I have a "comfort zone" of about $300-400-ish, depending on the size and other factors (intricacy, fantasy or extra parts, etc), and I've really stuck to it on almost every doll except one, my FairyLand Sia (now with a different head), which clocked in at roughly $830 (blank, but with every option part). I fell in love from the first concept art posted, as a way to shell a character I thought I'd never be able to create as a doll, and I've been able to rationalize it as the number of parts working out to being nearly two full dolls in one purchase. (And selling the heads balanced out buying the new ones...)
Well I never wanted to go into the 4 digits for dolls, but it’s happened haha. I just fell in love with a LS Doll (Xin Yue Hu) and had an overwhelming urge to get the fullset, which with the faceup and stuff pushed me into the 4 digits lol. I thought about it for a week before I finally decided. Can’t say I regret it tho...but I think it’s a good idea to set up a savings for dolls. I regret not doing that, lol.
Yes, and unfortunately on a doll that they listed as open-eyed. Came as the 'wink' option. What's even more infuriating, is that it was a birthday present to myself, and they had the winking option up for over a year. I waited like three months for them to get it in stock. Broke my heart because it was a grail
Edit: yes I have broken my doll budget; I thought I'd only buy one this year, and then I bought 2. so far my plan has been to have separate bank accounts, one that I can semi-comfortably spend money on fun things, and the other for school related expenses. I've also decided to limit my purchases to "how many dolls" versus cost (for example, I have one doll here that was $490 and the other that was $414 currently being made, meaning I've hit my silly doll limit of 2). I'm lucky enough to have savings, a job and family support but I don't get a lot of hours and I need to be financially careful....another nice "limiter" on spending is reminding myself 1.) how much I already spent, 2.) get kind of nauseous, and 3.) remember how cool the stuff I own already is . If I get the urge to "therapy shop" I just sit and look at the things I own and remember how lucky I am, lol!
I don't really have a doll budget, for the most part it's not all that hard to save up the money, but I will seriously cringe at anything about 450 or more. And I would say I have a cut-off -- anything near-to or over 800 has pretty much either got to be the greatest thing ever that I never knew I needed or that's a big no. I think I have only owned three dolls that were more than 800 without extras - two I paid off in nice long layaways, and the other was twice that and literally my only Grail - and because my grandmother had just passed, I had the money, and I thought I deserved it. Of those three, I still own two. Most of those two. The whole grail. He stays with me forever. I've been close to my cut-off three times with a Dollshe Grant (who was on sale but still over 600, and I bought the whole doll to hybrid with a pretty pricey head, so...total he was near the cut-off mark) and three Iplehouse dolls that wouldn't have been so much if I could find one I didn't need to do Doll Choice for. Alas, I like my mix-and-match dolls.
I bought my first doll. About three weeks later, I found my second doll, and just had to have him. I would've burned if I didn't. He was just so perfect and wonderful and-- I bought my second doll. I haven't done it again because I know that's not a healthy thing to do, for the bank account. But I don't regret it even one bit. For what it's worth, my second doll's sculpt is now sold out. :3
I went over this month. I was saving for months to buy a couple bodies for my floating heads. Mine was more the second option. Knee jerk decision that killed all my careful budgeting ^^; “but I HAD to have that doll” Things didn’t go according to plan this time but I usually try to save and budget for about $400. I add money into my “doll fund” every month. And try to do a no buy/no spend period for a few months (ugh no fun) but it’s necessary for me
Budgeting... Not quite my forte. I'm still waiting for my first doll to arrive, so have set myself the restriction of receiving and clothing the precious elf boy (Raccoon Doll Kai) before I can even begin the process of looking for another one. Being in Australia the exchange rate has definitely hurt as well as shipping. I know one of my grail dolls will definitely hit four figures too.
Like a lot of people, I don't really have a budget. Something about having a literal budget stresses me out more than the actual spending and saving of money. Not quite sure what it is, because that extends well beyond doll budgets. I've kept myself in line by basically having that nervous gut twist whenever I want to spend money. I'm well aware of what I make, how much I really spend, and how much is in my account (as of the last time I actually dug into it) but ignoring all of it and acting as if I've got nothing is what let me pay off my student loans and its not a habit I'm in a place to let go of yet. It makes it hard to let go and actually spend the money, but it also means I'm more likely to spend it on dolls I really, really like. The most I've spend on a doll is when I really wanted my Dream Valley Purple and the event doll Loxy a couple years ago. In order to get Loxy I needed to spend over $500 and Purple alone wasn't going to be enough, especially since I wasn't into the default face up. I had to purchase Purple and another basic doll to get my Loxy so I spend just over $500 on what was essentially three dolls but one doesn't count? Thank god I've never had to explain this to someone not in the know of my hobby! I love Izumo and Youko to bits and they were the first dolls I had purchased in four years and I haven't had any chance (or burning need) to buy since. I'm sure a new one will pop out eventually. But I have the feeling that 500 mark is really about it. For a fullset I can push it, as I've had a couple super pretty fullsets and I think they've been worth every penny, but probably not for just a basic doll.
