Do you ever just... want to sell them all?

I want to echo @Youzen's point above and say that if any of your dolls make your life better/make you happier don't feel guilt about keeping them. I hope that if you have a choice you don't sell off things that only sell once for re-occurring expenses, the math on that almost never lands in a good place for the seller.

I have a few dolls that I am thinking about selling or moving on and they are in two different categories. Dolls that are a common sculpt that I don't really know what to do with but are easier and less expensive to replace -vs- dolls that are less common and if I sold them they would be so much more expensive or inconvenient to get again. Category one I will sell/pass along but category two I'm holding onto.

The Vimes "boots" theory of economic unfairness* is frustrating as heck to live through. I've been in similar places and really hope good things come your way soon.

*Boots theory - Wikipedia

 

Having that exact thought right now actually, I could sell my collection and have enough to pay to take my mom to Disney (a bit of an expensive thing within itself but we want to have a family vacation since mom isn't feeling well recently.) And not have her worry about the money.

But I know I'd regret it, I could maybe let go of a few but a chunk of them I'd just end up depressed over.

 

It used to... and I've done this multiple times and regretted it every single one until I put things into perspective. A doll sale won't pay for much; and even if it does the money I got that I would then use for other things will just... evaporate as those things are used up. There's literally a hundred more viable solutions to fundraise than sell, that's just the easy way out and it's final, so you can't go back when you regret it later. Bad times come and go; the things that bring you joy will always bring you joy, so hold onto them. They're precious few!

 

I did, but not out of guilt or stress. I never felt guilty about the things I bought/my hobbies, because they bring me a lot of joy and I've seen what it does to people when they have zero hobbies (like older adults who go completely nuts in retirement because all they knew the last 50 years was their job, and their identity is basically just their job).
I did have times in the hobby where I had to hold back and was unable to partake, which can be extremely frustrating. A lot of the hobby seems to revolve around the new dolls people buy, so if you ain't buying dolls you feel a little left out at times.
I rarely buy dolls as it is, and I was never one to jump on new releases anyway, but being unable to do anything at all felt a bit isolating.
But I never felt like it was maybe time to jump ship because of that, for me it was just always an involuntary break.

However, that doesn't mean I didn't think about it. The reason was usually that a) I sometimes ask myself how my collection would look like if I start fresh and b) the hobby itself can be pretty annoying at times
To a), I am pretty sure that if I would start the hobby now my collection would look different. Partly because I simply could not afford some of the dolls I have now (buying old limiteds on release is just way cheaper than being forced to buy them second-hand), partly because some dolls I only have because of the story they have...and I wouldn't have that story again nowadays. Some things also simply didn't exist back then. Maybe instead of big dolls I'd only own ones in fashion scale now. Gives me the aesthetic I like, but in small. But starting over just sounds extremely dreadful
To b), the hobby is so draining at times. There are so many things that bother me about it, and at times it just doesn't feel worth it. It's everything. Wait times, lack of artists to commission, never being able to find what you need, how it seemingly takes forever from buying a doll to actually finishing it, prices, shipping woes and more. And then the people too! Especially the whole recast mess really destroyed a big chunk of my enjoyment in the hobby. Hell is other people, or something like that

At the end of the day though I have a hard time imagining my life without this hobby.
It's been a part of it since 14 years, and a lot of my life kind of revolves around it. I have a room just for them, a lot of my friends I met through the dolls, most of my internet persona/social media is connected to them, I've been a face-up artist for years too. What the hell would I do all day without that?
Not to mention having to sell all my stuff...the hassle and horror!

 

Yep. Especially when I'm in a depressed phase and feel like I'm not doing enough with them. But they are a pain to sell and replace, so that holds me back.

 

I've never wanted to sell ALL my dolls and I can't imagine ever feeling that way because they bring me so much joy! I have looked at my large collection and decided that I need to reduce the amount if dolls that I own, and then I sold six or eight. Deciding which ones to sell is a bit sad and stressful, but I've he never felt overcome with remorse after selling one because I never sell a favorite doll, which many of them are! Many here on DOA have said that they sometimes lose interest and then take a break from their dolls but it seems that most eventually pick their dolls back up and regain their passion for them! So my advice would be to pack them up if you must, and then unpack them again after a while. It could be that their absence will allow you to gain a renewed appreciation for whatever it was that drew you to them in the first place. If you still are indifferent, maybe you should sell them to someone who would love to have them, rather then let them languish in their boxes. You can always buy new ones someday.

 

I have gone through this, I sold all my dolls about a decade back, and regretted it ever since! I've been able to re-buy the same sculpt as one of them, but she's just not the same doll as the one I sold. I wish I had kept them all honestly. If you still like your dolls, don't feel guilty about keeping them!

I also suggest anyone struggling with this impulse to read the Marie Kondo book "The lifechanging magic of tidying up" which literally did change my life, and helped me manage both my collecting and my purging urges!

