How do you decide on which dolls to ultimately buy?

I have bought the first doll because I liked her face. Its month nobody has bought, and its big eyes, was such plaintive, I haven't sustained and have bought.
I have bought the second doll because it are pleasant to me all: the size, a mobile body, a beautiful face with a smile and fairy ears-Fairyland PukiFee Cupid.
But main is a face, then the mobile body also is desirable that it was a fantastic being (the first -vampire, the second
-fairy).

 

My method is to put any doll listing that I like into my Favourites, then come back to it 3-4 weeks later and see if it still has that "OMG LOVE" feeling.

It also depends on how limited the sculpt is as well - if it's a time-period limited, and I love it, I need to see if my mind drifts away from it. Do I think about it a lot? Would I anticipate it coming home? Can I afford it without damaging my lifestyle at all?

Finally, a big one is: Can this doll fit into my collection? Can it fit into one of my storylines? Is it an original character? (Granted, though, I have made exceptions for this in regards to a story I'm developing where characters can still be introduced.)

But really, I've broken the above rules so many times... (Except for the lifestyle one.)

I'm just lucky that I'm really picky about aesthetics. If I wasn't, my house would probably be buried under an avalanche of resin.

 

Well my first two dolls are based on original characters so to find them I needed to look for a sculpt that emulated their personalities. However, as I searched for the two of them I saw a lot of other beautiful dolls that I would love to get my hands on eventually.

 

I'm very selective about most things, especially the aesthetic quality of things, so of course I'm hugely picky about the kind of dolls I would actually buy. Out of most companies, there are only a few dolls I actually like enough to put on my wishlist. With the vast majority of dolls, I think "Pretty, but it's eyes are too big/face is too angular/nose is too big/etc." Some dolls are too stylized for my taste, while others, (Iplehouse, for example,) are so beautiful and realistic that it's sort of unnerving.

The biggest thing for me is expression; If the face or expression is even a little bit off, I don't consider buying. When I was choosing between a couple different dolls on B&G, I chose Afra because he had the best expression.

Then, of course, there's the price thing- I would love to have a Souldoll Chiron centaur with grey resin and the original wig and armour, but I just don't have the 1000+ to spare. :P

 

Besides overally being "Realistic" molds and White skin, I have found a few hints of which dolls I have the tendency to buy:

For dolls in the SD range, features I seem to love are:
Do they have distinctive Tear ducts? Most of my SD ranged dolls have tear ducts. (Kaelin, School A, F-16, Sasha, Aesh)
Are they open-mouth dolls? (Pearl, Michele, SwD Nana)
Tired-looking? (Aesh, SwDNana, Vampire Ruber, Michele)
The two dolls with an exception here are the F-31 (which was a FCS twin with a friend) and the EID Evan

Features I seem to dislike: I seem to not enjoy Sharp, Long noses.

My MSD-size is a random mix when it comes to eyeshape.
I have noticed that I do like open mouths (F-02, F-20)
I also have a strange liking towards Kurt.

My Yo-sd`s lean towards:
Puffy Cheeks (Little Alice, Lorina, Papi)
Does it have Teeth? (Neon)
Do they have Duck-lips (White Rabbit, White Rabbit SwD, Remi, Colin)

If they follow the categories above, then I seem to get the doll.
Price is USUALLY not too big of a problem if I love the doll to pieces.

 

I pretty much know instantly if I am going to buy a doll or not as soon as I see it. I either love it or I don't. If I can buy it immediately, I do, and if I can't, it goes on my wishlist and I save until I can afford it. I've made a couple of mistakes, mostly because when they arrived and I saw them in person, I didn't love them as much as the company photo, but these dolls get sold almost immediately.

 

I think it's something in the face- when I see the perfect combination of features that just screams out a character to me. Once the character is there (or partially there) I just take off with it. I've got some basic guidelines that circumscribe my doll buying, but aside from things I blatantly don't like, I don't rule out anything. And I browse websites and the MP waaaaay too often looking at sculpts and plotting away....

