How quickly did your collection grow in the beginning?

Mine was fast! On average i bought dolls every month, i couldnt control myself until i realized i cannot bond with all! So in the end i sold 2 to my friends and my current family are good and i love everyone! I have 4 1/6 boys and 9 1/6 girls, 1 minifee and a dollfie dream and i am in the hobby for less than 2 years!

 

I've always had this unwritten rule of only buying one doll a year. If I sold one, I replaced it with another, but that was it.

My first doll was bought from Iplehouse, blank. It was a white skin Soo-Ri, and the first thing I and a friend did when it arrived, was take it apart, restring it and give it an (albeit terrible) faceup. This doll didn't last very long, though. I realized that I didn't like white-skinned dolls and that I bought this doll, because he was less expensive and easier to get as the one I really wanted: Volks SwD Lucas. So I sold him, and two years later, Cicero (my Lucas) arrived.

13 years into the hobby, and I own 10 dolls, including 2 floating heads and 1 tiny tiny.

 

I kept myself to a doll a year for the first five years or so. It helped that I was shuttling between two different countries for the first three or four years, so I had to travel light.

I bought two dolls in the next year, and then I took a decade-long hiatus.... So about 15 years after I entered the hobby, I now find myself with 7 dolls. :-)

EDIT since I missed part of the question! My first doll was direct from the company. Since then, about half have been purchased new and half second-hand. :-)

 

I've been in it for a little over a year now. I paid for my first doll in December of 2016 and got him in March of 2017 so that's where I consider my starting point. In my first year I had acquired..10 dolls. I still have more on the way. I laugh about it because my first dolls completely broke everything I said I'd never do. I've been a lurker for a long time and been around a lot of doll people. I always said I would never get SD, I would never get boys, I would never go realistic, I would never do a natural skin color, I would never have more than one doll. That all was thrown out the window very fast. But, I'm content. I already have my next purchases planned out through January (a total of 4 more dolls this year). I don't put a limit on how much I can buy or when. I usually try to only do one layaway at a time and I always buy new (only one exception so far). I work a minimum wage job so..I have to be careful with my spending but I don't have a lot of hobbies or interests so..most of my fun money goes into dolls. I have no idea what I'll do with myself once I consider my collection "complete".

 

Well, I’ve collected 15 dolls in 4 years, so pretty fast. It has slowed down a lot, now though, and luckily I don’t have any regrets!

 

I got one my first year and by the beginning of the second had gotten two msd's. One was traded out for an SD and then they started flowing regularly. By year two I had six and others on order. By year three I was heading towards....teens? Things slowed down for a couple years then took off again. Now I have....too many. But dolls are like rocks of crack, you want another one as you're smoking one. I can see clearing some out over the next year but probably only a couple. After they've served their photographic purposes of course....

 

I went from 1 to 4 really fast, but I steadily bought and sold until I left the hobby for a year. Now I have 1 and a head, with plans to eventually have 6 full dolls (the head I have included)

 

I've been in the hobby for nine years now! I got my first doll from a dealer, these days I always prefer to order through the doll company direct but if not a dealer is fine too. I don't buy second hand dolls very often and I currently only have 3 out of my 29 (+ 2 floating heads) that were second hand.

When I started the hobby I got my first doll at Christmas 2009 and the next year I recieved my second doll for my birthday in 2010. After that I didn't buy any new dolls for a year until 2012 when it all snowballed and I ended up with quite a few new arrivals that year I've slowed down my ordering now mostly due to space issues but also becoming more particular with what dolls I want in my collection; which in my case means being attached to the characters I've already created for those specific sculpts

 

I started this hobby only intending to have one doll, but they somehow multiplied, albeit slowly. So, fourteen years in the hobby with 8 dolls and a floating head (that had been a gift). I've been very picky and have never sold a doll. (Or more like I'm too lazy to go through the selling process. ^^; ) I tend to do tons of research and photo-collecting before deciding on adding one to my crew.

My first three were bought directly from the company, and most of the others were bought second-hand. The most recent arrival was bought in person at the store. ^^

 

I'm relatively new and yeah, I think it's really easy to go sorta hog-wild at first if you have the funds for it. @_@ My biggest downfall is that I found myself frequently buying secondhand dolls that I only kinda wanted just because they were a good deal. I ended up making them my own and loving them for the most part, but I still think it was a foolish whirlwind of spending

Now I have 11 dolls with 2 on the way, and I only started actually buying dolls in January. From now on it's going to be mostly company dolls, since they require a little more planning and contemplation to buy. And I like the idea of supporting my favorite companies directly. I know secondhand purchases probably do too, but it doesn't feel like it as much.

