Expensive? Cheap?

I’d class cheap as $300 or less, expensive as around $600 and probably $800+ as nearly no-go for me. Most of my dolls are hybrids and a lot of them are on cheap bodies (cough Mirodoll cough) although there’s one Iplehouse (on sale!) and a couple of Ringdoll & TD (though T&D are not unreasonably priced). If I could’ve just bought a head from Iplehouse, I would have. I’ve ordered some Dollshe, but only in sales where I got the packages so each doll works out much cheaper. I try to buy in sales too, with big discounts or freebies!

Then there are the custom sculpts. I pay sculpting, moulding and casting fees for those and since my favourite artist is leaving the bjd world, I probably won’t get any more customs after my long, long awaited Harry (almost ready for shipping! )

I don’t really want hundreds of dolls. I’m at almost 16, and I can see it plateauing there for a while now I’ve achieved my desired crew. I’m also getting some casting gear for my birthday and want to focus on my own creations and really bringing the others up to scratch.

I realise I’ve been lucky to be able to do this while living comfortably, but that may not always be the case so I want to put more money into my savings now. I think, for me, the $1000 specials are a definite no. But that said, if people are financially happy enough to do it, that’s up to them!

(Conversion rates are also important as $600 can sometimes be only £400!)

 

Coming from previous doll collecting experience anything under $300 is cheap and anything over 800 is getting expensive

 

For me it starts getting expensive at around 400$, the most I spent on a doll was 700$ so far and I think that would also be my limit since it’s quite a lot of money for me but he’s one of my dream dolls and I’m glad I spent so much on him anyway

 

I'd say anything under $300 is cheap as I generally spend over that on my dolls. I've never spent over $700 on a BJD before, I think that would be too expensive for me.

 

I consider about $700 for a 70cm+ about average so anything smaller then that for that price would be expensive to me. I try to keep it around $400 for my SDs, $300 for MSDs and $200 for Yos (if im buying new, i usually shop secondhand to get them cheaper). If i had unlimited money, i would buy the dolls in my wish list and then focus on getting more stuff for the dolls i had, i wouldnt just get dolls to have them (unless they were Dream of Doll, because im obsessed and addicted). I was going to buy a Little Monica GH Haazel and ended up reshelling the character because i just couldn't justify it. (I hope that answered the questions )

 

I have hard limits on doll spending so for me expensive is 600 USD+ and cheap is anything under 100 USD. Most of my dolls were about 400USD or less and I paid them off with layaway to make them manageable. Even with layaways, I'd never want to spend more than maybe 600USD on a single doll. It's a personal budgeting thing.

 

Objectively speaking, there's no such thing as "cheap" in this hobby... There's just Kind'a Pricey, Really Pricey and Absolutely Ludicrous.

That said, like a fair few others up-thread, anything under $300 would seem like a (relatively-) inexpensive doll to me. The $600-800 range is about average for my crew. Anything over $1000 has to be in serious "calls to my soul"-territory. That's the point where 'Expensive' starts to move into 'Too Much' for me unless the doll is really something special.

 

I consider anything 600USD and over is pretty expensive. Although, I can't complain since both of my dolls are somewhat over.

Just from looking for dolls I'd say anything <500 USD is cheap.
Some of the dolls I want are so close to 1,000$ I just have to cut myself off emotionally at that point

 

All BJDs are expensive, since almost ALL of them, no matter the size, are over $100.
A doll, no FU, no outfit, no wig, no eyes, for less than $200, is pretty low cost for a BJD. Most run $250-$500. The upper end (again, plain) is over that.
I've a Volks FS Ryoma - he cost me the price of my first car (yeah, years ago now LOL). Full set, wig, eyes, FU - as all Volks Limited have. Totally worth it. Still, expensive - priciest doll I have. I've also got 3 tinies (1:12 scale) that cost me less than $100 (2 of them were 'free' gifts for buying other dolls). Those are my cheapest of course They are precious as well

 

Since my first bjd cost around $500, that's the median for me. $300 or less is "What a good deal!" $700 or over is "Hmm, must think about."

