How long is too long for wait times?

For me, I'm expecting to wait 3 to 4 months for a blank doll, if the waiting time is longer than half year, than it is too long

 

I think I would max out at six months. Most of my dolls are secondhand though, and my current longest wait, only three or so months, had me super antsy. Which is weird, since I have technically waited much longer to actually save up to get dolls before, so why the impatience once it is bought? Who knows? I would be afraid of the company disappearing on me if I had to wait longer than that six months though. At that point, you start worrying if they have everything together.

 

These are my personal limits:

Anything in stock- ship within two weeks.

Preorder basic clothes or accessories- ship within one month

Preorder extravagant clothes or accessories- ship within three months

Preorder doll/resin parts- ship within 6 months

I will check estimated wait times before ordering. If it’s listed as longer than my limits, I don’t order or might look for it in stock or secondhand. The biggest issue for me is artists/companies breaking their own estimated times. If it’s going to take six months, let me know that so I expect it and am not stressing. If you tell me one month and it takes three, I’m probably going to end up frustrated and wanting to cancel. Honesty is every bit as important to me as speed!

 

I had to have Dollzone Carter. I ordered him around New Years, still waiting and going crazy, lol. I had to have him though. He is my grail doll that absolutely must have. He was the only must have doll on my list, he is worth the wait for me. If I get another must have on my list I will be waiting for that one as well.

 

My longest wait so far was 7 months for a doll I was told should arrive within 3 to 4. This was also my 'first' doll so needless to say I was getting pretty freaked by the time he arrived. Since then my longest wait was about 5 months, but that was for a dollzone event doll so I was expecting a long wait.
If I know I'm in for a long wait beforehand, I don't mind so much, but for my first boy Leif I was going mad. In fact by the time he arrived I'd already gotten one on topic BJD, laid away another 2 and received two off topic bjds as gifts. :p
I'm not a patient person under the best of circumstances, so now I'm quite picky about what companies I'll even consider ordering from. I don't think I could ever get a Dolshe or a Lati doll unless I found the perfect one second hand, those long wait times freak me out way too much.

 

In all honesty, I would say anything over 6 months. My Angell Studio girl took almost four months, which really isn’t that long in the dolly world, but even that nearly ruined me!

 

The maximum time that I am willing to wait for a doll would be 6 months.

 

It depends, I am very patient with dolls(but not with clothes or accessiries). I've heard that sighthoundlady from YouTube had once waited a little over 2 years for a doll.

 

For me is half year. about 6~7month

 

If I'm buying dolls from companies, I think anything below 12 months is okay. Anything more than 12 months is a no for me unless it was already declared before I made the purchase. I'm frankly quite surprised most responses on here says no more than 6 months.

 

To elaborate on what I said above, I think a longer wait is a huge red flag. I know that these dolls are hand-made and cast, but there's a long list of companies like Customhouse, Dollfair, Bimong, and B&G dolls who really screwed over a ton of people. In most of these cases, one of the biggest signs of a serious problem was that their wait times kept getting extended, or they'd have sales, and then couldn't meet the demand. A few of them have since worked things out, but several others took off and left their customers high and dry.

Several companies, especially ones starting out who may not have the production infrastructure in place, have an ordering period business model. I think that works well and allows them to mitigate problems. There are a few companies that might benefit from moving to that model.

The only two companies that I would have faith in to deliver after 6 months are Volks and Iplehouse. I know that Volks has had long pre-orders in the past, but they've been delivering a consistent quality and standard for a very long time. Iplehouse has just been pretty rocksteady on their deliveries, even through events, for as long as I can remember.

 

For me it's probably going to depend on how bad I want the bjd. I also factor in whether I'm busy with school or not. In general, 1-2 months is ideal, 3-4 months is acceptable, 6-7 is tolerable, and when it gets into the 1+ years it gets questionable. If I'm distracted with other projects 1+ years might be tolerable, but if I'm impatient...no way.

I do think, however, that the company should be realistic with their production times when posting them, or when they're asked about them. I get a little bit skeptical and wary when they project a short amount of time and end up with the wait time being much longer. I got lucky with the two orders I've made with Dollshe (3+ months for a head, and 6 months for a full bjd). Outside the duplicate I chose to get in this last sale, I'm not sure I'd be up to order another full doll with the currently expected waits.

 

Wait times aren't too important for me anymore. I don't think I necessarily have a time limit that would prevent me from buying a doll. I think a year is reasonable and even a bit longer depending on the artist.

 

Anything over six months I do my best to avoid. I tend to order more frequently from companies that take 2-3.

 

By happenstance I think all of my dolls were about 2-3 months up until now. I've got a Dream Valley order out and when I put in the order the site suggested 4-5 months, and the authorized dealer said 3-4 (which perhaps was just a mix up of stock phrases on their part). Of course I just noticed someone quote 6 months in this thread for Dream Valley. I'd be worried given even the original 4-5 is longer than I've done before, but given life upheaval that I know is going to be happening between the time I placed the order and that 5 month mark, I figured I'd have enough distractions to survive.

Probably not going to be a good estimation of how long I can wait though

 

I waited for my first doll for 8 months and was getting tired of waiting. I understand the process takes time but I just couldn’t feel at ease when it exceeded the estimated time for 2 months.

I actually ordered 2 dolls together because I intended them to be twins and would like them to be shipped together as if they were born at the same time.
But one of them had some issue and I had to wait extra 2 months for her. I actually don’t really mind waiting but the fact that didn’t come together just broke my heart...I’d rather wait for the one with issue to be fully finished and be sent together with the other twin.
But I couldn’t make such request because the company didn’t at all, inform me, until after I received the doll for a couple of day and was in bewildered state.

I look around on different bjd website a lot back when I hadn’t owned any doll, and lots of company says 60 working days which is around 3 months excluding holiday and weekdays. I don’t mind waiting for 6 months but if the official website says 3 months it shouldn’t get dragged too long afterward. So for me it’s more like the time exceeded from the estimated time on website more than the overall wait time!

 

I still have to wait more than 3 month for my tan napi Carol, and I already waited 2 month. Its pretty long for me, so I just pretented I never order this doll.

 

I think all my dolls have come within 4-5 months. 2-3 months seems like a dream to me lol. Six months is probably the max I'm willing to wait (actually, I was told my Sio2 head would take six months to arrive, but it came within five so that's fortunate). It depends, though. Like if I order a Dollzone I might expect longer, or even up to ninth months if I order a Loongsoul, and that wouldn't bother me (though it seems Loongsoul has definitely improved their wait times lately). But over a year I'll put my foot down, looking at you Dollshe.

 

I think I'd be willing to wait up to 6 or 7 months? Anything longer than this would definitely get me a little crazy... not that I'm not already crazily impatient! I have 2 full dolls on order right now, a body from Luts, and I just bought a head on the secondhand market... yikes...

 

I was part of a preorder last year that took 6 months. Definitely not ideal, but also not unexpected. It did work out nicely in that I ordered the doll during one school holiday and she arrived during the next.

Still, I don't know how eager I would be to endure such a wait again. My other dolls have been in stock or second hand, so I only waited about two weeks. Much easier to endure.