Doll research *or* Buying too soon?

I don't know if or when I will get a doll, but I still am doing research. I mean, even if i never get one, I can use my experience to help out others, and if i do get one, I'll have a wealth of knowlege i can use.

 

I spent a lot of time reading the forums here before I finally did get my first one. I did think you were all totally insane to have such an expensive item, but yeah, I got caught. However, I'm not an artist; my god, I can't draw a straight line! So painting etc etc never came into the equation. I knew I'd have to find someone to do that for me and pay them for their time and talent. Clothing, restringing, all that "hands on" stuff leaves me in a quandery as I'm not handy except for crochet.

But at least I did my homework before committing to a purchase and I've found some wonderfully talented people here at DoA. My skills lie more in the written word, so for sewing and painting, I prefer someone that knows what they're doing.

 

Well, I'm one of those paranoid types and I was absolutely terrified of ordering a doll at first. I didn't just research the dolls, supplies for faceups, restringing, modding etc., I also researched payment and shipping options and tried to figure out what would be the safest and most reliable. I also remember times when I just wanted to give the whole thing up and forget it because it just seemed too risky buying from overseas. Took Swan Lake Cocori to finally drive me to a desperate "I MUST have that doll!" and at last convince me to order.

I think that people are different and not everyone needs as much time to become accustomed to the thought of buying a doll as I did (at least i hope not), but at the same time I think the hobby is expensive enough and involved enough that you should at least be aware of some of things that every bjd owner is likely to face sometime or another like restringing etc. I just don't think it's very wise to jump into a hobby like this and spend the money most people do without being at least somewhat prepared for what's ahead. However, I also think a lot of it comes with experience too. Some things can only be learned by having an actual doll yourself. For example, I can read about how to change heads and feet, or how to hot glue suede my doll's joints, but I'm not going to truly know what people are talking about or completely understand until I actually have my doll in my hands. That's what makes this hobby so great, the magic of the dolls themselves.

 

Prior to jumping in, so to say, i had seen some pictures of bjds, and was intrigued by them. Most likely due to my perosnality, i did as much research as i could on them after i'd come to the realization that i'd really like to ahve one. I looked around at companies, found all the info i could, and honestly, it scard the crap out ofme. All the customization, the faceups, what was okay, what wasnt, stringing espeically (XD) and sooo much more. When i foudn out they were resin, i had no idea what resin was, so i looked that up too. I couldnt imagine spending that kind of money without knowing what i was getting into.

Specifially, of course, was the what was good and bad that intrigued me, but a lot of it is pretty common sense. I mean, for something this customizable, and the substance and all, you wouldnt exactly want to just use whatever you found lying around to paint or clean it, right? I can't imagine how people could go ahead and use strange things like wood varnish on them o_O The way i figure it, if you have a car with a scratch, you arent gonna use whtieout to fix it, right? You'll find what you can to fix it properly, without the chance of harming the car. Or heck, if you've got a barbie with a mark on her face, it only takes one attemptt o realize that you should not use nail polish remover to clean it--the eyes came off with it! (personal experience XD)


While i can undersatnd someone wanting to jump right in and buy one, i dont see why anyone, rich or not, wouldnt do at least a little research on them to find otu what they're buying. Even if they just read the company websites, they can get a lot of info. It really bugs me when people dont. --for instance, i've seen people at various times in luts q&a asking the height of the dolls, or weight, or eyesize, or if they came with the clothes/wigs/faceups in the pictures. Those are the people i want to smack and ask if they even scrolled down at all, as all of that info is given on the page.


tldr: Its completly okay to jump right in, but hey, you wouldnt buy a car without knowing that it turned on with a key, or if it was a gas guzzler or a hybrid, right? Basic research will help anything =]

--sorry if this is rambly o_O i'm typing this when i'm tired. It very well might be @_@

 

Well, I was a jumper! My first doll I bought off ebay without knowing much at all about them.
The only dolls I had seen previously were my best friends, and naturally fell in love! Hers were all big luts girls, and my first was a minisup Yan. I bought her with intentions of her being mostly displayed and not played with, probably due to the cost. I think that maybe some people (such as myself) purchase these dolls without researching for this reason. My view has completely changed about them now! My dolls are not merely to look at, but give me great pleasure in making clothes for them, taking photos.. you know, playing!
I had no idea about yellowing, not to touch the face, restringing or any of the "maintainence" side of it all but through all you wonderful people on doa I have learned so much and now proudly say that this is a hobby (and a passion!), not just a collection!

