Ever been thankful you didn’t get a doll you really wanted?

I'm kind of glad I never took the plunge on Dollmore's huge Lusion and Trinity dolls. They'll always be the ones that got away, but with my current physical limitations it's a GOOD thing I am not trying to move those resin hulks! LOL

 

I'm glad I never got Iplehouse Kamau. He was grail level for me for years and I still adore that gorgeous boy! But I mostly only collect dolls in the 60cm range, and at the time, my spending limit was around $350, so I held out. I got to handle one at a meet I went to by pure luck while visiting another state. That boy is beautiful!! But HUGE and heavy! Like my SD crew looked like children next to him. I had it in my head that he'd be a tall guy, but I didn't realize he's just huge all over and totally out of scale with the rest of my dolls. I would have been devastated to drop around a thousand dollars on him and not even be able to work him into my main storyline. (But I'm still gonna drool over him and love seeing what other people do with him!)

 

Omg this is so relatable, thanks for sharing your story and for creating such an interesting thread!

It's funny because I was in a somewhat similar situation... I had my first full-time job last year and had enough savings to purchase a Volks Suigintou head (she's been grail for me for over 15 years now) and there was one head on the auctions that I really had love-at-first-sight for. However, the auction ended up being above my budget (I was so close to just going for it though, I thought to myself that it was 1k more and I could somehow save up in the next few months...) but I had a feeling it wasn't a wise choice, and chose not to go with it in the end.

Little did I know, I got laid off the next day , it was a mass layoff from the company and there were *no* signs that it was coming at all. And the economy was really bad (still is!) so I was jobhunting for the next 6 months. So thankfully I didn't spend that money. That being said, it's still in my goals to have her one day.

 

Oh yes double that with spiritdoll dolce and pure I love huge dolls and I have some disney playmate from jacks pacific and las reinas from paola reina but vinyl is so much lighter than resin so the same size in resin it would be such a difficulty for my waist , even the eid are too much of a job to move from room to room due to their weight so a lushion/trinity/dolce/pure size doll it would be a disaster for my waist issues , I do drool over them when I see them in galleries though they are gorgeous!!!!

 

For me, a lot of SD limited dolls from Volks and 1/3 full set dolls. Michelle, Williams, SwD Nono, Chili, Belldandy... Also Xie Lian Prince from Ringdoll.

I can't manage that size anymore. I just have one SD boy and the rest of my dolls are 1/4 and 1/6 as I've reduced my 1/3 collection. I love to personalise my dolls, so having a beautiful full set isn't that appealing to me. I love to see unboxings, photos, etc. but I don't see myself carrying handling one.

 

I had ordered an in-stock DZ Ji-zero human from a dealer (it was not being sold at the time any more/the second run hadn't been announced yet - it felt very much like a last chance option) but immediately regretted after calculating how much the shipping and customs add to it from that location. It was not even on the body/ in the skintone I wanted to start with so there would have been a lot of DIY and second hand selling hassle ahead; it turned out that the dealer was also extremely slow with in-stock orders so it took forever to process. When it was finally time for it to go out, I got a message that the whole doll had warped while in storage and was no longer in a sellable condition - I got my money back immediately and was very relieved to have miraculously dodged the bullet in many ways I'm definitely thankful now that it didn't work out!

 

Same for me. I've seen Lusion dolls in person but never a Trinity. I've stopped myself from getting a Lusion a couple of times as I don't have the room but also as I'm getting older I'm having a harder time lifting and carrying heavier items around.

 

This happened to me early this year actually. I saw the limited Dollzone SD mechanical girl, Robotica X-Nana, and was immediately smitten. She was so unusual and so special…and so expensive! After careful financial deliberations with my husband, I was encouraged to go ahead and get her on layaway. But before I could set that up, one night at bedtime I actually had a panic attack (something that had never happened to me before or since.) It felt like an ogre was sitting on my chest! After more careful deliberations with my husband, we realized it was because of this specific doll. My brain was telling me how amazing she would be, but my heart was telling me that she wouldn’t fit in with the rest of my crew and would make me miserable in the end. So I listened to what my body was trying to tell me, and let her pass by. Not long after that, other limited dolls were released that meshed beautifully with my collection and I was able to set up layaways for them with the monies I didn’t spend on her. Clearly a definite win!

 

I think it happens more than we could think. My case is a bit different, I actually had the doll in question, but would have been thankful to not have bought her (if that makes sense ).

The main issue in this case was the wait time. It's something that often happens with artists, but after waiting about 6 months to get my doll, I completely lost interest and went to a different doll size, so this one was definitely too much in my collection. It would not have been that bad if she was not so hard to sell. Since she is a specific size and at quite a high price, not many people are interested and now I am left with a doll I never bond with, and that nobody wants (yet hopefully), so if I had known, I would have never bought her.