 

Expensive and cheap is like comparing an LV (Louise Vitton) bag with a bag brought from Target. There are reasons why a doll is expensive because it's a limited edition, the brand, or the beautiful work that is put into making the doll.
When I buy things expensive, I tend to cherish it and take good care looking after it than compare to a cheap one where I can grab or throw it around.
I am not a horder - I prefer having a few than many that take up space.
I think the clothes the brushing and faceup can add up to the cost of the doll so I prefer it that way than buying my doll blank since im not good doing the faceup or feel safe sending my doll to a customiser.I have bought a few over $1000 but that is because I was working and earning money at that time and back then 1000 means nothing when you are working and living with your parents. Now $1000 means a lot to me and im cautious of what I spend.... but thanks to layaway I dont need to hold back on what I want. In general if its a nice doll that speak to me and is over $1000 mark I will buy it by using layaway and I will stop for a year without buying anything to compensate my expenditure.

 

To me, "too expensive" is over $700, "expensive but still obtainable" is like $550-700, "cheap" is under $400. Most dolls I buy are in the $400-550 range, just because it seems to happen that way, not because I choose by price. The most I have ever paid was $700, and I feel like while the doll was gorgeous, it was a little more than I should have paid.

If I had unlimited money, I think I'd still keep about the same number of dolls I currently have, and definitely not over 20. I'd rather spoil the ones I have and make sure they have the perfect eyes, wig, wardrobe and accessories than have tons of dolls. I'd also rather use that money to travel and have fun experiences than just more stuff (but I would totally use that money to travel to BJD conventions!). I might be more willing to look at more expensive dolls. There are several I like in the $800-1000 range (mostly sold out limited Soom and Dollshe girls), but that's too much for me to justify spending in my current financial situation.

My views on "expensive" have change over the years. When I first joined the hobby, I was working part-time, minimum wage and supporting myself, so even a $150 was crazy expensive to me. Then for a few years, I was making pretty good money and could easily spend $250 per month on dolls if I wanted to, so most were obtainable within a couple of months. Now, I'm a housewife mostly with a very very part time job, and I'm much more limited on doll funds again so I'm more careful with my budget now. The biggest change is that for the first few years, I focused more on price and quantity than on taste and quality. If I could get two cheap dolls for the price of one expensive one, I did it, without considering if there was a quality difference, or which sculpt/aesthetic I preferred. At one time, I had 38 dolls, most in the "cheap" price range, and I wasn't totally in love with any of them. Now, I have 16 that I really like and a few I've had for 5+ years because I decided to focus more on what I really loved and save up for it, rather than jump at the first cheap thing I saw. (I'm not saying less expensive is bad--I do have a few dolls on the "Dolls under 300" list, but I bought them because I really wanted them, not because of the price tag.)

I think the best thing to do is find the dolls that really call to you. Any doll is great if it's everything you want. It's a waste of money if you're only buying it because of the price tag, whether it's a $90 budget doll or a $1000 status symbol.

 

Anything over $200 I consider expensive. But that doesn't stop me from buying things over that limit. It just adds another layer of protection for my wallet. I wouldn't spend anything over $1200 and it would have to be a full set large doll so elaborate that I'd have to store it in glass.

 

It depends on the size of the doll for a certain price. Like if a yosd was 450$, I'd probably not buy it and consider it expensive. If it was a msd to an sd it would be an okay price, not necessarily an expensive one.

 

All the bjds are expensive.
It depends on how much you can pay. I save money for the doll that I want. Then, if I have other bills to pay, I must wait.
I can’t pay immediatly 1000€ for a doll, but if i save money, I can do it.

 

To me, $800 USD and above is considered as expensive, so pretty much "volks" is on the expensive side. but I still plan to get FCS F65 when my birthday coming

On average I can accept a doll cost around 500-600 ish no problem.

 

To me it'd be...

