Does this hobby *really* teach us patience?

I think not. I had the worst case of blood pressure and frustration in the 3 short weeks my last doll order was in backlog. I seriously saw myself falling apart because they kept telling me, this week, this week, this week, and I'm sure the whole block heard me go off like a volcano the third time they said this week and nothing happened for another week. It didn't teach me patience, it taught me distrust and I will believe it when I see it and prepare to lose money or fight a lawsuit.
Oh but he was worth it! ^_^ (must. Breath. Now)

The hobby has also taught me that no matter how great everyone says a company is, crap will happen. Someone just didn't check the 'real' wig size on a wig in a box from the parent company before shipping it to my order. So I never expect to get anything I want in the condition I bought it until I see it.

 

Ok I'm at day 30 of 80 and I'm still anxious. Naturally. However I'm still patient enough to be here and talk about BJDs...

 

Waiting for a doll to arrive is agonizing and hasn't taught me patience at all. However, saving up for a doll has taught me a lot of patience. The more you wait, the more nice things you can buy at once and save on shipping \o/.

 

Unfortunately, i am one of those who have not been taught patience. Waiting is still painful and my tolerance level is still the same. However I HAVE been taught the value of money. Not so much value, more like love. I've started thinking of money in all my spare time... hahaha, i'm turning into a scrooge for doll stuff.

 

I don't think it has taught me patience. I thought so, but now that the waiting times have become longer and longer, I get back to feeling more impatient XD

 

I'm mixed on this question. In the beginning NO, but slowly I have learned how to wait and wait and still wait for dolls and things relating to them. I'm a Fairyland nut and used to order asap when a new doll came out so now since I 'hate the wait' I just keep looking and sooner or later one will be in-stock, the few days for mailing is nothing compared to months, keeps my blood pressure down! There are other companies I would love to order from but pull myself away because of the wait and also the shipping fees, if they come up in the MP then I get lucky.
Maybe my biggest problem to be honest, I'm a control freak and this hobby's waiting game makes me want to pull my hair out!

 

Caveat: I don't have any dolls yet.

I have to work on being patient in every aspect of my life. Us water signs, we're not very good at waiting :P

But I have been forcing myself to wait, to do as much research as possible, before I jump in and buy a doll. Or any accessories, even. So even though I'm not waiting for a doll, I am having to exercise patience in waiting to purchase a doll.

Of course you can always cut down on wait times by buying through a dealer with an in-stock doll...but that only works if there's a doll that you want that's in stock!

 

I hate waiting. I ordered my PukiPuki March 18, 2010, and she got here June 21, 2010. I was at camp when she arrived, so it was a nice thing to come home to. ^_^ Though, I still would have prefered only having to wait two or three weeks...

 

Heheheh, noooooooooooo.....
I still find myself sitting my the mailbox weeks before anything I order for my dolls comes XD
Don't get me wrong, I'm actually a very patient person. Just....not when it comes to doll stuff ^^;

 

Same here xD I'm patient when it comes to anything else (I work with 3 year olds, for Christ's sake), but with dolly things I seem to be.. Not doing too well. I'm still waiting for my first doll, and the month that has past feels agonizingly long...

In answer to OP's question, like many, I don't think it teaches patience, but requires it. If none of us had even a scrap of patience, I'm sure this hobby would have a lot less of a community.

 

For me, I had to get to that point in my life where I am patient because time flies by so fast! I was more annoyed by the non-existant communication from the company that I purchased my doll from!

 

I still haven't got any patience at all! when I'm waiting for a doll I always feel like buying from the market place or from shops that have got items in stock even though, of course, I don't have any money for that. When I pay for something I feel like I have to have it right now haha. I just really like spending money I guess, but I want to have something to show for it.

 

I've always been a very patient person. But I keep on going "omg, I have to find another doll. I have to this, I wanna buy this and that now." But I can't. So I have been even more patient with myself and not buying something so that the time when I can buy another doll comes sooner. I've never had to wait 5+ months for something until BJDs came up. I've always had the funds to do anything I wanted (within reason) and now it's like "Oh goodness. I'll have an extra 600 bucks lying around in... five months."

Though I will admit, if the doll is on my wishlist, I'll try to find it ANYWHERE it is "in stock" before I buy online and have to wait.

 

Well... I don't think much of anything will teach me patience. I'm very impatient.