 

When people say "falling in love with a doll" Its actually quite true i find that i can see a doll and think
"wow that is a gorgeous doll" but then i can swiftly move on and keep looking. I currently own one doll and placed an order for my second with both of them i saw them and thought "I must own" it was an unstoppable force haha so basically unless
you seriously adore the doll beyond belief then just keep looking this is the advice i give

 

How do you decide on which dolls to buy?
I go for a BJD when I find a sculpt which fits my vision of a character I really love and truly want to have.

How do you choose which dolls to sacrifice, and which dolls to keep? Doll standards? Personal criteria? What?
By now, I have never had to sacrifice any of them. The BJD I wanted, the BJD I got. A fact I do not fall for every BJD that I may like. I just stuck up with the list of (Already given or own creation) characters that I felt as my beloved ones. I hope the crew does not increase. If not, my resin bunch of 12 BJD is already complete since the end of 2009.

 

I found this thread really interesting because I'm still walking through the decision process for my first bjd.

The first bjd I ever saw, while wandering around online, was realpuki Soso. That cheeky grin hooked me in about 2 seconds. But before buying anything that expensive I always do tons of research. As I continued looking around and saw the bigger dolls out there I discovered Elfdoll Rainy Hazy. I have never been so dumbstruck by a doll in my life. I didn't know dolls like her existed. By the end of the week I'd found no less than 6 dolls that jumped onto my wishlist (Iplehouse Asa, Iplehouse Bichun, Iplehouse Tedros, Oasis Yaoyue and Pukipuki Darjeeling and Littlefee Ante ) I think I've changed my mind 5 times about which doll to buy first.

But what surprised me in the end is that the last doll on my list is now the first one I want: Littlefee Ante. I guess that I feel uncomfortable spending $500 - $600 on a large doll when it's my first bjd. I feel better buying a smaller doll, though she's still a good size. I wrote out Pros and Cons lists, and talked my hubby's ear off, I've looked at literally thousands of pics online and asked lots of question here on DoA, till I felt that bjd dolls were coming out of my ears. Finally though, the reason I feel that Littlefee Ante is my doll is that I'm no longer jumping around from doll to doll. I feel a kind of peace about it...not to mention that I can't stop looking at pics of her so I made her picture my desktop background. Bottom line is: I'm head over heels in love with her.

But that's just me...

 

That's interesting I wonder if that will happen to me. It's nice that you feel content with your doll family now. I'd love to see pics of them

Coco

 

Arrrghh, I feel your pain. As of this wednesday I'll have $60 of the $300 it's going to take to buy Wren. The waiting and saving parts of this process sucks! And after I've ordered I don't even know how long it's going to taake for her to actually get to me. I want my dolly

I wish there was an anesthetic I could take, or a time machine so I could go and get her now!!!

*pulls myself together, gathers what shreds of dignity remain, and blows nose*


Coco

 

When I go looking for dolls, as many other people around here, I try to find the ones that are most simiilar to the image I have af the character I want to portrait. Or, sometimes, looking at a doll I'd create a certain character for him/her, then add it to the WL, or order it if limited. Yue was like that

When buying, though, I tend to give priority to the ones I like that are sold during a limited period of time. As a result, my signature

I'm still waiting for a moment in which I actually have the money for dolls and there's no limited one that catches my attention... I try not to use layaway, since it makes me nervous and you have to wait a long time, but if I think a doll too expensive, I do layaway. Saving it's a pain, though...

 

Thankfully I didn't have 40 dolls to whittle down from. The main reason I buy ABJDs is because it's where the boys are. The girls are pretty, but if you love mature male dols, there arent a lot of options in the doll market at large. So that helps me int that regard. never say neve, but it'd have to be one spectacular femme for me to use money for a BJD. Two, I'm all about face sculpt, then body. There are dolls that are yummy, and if I one day win the lotto and can get any doll that strikes my fancy, I'd get them. But my resources are pretty tight, so right now that doll has to just make me hurt to think I won't have it. So I'll take days past the initial "OMG" moment to see if the glow fades or if the longing remains. Of my six-doll want list, only two are definitely next to buy.

 

check check check

research research research

then just go with your heart