 

i'm not gonna repeat everything everyone else has said so far... but i completely agree with research being a must. before i buy or make *anything* (even not related to bjd, i am currently going through the same with corsetry making and buying) i research and read everything and anything relevant and get many outside opinions and experiences for at least a year or longer before i make any actual purchases. same goes for this-- even if the bjd were $50 and not $500 or more, i'd still treat the decisions with the utmost discretion and importance. i cherish my hobbies and my possessions and i value seeking a full "education" on whatever subject i'm persuing. =3

 

I'm definately in the 'research before you buy' camp and learned as much as I could before even starting to look for a BJD to call my own. I tend to want to understand the entirety of a hobby before I decide to join. Of course, I'm notoriously 'type A' when it comes to most things and the very idea of investing time/money in something like BJD's without a lot of understanding/preparation seems strange to me.

It would make sense if it were an impulse buy, I guess...but BJD impulse buying with no prior knowledge of what the heck they are..? I suppose if you have several hundred dollars to spend on something that simply 'looks cool', more power to you. I just can't fathom that lol

To each his own, I suppose.

Little side note/thought/ramble:
With the internet, (and let's face it, everyone on this site OBVIOUSLY has some kind of access to it), brimming with tutorials and resources, I can't really understand why people continously make so many mistakes. Afterall, 30 minutes searching online could prevent hours of sharpie madness, bad varnishes, oil paint stains and other dollie disasters. The information is out there, and it isn't hard to find.

Tutorials can be found through google and youtube for goodness sake.

 

It's mostly the price of the dolls that have led me to do a lot of research. If it were just my usual action-figure impulse-buy I wouldn't have thought about maintenance at all, but since this is a thing I'm going to be maintaining and investing a lot of money in, I'm going to try my damndest not to screw it up.

I must have read all of the tutorials and advice threads, and I haven't even ordered my first doll. It's take all my willpower not to put the cart before the horse, so to speak, and buy all the maintenance equipment, faceup tools and accessories before I've even saved up enough for the actual doll.

I'm like this with a lot of things. It took a lot of inner struggle just to figure out if I wanted an X-Box 360, and I did an admittedly unnecessary amount of consumer research before I took the next-gen dive.

I really can't understand people who will make purchases with large sums of money while completely ignorant. It's like asking for misfortune. I want my doll experience to be great, and not have a weep because I accidentally dissolved my BJD's face because I used the wrong equipment to take off his faceup, or something. D:

 

Hmmm, does it even need that much research? Maybe I think that because everything is familiar to me now...

But first of all, one may never need to research how to do a face-up at all. Because unless the person has experience painting dolls (or other small scale 3d objects before), but wants a professional looking face-up on their doll, then it might just not be worth the multiple tries, disappointment and money spent on supplies (that would have easily bought a face-up from the company). Even easier, if the person is really in love with company face-up. Or want a blank doll! (There are quite a few here.)
Again, researching what supplies are ok to use, what sizes of brushes and even what painting techniques is not enough to produce a good face-up. It needs experience.

What is essential to know apart from that, really? Don't leave them on direct sunlight for long. Don't drop them. Don't pick them up with greasy hands? That's common sense, not research

Researching on how to order might be needed though... With all that "today we take PayPal, tomorrow we don't". The fact that it's almost impossible to get an answer from Luts, if you email them and you need to post on Q&A instead. Even finding the PayPal pay option on Luts site was not easy, unless you know where to look! Or DOD with their "send us scans of your ID and CC". You wanna know that before you pay.

As for buying the doll, not knowing it doesn't come with outfit or wig or shoes - well, that's not about research, it's about reading the description of the page where you're ordering from. And you sure should, when you're buying something worth that much money.

In the end one can have all the information needed gathered in an hour.

All that said... I bought my first doll after handing out here for a few months, just reading everything I could find useful and interesting. Because I'm like that, once I get interested in something, I find it fun to know all about it

 

Well, I ordered my doll quite soon (but I already knew basic stuff^^) and during the time I'm waiting for her I am learning what I also should know.
I can't understand why people do not inform themselves about stuff they own (some people even buy a computer without knowing how to put it on and off correctly...) and wonder why it won't work...

 

To be perfectly honest...? I didn't do much research at all before I ordered my doll and it even took me some time to save for him. The research really started after I'd ordered him, which doesn't really leave me any regrets as far as things go.