If anything, deciding to go into this hobby has reenforced my learning to save. But patience? Nah. I only have a couple more days until my doll head is "supposed" to be here, and I'm inwardly going crazy waiting for that package. It will only be worse once I order my fullset Una and I learn what its like to wait almost a month or longer for something. The same goes for the SSDF body I'm ordering for my floating head.

 

If I had known it would take more than 1yr for my doll to be made and at half the price I would have gotten a refund of my hard earned money. Now with more delays and 'Sorry it's taking so long....blah blah' I don't even know if I will keep said doll whenever it shows up. I have been patient until it got past the 6 month mark

 

I think I'm a lot more patient now than I ever used to be. My first doll took three months to arrive and the waiting was agonising so I feel like I can handle any kind of wait! Now if a doll comes home in 6 weeks I think it's fast, and generally the only time I get impatient is when the doll has actually shipped - but that's more because of the erratic nature of our postal service I think. For example, my soom migma says on EMS "guaranteed delivery date: 07/11/11" but I know that it'll be at least a week later than that, which is why I get impatient waiting Usually once I've paid off a doll I'm just like "yeah, whatevs, I can wait" until it ships Although I have to admit I did get a little antsy about my migma, but only cause Soom's shipping schedule is crazy weird

tl:dr; I think this hobby has definitely helped me to be more patient in general.

 

I think I answered this before but I've changed in my one little year in his hobby so if this is a re-answer, at least it's a different answer.

I had HORRIBLE patience at the beginning of this hobby. Now I only lose patience when a doll ships and I get a tracking number. Once I get the tracking number, I want the doll here now now now! But, as it stands now, I am willing to wait however long I need to to get the doll I love (hence why I strive hard to only buy dolls that I love and obsess over). I have a Dollshe wait going on for 7 months now and it could go 7 more months and I wouldn't care simply because I love them and was glad to be able to buy them. I had to wait almost 6 months (what I used to think was "forever" when I joined this hobby) for my Soom Sabik to arrive. I wondered about him a lot, because I couldn't help it, but, mostly, he stayed at the back of my mind. At this point in the hobby, I would rather receive a well made doll than a doll rushed out the door and in a crap state when I receive it. If I have to wait 2-4-6 months or a year or what have you, that's just how it is. These are handmade, made to order items that a lot of people actually want. I just have to stay patient and wait for my time. To be honest, as long as the company is legit and keeps up communication, they get the time they need because they're making something beautiful for me.

 

I've always been a patient person. It must be because I've always taught myself to take my time in drawing. A lot of my drawings take about a couple weeks to finish and I love my graphite/charcoal works to be just right or I get agitated. I think not only about how I would feel about the finished piece but how other people would feel if I gave it to them. I wasn't angry at all when Souldoll informed me of a small delay, I just took a deep breath and went about my business. Of course, I was super excited when Intef finally came home, but I know that no matter how impatient I get it won't speed up because of it. Thank you art!

I think there are other aspects of this hobby that could hone patience. For example, face-ups and sewing outfits is not an easy feat to do the first time around. I'm an art student and I have sold my drawings and paintings before, and even I find myself doing bad at face-up. Of course, the surface is by far different than the surface I'm used to, but it's something I know I can cultivate. As for sewing, I have never sewed in my life and I find myself sitting down sewing with a thread in one hand and a needle in the other and trying for the life of me to make a simple pair of jeans and a shirt. Of course, this too takes patience to hone into a formidable skill.

 

Doll collecting sure has SEEMED to work for me, in the teaching of patience.

Example: A sculpt I liked was released in a limited edition of 200 for one of each particular hair color, AND it was a dealer exclusive. Naturally, this happened when I was between paychecks. It turns out I was not the only one who really liked this sculpt, because it sold out something like two days before I got paid. I was upset, because I really liked this release, but decided I would just have to "get over it." However, during the course of the following year, I managed to get BOTH dolls, including shipping/handling, for less than the price of one of them, brand new. This was made possible by a couple of conventions, where the folks who had bought the dolls decided they needed the quick cash to buy the "latest and greatest" which were released by the company at the conventions.

I have found this to be true many times over. I will get excited over a new release that sells really, really well, but decide to hold off. I bear in mind the conventions that are approaching within so many months (and these conventions can be for ANY doll company, or type of doll), and I will closely watch, not only the boards I belong to, but eBay and other sources as well, since there are a lot of collectors who only seem to want the latest and greatest, and will happily sacrifice a great doll or dolls, just to raise quick cash.