Have you "rebooted" your collection?

I haven't before but I'm seriously thinking about doing it. I have over 30 dolls and my collection is just too much.

The only thing preventing me from doing that is the time and effort it takes to sell a doll. I seriously considering just putting them as a bundle on EBay and selling them all that way

 

I've not added any the past year and a half but I adore all my old dolls. I've gotten even more picky than I used to be and no new dolls have appealed to me at all in the past 2 or 3 years so i just bought a twin to my Seola-7 elf instead

 

I'm like you. I've been in the hobby for almost 14 years, and I've cycled through many dolls/groups. The only exception to this is that I've never been able to part with my first doll, even though he doesn't at all fit with my more recent crews. I kind of think of him as "retired" and he sits in a display cabinet in a different room.

For the rest, I tend to keep a basic crew for around 2-5 years at a time, focused on 2-3 main characters that I keep for that duration, and side characters fluctuate more, usually 6 months to a year. I've been deeply interested in the hobby nonstop for the full 14 years, but I also have trouble staying content with the same old thing for years on end, and get bored easily. I need regular change in my life. My dolls are RP characters that I play with my sister and friend, so when one starts getting boring, I lose interest in playing the character, or I feel like I've written their stories to a point where they don't have anywhere else interesting to go, I move on. My characters are as important or even more important than the dolls themselves, so the lack of enjoyment in a character is usually what makes me sell a doll.

Mostly, I feel like they're my dolls and I'm using my money for them, so it's nobody else's business what I do with them. But I do also get that slight guilt when everyone else at meets have been bringing the same dolls for years, and I get excited to see those dolls and nobody even knows who mine are because I change so often...until last fall, we hadn't had a doll meet in nearly two years because of the pandemic, and I realized I only own two of the same dolls now as I did as the last meet before everything shut down...I think it does make it harder for people to take an interest in my dolls, since they'll likely be gone in a year or two.

 

That's also a problem. Part of me is like sell them all. Start fresh. But then there's three dolls from a company that has closed. If I sold them and regret it I won't be able to repurchase them.

And then there's that doll that I got in a trade without a box or paperwork. That would be a hard sell.

And before I know it I am only selling half of my dolls. But that wasn't the plan! Maybe I am not yet ready for a full reboot.

 

I don't get bored with my dolls! I make photo picture story books of them for my grandchildren on Blurb. They are all animal anthro dolls so my grandchildren love them! I dress them in different outfits to fit the theme of my stories and I have fun buying small props for them, too. I've made 14 books so far! I have mostly 7 to 8" dolls and I can find an inexpensive Madame Alexander outfit to fit almost any story character I need for my books. I love photographing my dolls and I like writing the stories, too! I taught elementary school for 30 years so I know what makes a good children's story. When I put a doll in a new outfit and a new story diorama, the doll feels new to me again! I have 40 dolls and I have probably sold about 20 dolls. The dolls that don't seem to fit into any of my story books are the ones that get sold!

 

I don't believe I'll ever reboot my collection. I don't even think I could imagine a collection I want more than the one I have now. I definitely have dolls that no longer fit my current taste but they've been around for so long I can't imagine not owning them. I don't play with them as much as with my dolls that fit my current ideals, but hey, they're dolls and they don't care. I feel like it's easier to sell dolls you got recently and much harder emotionally to send off ones that have been with you for 10 years. You might have never gotten to that point but it's honestly not a big deal as long as you're having fun.

I personally am also trying very hard not to buy any dolls that I don't think will stay with me forever. I consider it a waste of money, time, and effort to resell a doll for less than I paid. I can't really understand cycling myself but that doesn't make it wrong either. You're welcome to enjoy your hobbies however you like. If you want a new crew greeting you every few months, might as well do it.

 

It took a very long time for me to reach this level. I spent much of my preteen/teen/young adult years being bullied for enjoying dolls and other toys and "weird" hobbies, and I spent a lot of time trying to hide what I enjoyed from others. At some point in my adult years, I just stopped caring. If people are going to bully me for harmless things that make me happy, I don't want to waste my time or energy on them. I've been able to enjoy my hobby a lot more since I stopped caring. Though this might just be something that comes with age, I'll be 39 this week, and the older I get, the less opinions of others matter.

This is one of the cutest things I've heard of people doing with their dolls! So much creativity, and so sweet! I'm sure it's something they'll remember forever!

 

Salted Pretzel, My oldest granddaughter lives in Hawaii, and we couldn't visit her for over a year because of Covid. We live in San Diego and I had been going to Hawaii twice each year to spend time with her. I started making the books to keep busy during the pandemic lock down, and as a way to connect with my four-year-old granddaughter! We would have zoom chats and talk about the characters in the books. I also slipped pictures of myself and my husband at the end of the stories so she wouldn't forget what we looked like! The lock downs are over, but now I am totally hooked on photographing my dolls and making books. Each doll has definitely developed a distinct personality through the books. I post the pictures on Flickr, too, and I have people following me! So fun!

 

The first time I had to partially turn over my collection it was because I was moving from a mix of MSDs and SDs to only larger dolls. At the time it was the right decision for me, but with the modern MSD market being very different I do have some regrets that I didn't take it the other way.

