Ever had a huge doll "cull".....

Yes...in fact in the last month, I sold all 6 of my dolls plus a floating body and a floating head to fund both my Dollfie Dream and Volks YOSD purchase, outfits and a wig. I really didn't love any of them though....they were simply impulse buys over the last year and a half.

 

I went through this exact same thing a few years back. I just wasn't happy with my collection of SD's. They were lovely and all, and I just couldn't figure out for the life of me why I wasn't happy with such a wonderful collection. Finally, in my frustration of not being able to figure out exactly what was wrong, I made the very difficult decision to just sell all of them at once. Once they were gone, and my mind wasn't being clouded by their presence in my home, I could suddenly see that it had been their size all along that was wrong. They were just too big for me and my display spaces. It was a real epiphany! I restarted my collection with MSDs and smaller and I've been blissfully happy ever since.

It seems to me that you have already stored away the ones you can bear not to have around you. So why not let those move on into the eagerly awaiting hands of other collectors, and use the funds from that, at least in part, to spoil the ones you like having around you? Makes perfect sense to me and I think you'll feel less pressured time-wise and finance-wise if you do.

 

I've been going through one the last few months since I decided to focus on SDs only. At my peak I had about 40 dolls, 35 of which were not SD. The sheer quantity made me question how I was collecting and basing my criteria on. I started selling the ones that I liked the least, then by that time found my SDs were the ones that really had my heart. So it became easier to let go of everyone smaller because they were no longer in scale.

The positive thing about getting to experience so many different types of dolls (even if they weren't the size I currently like) was that now I have a better idea of what I am looking for, which means I'm more likely to bond with a new purchase. I also have set the personal boundary for myself that I can not have two of the same type of body, which is forcing a more difficult cull right now. In the future though, it should help me keep myself in check. I also have a self designated space for my dolls, and am not allowed to exceed it. I'm trying to set boundaries now to avoid future culls.

 

Though I have not done this, I sympathize greatly. I have a lot of dolls, and most of the population came home very quickly (most arrived during the first two and half years in the hobby). On one hand this allowed me to go ahead with some character/story type stuff more quickly. I also got the chance to handle and experiment with a lot of different dolls -- as a hobbyist, I think the experience was helpful.

But there is also a downside to this. It's natural for tastes to change over time, and by getting so many dolls so fast, I didn't give myself as much of a chance to really stop and think about what I really really wanted. Having dolls from so many places also means there is less cohesion aesthetically speaking. I've made a lot of changes this year -- not by selling, but swapping around characters and trying to work as many dolls as possible into my main story line in order to feel like my doll family is a more unified whole. At first this felt good and seemed to do the trick, but now I'm not so sure. I think it might have been a kind of a band-aid covering up the real issues, namely that my taste in dolls has changed, I want a cohesive group, and I feel like I might have too many.

So now I'm starting to consider keeping out my three Volks girls, my two fan dolls, and my first doll and pack everyone else up for awhile to see how I feel. I like the idea of less dolls = more nice clothing to go around and more attention for each doll. And Volks really has become my main dolly love. But passing on everyone else means I give up my main storyline which I do enjoy and some dolls that I've always been very attached to. On the other hand, if I'm just packing them up to see how I feel, I can always pull them back out again if I change my mind...

I'm honestly not sure what I'm going to do -- I don't know if this is an idea that will pass, or something that I'm going to act on. But I have a feeling that lots of people go through this to some extent or another.

ETA: I came to the conclusion that I could never let go of my big pain in the rear main crew -- I'm just having a frustrating time lately. I am going back and making some changes to a few of my dolls to see if that helps : P

 

I've definitely done this, quite recently.

I had four dolls. Two were MSD (Lati Rei and Luts Bory), one SD (Soom Chrom) and one tiny (Infiniti Tiki), plus two SD-sized floating heads. Then after a little thinking, I put up my Lati Rei up for sale... And then got carried away and ended up listing all of them and their belongings, except for the tiny. They just weren't as magical and as perfect for me as they used to be, so off to new homes they went. In the end it was a very good decision because I ended up really needing the money shortly after they were sold (though I did get my tiny a new limited wig, and my boyfriend decided to spoil him as the "only child", so to speak, and got him a few gifts as well).