In any case, I admittedly don't know many things about doing face ups, but that's because I'm not planning to ever do one myself. Still, I'm not about to use something like sharpie or word varnish on my doll. I felt that that was common sense to begin with.

With the next doll I'm planning to order I've done a lot more research, though. But luckily I knew quite a bit about BJDs by the time my first boy got here. Or at least, how not to kill him. There are probably a few things I still need to look into or learn still, but overall I think it's okay not to really get into research before you order a doll so long as you have the common sense to handle it. But I think that being paranoid and researching everything is just as good if not better; it would have been nice if I'd done that.

 

i fully admit i jumped in feet first with not much prep. didn't even find DoA till i'd had my first girl for a few months, not to say i didn't look around a bit, i just somehow managed to miss this exceedingly large community( yes i'm good like that)

now i do a bit more planning, think if they'd fit any characters i have or if i'll be able to make one. I took to see who makes what that fits them, posablity, eye size ectect. and more importantly if buying them will break my bank.

 

I did alot of research before I completely got hooked onto the hobby. It didn't look like something I simply wanted to drop in on, especially with so much money put into it. For one, I tried to figure out their other uses besides display, and found they made gorgeous artistic outlets. Then I looked up information for the basics of caring and supplies, looked at multiple companies. What type of area is best to do faceups etc, etc. The only things I'm still unsure of are sueding and sanding. That simply confuses me, but I don't think I'll need that info just yet.

But, with me going off to college, and having to pay so much money already, it would have been dumb to just jump into something and then find I had no interest in it at all, or wasn't willing to commit.

 

Mmm I'm also one of those 'who jumped in' sorta. I've known about them, I did some research, I had basic maintenance supplies. And I had to have one but I was on limited funds and would take YEARS to save up for one so I bought my AoD Rao and I'm actually glad I did because it gave me a taste of BJDs and I love her. XD I want to upgrade to SD size though. I'm a naturally artistic person so faceups and stuff came naturally for me. I have collectibles so... it worked out.

 

I'm a half and half, I like to do a bit of research and then carry on learning as I go. I first heard about ABJDs when a friend of mine asked me if I dressed Lolita (I usually wear full skirts, petticoats, ribbons and mary-janes, but I'd never heard of Lolita before - other than the Nabokov book!) and I didn't have the first clue what that was. A quick Google later introduced me to Lolita fashion and when I noticed that many of the Japanese Lolitas carried beautiful dolls dressed in identical clothing I became interested in ABJDs.

I can't say I did tons of research, but I looked into a few brands, admired them, got very interested in the different types of eyes that could be used, but there wasn't really anything that jumped out at me and I couldn't justify that much money on a whim, but I started checking eBay every now and again to see what kind of money the dolls went for there. I quickly realised that it would be unlikely I could buy a dollfie from eBay because I have an eBay policy of not buying anything from too far away for fear of scams and all the dolls on sale seemed to be coming from China.

I checked eBay at random at the beginning of this month to find a seller called SKYWHYS, selling ABJDs from America. Her feedback was good and the dolls for sale looked really beautiful. I looked at the prices and felt they were reasonable and I bought my Soulkid Snyder from her. It was the best deal I could have had for a first doll, (about £180 for the doll herself, eyes and a wig plus P&P), and while I still believe that is a lot of money, it's less than I would have paid had I ordered a doll directly from Souldoll, and my Snyder is a retired sculpt now, a plus!

I did a little research on Souldoll and Soulkids before pressing the buy-it-now button, but a lot of what I found out took place after I'd bought her and was excited about her arrival. I really grew to appreciate Souldoll sculpts in the few weeks between buying my Snyder and her arriving today and when I first held her I knew I'd made the right choice, even if it had been a quick one and I've already put Hye, Linn, Apple and a selection of eyes on my Souldoll wishlist!

DoA has been so helpful. I found it just after I bought my Snyder and joined straightaway. There's so much useful information here that I feel reassured that I'll be able to find answers to most of my questions if I haven't figured it out by myself. I didn't buy my dollfie to put a new face-up on her, I bought her because I like making jewellery and clothes and it would be easier to do it for a smaller person than myself, she's also a model to help me improve my photography skills.