"Cheap" - $300 and under.
Somewhat expensive, but still reasonable - $450-$500
Expensive, but might still go for it if I *really* want it - $600
That's... uh... quite the high price. Maybe I could get myself just the head and make a hybrid? - $700-$800
Wait, WHAT?! No way I'm ever gonna spend that much money! - $900
NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE - $1000 and up

Dunno, maybe if I actually had money pouring from my rear I would have no problem throwing that much money at a single doll... although I'll have to admit that none of the dolls I ended up falling in love with so far were THAT expensive. Usually the most expensive ones I like are in the range of $600-$780, with the one exception of Fifth Motif Venitu being around $900 the last time he was on sale.
As for my view on expensive vs cheap dolls... I remember that back when I first got interested in BJDs, I was pretty sure that the average price for a single doll would be around $590... I knew that companies like Resinsoul existed, but I thought they were more of an exception than anything else. Needless to say, when I found out that there were plenty of companies offering gorgeous dolls for prices as low as $300 or $400, I was super happy! *O* So yeah, nowadays I guess I'd consider $490 more of an "average" price for an SD doll, while $590 and up would be a bit more on the expensive side of things.

One thing that surely has changed since getting started with the hobby is my overall idea of "cheap" vs "expensive" XD dolls aside, I also collect CDs and vinyls. I remember spending about €55 on the limited edition of one of my favourite's band albums a couple of years ago and thinking that it was "expensive". Spent around €65 on another limited edition album this year and, since at that point I was used to spending much more on BJDs, I thought that it was actually "cheap" :'D

 

These are interesting questions, especially the last two. Nowadays I consider my purchases very carefully. I only buy things I feel I would truly enjoy. After a couple of bad years with filling empty holes in my life with unnecessary shopping I've felt this is the way to go for me. If I was filthy rich I'd probably buy my wishlist empty much quicker than I can right now and wouldn't probably search for the cheapest possible deals I can. My wishlist is changing slowly so it's not a set number per se but I don't think it would grow miles longer even if I had the money to splurge.

Yes, my views have changed. I came to this hobby from collecting fashion dolls and pullips, a completely different price range (not counting LE dolls etc. special stuff). First I thought I could never ever spend more than a hundred euros for a basic doll, since all my pullips where second hand or bought from ridiculous sales. I appreciated the art, though, but the leap was just quite scary to take at first. Now I feel like 300 dollars is on the pricey side for a basic doll, but it's something that I'm willing to pay with a layaway plan. I could also justify buying a head at one time and a body at another with the total being over 300. Like someone wrote, there's a psychological explanation to this.

An affordable doll to me is in the 100-150ish range, that's a price I'd pay right away as I've done.

 

In my experience, I'm pretty sure I own a doll from every price point, and I only own 4 at the moment, 2more on order and 1 on layaway. My cheapest doll just barely hit $200, that's because it was a hybrid. Hybriding can be a great way to save money and create a unique doll! That doll was a Mirodoll 60cm girl body with a Black cherry doll head. My most expensive doll(s) so far have definitely been my Twiglings. I currently have 2 on order. On the site they show for 615 euros, but in American currently that's almost $800. After those would be my merry doll round Zuri that I bought second hand for $790. Comparing company to company, though, each one has it's own advantages and disadvantages. Mirodoll makes a great body for everyday play and simplicity, however, the joints are not made for very pretty or flexible posing. BUT, there are no seams and the resin is very smooth. I recently only decided to upgrade from my Mirodoll body because my character needs the double joints to be accurate. I have to say that so far Merry Doll Round has stolen my heart. Her amazing joints and overall just solidness of the doll is wonderful. I want to have a whole army of her dolls lol. My Zuri is an amazing poser and stands like a champ. Yes, I would consider her on the more expensive tier, but I feel it was money well spent due to the overall quality of the doll. I would gladly spend the money again!

 

For me under $200 is more affordable, $350 is a bit more pricey, though that's about average for what I pay for my dolls. So far I only own tiny BJDs, and my most expensive doll was a little over $400, and that is pushing it.

What is too expensive varies by size for me. Though I like DreamHigh Studio dolls, they are too small for me to be willing to pay that much. I'd be willing to pay a bit more for a an MSD one day, but over $650 is way too expensive.

Even if I had more money, I don't think my view on what I see as affordable vs. expensive would change.