I do intend to build up my collection again at a later date, when I have a steady job and can actually afford these dolls without scrimping and saving every penny I make for several months. Probably won't go back to MSD's though, I really like the look of SD dolls, though that'll have to happen when I have more room to display them as well.

 

I did this just within the last few weeks. I had around 8 dolls and while I like all of them a few just never really fit in. I sold them and they are going to happier homes. I know have my 5 Favorites and I find its easier to buy for them verse all of the others.

 

Yep... Twice now.
Once last summer, when I sold off most of my white resin dolls, and one currently happening.

When all's said and done, I'll have just about halved what my collection was at its height in terms of number of dolls. Eventually, I'd like to cut it down even more, but that may or may not happen. The ones that are still here are the ones I liked the most... the ones it would be most difficult to part with.

 

I've been pondering whether to do this recently. I've been looking at quite a few of the dolls and wondering just when it was I last did anything with them. There's a few that I'd never part with, but I do find the sheer size of the collection a bit unwieldy now.

 

I've been working on doing this the last couple months - I have fallen out of love with SDs because I find them just too big for me, and I want minis. So I figure if I sell the SDs and the dolls that I never really bonded with anyway, then I can use the money from them to focus on the minis that I have. It's a bit of a relief, actually, to see that my larger dolls are going somewhere they'll be loved.

On the other hand, though I am getting rid of that size range, there are still a couple at SD size that I will never get rid of. So it's a careful cull! XD

 

The most doll's I've ever had at once was like 6 but whenever I sell a doll I replace it with another (only done that a few times) I want to eventually have a lot more though.

 

Yes, I've sold 3 MSDs lately because I decided the size wasn't for me and they weren't going to fit in with my plans for my collection. Only one of them I had actually played with and given personality though, so it wasn't too hard. I put the money towards the bigger dolls I wanted, and getting them nice shoes/eyes/wigs etc!

 

Oh yes, though I'm more the type to thin as I go rather than have a huge 'cull.'
I too felt a bit disenchanted with my collection and I wasn't sure why. Turned out I had a more fantastical group in mind and I had dolls that were getting in the way of my vision and, really, could be sold for moneys towards other things. This is the problem; my tastes changed since I first got into dolls where I resisted my natural urge to go with a fantastical/magical driven collection. The Soom MDs helped me see it was possible
So it was to the marketplace for my Delf Chiwoo and Elfdoll Tasha! Chiwoo is on layaway, which is helping to pay for a Soom Idrial and a body for my Chrom head
So that's two leaving me, a new one coming in and a floating head finally getting a body. My collection now consists of a Soom Chrom, Soom Sard, CCC Deer Faith, Soom Idrial (incoming) and Iplehouse SooRi (doesn't fit at all, he was my first xD). So I'm definitely on course for a magical crew .

 

Yes, I've decided the larger dolls (SD and MSD) are more to my liking and some of the smaller ones I've bought on impulse have to go, if for no other reason than space!!

 

I have done this before - selling off 2/3 of my collection but in turn I invested that money in paying off bills or a more sought after doll. I am at the point where I want to do this again but am having a hard time deciding which dolls to let go of. I don't like selling dolls I havn't finished work on even if that means keeping it in a box under my bed for more than 2 years.

Heaven help me. =p

 

Yes, a couple of times. At one point I realized that PFs were just a little too small for me to easily photograph (I now have a better camera so it would be less of an issue...) and I sold off nearly all the ones I owned. I sort of miss Jack, but the others not at all.

And starting this Spring I started a major doll clean out and I'm still thinking about culling the herd and selling off more Yos. I sold all my large dolls since I just don't like large dolls and started selling Yos as well. I was also pregnant and am now a new mother, so I'm sort of re-evaluating my priorities. I find I have a lot less time for dolls now and I keep thinking I could own one of my Yos are say a super expensive stroller or a fancy baby carrier, and the baby things just keep winning out. I won't sell all my dolls, but I am definitely thinking about which ones give me the most pleasure and which ones I like to photograph.

