How has the price of everything going up affected your collecting?

I have bought many of the dolls in my collection in a much higher price than its original released price as they are limited/discontinued etc. Now I am trying to sell some of them but I have to mark down way to much and I feel like it’s better for me to just keep them. Overall, I feel like it’s much harder to sell stuff on secondhand market, so I should be really conscious when it comes to buying new dolls and especially new accessories, as usually I buy a lot of outfits for my dolls.

Also I feel like it’s a good time for me to take care of myself more and spend more on myself rather than dolls, I ve been way to into this hobby for the last few years and didn’t really spend time with people in real life, now I would like to travel more as the pandemic is over. Hope I could find all the spare outfits and sell them on secondhand market.

I feel like its impossible for me to leave the hobby as I have such a great collection in terms of quantity, it would be such a long progress to sell them all or most of them.

 

This is my current situation as well, not because I don't love BJDs or I don't want anymore, but because EVERYTHING ELSE costs so much these days, so I'd rather focus my extra funds on clothes for the dolls I have!

 

I started doing my own faceups recently, it’s been a learning curve for me but I decided to try and be less of a perfectionist and try to do a few bits here and there.

I have noticed I don’t spend as much as I did on accessories or random clothes that my dolls end up not wearing. I think in general I’ve started to make a lot more considered purchases.

 

Beyond the global economic state, in my country we are suffering one of the highest devaluations and inflation in recent history, so I am somewhat obliged to limit my expenses. Currently, I am quite satisfied with my collection, so I have decided not to add new members for now. But I had plans to buy wigs, shoes, clothes and accessories, so I try to limit it to the bare minimum.

 

Last year i wasnt too effected by this (when this was first posted) Now im beginning to see slower sales, but some really good deals out there. I have slowed wayyyy down in purchasing. I just can't afford to keep buying everything i want lol

 

This is interesting as i only got back into the hobby after i fell in love with a boy i saw for sale second hand that i managed to get for (somewhat) cheap. I had to purchase a wig and eyelashes for him as well as the sale did not include these. However coming back and just looking through the marketplace and stores in general i can see that prices have definitely gone way up and i wont be able to afford buying things like i used to when i first started this hobby. I have have now considered looking at other ways i can enjoy the hobby with the boys i have at home without adding to my collection. I have been researching sewing clothes for them instead of buying like i used to. I think the only exception will be to buy wigs, eyes and shoes anything that i cant make myself.

There are so many pretty new dolls I see posted and while i do wish i could buy some of the pretty sculpts ive seen ( my aesthetic has changed since i first started) I am more inclined to be more considerate of what im spending my money on and as someone else said, more focused on doing things for the dolls i already have than adding to the collection. I already think i have way too many dolls in the first place but i can never part with them

 

I've stopped collecting new dolls too, sadly. I still have a doll or two in my list that might make me want to buy them if they appeared in the second-hand market (not likely and they would be too expensive for me anyway, being limited and all that) but that's it.
I don't even buy clothes and props anymore because of the price itself plus my country's customs are becoming insanely expensive lately and impossible to avoid so it's not worthy.

 

I definitely had to snowball my doll Layaways in order to plan a realistic budget for every month. I’m a teacher and I get paid once a month l, at the end of every month. So budgeting is the key player to make sure I can enjoy my hobby and not give up anything if that makes sense.

 

The rise in price upsets me, like any collector. I always tell myself - I don’t buy dolls anymore, I will play with what I already have. But some time passes and I again have new dolls in my collection.

 

This is a great question. For me personally, the terrible performance of the Canadian dollar has meant that I'm trying to be judicious in what I purchase - I've bought nude dolls, outfit pieces, little things here and there. This said, I've bought 3 BJDs already this year (1 in stock, 2 still on preorder but hopefully arriving soon), and plan to preorder an independent artisan doll in the fall. And I suppose there's always the possibility FL will come out with an amazing new Minifee! Eek. I'm still new enough to collecting that self control is challenge!

 

I could barely do it before and now I just have to be happy to have a local friend that lets me play with hers.

 

The exchange rates have bitten me in the butt a few times. The Australian dollar is pretty weak against the US dollar (about 60 US cents to 1 Australian dollar at time of writing) so I don't tend to buy things from the US or in USD unless it's something I really want.
That, and the rising cost of shipping means if I am going to make an order, I want to make it worth my while. When I get second-hand dolls from Dolly Teria, I often order a few wigs, eyes and outfits because they can easily fit in the parcel and they're not worth the postage alone.

 

It’s definitely been pretty rough for everyone it seems

For me personally, I’ve limited myself to 2 new dolls this year, unless my grail comes up for preorder. And in that case I will be doing a long layaway.

I am incredibly grateful and fortunate that my dear friend is incredibly generous and bought me a doll as a gift this year. I would really like to return that favor and pass it along to someone in the community someday.

I currently live at home with my parents and pay for a horse, car insurance, and a phone bill, but if I lived on my own I wouldn’t have a lick of disposable income. I work FT, but even then one of my paychecks would not cover a month of rent. I’ve been trying to lean more towards saving because I won’t be here forever.