 

Aaahhh!! Soooo fast!! I’d just liquidated most of my previous doll collection (not bjds) and bought 11 dolls from April this year to date! I have all Iplehouse except for my Merlin from Ringdoll. They are all previously owned by other collectors and I have a variety of body sizes. I like the large size Iplehouse best though. I’m out of dolly lolly at the moment but saving for a new release from Iplehouse if they are going to make a large size mythical themed doll. Will need a layaway for that though I’m guessing

 

I've been into dolls (off-topic ones) for a few years, and have been interested in BJDs for even longer but couldn't convince myself back then that the price was worth it. (Also didn't have a full-time job etc.) In April I saw that a few pre-orders were open (Atelier Momoni and Irrealldoll), and I also found out about layway options. I didn't know about layaway, since a lot of off-topic doll companies don't allow it, so I always assumed you paid full-price.

After joing two pre-orders, I got really impatient and bought a secondhand BJD off a local marketplace website. That was a Limhwa to You Sara. So that was technically the first I got. And then I joined the final pre-order for Bimong Narae, bought a secondhand Merrydollround Nanaimo (because Merrydollround is probably my favorite doll maker), and joined the pre-order for Merrydollround Dango. In November I plan on joining the pre-order for Bunyol.

So by the end of my first year, I'll have 6 dolls and another coming. I should probably take 2019 a little slower...

 

Pretty slow. Took me 5 years of browsing and planning before I bit the bullet and actually bought a bjd in 2014, which was ordered direct from the company. The next year (2015) I bought an off topic on here Aimerai cutie. My third doll was bought this year (2018) and I know for a fact I won't be buying another doll this year. I'll be lucky if I buy one next year too (maybe if I get off my butt and sell my first doll or if I find a ridiculous deal).

 

The short answer is far too fast....

I spent a fair amount of time researching my first doll,
an Obitsu 50cm girl Megan. Still one of my favorites 7
years and 20 dolls later. Being new to the hobby I joined
an on line forum and they, being wicked enablers, urged
me to get a resin (or 3). Some of my dolls have been opportunistic
which is to say I got an opportunity to buy a doll and jumped
on it, sometimes without completely thinking it through. A
few were acquired because they were being discontinued
by their makers and it was buy him now or miss out completely.
Most, I just flat fell in love with....

 

i bought my first one and everything stagnated for me for about 4-5 years. then i just came to my senses recently and have about 14 and several floating bits... i'll have to apply the brakes on this train soon lol

 

First - company, because I didn't know any better, and now I try to stick to dealers. I try to avoid secondhand because I get so anxious working with people, and I don't want to worry about where my babies have been.

I got a little impulsive and broke my wallet. I only considered having my own dolls in about January this year, and I currently have three tinies with one SD and three floating heads (one SD, two MSDs) on the way. My rule now is to get bodies for those heads before buying any more, and I'm hoping to do that within the next year and a half. Waiting six months for the doll I'm most excited about is probably why I own so many. Aaaand he is still not home yet. Thanks, Dollzone.

I want some time to bond with/build wardrobes/etc for the dolls I've already got. From what I've seen, most people only know their upper limit for dolls once they've reached it. I hate waiting much more than I thought I would, so I think two or three years of nigh constant waiting will leave me very, very sick of it.

 

I had a habit of buying CP/Delf "Special" sets (ie: Dolls that came with more than one head...) during my first few years in the hobby. Those spare heads tended not to stay "spare" for long around here, and usually ended up with bodies of their own... Which meant that my crew multiplied like a colony of rabbits in those early days.

Many of my early dolls were ordered new rather than second hand, but I did get into hunting up bodies for all of those extra heads on the Marketplace here pretty quickly.

 

Ooof, I’m still relatively new to the hobby in my opinion, and honestly, because I have the money, I buy them way too fast. My need for a variety in characters and dolls exceeds my rational thoughts at times. There have been a few dolls where I went, “wow they’re pretty, I want that,” but quickly realized that I wouldn’t bond with them since I have no story for them.
All of the ones I have now are second hand, and were all, in my opinion, a great deal. My wallet begs to differ since I’m still draining money out of it regardless hahaha...ha...ah...I now have five MSDs, my first SD on layaway, and another MSD in the making. Sales, why must you all take place at the same time?! Lol