How fast did your collection grow?

I bought my first doll in early 2018 and as of now I own 4 dolls. I don't have plans to add any more at the moment (unless Volks releases Sailor Jupiter and Venus this year). I want to build a wardrobe and wig collection for them so I can customize them a little more and have fun dressing them

 

I was introduced to BJDs around 2010, but back then I didn't have the funds to buy one so all I could do was admire them. I got my first doll in late 2016(whom I ended up selling), and then I got 3 more in 2017. Since then, I have bought, sold, gifted and traded several dolls. I currently have 11 dolls, plus 2 that I'm selling. I've had far less spare funds for the past year, since my primary income comes from selling the birds I raise and here in California we've had a quarantine that prevents the selling of them.

 

Too fast. I have one on order from DF-H, one thrift store find, and one in the mail now. I... I said I would only have one. (Send help)

 

So the first five years in the hobby, I bought five dolls. Then I took a three year hiatus. Two years to get my bearings back. Then I bought eight dolls the next year, and this year so far I've bought another eight.

I don't even know what to call this. Dramatic?

 

Congratulations on working so hard to get to this point with your doll collection! Budget is the key to a BJD collecting success!

It ebbs and flows for us. When we first started, definitely one doll each that we had to save up for. Sometimes I was the only one working, other times he was the only one working. Sometimes, neither of us making money and living with one set of parents or another. Then at some point, we were both working (and thus a spike in doll purchases). So our doll family kind of reflects where we were financially. I'm disabled now due to a car accident so he's the only one working but it took us a while to finally figure out a good groove of savings versus fun money for dolls and of course paying bills (so a budget). Our first doll was in 2006 so about 15 years of budgeting with some years no dolls and other years ranging from one doll to five dolls. It seems to be a similar pattern for other members here. Hehe.

 

My collection was one doll for almost two years when I officially started, my minifee Chloe. Then Covid hit and I suddenly had the money and time to expand my collection, it grew so fast because of Covid, now I have 5 dolls. I've been keeping it this way for some months and maybe more. Next year I will expand more.

 

I got into bjds last year. Less than a year later I have... 5 full dolls, 1 head, and another on the way.

 

My collection began in about 2013 (when I ordered my first) and into 2014 when he arrived. After that, over the next few years, I got about one doll per year until 2020. Last year, my collection exploded. A doll I ordered in 2019 arrived then two of my grail dolls came up for sale in the same week so I bought them. Given that my vacation plans had been cancelled, I had more money than normal to afford them. Near the end of the year, another two dolls I had been looking at came on sale. Those I had been saving for in order to buy together because their characters are so closely linked. They arrived in May of 2021. I'm very much trying to limit myself to 1 or 2 dolls a year so I don't end up spending a ton.

 

I ordered around one a month for the first seven months. Four have arrived and I’m still waiting on three. I think I have figured out what I like now so I will probably slow down now.

 

I started this hobby in 2006 and held pretty steady at adding 3 dolls a year after that. But then, like many others, the pandemic hit and I suddenly realized how short and fragile life can be…and I felt totally driven to complete my collection of original characters once and for all! So I really made a concerted effort to shell all those that were remaining, which has brought me to a grand total of 46 after adding 6 over this last year.

But then I finally faced the fact that I had fallen completely in love with my limited alternative floating head, so she needed her own body. That has brought me to 47.

And then I suddenly realized that those two surprise heads I received during a Luts event were actually characters in their own right…hat models with permanent stands, faceups, wigs, eyes, and personalities. So I have to accept the fact that Maddie Hatter and Millie Milliner count as actual dolls too…which brings me to a grand total of 49! So if I’m being completely honest, that’s 9 total additions since the pandemic.

 

I became aware of bjd around 2007-2008 and my collection had grown, shrank and changed completely over the years. I currently have 10 dolls and I don't think I've ever had more than 7-10 at any one time.

I focus almost exclusively on buying second hand these days so my collection is entirely at the mercy of whatever others are getting rid of. This works out great for me since my first love in this hobby was early soom dolls and they've thankfully gotten really affordable second hand.

