Bonding: When to give up, and when to wait.

Took me forever to finally list the only doll I've ever sold. Here's my checklist I sort of went through to know it was time to let her go:

• I spend all my time on my 1/3 (she was my only 1/4 that I let go)
• I said for MONTHS "I'm going to restyle her. I'm going to wipe her faceup. I'm going to revamp her." with no progress
• When I finally did wipe her, the sculpt had no magic for me.
• She was tied to my ex, not the character but that shell of her.
• I started attaching her character to a 1/3 sized doll. This is important because I don't shell my characters. I like a doll for it's looks, and then create a character from there. Attaching her character to another sculpt is a big deal and was the final deciding factor.
• Thinking if I truly did regret selling her, her sculpt is a basic and i could buy her again anytime.

As soon as I listed her, I felt a wash of relief. And some anxiety as her re-shell was a limited!! I didn't miss out on her new shell though And I can't wait to have her character back home and in scale with the rest of my crew,

 

For me it wasn't about how much time I spent with them but how much I wanted the "other" doll. I never played with the dolls I collected. They were beautiful collector items and I simply loved looking at them. I have sold many dolls however because I would find the next Grail doll. All of my dolls get judged against the new doll I want to buy and if I am willing to sacrifice it to buy the next one then it is worth it for me to sell.

My husband once asked me if it made me sad to part with them and I said of course but that just means the next one must mean that much more otherwise I would never sell them. The money I get from selling them is ONLY ever used to buy the "other" doll.

It becomes harder and harder the more I whittle my collection down but that just means I will have the best collection for me at this moment in time. Hope this helps and best of luck to you.

 

I'm pretty much the same as @CloakedSchemer, I sold a lot of my dolls for the same reasons. I have one doll now that I've finally decided to sell after being in the same kind of predicament as you. I couldn't decide if she actually meant something to me, or if I just didn't want to let go of her! I had her blank and characterless for months after the character idea I originally had for her was a total flop. I didn't do anything with her at all, but she was just so pretty!

I think if you're even considering selling the doll, there probably isn't a real meaningful attachment there. When I think that my collection needs to downsize in order to bring some new ones home, there are a few dolls I would never in a million years even think of selling- and that's when I think you know those dolls are keepers. If the thought of not having them around isn't upsetting, I think you could probably sell them without any regrets!

That's just from my personal experience though. Good luck figuring it out!

 

I'm new to the hobby and I have dolls that are a work in progress. I know the feeling of not wanting to let go of any, even though I don't feel attached to them yet. I have a doll that needs a lot of my time. He is a very expensive regret, but I keep thinking that I'm not done with him yet. (Wishful thinking?)
Is there any other way you could make the money you need without selling? If you could make the money some other way, I think you would know for sure if you were attached to the doll or you just didn't want to trade it for the money.

 

Well, the problem I have is:
It's mainly a matter of lacking space for me. I simply don't have much space left for big dolls. Money? Not so much, I can always save up or when the doll's not too expensive buy it right away. But space? Unfortunately, my apartment's not multi-dimensional (like Pratchett's Luggage ...). So the problem is:

- There's those dolls I'd be willing to let go but they're small ones (tinies) and they're sitting on my bookshelves, not taking up any extra space at all.
- There's those dolls that take up a lot of space - and I wouldn't ever sell a single one of those. Well, maybe a body or two but only to replace them with others that I like more.

Not really any problems letting go, thus. It's just - selling the dolls I'm ready to let go of won't do a lot to solve my problem so I guess I can just as well keep them since money isn't the issue.

 

I do the same thing as @CloakedSchemer. If I'm waffling on whether to sell a doll, they go into a box out of sight. If I miss them, I'm obviously not ready to sell them, but if I don't think about them at all it's off to the marketplace they go.

 

I'm really fickle when it comes to this... during a time when I barely play with my dolls I feel like "yeah sure, I need some extra money so why not sell this and that" and then when I look at them I just can't bring myself to sell any of them at all!
It's a problem for me because I've spent so much money on BJDs and related stuff I really want to avoid spending more. I want to try to keep myself in check by saying "If you want this new doll, sell an old one first" hmpf, it's going to be hard.