BJDs in amongst the Walmart Generation

A doll owner who was banned from DoA for questionable marketplace practices was posted recently on the People Of Wal-Mart site, posing in a store with one of her dolls. Which look absolutely nothing like any of mine in spite of Phil's perceptions. (To be honest about it, I probably ought to feel a little insulted by the comparison, but that's a personal judgement. >_>)

Anyway, when I buy something... dolls, shoes, or whatever... I take quality into consideration. There really is some truth to the saying "You get what you pay for" where some items are concerned, and I'd rather have one Thing X of excellent quality than six cheaper versions that aren't going to work as well or last as long.

 

Very well put

 

i think lots of the bjd related stuff are over priced.

im not saying that bjd should sell at barbie price though,but i can understand why non-doll person think we are paying ridiculous price for a bunch of resin and glass and cloth....and paint^_^~

 

Oh no, I was making no comparison between your dolls and hers. For a start, you legally own all your dolls...

It's just that her pic reminded me of their existence, and the links in PoWM comments about her got me over to Resinality (someone got stung there), and the rest, as you say, is history...

Phil.

 

When it comes to myself, I do belong to the Wall-Mart generation, I hate to spend lots of money for things like clothes, food or other Stuff, if I can get it cheaper, I will buy it.

But with my dolls, it is different, probably, because I know, that there is no value loss.
I would never spend hundrets of dollars an a cheap Doll that everyone can have, but every BJD is one of its kind, even if they have the same Face-mold, and even if you have two the same Dolls with default Face-Up, they will be different, and that is what makes me spend so much more Money on my Dolls than on myself.

 

My boyfriend does not understand. He never will understand, but I keep trying. He plays Warhammer, a game that he has to buy models for. He has easily spent $400+ on models and paint and books and other crap. He also plays a card game called magic. He has almost $1000 worth of cards! I try and explain to him that dolls are my Warhammer.

On the opposite side, my best friend ShadowHuntr saw my doll and a week later had chosen the one she wanted and asked for my help with the ordering. Not one question about price.

I guess it just matters on what is important to someone. I NEVER buy jeans over $20, or expensive jewelry, But I can justify $150 for a cosplay or $300 for a doll. -shrug- I don't see it as someone not understanding their quality, cuz Joshua understands perfectly well, as I have told him many times, and still does not think its worth it. Dolls just aren't their thing and I can respect that.

 

This, totally. I am an INSANELY cheap person - I feel compelled to buy the cheapest pair of shoes or jeans I can find that fit. I feel guilty whenever I spend more than seven or eight dollars on a meal. And yet, I am willing to pay $18-$20 on a poor-quality t-shirt because it has anime characters on it. I am willing to pay $35 for a Dungeons and Dragons book I may never actually play. The most I ever spent on a 1/6th scale doll was not for a Volks or Obitsu - it was on a Barbie. Specifically, I paid $50 for an officially licensed Spock doll. But I would not spend even that much on the officially licensed dolls Volks makes, because I do not like those characters as well. The same is actually true in the doll hobby. To me, my 50cm Obitsu isn't only "just as good" as a Volks FCS - I would actually be willing to spend MORE on her, even though she is made from vinyl instead of resin, even though her joints are not strung, even though she was not crafted by hand. To me, she is more valuable because she is the doll that I want. There is no other reason necessary for value in my eyes, especially in so personal a hobby as this. There is no "buying the best;" there is only buying what you want.

How does this carry over to outside the doll community? People will pay for what they care for, and if they do not understand why you care for something, they will not understand why you paid so much money for it. I cannot understand why someone would pay $300 for a purse or $500 for a pair of shoes - and yet, if someone said they were spending that much on a doll, or art supplies, then I would agree immediately. In my mind, that is the best way you can explain the price, by explaining that to you, these dolls are every bit as important to you as their treasured object is to them.

 

I got tons of Magic cards I should put on eBay, especially my rares and uncommons. I swear that they can almost pay for my next doll. As for Phage and her nemesis the angel (cannot remember her name), I got both of those ones in NMC++ and I hear they do fetch a pretty penny...