 

I was very impulsive and bought 6 dolls within the first 2 years. In the past 10 years (this doesn't include the first 6 dolls), I've bought 5, selling just one of those 5. I'm trying to not buy too many more resin dolls and focus on the ones I have. It's hard though. The adrenaline rush of buying and opening a new doll is just insane and addicting.

I really do wish I had waited for my tastes to develop before buying so many. A lot of the first dolls I got were limited dolls and not dolls I was actually planning for. I don't even care for tan dolls but I've got 3 of them because of my own impulsiveness! Being limited does not make a doll fit your tastes better. My later dolls fit my current tastes a lot better, though I'm still emotionally attached to all of them.

 

I had four by the end of my first year, and after seven and a half years I'm now at 25, not counting the three I sold a few years ago. I/m also currently waiting on three more. I've currently got another six on my wish list. My tastes have evolved a bit since I started, so I'm planning to sell a few before I order any more. I only collected tinies for about 7 years, and got my first MSD 8 months ago. I now have 3. I'm trying to slow down and refine my collection. I'll see how well that goes.

 

Slowly! There were 13 years between my first and second doll. I now have two. I'm impulsive about a lot of things in life, but not my doll hobbies. I'd like two more, I think, but I'm not in a rush (clearly, haha). I have the sort of personality where I can easily get caught up in things, so my dolls are something that I'm very consciously thoughtful about, lest I get carried away and regret things later on.

 

I've been in the hobby for a year and I now have 4 dolls. 1 SD, 2 MSDs, and a YoSD. I do feel a bit overwhelmed by how quickly I have dropped money despite being financially comfortable enough to afford it. Lucky for me, I currently live in South Korea and thus have avoided extra fees in shipping and customs, which would be another good chunk of money on top of each doll. So in a way I'm saving money by buying now? At least I can tell myself that! I've also been able to a buy doll in store and visit several doll cafes to window shop. These are little experiences not everyone in the hobby gets to enjoy, so I'm trying to take advantage while I still live here.

 

Let's see, when I got back into the hobby back in early 2019 I already had my 2 dolls from the year I first started. However now since I got back into the hobby 2½ years ago I have since then collected 11 floating heads, 3 bodies, 3 full new dolls, Waiting for 1 full doll, and 2 bodies. I'm also very close to actually buy another full doll........sooo yeah, a lot has happened since I got back into this hobby

 

I got into the hobby in 2007 & it took me until 2008 to save up enough for my first. I acquired four more before I drifted out of things in 2009 because life got too hectic. Over the next few years, I then sold three of them.

Then in 2014 I very briefly returned, acquired two dolls, and dipped out again, for a lot of reasons.

I just returned again in May, bought 2 dolls, sold both of them because they weren't what I'd thought they'd be, then used the funds from that + some additional money to buy 4 more, all secondhand. I'm planning on putting in an order for one more once some money I'm expecting arrives, then that'll (probably) be it for my purchases for the rest of the year. Don't want to stress my partner out any more than he already is (he's supportive, but very frugal, so the price tags deeply alarm him)

 

I started collecting bjds August of last year, and I already have 3 dolls. It feels like a lot to me for such a short span of time, especially considering the price tags (granted one doll was a gift.)

In the future I plan to slow down to only getting one doll a year and focusing on making doll clothes instead! I think giving more attention to my existing dolls will help keep me away from doll websites.

 

I was eyeing BJDs and saving sculpt photos for a while thinking "this one is nice, if I ever buy one this will be the one" before I finally bought one...

... last year

And now I have... 11? 12? I have no display space so I can't count them easily lol. Plus one still in production and one on layaway, and one more I'll be buying after this layaway.

It grew... pretty fast lol, but most of those weren't impulse purchases but the ones I'd been admiring for years. I had the funds as 2020 had me canceling a ton of memberships and enrollments and classes and the like and so I just dove headfirst into the BJD hobby.

 

I bought my first one in June 2020, I have 3 now one year later. So...pretty fast? Thankfully, there is still only two dolls I absolutely want, so it should go down pretty sharply after 2022.^^ (Yeah I know, never say never and all that...)