The dolls I got this year have really filled out my collection as far as what I really want. I haven’t seen many others that I feel like I have to have, so I think I am slowly moving towards halting new doll acquisitions and more towards making all of them exactly how I want/imagine them to be.

 

This year I missed a lot of dolls i wanted. I kept going back and forth whether to buy or skip until the deadline passed. Shipping has been so much. I've been mainly buying doll heads and skipping full set dolls more. I've been skipping on the face ups, clothes, eyes, wigs, etc. I don't skip the resin color I want. If I don't get the color I want I won't like the doll as much.

 

Ordering overseas is definitely one of the most difficult things about the hobby, especially if we want to buy directly from the company, but a tip I figured out after inquiring at Souldoll -- they'll ship their dolls unstrung. My shipping quote for a Soulkid went from $100 to $40 that way. I know it's not as special as getting it with the box, but thats a seriously significant savings, especially given the summer event they have going right now with 50% off shipping. I bet a lot of other companies wouldn't mind shipping unstrung as well.

 

YES. I'm so cheep, I'm a bird. Been buying even more lightly used because it can be a quarter of the price.

 

The last couple of years due to worldwide supply issues caused by the Corona Virus and compounded with inflation the prices have gone up drastically. Since I like to collect artist high fashion bjds, and most blanks start around upwards of $1000s, I have to be super mindful of what I purchase to avoid going broke.

For example, Popovy Sisters dolls went from $900 to $1500 for a blank. Back in 2017 the original Pasha Pasha were around $800 and now an OG blank girl is $1410. The more "affordable," Pasha Pasha Simply Beautiful started at $500 and the current price is $700.

I understand that with artist dolls, mostly everything is handmade and it is hard to scale a business to keep prices lower, like one of the BJD companies like Dollmore or CP/Fairyland.

 

Interestingly, it hasn't been affected at all. I was already scaling back my collecting before the global price increase happened, because I have a limited amount of space to put my dolls, and am at the point where a doll needs to be very special before I'm willing to use some of my existing highly limited space to store it. Probably the only doll I will buy this year is a DollZone Anson. Probably the only doll I will buy in the next few years is a DollZone Sawarrieda, assuming the popularity of the Moment and Anson rerelease is such that they do a rerelease of her, as well.

It does affect me sending dolls out for faceups, a little bit. But that's less on the actual inflation of costs, and more because it feels like the people who do faceups with an aesthetic I like aren't taking as many slots since the inflation of costs started.

 

It's not so much the price of the dolls slowing me down, but the cost of living has really gone up. My bills and groceries, stuff like that has been pretty high this year. So it has slowed down my extravagant spending.

I have only gotten a few new dolls this year. A couple of them were kind of pricey.
And I got two second hand dolls, but both of those were under $100.

I'm honestly happy with what I have, I am looking for one more msd boy in my collection, and was going to get Luts Carmine this month, but then I absolutely had to have Sooms Doll of the month, he was my holy grail for a long time, so it looks like Luts Carmine is just going to have to wait until next year, as I took money out of savings, and promised to myself I would put the money back before I get another new doll.

Before I could have just put the money back into savings after a couple of months, but I think it's going to take longer then that because of the necessities of life. Also, Christmas coming up, and gifts for the family. It's going to take me quite a few months to put that 1k back that I took out to buy him.

It's good though, because I can spend more time on the dolls I currently have, and I happy with them. I really want to work on my photo stories, and make the boys more clothes - the girls have enough. I am just spending time appreciating what I do have, and its nice.

 

Since I made that post a year ago, AUD<->USD currency exchange rate is still as poor as ever. USD and PayPal have become my absolute last resort payment methods, in fact they are both deterrents to buying and I'd rather find a substitute elsewhere. As a buyer, DoA Marketplace is basically off-limits for me, and if I do look there, I prioritize sellers in Asia-Pacific who will accept payment in their local currency. On the other hand, as a seller I will try to make sales in USD whenever possible.

I've organized my buying completely towards Asia now, especially China. It meant learning how Taobao, Xianyu, and Chinese domestic shipping worked, and experimenting with different payment methods, but it was worth the effort to me. The good thing about buying from Chinese sellers is that I can use parcel forwarding and a shopping service/proxy to save on shipping. I've always planned my BJD purchases anyway, so now I try to organize and time all my Taobao buying such that I can gather a bunch of packages, consolidate them through the proxy, and ship everything home as one big package.

I mostly buy BJD stuff from China; for occasional South Korean purchases I use a KR shopping service, because paying a Korean maker in Korean won plus proxy fees still comes out less than buying from the same maker in USD. And I can consolidate shipment through the proxy as well.

Since my last post I've also leaned into the DIY parts of the hobby.. now I paint all my dolls' faceups, and I'm learning how to sew BJD clothes. I've also been dabbling in prop making. I'm not sure if I've saved money by doing all of this (my fabric stash has exploded ) but crafting does keep me focused on my dolls at home and away from idle window-shopping, and if I do want to buy stuff I can be more discerning about what I buy (eg. clothes I can't sew for my dolls yet).