BJDs in amongst the Walmart Generation

D:< my dad kept calling my obitsu an overpriced barbie, but I love him despite the fact he falls apart...
now I mostly buy bobobies and get pricier, but nicer dolls made with resin..no more plastic for me...
saving money is nice but I want something that will last and not need to be replaced.

I feel sad that I was never taught any family trade, I am teaching myself woodworking, but it takes a long time to become skilled on your own.

 

I don't think the issue is people not wanting to buy "hand made" such as with a needle and thread (I haven't really seen any items like that for sale anyways) items because they're afraid of lower or random quality. I think it's that people don't care how high the quality is and they just want to pay walmart prices for it. They don't understand that BJD clothes aren't made in sweatshops and aren't made with such low quality fabrics as you'd find in walmart clothes. I mean BJD clothing companies such as dollheart aren't struggling or anything, but there are a lot of people making complaints about "ripoffs" and "price gouging" because a fullset doll outfit costs more than $10. Those people have no idea how much work it takes to sew anything and refuse to learn to sew, and yet they whine and complain and say people should charge $2 for a doll shirt since their human shirt only cost $5.

 

Sometimes though, price doesn't reflect quality. A good example, I recently needed to get some new PJ bottoms. I went to the store, and they were about $30. Poorly made, shotty flimsy fabric. I go elsewhere and I get three pairs for what I would have paid for one, and the quality is leaps and bounds better then the $30 ones. Nice heavy cotton, neatly done finishes and even seams.

So, you don't ALWAYS get what you pay for, but I think most of the time it is true. Good quality and good price? Makes me very happy, but it often doesn't work that way.

I try to look at quality over price, whatever I buy. Another example, I decided to just break down and buy Mystic eyes for my bigger dolls, since they're so nice, and they also have the colours I want. Could I have stuck with acrylics? Sure, but would I have been happy with them? No. They just don't have that super-life-like quality I adore in doll eyes. Plus I'm very near-sighted and I can see the half-tone printing patterns in acrylics, and it drives me bonkers

I often have trouble justifying the cost to some of my friends. Usually it ends in me saying, 'it's a hobby and it makes me happy'. What I hear is usually: 'but it's just a doll!' I try to explain that it's not just a doll, it's a hand-made work of art. The hours that go into sculpting, the effort of engineering so that the joints work and look nice, and the fact that they're also cast by hand, just for you.
All of that human labour costs money.
I know I'd rather have an exquisite work of art BJD then a cheap machine-made mass-produced doll any day.

 

You are going to find people who believe that the cheapest price is the best way to save money even if you have to spend twice as much to use the item just as long (clothing comes to mind and laptops). And there are others that believe if you spend a lot then the quality will be better (again not so (ier the forum member who talked about the PJ pants).

We are not going to change the minds of the general population about BJD. But I cant' say that I have changed many minds about the cost of making a stage ready puppet but I have a few so there is hope.

Walmart serves a purpose and Lord and Taylor serve a purpose. Barbie serves a purpose and the latest dolfie serves a purpose.

 

Actually if you've seen some of the "handmade" clothes they're not all created equal. There are a few artists like Mio and Zolala who everybody knows do great stuff, and they never have trouble making a sale, but a lot of the stuff in the marketplace that is handmade is kind of iffy, especially when you don't get a chance to see it in person and try it on your doll first. And I know when I was growing up there were a lot of women who made hand-sewn or hand-crocheted Barbie dresses and sold them at craft fairs and the like. The clothes often looked like they took some time to make, but they didn't necessarily fit the Barbie all that well (usually they were too big) and the details like snaps would sometimes be huge. The mass produced Barbie clothes were so much nicer.

 

I realize this, but it's the same with machine sewn clothes, the quality varies based on the seamstress' skill. I don't see what it has to do with anything. I can't picture the people saying they only spend $5 on their own clothes and would spend less than that on doll clothes analyzing artist made vs company made clothing and trying to discern which is better quality. The people saying that would buy whichever one was cheapest, or neither if the price was more than their alloted $5. We seem to be talking about completely different subjects.

 

My comments came up in the context of a discussion as to whether handmade should be valued in society and whether people actually prefer handmade to machine made. It was a little bit of a side discussion. But frankly, I disagree with your comment because if people are so cheap that they only want to spend the smallest amount possible on their dolls clothing, I think it's entirely possible they'd look at what they could get for the 5 or 10 or however small dollar amount. Maybe not everybody would - we all see people who are content to just wrap a piece of an old t-shirt around their doll and go "look it's a dress" even though it looks like hell - but a lot of people who spend less on clothing are cheap because they don't have a lot of money to begin with and want the best value for their money. It's not always a case of people being cheap because they don't care what clothes they put on the doll.

 

Its the same thing with me and cosplay. Trying to explain to someone that if they want me to make them a pleated skirt its going to cost around $80 (or more depending on fabric choice) because I'm not a sweatshop worker.

But that's the way it is with all hobbies I think. Everyone in the hobby gets that it actually costs more, and anyone outside of the hobby, especially with things like BJDs just don't get it. And they probably never will until they actually make that leap (I'll admit that I started out that way too) and jump in.

 

Joining in for the first time, so here goes. I think that people who feel that BJDs are way overpriced are really not collectors of dolls to begin with. I have a small collection of Adora Belle dolls. They are vinyl. But the comparison between those girls and a Barbie are light years away. The same holds true for resin dolls. I am sure there are resin dolls and then there are resin dolls. Quality almost always equals cost. The old adage "You get what you pay for" certainly must apply.

