If you could have a do over in this hobby what would it be?

I wish I had started on faceups at a younger age. I got my first doll at 16 and I wish I had pushed to get into customization. By the time I gathered the courage to step into that area, I was 23-24 and dealing with a lot of chronic pain. Would've been nice to do faceups more! I'm hoping to do them again in the future, if just for the dolls I have that are currently blank, but it's gonna depend on my health heavily, sadly.

For a less pitying (?) do-over request though, I would've pushed to get a Dollshe Bermann in those early days. I almost got him instead of my Hound, and while I love the Hound sculpt over Bermann, that limited availability is...y'know...

 

I’m newer to the hobby but I can say that I wish I had found this hobby sooner. I’ve spent so much on other kinds of mass produced toys and dolls over the years. I had not even known about vinyl anime dolls and bjd dolls until recently.

 

I was literally thinking about this the other day but if I could go back to when I first discovered BJDs back in 2008 I would have tried harder to save so that I could afford dolls that no longer exist anymore, specifically dolls from Dream of Doll and Buddy-Doll. I regret being too scared to spend money on SD size dolls. I also would attend more doll meetups so that I could immerse myself more into the community rather than hiding it away and trying to keep it all to myself

 

It's hard to say! I like where I've landed with my collection, but it was a whole lot of trial and error, and all that buying and selling was at a loss.

Probably it would be to stick to one size. The reason I traded up from MSD to SD was because in the early-mid 2000s mature minis hadn't really become a thing. Mixing sizes was just too much of a strain for me, plus keeping everything stored separately for tinies, MSDs, and SDs was a pain. I should have either saved up and gotten an SD from the start, or held out for the more mature and slim MSDs and not buy SDs at all.

 

With a do-over? I would never have bought soom Ai.. The little faun is the biggest dissapointment i've ever gotten. But it's impossible to get rid of her, because while she comes with most her stuff, she doesn't come with ALL of it, sadly. Missing shoes and wig i think. I bought her second hand and no ammount of sueding and restritringing can fix how horrid she is to pose. Same with Trond i wish i didn't buy him. I bought him blank and haven't ever even used him, never got a face on him or anything. Now he's looking at becomming a practice doll for blushin or other.
I would've spend the money on the original Luts Corni release and her baby version some sooner. I got the unlimited version that i love, but the tail is annoying and floppy af, can't help that i suppose, so want to give her a large and poofy dress so you wouldn't see her tail anyway.

I would've stuck with learning face-ups. would've been nice being able to grow over the 10+ years i've had a doll.

 

I wish I'd started with YOSD. It's the perfect size for me, and so many cute outfits available! My first doll was a Myoudoll MSD, and she's very lovely but so hard to find dresses for!

 

Buying a different starter doll

 

I would probably check to see what the holiday event was before I ordered my doll.

I just ordered a littlefee dark elf soo and a few days after I did, I noticed that fairyland had a “look back” minifee dark soo.

I’m glad that I did get the littlefee, but my heart has always yearned for a bigger gal for my character. I just don’t have room.

 

I'd have done much more investigation in the different companies available at that time so I'd had discovered tiny anthro dolls way sooner and now I wouldn't suffer trying to find limited ones xD
And I'd probably had saved more for the right doll instead purchasing one that I kinda liked and could afford.

 

I'm probably like most people, I should've done a lot more research! I had no idea this website and other BJD places existed, maybe I should've asked questions to someone in the hobby. ^^;

Also, I didn't need to be so shy about my dolls! It turns out the people in my life don't think it's that strange. I was shy for nothing.

 

I wish I'd purchased several of the dolls I loved before they got discontinued. At the time I thought "everyone has them, I'll just admire them through their photos and get them eventually." Then I returned from hiatus to discover that they were discontinued and not nearly as prevalent as they once were. Some I've managed to purchase secondhand for reasonable prices, others I'm pretty sure will never be available for a price I'm willing to pay.

 

Generally, I am pretty happy with the way things have gone, but if I were to do it over I would put more effort into learning to sew. I generally do face-ups and stuff like that myself, so besides purchasing the actual dolls, buying clothes has been the biggest expense, and I am not always totally happy with what I get except when I commission something.
I also would try to be better about putting aside little things I don't plan to use and try to sell or give them away regularly instead of gathering a lot of unwanted things that seem like huge task to deal with getting rid of.

 

When I started collecting, I bought all kinds of dolls (Pullips etc.). If I had the chance to do it over I would probably focus on BJDs right from the beginning. And I would definitely be braver when it comes to ordering. I missed out on a lot of dolls that I liked, simply because I was afraid of the ordering process. It just seemed so complicated compared to what I was used to. The fact that I had to choose whether or not I want a fullset or a different skintone completely frightened me haha.

 

Well, I would have never sold my Soom Keny and Absinthe, as I really miss them, but other than that I don't think I have any regrets.

 

I wish I had learned to do faceups while I was still physically able. Not I can't use my hands very well, and keeping a steady hand is difficult.

I wish I had stuck with mostly SD size dolls, like I had originally planned, instead of getting MSDs which I later regretted. Also I wish I had bought more dolls from 5 Star Doll. They don't seem to be very active any more. I have 2 of their SD boys plus 2 of their YOSDs and love them so much.

I sold my 5 Star Becca several years ago and really regret it.

 

There are two dolls I wouldn't have sold -- my first Volks SD16 Yukinojo (I wound up buying another one later, grrrrrr) and my original Bermann 77. But at those times I really needed the money, so . . . eh. Life, whatcha gonna do?