The second time was because I needed rent money and I sold all my dolls except for my DT Soph A and my Ninodoll Iz. I acquired a couple more large dolls once I had rebuilt my disposable income pool, then went on hiatus.

The third time was during this pandemic where I realized I wanted to get active in the hobby again (after about five years or so) and my tastes had changed. So I sold all the dolls I had (except my Soph) and have been trying to settle into the new group I bought.

While I have been buying a mix of older and newer dolls, my Soph is the one thread that has always tied me most closely to the hobby. She specifically is already 14 years old and I still adore her. While she isn't my first doll she is definitely the one that is the most significant to me personally.

Definitely I've had ups and downs with my collecting, but I still have lovely pictures and lovely memories of the (35) different dolls that have been with me.

 

What a beautiful, creative way to keep in touch with your loved ones! I work in a library and think it would be fun to do stories with some of my tiny dolls...I have most of them on display in the library, but doing a story sounds neat if I ever improve my photography/writing. I'd love to read your books if you ever feel like sharing them!

I have definitely bought and sold/given away/rehomed in some fashion many dolls. Sometimes it's just a chance to handle them and see what I like or dislike in a doll. Other times characters/stories have fallen through. I get really emotionally attached to inanimate objects, but I try to be grateful for the time I've spent with the doll when it's time for them to move on.

 

I've been in this hobby since 2004. When I first started it was all about the 60cm+ dolls, and then I stopped playing with my dolls for years. They sat in a closet... still loved, but ignored. At some point I started to miss them... dressing them, taking their pictures, etc... but the big dolls were too big now. They weren't portable, it hurt my wrists to carry them around. At the time, I needed money, so I sold most of them to homes where they'd be loved, and started buying smaller dolls that I can more easily carry around. The only larger dolls I have now are one I bought from my roommate that I said I'd never sell, and one who no one seems to want (because he was never a very popular sculpt, plus he has a terrible faceup, broken hands, and unfinished mods lol).

 

I've done this—once. I had a complete change in tastes from the time I took a hiatus to the time I reentered the hobby. I only had one girl, an MSD I lost interest in some years before. Taking her out of storage reignited my interest in the hobby—but not in her.

I ended up taking my crew in a different direction, going from MSD to SD-70cm+. I focused on basing them around OCs that I had developed, instead of the created on the spot character that was the case with my first girl. I also ended up being more interested in more realistic sculpts, when my MSD girl was rather stylized (B&G Triya). Basing them off of established (or mostly) OCs has helped me bond with them more, which has kept me from considering doing another collection reboot.

So, yeah—I did do a collection reboot once, but I don't see myself having a repeat of it in the future.

 

I've had a couple semi reboots, where I sold quite a few to change the direction my crew was going in, but never a total reboot.

My most recent semi reboot was realizing that msds are really the wrong size for me, and selling all of them except my seeddolls peabodies (which is my favorite sculpt, and so an exception to the no msds rule). I had been trying so hard for a couple years to make an urban fantasy world and characters around my msds, but I realized it was really joyless and forced, that I felt obligated to do it because that's what's popular. I've been so much happier with my collection since I decided to focus on different sizes- even working on a story and characters for my SD crew now! (Ironically... urban fantasy but of a different flavor)

 

No, never. But I do cycle my hobbies, sometimes the dolls set around and do nothing while I work on a sewing project or collect a different brand of dolls, like American Girl. I also have different sizes, I keep the 1/4 and smaller together, so I might be in the mood to do things with them, and I keep the 1/3 and bigger in a different category, right now I am back with my 1/3 dolls, but for the past several months I've been collecting and sewing for my American Girl dolls.

I bought them all because I really liked something about them. I don't think my taste in dolls changes that much. If I didn't have my current lot of BJD's, I have no idea what dolls I would want. They are all kind of special to me. I remember the reason that I got each and every one of them.

I see people sell their dolls all the time, so I kind of feel like a weird person for never wanting to let any of mine go.

 

Actually, yes. The only doll that I kept from my original collection was my Volks Kyotenshi Shiratori, because she was just so hard to get.

 

I’ve been in the hobby continuously since 2006, and my interest has never waned. However I did do a complete reboot of my collection around 2010. I fell madly in love with an unusual sculpt, a Dollzone Anson (my avatar) and moved heaven and earth to order her on the spot. While I anxiously awaited her arrival, I worked hard developing a character for her, planning her faceup and artwork, making her a wardrobe, and building her an elaborate display. On the happy day she came home, I looked around at the other dolls I’d already collected and suddenly realized she’d made them all redundant! I had somehow incorporated bits and pieces of their personalities and stories into this one very special and unique doll, leaving no reason for their characters to exist anymore. It came as a complete shock, let me tell you! But I made the very difficult decision that day to sell all the others and rebuild my collection entirely around her. It turned out to be the best decision I ever made. For well over a decade I’ve built a good sized collection as part of a grand urban fantasy, and I couldn’t be happier! With all my dolls constantly on display, it’s like living inside a fantasy world. I love it and it makes me happy.