Do you have 'rules' for what or how you collect?

I have a similar "rule" to you! I don't like any duplicates among my dolls if I can help it.

My big current rule, which is one I implement during harder financial times, is something a little bit like a "one in, one out" system. Basically the doll fund MUST be self-sustaining. If I want something new, I need to sell something old that covers the cost of the new thing. The dolls are not allowed to draw from my personal funds or my savings, they must be self-contained. It wouldn't be for everyone, but I quite like this. It means my personal finances aren't even touched at all, and are completely unaffected by what I choose to do or not do with dolls. Current times are stressful enough without worries or guilt or whatever attached to luxury purchases, so I like keeping it as a self-contained loop.

 

The only rule(s) I generally place upon myself are financial ones; if I can't afford it, I don't get it. I'd rather pay in full than do layaway as a support for that rule.

Also, as a rule, no impulse purchases; if I'm not totally sure (at least at the time, anyways ) about the purchase or doll, then don't do it!

Otherwise, I'm game for anything as I typically don't like to be inhibited or restricted.

 

I do, but not just for these dolls, I tend to hoard toys so I have quite a few rules I have for all the collections I own. Mostly it's just about not just buying something just because I can afford it, and solely sticking to things I actually love, vs anything I can purchase at any given time. Which was never hard for me with this hobby, because I am a bit picky about facial features and got even pickier with time over BJD male body proportions -- I've been able to keep my collection of BJD relatively small. I generally don't collect females in other types of toys, because I have a large collection of female fashion dolls. However, back in the dark ages when I first learned about BJD, the most affordable way was choosing a Volks DDI as a base body, and hybridizing it with a resin head -- volks only made female DD at the time, in normal colors, no bust choices either. I liked the body enough, so that's the route I took, but I knew I wasn't going to be purchasing anymore BJD females ever!

I also made a rule that I wouldn't purchase more than ten full BJD, although I could get as many floating heads as I wanted (if I wanted any). I have happily kept all my rules unbroken thus far, and actually haven't purchased anymore of these dolls since 2010. So, I'm pretty happy, because I tend to brake most rules for collectibles outside of these dolls pretty often. It's kind of refreshing not to want more dolls of a certain type because I kind of want every other anime/video-game figure ever released. I'm not going to get them all, but I still want so many. DX

 

Let's see... My doll must be: female, SD, White skin (unless I like a different color from that company ex Lillycat dark tan), never do cosplay dolls, never buy everyday clothes, never buy curly wigs, never buy company face ups, never buy 2 of the same sculpt, sculpt must have some "quirk" that really makes it interesting (this summer I felt in love with Ondine by les belles de jour). I love artist sculpts...

Then I have a lot of heads that are around 9-9,5 cm of neck circumference, so I found a body (DZ nb56-001) that would look good with them all and bought it (It would be insane to have a body for every head I own).

A different case are ofcourse those doll that have their aestethic like lillycat, I have Lyse and Ellana owning their own body (well that's not only because they have different skin color, but also because in my life I've never seen anyone selling only the head).

 

I'm the same as you. I won't have any two dolls on the same body. For me the body is part of the character, and just like how it would be strange if two humans had literally identical bodies, I find it strange for my dolls, too. My only other 'rule' is each doll tends to represent or favour a certain colour (some are more strict than others). So far I have pink, red, yellow, brown, orange, black, white and gold. I have plans for green. And I have left purple and blue open incase anyone else comes up I'd like to get..!

 

i like body variation but it's not always possible.
My general rule is "finish the dolls you have before you buy another damnit!"
but I haven't been very good at sticking to it.
Whoops.

I don't like having floating heads and tried very hard to not have any but of course a few snuck in, so my focus this year is getting bodies for them by priority so they're full dolls.

Also, NO SHARING BODIES. Everyone has to be a complete doll.

I also try to have them fit with my little groupings.

I have three or four little groups now and that works. We have a modern group, medieval group, circus group lol.

I also try to stick with msd as best I can, if I get a bigger doll it has to fit in with those existing groups so it has to make sense for a doll to be giant or tiny you know?
for example the SD doll in my medieval fantasy group is a Giant kin and the yosd is a Halfling.

I do all my own faceups, so I always buy blank as I really enjoy doing the faceup.

My other rule is that the money must ALWAYS come from my "fun money" fund. Every month a set amount goes in from the joint account to my own and my partner's individual accounts and that's our hobby money. I am only allowed to purchase frivilous things with that money. The other source of funds for that account is stuff I sell so f I don't have enough or want a big purchase I have to "earn" it by selling things to get the money or waiting and saving up.

Works well and eases some of the spend guilt I feel.

 

Different company, but similar as my doll's head size and height. Variety is needful. If I'll had all my three dolls, I'll have two hybrids: .They are someway match. And they'll hopefully look good together. The girl is 60cm, but her character is a short, fragile looking girl. And I just stop buying dolls for a while, because I slowly run out of the non existing space in my room... And I only buy a doll when I am sure I want it.