This experience made me more careful about what I am buying, I take more time to think before buying and I'm glad I didn't lose myself in "useless" purchases (I think about the MNF Lami in fullset that I almost bought knowing MSD is still too big for me), it saved me money and I didn't end up with too many dolls on my hands.

 

My first attempt at buying a Twigling ingenieuse was with someone who had a lot of Instagram following. They had a tan ingenieuse who they put up a feeler for. When I said I was interested, they started me into a bidding war (???) against a second, unidentified buyer. When finally I said I couldn’t afford to go higher the second buyer “miraculously” defaulted on their bid, and she went to me. So I’m 90% sure there was never a second buyer, and they were just bidding me up to see how high they could push me. So we agreed to a price £1200. They then messaged me that we would have to ship by courier, because national post insurance didn’t go high enough to pay for the doll. They then ghosted me. They still haven’t responded and this was in 2021 if my memory serves. I sent an immediate message back, saying DHL was okay, and that I didn’t even care how expensive it was, and nothing. I sent 3-4 more messages, all spaced a couple days apart. They were active on Instagram, posting stories and photos the whole time, but they never responded to me. A few months later, I learn via an Instagram story that they sold her to someone else.

So I was mad. Evidently not mad enough that I’m gonna name and shame, though, how many Instagram doll owners have had a tan Twigling ingenieuse?

a few more months later, someone in Canada saw my WTB for an ingenieuse, and sold her to me for $1200 USD, with shipping in Canada, to my door in three days. She was less expensive (the euro is stronger than the usd), had no customs charges because she was within Canada already, and had a faceup I really love. So I’m glad I lost out on the first ingenieuse so that I could have her!

 

I did want Jade from Ringdoll whe the first edition was released. A sweet teen Jangshi girl was such nice figure and charming idea for the chinese horror theme light novel which i was interested in. And maybe she would have developed into an oc of my story in the end.
Luckily I did some research, and one of my friend told me that she was waiting her doll from Ringdoll for several months, that she had no interests in that doll anymore. And there were other things of the company making me concern .So I calmed down, and i spent my money on something else, haha.
Several months later, I saw some people post their Jade, and she didn't sparkle as in the picture and I just don't feel the "should I get her" struggle any more.

 

Right when I started learning about BJDs, I had fallen in love with a certain beautiful 1/3 doll that the company had named exactly like me so my dumb brain took it as a sign.
As the next day I was gonna attend a doll meet from my local community to see their dolls, I thought it would be a great idea to finally take the step so I could share the great news with them, but in that day was astoundingly stressing and I ended up not doing it.
I had only seen a couple of fairyland littlefees in real life before, so I didn't really realize how big a 1/3 would be and when I held one doll that size in the doll meet, I understood that size wasn't for me at all and I felt so thankful.

 

Aww thank you! I do hope so too! It truly was insane timing, and I still think about that one head in particular, but it was no doubt the right decision at the time

 

Part of me was thrilled when Harucasting was producing dolls with vitiligo again. I was tempted to preorder one, despite my current no-buy policy. My policy won out, and I'm glad for it. Harucasting's photos showed dolls with white pigment over their darker skin. This creates thinner spots where the skintone shows through, and thicker, whiter spots in the same patch. I thought that was a rough demo to show how the dolls look with vitiligo.

Then I saw owner photos. The dolls really do have white pigment over their skin. I would not have been thrilled to learn this after my purchase.

 

It took me over 10 years, but I realized I was in love with the fullset and hated the face. I wonder if I would have continued to like her if I had bought her back then.

 

Yeah. I feel bad about the circumstances, but sometimes, life, she just happens.
I bought the expensive La Luna doll - limited full-set and 1/4 scale fashion size, so really small. I had paid totally in full. Then, life happened. Personal life went very south, very fast, and I needed the money more than the doll. It's the only time I've ever begged a dealer to let me out of a pre-order, and thankfully, they and the doll company graciously agreed.

Fast forward to today. People are getting their dolls, and they are beautiful, but now, I have a Trinity, and I have Iris. My tastes have changed. My dolls are getting bigger and bigger. Smaller dolls have fallen out of favor and are being traded or sold. I am becoming more and more set on buying only regularly available dolls - no limited sets. I'm starting to sew, and that tiny La Luna would be a nightmare for me as a beginner. So I'm grateful I didn't stay in that pre-order.

I'm also grateful that I don't have to worry about keeping track of the full set (in case someone else wanted it but couldn't buy it). I know, it's weird, but it's a thing for me.

 

Something similar happened to me when I was younger. But I slapped the doll on credit and didn't regret it at all despite getting fired a month later. (I was actually already fired)
Me and jobs and authority are turbulent anyway.
nothing has changed and I like my collection.

Luckily for you, Oscar is everywhere.