten it. However, doll "B" was quite popular - several box openings were posted and the owner's pictures rekindled my interest in the doll. I visit the doll's thread and see even more pictures of it styled in different ways, and start to imagine what I'd do with it. I then decide to buy doll "B". So, my point is that I may be more likely to buy a popular doll just because I have a reminder that it exists. This isn't always the case - I've bought dolls that were extremely unpopular to the extent that I've never seen an owner's picture other than my own.

Also, I'll admit that I'm far more likely to buy LEs, so the company's strategies do work on me. If a doll is a basic, there's no urgency. I have plenty of dolls, so I decide to save a basic doll I like for later. I've wanted a Little Monica Chloe for years, but I honestly don't know if I'll ever buy her unless LM announces that she'll be discontinued. If it's a limited, impulse buying often occurs. Plus, there's a better chance that I'd be able to sell the limited if I don't like it in person, so I can use that justification.

One trend that I find disturbing is that if I buy one doll, it usually leads to buying more. Buying a doll puts me in "doll mode", and my desire to visit DoA increases. The more time I spend here, the more interesting sculpts I find. The people themselves don't make me want to buy more, though. I do agree with the OP about people encouraging others to spend, but it doesn't really affect me. I even find it annoying at times. I've read many posts that imply (or directly state) that people should save up for the one doll they "love" the most, regardless of how much it costs. I see this more in this hobby than my other hobbies, though I'm sure this line of thought isn't unique to BJDs enthusiasts. I agree that people should only buys dolls they like, rather than pointlessly buying less expensive dolls they don't like, but suggesting that one completely ignore one's budget to get their #1 favorite BJD isn't always the best idea. Even if all the bills are paid and a nice sum of money is set aside for emergencies, some people will never feel comfortable paying a massive sum for a doll, and there's nothing wrong with that.

 

My consumption in this hobby is not at all conspicuous. I don't know nor care how much my peers are spending on their dolls. I do what I want, I buy what I want. My dolls are my pets, so to me, conspicuous consumerism of doll things is about as absurd as saying that you need 4 dogs just because all your neighbours have 4 dogs.

And like pets, they are horrible adorable little money-sinks. XP

 

I sort of get a bit compulsive over certain things I "must" have on occasion. But family comes first, so if it is something expensive, I save up for it, and bide my time. That being said, I have a very understanding partner, that knows me well enough to sometimes allow me some extra luxuries

 

Naah, I don't do peer pressure. Total waste of time, money, and energy.

And no, I don't care if my consumption is conspicuous or not. I collected what I liked & what I could afford on my budget. Other people's views of what is excessive/reasonable are not my problem.

Right now, I'm between jobs, so I am currently acquiring nothing. Now is the time when I simply enjoy what I already have. It's not hard to just window-shop once you have gotten your boundaries readjusted to a new economic situation.

This is a hobby where you collect things; these are luxury items; acquisition is part of the game. If you don't want to consume the dolls and their accoutrements yourself, but you still like looking at dolls, you can always just window-shop, collect sales-photos, browse the Gallery, browse Tumblr, whatever.

For people who find themselves easily swayed into spending beyond their means, by looking at what other people have, then it's probably not a good hobby to get too involved in anyway. Knowing thyself and thy weak-spots is key.

For those who are overly irked by consumerism in general, also not a good hobby; better to go get a job with Adbusters or something.