 

I don't have the rule. It just so happened that only girls)) different sizes, different companies, but girls)) and there are almost 40))
I think because in real life there are three boys out of 4 children.

 

My rule is that I have to like it.

Teddy

 

Personally , I never really considered setting strict rules for the way I collect items, and that is pretty much how I collect ball jointed dolls. I buy the dolls I fall and love with so as long as I have both money and space.

That being said, I've noticed several trends that I find really interesting.

1. I have bought most of the sculpts that I've come to love, and a lot of those sculpts did tend to be iplehouse dolls in peach gold, light tan, or realskin.
2. I love vampire dolls with open mouths and detailed fangs, so I've ended buying from an array of different doll makers including Fairyland, Iplehouse, Dollshe, IOS Dollios, Soom, Migidoll, Souldoll, NYXdoll, Switch.
3. I also ended with plenty of floating vampire heads that I would like to buy a body for.

 

My only rule is that whatever I buy will stay, that way I have to *really* decide whether I NEED the doll I've been oggling.
My taste when it comes to dolls has changed drastically during these years also so I'd be stuck with a lot of dolls that I'd probably have fallen out of love of if I didn't keep the rule.
I try to keep some variance also so every doll has their own look and personality and they don't look or feel too similar but I don't consider that a rule, myself.

 

I do sort of have some rules. They're nothing I have to follow strictly, more just things I know I want - and more importantly things I know I don't want.
The things I don't want are: sizes other than mature minis. the "pin-head" look. heads that stay floating long-term. duplicates of heads or bodies. to make impulse purchases.
The main things I want are a fair amount of diversity of different companies in my collection, and to craft rather than buy for them when possible.

 

The general major rule I've had is no more dolls than years in the hobby.

This includes everyone from small dolls to large dolls, though I lean towards the larger dolls. I'm currently using about 11 of the 14 available slots, though I don't know if both of the dolls I have on order will stay, we'll see. This might eventually break, but generally it's been a pretty good rule that expands each year with some wiggle room for now.
This forces me to be picky.

Looser rules include:
Preferring to have full dolls (hybridizing once worked out in the end but was stressful enough a floating head better seriously call to me for me to do that again).
Particularly for SD bodies, I prefer to aim for as different as I can, I don't have any duplicate bodies here. A little hard with tinies on my list, but I'm hoping to do some different genders or skin tones.
Really needing to have an idea of at least what sort of character I'm getting a doll for. I like being able to expand on characters I have in mind.
14mm eyes is a max size I'll get for an SD, I prefer 12mm if I can. Unless they're like...a cyclops? Shoot, I don't need to go down that rabbit hole of ideas. the 12-14mm loose rule leads to a certain general aesthetic range that keeps me in line as well.

 

I only have a couple rules:

1. I must objectively love the face sculpting or overall doll, regardless of styling or "character" layered on the doll.
2. No White resin, unless it's unavoidable.

(I've had a couple white resin dolls in the past and I'm irked by how they turn sickly yellow after 5-10 years.)

 

- I collect only 1/4 and that help a lot on chioces cutting [My partner has his 1/3 however ]

- No doll with out intentional purpose, I need to know before buying that what will I do with this doll. They can have some unclear character but need to have an objective to stay in my collection.

And that's all the rules I strictly keep.

 

Nope. And that's how I went from 5 to 14 dolls with 4 on the way in like 6 months
I'm starting to establish some for myself, however, after seeing myself go a little off the rails.

1. No more impulse-buying. It's fine to have a sort of "love at first sight" moment with a doll, but I probably shouldn't buy it until I've had some time to think about it and make sure it's something I REALLY want first. I can fall in love with a faceup really easily without knowing if I truly love the sculpt or not first.

2. Limit how many dolls I want to "rescue," or absolve to sell them once they've been "fixed". I enjoy buying beaten up, modded, stained and yellowed dolls and bringing new life into them. It's so, so easy to get them for less than $200 on Y!J and it's hard to stop myself from buying every single one I see. I have some sort of Cinderella syndrome where I want to see them beautified, but it's coming at a cost to me.

3. No floating heads for an extended period of time, say 6 months. If I buy a head, I try to plan out what body I will purchase in advance, and then get right to work looking for it.

 

I don't buy dolls that I haven't given a lot of thought to.

I'm not into selling so I make sure that I at least have space for a new doll

And... I don't see myself buying a new bjd for a long time anyway. This virus is making me cautious about spending.

 

Well, I don't really have any rules set for me in this hobby but I don't want two dolls in my collection to have the same body in the same resin color - seeing a sculpt duplicated in my collection just seems very boring to me.

Besides that, I've set myself a spending limit for certain doll items and only buy a doll if I already know what I want to do with the sculpt.

 

I only buy SD or larger size girls. Preferably white or normal skin colour. I do want some dark coloured dolls but only those with African features. I am hoping to get IH Ashanti and Aliayah in brown or dark brown resin. I am not against having 2 of the same mold if they are different colours as I have 2 elfdoll Sooahs. One is WS and the other is NS.