How much is too much??

I set my limit around $700 max, though prefer to keep it under $500. I only buy SD range dolls, so this is pretty average I'd say. But that's not to say that more expensive dolls are a scam or overpriced! I'm not the one putting in the work, paying for rent, materials and other overhead costs. I'm not the one doing the sculpting, casting, sanding, painting, etc. I'm not the one throwing out pieces that didn't cast quite right or had defects. I have no idea how much it costs to run a doll company and manage all the things involved in it, so I have absolutely no right to decide what's a fair price. Considering the work that goes into dollmaking, I feel that the artists/employees deserve a living wage. If it's more than I'm willing to spend, I just don't buy it. Maybe I'll find it secondhand later at a price I can afford, maybe not, but in the end, these dolls are luxury items, we don't really need them.

 

If it makes me happy, even for just a brief moment, that's worth it. I like to think of Marie Kondo when I look over my collection. If it no longer sparks joy, thank it and pass it on to someone else. I try not to get caught up by prices as much, but I do admit that my tastes tend towards the $250 - $400 range.

 

Hahahaha XD i didn't mean to! But yeah, i'm feeling that XD

 

I'm retired and on a small fixed income. The most I will pay for a doll is $300 and I will do a 3 month layaway. Its not that I'm cheap, it's that I'm poor. But I can't give up my doll hobby.

I have a Minifee Karsh, but he was second hand and the seller had him a long time without getting a faceup, so she wanted to get rid of him. I paid only $100 for him. I would never be able to afford the $600+ for a new Minifee.

 

I love Marie Kondo. I envy her organization skills. I'm a pack rat and yet I hate clutter.

 

When you're talking a niche, luxury hobby with small scale production (resin casting is both time and skill intensive, and that's before factoring in sculpting to begin with), there really is no objective value for "too much". Demand ultimately drives everything.

A number of makers in the past have implied that profit margins are frighteningly slim.

BJDs are absolutely not mass produced. You can't churn them out in the hundreds like an injection mold factory. Each cast requires a great deal of attention to do right, assuming a decent enough piece comes out of the silicone to work with in the first place. Polyurethane resin is also a much more expensive, higher quality material than ABS, vinyl, and other plastics used in anime figures. The only reason those cost much of anything is the sculpting, painting, and licensing involved.

Doll makers are not an Amazon-like behemoth. They're not even on the same side of the spectrum.

 

My personal budget is around $1200, and that is really only for my grail doll.

 

Over the last couple of years I feel like I have gotten to know Mike and of DragonShell dolls and the face up artist SillyMysteruousWoman. They're both incredibly relented and kind and I am really eboying working with them on my little GOT Character dolls collecting. Even interacting with some other face up artists and SartoriaJ on IG I find them all to be extremely likeable and appreciatethem as artists.

 

One way I can put it is: I'd happily pay $150 for a Resinsoul doll that is made to order, but not a Nendoroid on resale that is more on the 'mass-produced' scale than a BJD is.

And, from my understanding, these BJD companies aren't massive like Mattel or MGA Entertainment, despite their apparent popularity within our community circles. That's as far as it goes; our community circles. Mattel or MGA, for example, mass-produce chunks of cheap plastic for kids to throw around and toss in the dirt, once they've been purchased from whichever of the thousands of stores they're shipped out to. Our dolls aren't. They're designed to be admired, to be used for inspiration, and to be cherished. Often, as well, the rarer the doll, the higher the price.

The likes of Resinsoul or Granado often make their products to order; they have, maybe, one artist working on sculpts for release, limiting the number of dolls on offer to start with. They have one or two face-up artists working with them, casters, mould makers, and countless [because it can't be known off-hand, not because there are so many] other factory workers on top of the customer service and retail sides of a business. The moulds will only be good for so many castings, before they need replacing. There're the materials required, the time it takes. There are a lot of things to consider when pricing 'art'; Marina Bychkova's dolls take 150-300 hours to make, and her most expensive doll sold at $75,000. A half-shredded [by the artist] Banksy work sold for $25.4m, for Christ's sake!

Essentially, my point [in a TL;DR way] is that BJDs are not just some chunk of cheap plastic designed for kids. They're more of an artisan 'toy' or 'tool'. I'd happily go as far as paying $600 for an amazing quality doll, like a Loongsoul, but I'd go no higher than... $700, I'd say. But that's because of my current budget, not because I don't agree with asking for that much.

 

If we’re basing the *value* of a doll versus the *rarity* I’d love to find out how many actually exist of certain sculpts or full sets. For instance, I have a Miwa full set. On instagram, I seem to be the only one who bought a totally BW Miwa. So, basing it solely on instagram, is my Miwa more valuable than all the others because she seems to be unique? A totally hypothetical, unrealistic idea, obviously, I’m just offering a scenario. Of course, this is just what I see on the tags for her that I’ve looked at. This doesn’t count for any collectors who don’t use instagram or who don’t take part in any of the community and just keep their collection to theirselves.

MNF Chloe should probably be the least expensive sculpt in the entire community because it seems nearly everyone has at least one of her. And yet, she still goes for a few hundred dollars new and secondhand and is still highly popular. Is she worth it to these collectors? Apparently, yes.

Art is subjective. My idea of art will not be the same idea as anyone else in the world. What I think is art is my opinion and my idea based on years being an artist and art lover. But I am just one person. My opinion doesn’t matter outside of myself. I think Jackson Pollock paintings are stupid and ridiculous, but they can go for millions of dollars. If I had millions of dollars I wouldn’t waste any of it on a Jackson Pollock. I would spend it on La Grande Jatte though and I know a lot of people who despise that painting. My point is, art is whatever someone wants to call art. If someone wants to buy a pile of broken bicycles that’s displayed in an art museum, more power to them. If it bings joy to someone who is anyone else to poopoo on their joy?

 

And when we are talking about our limit - is that your limit for a blank doll or does it include face up eyes and wig and clothes.

 

Really important, because if you factor in all the other necessary parts, a lot of dolls can hit over a $1000 USD easily.

 

Yeah - all in I think I'm around $1100 for Sandor, expect to hit close to that for Beric and probably Brienne and Tormund as well.... This is why I keep thinking to switch to MSD size dolls - they're not as expensive.

 

I think it would really depend on the doll for me. I like to keep it around $600, or less if possible. This depends on company and size of doll.

I think if there was some doll I wanted that was discontinued, and I had to money to get it when I saw it for sale, I would jump on it even if the price was really high, because it was something I really wanted. It would have to be something I wanted for a long time.

 

Personally for me it depends on the company and how big it is, what size doll it is, is it fantasy, does it have really good posing compared to this doll and that doll. like for a MSD, I’d probably not spend more than $600 unless it was fullset, an SD no more than $1,100, but as I said. Depends on many factors.

 

To an extent I agree with your friend. At the same time, it is all subjective. Some people might consider a doll art, whereas someone else might look at it and think "overpriced child's toy." It could be said about anything though. Some people buy designer clothing or luxury cars. Personally I am more than happy shopping at goodwill and owning a used, older car. It's all relative to each individual. There is a part of me that thinks there should be some companies out there that offer these kinds of dolls for cheaper, but they would obviously have to be mass produced. This makes them less individual, but at the same time allows people to get into this hobby for a cheaper price which would be easier to swallow.