Phil.

 

The first thing my husband said to me when I finally felt brave enough to start telling him about bjds and how/why I wanted one (let's just say I've not mentioned I want 3 yet *cough!*) was "make clothes for our daughter's barbies!" and then, to my horror, he suggested jokingly I take a collector's doll out of his box to make clothes for him! XD

The more I've shown him, though, about just how customizable and poseable these dolls are, the more interested and understanding he's become. He even asks me questions about things like "do they make dragon eyes for them?" and lets me know when he thinks an outfit looks cool or lame to him. We both cosplay and he collects memorabilia from his favorite movies, so he's no stranger to hobbies that cost substantial money.

 

Had to drag this over to start my babble.
I don't think the fact some people like to spend little or how little others spend within the bjd hobby is the point here.It's how others,outside the community,who are of the cheap-stuff mindset regard our hobby and the way they will make comments to the effect that it's silly to spend so much for the same functions as a cheaper fashion doll.

I can certainly understand how other people who don't share our appreciation for the dolls question the price.I also agree with the decline of understanding of artisan products-it's sad really.And in a way-hobbies like the dolls,lolita,cosplaying-they're keeping at least a portion of the world's population appreciative of custom,artist created things.

 

Dolls are a world unto themselves. I don't know how many times I've said or had said to me, "I'd never pay $50 (or whatever price) for a pair of jeans (or whatever) for me but with dolls, I think nothing of it."

In real life I'm a hardcore bargain shopper. I do clearance sales, discount stores, coupons, etc. but with dolls you don't have those options. Since most of my friends are doll people anyway no one seems to question the price point.

 

THIS. Seriously. Autumnrain, once again, words it best for us on this end.

I am wholeheartedly of the Walmart generation. I'm frugal, and very much so. But being so is what gives me my disposable income to begin with. From my experience, as long as yo take care of your things, you can make anything last, and the higher prices on certain products usually comes from brand-names over actual product quality.

Something we say to death in the BJD world can be easily applied to anything, "Get what you like the most!" If settling for something cheaper makes you unhappy, then don't settle, but if you find that your as satisfied with the lower price, then get the lower priced items. This is a no-brainer, really.


I purchased a Miniture Horse today. I think I'm getting far more bewildered looks from family and friends from owning him than my dolls. It's just one of those things I want to do to be happy.

 

Haha, I remember that Barbie! The ballet-dancer one, right? That was the only Barbie I ever liked, and the one I treated best. I think that she was the doll that really struck a chord with what I liked in a doll--if I hadn't sold every Barbie I ever owned some years ago, I'd probably have kept her to this day.

On the comment originally about Barbie-bashing, I think that the reason most people in this thread don't seem to care for them much is that the Barbie brand itself has become the very epitome of this Walmart-mentality the OP mentioned in the first place. And sure, there are people out there who love their Barbies just as much as I'm sure we all love our BJDs, but the mainstream view of them is that Barbies are "normal", and Barbies are cheap, and we should all just buy those instead of our expensive, pretty, customizable, posable dolls. I think it's this mentality, and the message that most people get from Barbies and other mass-produced, often substandard, items, that people are really bashing here.

Anyhow, on the subject, I've never been one of those people that likes to settle, and though I'd like to say that my family doesn't really like to either, I'd be wrong. They're not okay with Walmart or Target or such, but they still shop at the mall, where things are only of slightly higher quality. So do I, in fact, and I'm not ashamed to say it--there are few tailors around here, after all. But I'm quick to point out where their expensive values lay when they mention the cost of mine--my father buys all of his furniture from a little shop where they hand-make solid wood furniture, (Despite the fact that every time he visits he has to drive two hours!) and swears that when I go off to college, I'm getting the same good furniture instead of mass-produced stuff.
Basically, values are values, I suppose. While you or I might not be willing to settle for a Barbie, someone else might, but might not be willing to settle for that point-and-shoot camera instead of that DSLR that's twice as expensive. Not everyone will be able to understand everyone else's values, and there are just some things people value more commonly than others, so they're more accepted.