 

I have to say I did spend months learning about them, to be honest that's the safest way with them. There are lots of people who ask about using certain glues on a doll that would stain it, I'd sooner know all that stuff before I got it home rather than get it home and then attempt things. It's been done.
I'd say learning about resin and face ups first is very very important.
But I should add this forum is very helpful! I'd never have tried sueding if it wasn't for the info here. Mind you I did have the doll already then because she was a year old and I didn't think I'd have to suede her new, so stuff like that I guess you can pick up on the way.

 

I didn't do any research. In fact, I didn't even know they were called ABJD's. I was just on the net looking for some fairy pics, and I came across the Blue Fairy site. They were cute! And perfect size for my doll house. Way better then kelly dolls! But the price! So I just stared at them for a few months, kept my eye on ebay, and found one! And another web site- Minoru World. I worked, and saved, so I bought my first one. A while later I discovered DoA. And could look at stuff. But I tend to read more than ask, so as I looked over the site, I figured stuff out. Now, with out asking how, I've re-strung(this one scared me forever!), done my own face ups and modded several dolls. So, I think it depends on the person, and if you are willing to look and learn, or have to be a help help help person and ask on ever tiny thing without ever just going for it.

 

I kinda jumped in, I must admit. Bought my first girl off of ebay without knowing much about the more in-depth details of the hobby. I had been introduced to the concept before, but had never actually seen one in person. However, after I got her, I got into this community and I feel so much more informed now! I didn't ask the newbie questions I suppose because I looked thoroughly to find the answers before I asked a question at all. I probably won't ever have a spaz-buying fit like I had when I bought her. I do a lot more research now (i.e. problems people may have had with a company, or little quirks specific to a particular company's dolls.) However, just jumping in didn't inhibit me from learning in the least.

 

lol, I guess I'm a jumper. I was looking up other stuff and came across the beautiful dolls. I had no idea what they were, I just figured they were porcelain and very beautiful. I only gave it a passing thought until several months later I came accross them again. Still thought they were beautiful. So searched out ones that would be in my price range (somehow I missed most of the really expensive ones). Once I found one I liked and could afford I ordered her. It wasn't until after I paid I started to have "buyer's remorse" but that quickly vanished when I got her. From the website I knew she would be naked and I would want to order it with a face, so I was semi-informed.

It wasn't until I was looking for more pictures that I found DOA and all the other marvelous companies & dollies. Reading stuff on here made me want to research the do's and don'ts of these dolls, just to keep the one I had nice/safe. It is almost overwhelming, but I love my doll (and now dolls) and worrying about their faces rubbing off won't keep me from enjoying/playing with them. It helps that I am somewhat artistic and could probably paint a halfway decent face if needed, as I have done porcelain dolls before.

So as a "impulse" buyer I just want to say you don't have to know everything about these dolls to want and enjoy them. I love my dollies and even though they might be considered on the "cheap" range I'm going to keep them/take care of them always. (or atleast to my best abilities! )

 

I found out about BJD when my sister bought one. I thought she was crazy and told her she was being ridiculous-then he arrived. And he started growing on me. When she introduced me to the forum, I started lurking and researching the dolls. I looked at sooooo many-both online and in person through some friends-because I was afraid of the price (and my sister making fun of me for a turn-around) before I finally fell in love with one enough to buy her. I don't know everything about the hobby yet, but I'm still learning. But once I knew for sure that I actually did want one, I had waited long enough.

I looked most into different jointing systems-I really wanted a doll that could pose well but looked nice without hiding all the joints. This proved a little bit difficult, particularly since I wanted a girl, because a lot of the company sites do not show off their girls as well nude as their guys. And next to no one ever showed a profile of the face sculpt. But it was actually a good thing-if I had ordered the very first doll I liked enough to buy, I would never have found the one I ordered-which I like a lot better.

I was never atracted to the idea of changing the face-up; I wanted to have a doll to sew for and pose for pictures, mainly. Partly that was because the more I learned about actually doing them, the more the cost of supplies and potential for error scared me. For now, the factory face-up is sufficiently beautiful and versatile (I really like it), and if I ever get inspired to take on that aspect of owning a BJD, I'll be doing lots of reading before attempting anything-even removing the default. The idea of damaging that kind of investment just bothers me.

With a hobby that involves this much money and variety, I think research is really important. Like I said, I would have ordered a different doll if I had just impulse-hit 'Buy Now' on that first one and would have wound up regretting it when I found the one I liked better. Making sure you get something you like, and making sure it lasts, is really important.