 

I have done this before, once with bjd's and once with another doll collection that was just too much for me to deal with anymore.

My first bjd cull came about because there was a period where I was unemployed longer than expected and I needed to feel more like I was contributing to my real household instead of holding on to objects. Recently I started to realize that alot of my issues were impulse purchases and if I set myself to one collecting goal, such as size, mold, company, etc I'd feel less overwhelmed about the whole thing.

Lately I have given alot of thought to just letting go altogether.

 

Yes I recently sold nine dolls of mine because most of them were MSD sized and I decided that the yosd or 1/6 sized BJD's suit me best. I think intially when I got into BJD's I went a little mad buying too many in a relatively short space of time. They were just being stored away in their boxes which was a real pity. Plus they were taking up valuable space in my room so it didn't make sense to keep them. One of them was my first resin BJD I bought but I did have her for nearly three years before finally deciding to sell her, it wasn't done on impulse. In fact I always try to hang on to a BJD for at least 6 months before selling just to be certain that it's the right thing for me to do. I actually felt better for it though, i'm left with the BJD's that i'm really happy with and that I pay more attention to. I prefer having a smaller clan of resin BJD's as they do require a certain amount of maintenance so it's much more managable when there are less to deal with.

 

I've culled clothing and I've culled dolls that were too much the same and too many. Like most doll collectors I have gotten too much into a rut and collected one too many doll of a certain type with a certain coloring, collected one too many outfit that was a little too similar to want to keep on doing it. But that's with regular dolls not BJD's. The whole point of BJD's is that they are 100% capable of customization. You can do anything to or with a BJD. So ultimately the only thing that really stops you from going anywhere with them is the limits of your own imagination and how willing you are to go for it to transform that doll into something you are crazy about. I've had a couple of BJD's now that admittedly really stumped me in terms of that and that initially I thought about selling.

Lele from Miro, that doll he about drove me crazy actually. I didn't want to dislike him, I really didn't, but I just could not make him work in any kind of way that was aesthetically pleasing to me. Then one day I looked at him and I thought "Wait a sec. Why does he have to be pretty? Why can't he just be the monster he feels like to me?" For those of you who haven't seen Lele, well, IMHO he's a pretty intimidating sculpt. In the right color, with the right makeup, he's near Exorcist level demonic. I've seen one example of him that was very much like that actually, very scary, very alien. I think he was supposed to be a game character or something but to me that Lele was genuinely freaky and a bit scary. I never forgot him. He was in the back of my mind and I could not help but think of him when I looked at my Lele. I've never actually seen a nice, friendly version of him. Even in normal makeup he looks fierce and a bit off putting. He just doesn't look like a very nice guy.

He's scowling. He's got this weird skeletal thing about him. I looked at him and suddenly it was like "WELL DUH!" who is this little guy? He's Erik, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA! Of course! Bingo, it clicks All of a sudden my most unwanted doll became something else entirely and now I am in the middle of designing his face up, making him a wardrobe of Phantom related clothes, giving him a back story and an object of obsession in my Miro Lili. These are the same two dolls that I nearly swapped a year in, could barely stand to look at and now I am having a ball with them!

Owning BJD's has taught me something. Culling isn't necessary 99.99% of the time at least when it comes to dolls themselves. With BJD's you can remake almost anything, change anything. There is no "box" except for a mental one. No limitations. You're free to do whatever you want to make a doll work. The point though is you have to be willing to do that. You have to be able to think of your dolls and all their stuff as something less than static. If you can? They can end up being anything you want and you won't have wasted anything, except maybe some time figuring out how to make it all work...

 

I have done this.

At one point, I was getting close to 40 dolls. They were all connected in character, and belonged to a world I had created with a friend. It was so overwhelming, that even putting the characters on rotation, I couldn't play them all in even a month, much less keep up storylines. They took up so much space, and only a couple ever really felt complete. I was spread too thin. I cut back by about half. Now I'm at 18, and even that feels like too much sometimes. My doll funds are very limited, and I usually can't buy more stuff without selling first. Sometimes, I think I'd like to have maybe just 13 dolls or fewer. The problem is deciding who to let go, so I'm just keeping what I have for now.