 

I've felt like this many times, but I've always had a handful of dolls I was too attached to to let go. I've discovered my problem is usually due to boredom. I get tired of the same old dolls and lose interest, or I have too many and feel overwhelmed by the clutter and just want them gone. I think my most drastic "sell them all" moment was when I went from 39 down to about 10 within a few months, and that was mostly due to negative feelings about some personal things that involved many of the dolls. Sometimes when I get really frustrated, like when I can't get a faceup right, a doll arrives broken, wait times are triple what was listed, etc, I'll get all dramatic and threaten to quit the hobby, but that's mostly just me venting frustrations, then when I calm down I decide I couldn't let them all go and do what needs to be done to fix the issue.

The good thing about dolls is that while we may put a lot of emotion and attachment into them, in reality they're just pretty chunks of plastic with no needs, feelings or emotions. If you need to put them away and leave them alone until you feel ready, they'll still be there, waiting for you. Or if you know you're done with them, you can always sell, trade or gift them. There's no obligation to give a doll attention or affection if you're not feeling it.

 

I feel like this all the time.

I bought my dolls primarily with the goal to create unique characters and make everything for them: clothes, wigs, faceups, accessories, just everything. I even wanted to find a way to monetize some stuff like sewing clothing or making eyes, but I find my life is either busy or I don't feel up to it.

As such this has lead to a lot of guilty feelings and stress because I'm not doing the things I once envisioned I would do. I'm just spending a lot of money BOTH on dolls and crafts supplies. Money I could use to improve my wardrobe, buy gifts, go out for a weekend, etc. I also feel really discouraged when I do a faceup or something that doesn't turn out how I envisioned it, and have all kinds of thoughts about since I can't do it how I want, maybe it's time to move on, etc.

I've found that if I'm feeling overwhelmed looking at my dolls or my craft area, I make a point to just put everything away so I can't see any of it. I will put the dolls back in their boxes in the closet, pack away doll clothes, and make my craft space immaculately clean. I invariably find I take them back out at some point and pick up where I left off. I think sometimes the daily staring at them gets to be overwhelming if you're feeling guilty about them. Let your feelings calm down a little before you make a decision to sell. See if you miss them being packed away or not. That's helped me a little. I don't think there's an easy answer to resolving this feeling we get sometimes though, it's just par for the course I think.

If it's just a matter of money, maybe consider selling other unwanted items around the house on Ebay first. Helps clear out clutter and adds up quicker than you think.

 

@Ara Please never leave, I love having you here!!!

Everyone who has replied has made excellent points. I have also read Marie Kondo and watched her Netflix show and I found her advice a wise way to spend the lockdown part of the pandemic. I found her method as an easy way to go through everything but my collections. Collections fall into sentimental items which Marie Kondo advises dealing with last. Some of them I tackled over breaks at work (I am a school teacher) because I felt ready. My BJDs have not really been gone through - I really need to go through their clothes/eyes/wigs.

I have always collected toys or objects since I was little. I know in high school and college I went through a period of childhood purging - bye bye Barbie, Polly Pocket, Lego sets, American Girl Dolls (back before Mattel changed the quality of the products), McDonald's Happy Meal Toys, etc etc. Now, I know some of those have a lot of value and maybe I let them go for nothing and should have held onto them to make money but at the time, I was letting go of them to make some money/free up space. I don't regret letting them go - except for some of the American Girl Doll accessories. I wonder if they would work for SD sizes dolls. And maybe the Barbie clothes because some of those could fit my mature minies and I have vague memories that some of the clothes were decent quality. But I had to THINK of those just now - they don't weigh on my mind daily.

In college/after college, back when Livejournal was huge, I sold anime/manga/Japanese items I had collected over the years that no longer meant much to me. I still have a plastic tote full of things that just never sold. I have been too lazy to put them up on ebay/mercari/letgo/Facebook Marketplace. Part of me wants to recycle some of it, some of me wants to donate it. Some still wants to sell because I might not like that anime but someone out there DOES so why deprive them of the chance? I have a local comic book store that I can take stuff to but I have to be comfortable with LEAVING it there until the owner decides on what he is willing to buy from me.

However, that's the thing. Selling itself can be a full time job. I don't want to spend my breaks from school trying to sell stuff. I should but there are other things I prefer to do. So the "to sell" pile grows, year by year. A lot of things sell when they're in demand. Beanie Babies were worth hundreds in the 90s - now, you can buy them by the bagful at a thrift store for a few bucks. You have to buy AND sell when they're in demand otherwise it's a loss of funds.