I just got into BJD's and have this same exact issue. It's just there are SO many beautiful dolls out there!!!!! Knowing myself I'm sure it'll run its course soon and I'll settle down to more reasonable spending levels
I've broken my budget quite a bit this year. Normally I only order 2 dolls per year or a maximum of roughly $1000 per year (give or take a little bit). I was doing well, but then DDE got a Peaks Woods Red in stock, which is a doll I've wanted for a long time now. I caved and put her on layaway. But in my defense, the doll won't be paid off until summer next year and I'm planning for her to be the only doll I receive next year. Then again that's what I say every year.
hahahahaha what even IS budgeting? I am horrendously bad with money...it is a problem...less so with doll stuff and more so with craft stuff but uh....I DO have two dolls on layaway this year so i'd say my max for a doll is like $500 but I'm pretty sure I spent more than that last year on my Hewitt Jin-Hyuk (though he WAS a grail AND coming from south korea so most of the price was shipping with EMS)...but generally i'd say i wouldnt spend more than $500 on a doll usually.
Do you mean budget for one doll or per year? For me, I don't care how many dolls I bought for a year. But I won't buy a doll for more than $600. But when Narmer released......
I don't have a set budget for myself, but whatever the arbitrary budget I have set in my head is, I defintiely broke it last month. Last month there were just so many limited dolls and dolls that were being discontinued that I wanted, that I ended up spending spending $1600 on dolls last month. Yeah... I feel guilty just typing that, especially because I'm supposed to be saving right now. There were even more dolls that I wanted, namely a ton of Peak's Woods "monster" sculpts, but even I had the foresight to see that those were far out of my budget. Hopefully they'll come back later when I have fewer dolls I'm trying to buy all at once.
I actually did this year, LOL. Though, I will say, a lot like others I don't really have a budget per se but I never thought I would hit close to the 3000 mark but with shipping and the conversion from CAD to USD... big yikes! However, I feel alright with it because I'm thinking the LUTS Royal Senior Delf I splurged on will be my last doll for quite some time! Like I probably won't buy a doll for another five years... no matter how many dolls I may want in that time, I'll just have to look at my giant man and remember ABSOLUTLY NO MORE (right now). xD
Ohhhhh I feel you on the CAD to USD conversion!! I’ll see a doll and go “oh! I can afford that” until I see the exchange rates
It's getting ridiculous! I was like oh maybe I should get my first MSD... I can swing 350 and then... oh no wait how about tack on another 100 or so to that when you remember oh right that's in USD.
ALWAYS!! I typically like to spend in the usual $300-$600 range however grail dolls like my saber lily were um......a bit more than that and worth every penny
Oh yes! In fact I just did this recently, although I did so with my dear hubby’s blessing (he’s calling it my Birthday/Christmas present even though it won’t be here until well into next year since I had to put her on a lo-o-o-n-n-n-g-g-g layaway just to pull it off.) I wouldn’t call her a grail exactly because she was more one of those “impossible dream” dolls you never dared hope for. She’s a Dollzone Sawarieda, (a very large…like a hundred cm. of large!) plant/mermaid confection of a doll. I’d always loved her and was absolutely fascinated by her, but she was initially released at time when I was already at my absolute limit doll-finance wise. And any rare offerings for her in the second-hand market were way over my ability to quickly come up with such a large sum of cash. So she just became one of those sadly missed opportunities that happen on occasion with dolls over the years. Fast forward to this past October and suddenly Dollzone re-released her as a seriously limited (only 17 available!) and offered her in a limited purple skin as well. This tipped me right over the edge…a rare sculpt I adored, at a special discounted price, in a limited skin color I love! This was such a special opportunity, I knew I had to go for it or forever be sorry. She was well over a thousand dollars, even as a blank doll with the company discount, so I put her on a long layaway and will be giving up all my other doll spending for the next year as I slowly pay her off. Hey, sometimes in this hobby you just gotta go for it!