 

speaking of BJDs and wal-mart (sorry if tihs is a repost) http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/?p=8723

I happen to play warhammer too When i first got into it, i remember the guys teaching sorta held their breath and braced themselves, and told me how much to expect to spend on a 'nid army, and i was all "oh pft thats less than half a soom doll!"

 

Someone who's not into collector's dolls would probably see the $$$ spent on BJD's as unjustified, just as someone not into gourmet food would see eating at an expensive restaurant a waste of $$$.

I've heard gasps when my friends find out the price of my dolls, though no one has asked me to settle for a cheaper doll yet, but I guess that's because of my age (53). at that age, people kinda accept that you're eccentric anyway.

btw, I don't think there's anything wrong with barbies. I just like BJD's better.

 

I have also received comments of that sort a lot, especially from my father. My mother tries to explain to him why ABJDs are special to me, but he just can't get it into his head. I guess dolls were just never a part of his interests... :P

 

I'm someone who HATES designer labels - Why pay upwards of $100.00 for a shirt with the company's name on it, when it cost them about $3.00 to make and they are getting free advertising from you? Because it's a perceived prestige that the others around you will think better of you for spending money on a label. Most people (women in particular) think along these lines. Like autumnrain said on page 1, handbags are notorious for this.

I guess what people don't understand is that dolls really don't serve a practical purpose AND they are most commonly associated with children. They wouldn't dream of spending more than $20.00 on a barbie for a child because the doll will end up stripped bare, accessories lost, and then carried around by the hair on most occasions, so why spend more?
Then there's the perception that if an adult is carrying around a doll, they must be mentally stunted. In other words, they must have something wrong chemically in their brains that causes them to want a doll rather than, say, a shirt with cheap rhinestones on it that says "BEBE". So, when they ask how much a doll is and can't fathom the price, it just goes towards their argument of something being wrong with the owner because not only are they an adult and carrying around a child's toy, but they spent an ungodly amount of money on it. I can only imagine their thought process when the doll owner is male (mad props to my male doll owner friends ^_^).

I have a friend who is constantly telling me to "get rid of my creepy dolls" when I tell her I don't have money, and she has never understood my fascination with them. However, at the time I started with dolls, she was getting into motorcycles and had 3 of them, even though she never rode them. She also had 2 cars and only drove one of them. LOL

To quote Stan Lee (because he is the MAN and because it's one of my favorites): "There seems to be something in the human condition that makes people dislike people that they think are different. If we could get rid of that, it would be a better world."

 

THANK YOU! seriously. I feel like im always making this argument, but in my head, im hardly ever brave enough to actually say it. so thanks for saying it.

 

I guess I have Walmart mentality, but I don't think thats so bad. I mean I could pay 38.00 bucks for a pair of Juicy Couture leggings for my 5 year old, or I could pay 5.98 for the same pair at Walmarts. Granted they dont have a cute little logo sew on them but when she trips and gets a huge hole in the knee it's a lot less painful to toss the Walmart brand then some 38.00 ones.

And the reason I CAN afford my precious dolls is because I DO buy things like food, shoes, clothes at Walmart.

 

Well, maybe this issue has more to do with our own confidence. I know my spending habits an am aware of how responsible I am so I don't feel at all guilty about my one indulgence - to date 2 dolls, 2 or 3 more planned...

However the first thing that came to mind when I read this thread was - well, to be blunt, I can't imagine any of my friends, close or casual, giving me a hard time about my dolls. I have had interesting responses, (the females are always enraptured) but never has anyone been derisive. Disrespectful people don't get far with me. I kicked a "friend" out of the house for telling a racist joke (my kids were there, I didn't like the example it set) and another was shown the door for wearing a mask in the house and frightening my son. These "friendships" were not a loss. I don't want negative or thoughtless people around me. It comes down to respect. Friends or family - it doesn't matter - respect is a good thing to have, and to give.