And honestly, as collectors, that's not our job. We spend our money on things that bring us joy - even if it's for a while. We need to enjoy what we collect. Don't sell your dolls because you need some money quick. Sell them when they no longer bring you joy. If you've regretted selling some of your other dolls in the past, you will regret it now just to get a grail doll. Having gotten one of my grails, I didn't feel any extreme emotions, no angels singing. Just a sense of "finally, gotcha." So it won't necessarily be euphoric to get Renee (as cute as she is - but I also have real cats who I can get my cat fix from, who have been very well behaved with my dolls) and it certainly won't feel great to get her and then have no one to be her friend. I also find I am happier with buying second hand when the price is what I want. So if the price is out of budget, I don't want that doll. I will just save their pictures and appreciate from afar. So like to me, a Puss in Boots Renee at $800 better be MINT IN BOX perfect. If her clothes are peeling, her wig is a mess, she is shiny or scuffed, or things are missing - no way. She is worth her original retail price if it felt like she time traveled from the past to me now and there is nothing wrong with her. But that's my opinion and how I go about buying dolls. Space confinements also help me curb my need to buy every single elf BJD I see. I have to look at them and go YES YOU YOU CAN COME BE SO-AND-SO. Sometimes, I just gotta appreciate the elves other people own because I like how they look but when I see the blank mold I don't like it as much.

Anyway, TLDR: Don't sell your dolls for financial reasons!

 

I get this same feeling sometimes… I find that a re organization of their setup+changing some outfits and wigs usually helps me feel better about it. Also avoiding putting clutter-ey items around them even though it’s tempting helps me
; ;

 

Recently, yes. Compared to a lot of people on here, my collection really isn't much of a collection to begin with. All it consists of is a yosd size anime doll with 3 spare heads. For me isn't about needing money or even space. It is just I recently, I got sucked into the black-hole that is nendoroid dolls. Originally I avoided nendoroid dolls because I hate how finicky peg type bodies are. Then while I was searching for 1/6 bjd clothes on Taobao, I started coming across of a lot of recent artists that are making elastic bjd style bodies that fit most of the ob11 clothes and come with adapters for nendoroid heads. It didn't help that I kept seeming to find more adorable clothes in that size than for yosd size dolls. Ultimately, I couldn't resist and that is where all my doll hobby time/funds has been going to lately. It has left me feeling like my 1/6 doll feels kind of obsolete since I am filling that same want with something similar. It was really making me question if I should just sell everything and move entirely over to the 1/12 scale. It doesn't help that I've been too drained with everything going on lately to even finish a single faceup.

After reading through this thread though, I decided to force myself to change up the outfit/look of my doll today, and I have to admit I was reminded why I liked it and that there are some benefits to the larger size. Instead of worrying about selling it, I think I will focus on selling some of the wigs/accessories I got and know I will never use. I swear the wigs take up more space than anything else, and I know I got at least 5-6 just packed away that I will likely never use.

 

AAAW thank you
As it is, I'm sure this Hotel California...lovely hobby I mean will still have me for years to come

 

I haven’t been into bjd long enough to feel this way about them but I have definitely felt this way about ot dolls, usually it is because I lose interest in a type of doll and sell them to fund another type of doll. Luckily I’ve sold off ones that have not really blown up in value so I don’t have any regrets. If you do want or need to jump ship, which I did with ot dolls, you will come back and maybe it will be a better time and you will enjoy it more, it was that way for me.

 

If I added up all the money I could potentially get for my dolls and then multiplied it by like 60-75% (because I value my dolls more than any buyer would), the total would be Not Very Much. It'd be a lot faster to make the money back at minimum wage than to wait 6 months for a buyer to appear for each and then haggle me down from my emotional investment prices. They were an investment to my happiness not a monetary investment! I can't even imagine the stress of trying to track them back down again when I inevitably regret it.

So no, selling my collection would be a waste of time and money.

 

Do I ever think of or want to just sell them all? No, never once. To me, that's a seperate entity from many ideas I share with others here such as grasping at a sense of control in a bad situation or needing to be able to liquidate some things for money. At this point my dolls are really the only thing I like very much in this world and I am not ready to become the person who does not have any of them anymore. But downsizing some has big appeals for me, and seems necessary in my own future. And I think it's nice to be able to discuss this topic with others in this hobby. I've learned in my years that most of the thoughts we will have around it there is at least a group of other hobbyists who understand.

 

Yes, but not for money or clutter reasons. More like I’m sick of the drama in this hobby and don’t want to deal with anymore. I end up always taking a little social media break to escape a bit instead. Even if it’s just for a day or two. Helps bring my perspective back to normal.

 

I'm the same way. I often think about selling my MSDs. But then I look at them and fall in love all over again. I never set out to own any MSD size dolls. I only wanted SDs and a few YOSDs, who are the children of my SDs. But then I bought one MSD and it snowballed from there.

 

Yes , unfortunately sometimes I feel that I have to sell them all . But then I changed my mind . I really love them , it’s way too difficult to do it . But yeah , someday I will .

 

I've felt that too a couple of times, but I could never bring me to really do it.
In my case, after a while I understood I wasn't unhappy with the sculpts I had, but with the characters I had created for them. Since I've changed, I've felt more engaged with them. I have started sewing for them and everything.