I hope that when I get my first BJD, that I choose wisely.

 

BWAHAHAHAHA!!!! *wipes tears of laughter out of eyes*


Marvelous.

Someone back a few pages of posts ago said something about not "settling" for clothing from Walmart. Well hey. You know, there's stuff that's just not worth paying a whole lot of money for because it IS going to wear out, sooner rather than later. Walmart and Target and places like that are just perfect for that kind of stuff. Socks. Undies. Stuff you're going to wear around the house and get grubby in anyway. Turtlenecks and t-shirts that aren't the main event in your wardrobe -- or even if they are, aren't meant to be collector's items

What this has to do with dolls? Is that many of us who have either a few or a whole bunch of dolls invest in our quality in this hobby by not worrying about the status of our socks and sweaters and so on in other areas of our lives.

It all evens out, really. Frugality is a different beast than "not knowing any better."

 

That's why I mentioned those who specifically said they would only spend $5 on their own clothes, and people/companies that charge like $50+ on an outfit are "price gouging." I never said everybody was like that. On the other hand if you really can't afford more than $5 on doll clothes, you're probably going buy some fabric remnants and learn to sew rather than demand that companies meet your unrealistic budget.

 

honestly, though, if you cannot afford more than $5.00 for doll clothes, this probably isn't the hobby for you... ("you" is generalized here, i don't mean anyone specific )

 

Truth be told, you can't really get a feel for just how much BJDs are worth until you've tried making one yourself. (Two years and 1200 hours later, and I still haven't been able to get my doll into castable shape. It's haaaaaaard. And anyone who can pull it off deserves whatever price they can get for it.)

 

I think part of the treasure of a BJD is how utterly individualistic and customizable they are! They really do provide you with a creative outlet (I don't have mine yet but even in ordering I'm amazed how they can all look so different and have the same face!) and hours of joy.
I think waiting is part of the charm of it, you know that that dolly is being made/created just for you.....that it's yours, your baby. I'm so excited to get mine! I've decided on a tiny, a fairyland pukifee Ante with some mods from the original. so much anticipation! you can't buy that at Walmart or other discount stores and you would never get anything customized specifically to your wants/desires.
Walmart is a fine store for many things but not BJDs!

 

This so much! I also think a lot of people in this hobby have a bizarrely romanticized view of the companies that make their dolls. They see a little old man in a one room shop lovingly hand crafting each doll and sending them out to their adoptive mommies. And for the majority of doll companies this isn't true. They are, after all, companies. They have a staff on a payroll and they do indeed make a profit.

Sorry to kinda go off on a tangent there

 

I had my cousin ask me once, when he overheard me talking about buying a BJD, why I would pay so much for a DOLL when I could just buy one from wal-mart. But after explaining it fully to him, he understood. Since he didn't hear the full conversation, he thought I was paying for something equivalent to a barbie doll, not something made by hand.

 

The problem with many people who always go for the cheaper option is that many times they don't do research. They don't know how their buying habits affect other people (sweatshops), or why sometimes they really should just spend more (the environmental problems associated with cheap food production for example) because it actually SAVES them money in the long-run.

I don't have a lot of money myself. I have been recycling the same doll money since I got into this hobby, never having more than a SD and an anthro at one time. Even so, I would not buy something that is cheap with poor quality over something that is more expensive. Well, not anymore, I won't! Because it is a waste of money to have to buy the cheaper thing and then realize it doesn't work, and have to buy the more expensive thing as well. The "Walmart" generation doesn't understand that. They would rather buy cheap things that break right away and replace it, even if you would save money just getting something better.

 

This thread can sound amazingly snobbish.

I like cheap things. I don't want to spend $100 on a doll's outfit and the thought of paying that much for a doll's outfit still sounds outrageous to me. I have attempted hand-sewing some articles of doll clothing, and it hasn't changed how I feel about my money or the value of doll clothes. But never attempting to make doll clothes and still finding the prices of doll clothes outrageous is also perfectly fine. How individual people place value in different things and their own money is very... individual.

There are plenty of people who will say that people who buy cheap things are cheap, inconsiderate, don't recognize quality when they see it, and don't realize that they're 'wasting' money because obviously their items will wear out amazingly quick. There are plenty of people who will say that people who buy expensive things are spoiled, snobbish, self-absorbed, and picky over frivolous details that make little difference. They're both views that have merit and have fault.

"If you think that doll clothes are way too expensive and are just going to complain about it, what are you doing buying a pricey doll anyway?" type of attitude is just as bad as "Why on earth would I spend so much money on dolls clothes? They're totally overpriced!!"

ali

 

I don't understand how the first quote is in any way strange. This hobby IS expensive. Just a base doll at it's cheapest(I have no idea about tinies so their price range is beyond me) is around 200. Quality eyes easily rake up to the 40-50 area. 200 isn't cheap in the conventional world of average products.
What I don't understand is the complaints of prices, the need that some seem to be feeling to find a way to justify why they spent however much money they spent on a piece of plastic. As someone coming from other expensive hobbies, I never felt any need to convince myself to dump a sum of money on a product that I don't need.

As to the OP's post. I can't stand the idea of getting something at a lower price only to replace it in a month. I was raised with the idea of paying the proper price for a properly well made product. I buy things handmade by other artists for the proper price they SHUOLD be at for the time and work put into them and I feel for artists who are trying to sell their stuff but in this modern mindset of complete ignorance about artisan made crafts.

Hmm? I don't see it but alright.