Impulse buying a bjd, any regrets?

In late winter/early spring I bought a guy (on 10% sale), that I haven't received yet, not knowing I would charge the story.
The sculpt is still the right one (at least I hope, I'll know when I get him), but now I wish I got him in a light tan resin
I'm not sure what to do. Maybe I'll see what I think and if I'm not satisfied with the normal pink I'll buy another one and sell the first one when I get the tan one. But with the long waiting time I'll have to wait forever again to get the right one..

 

My first impulse purchase on a doll was when I bought a MigiDoll Yujin back in 2016 just because he was on sale. I didn't particularly love the face or body sculpt, but I bought him anyway. He's a gorgeous doll, but I still have trouble bonding with him and don't have a clear vision for him, but maybe I just need to try wiping his old face up and giving him a new one. More recently, I bought a Dream Valley Howard II back in June because I thought he was being discontinued, but turns out he wasn't being discontinued at the time, but NOW he's being discontinued and is a whopping 20% off! I wish I would've waited those few months so that I could've saved an extra $40, but oh well, I'm just too stingy. I still have yet to receive him, but he wasn't a sculpt I was especially enamored with at the time, also, so hopefully he wont end up like my Yujin.

 

Two of my impulse-buy second hand dolls where resold a few months later when I realized I had no idea what to do with them and was frustrated by their limited posability. I have another doll I impulse bought second hand, but she was an unofficial grail of mine.

 

I have only one impulse doll regret. I tried to purchase a doll from Into The Deep dolls (now defunct for scamming). I saw this cute moth tiny doll for $100 bucks or so on Etsy, and saw some positive reviews left on the page (which I did not read clearly enough), and thought that since it was a cheap enough doll, that I would get it.

Fast forward 1.5 years. The "positive" reviews left on the page were from people who had not actually received their doll. They were just leaving placeholder "positive feedback" until the item arrived (probably at the request of the creator himself). The artist completely vanished off the face of the earth and would only answer messages to basically tell you that dolls would be shipped out next month....which meant 3 months of more waiting with no updates/no doll. Finally after being MIA on both Etsy and Instagram, they deleted their Etsy account and for a time deactivated their IG. I think the IG is back up, but their Etsy page is long gone.

That taught me a valuable lesson to really vet doll purchases more clearly, and not impulsively click buy because it's cheap and seemingly available. My impulsivity almost cost me ~$130 dollars, but luckily Etsy returned that money to me in the form of store credit.

 

Oh man, that's awful! I'm sorry to hear about your experience, if that were me I'd be so upset. When etsy gave you store credit, it was to etsy in general, right? Not the scammer's store?

 

Yes to impulse buying- though I try to reign it in.
Maybe to regrets.

Currently most dolls I have I at least had the time / took the time to sit on them for a few days, thinking about it. Even if you REALLY want something it's okay to wait a little to think about. Weigh the pros and cons.

Exception 1 is I snapped up a Resinsoul Mei at less-than half her price. Seller even packed her with the original sleeping bag and a very random short dress. Best impulse buy. She isn't pristine- w/yellowing and chipped wrists but she's been a great sport when it comes to learning to face-up, sew, and the like.

Exception 2 is processing - I bought an Akagi Doll Janz because I love sculpts that look unhappy / mildly angry I guess? Haha~
I had decided a few days prior that I was going to buy a doll. Not any particular doll- just that I wanted one to work on because I'm mad at my job illegally union busting and I wanted an outlet.

My main regret is that I found other dolls I wanted more after the fact on exception 2 - and ordered those too. Will I still love Janz when I see him? Time will tell.

 

Yes it was to use with any vendor on Etsy. At that point, the Into the Deep shop was completely removed. Honestly, it was a saving grace because I was waaaay over the PayPal claim period.

 

I just impulse bought a doll after seeing her pop up repeatedly for sale. I always had this sinking feeling once I saw she had sold but then i would see her pop up again, (the sale fell through and she was relisted). I finally gave in once i saw her pop up again and grabbed her. I had instant regret once I saw just how much i had committed to pay but now that I have her home I dont regret it and almost felt like I was meant to buy her. I feel like I bonded with her even before I had her in my position which is a bit weird and had not happened to me before.

at this point i have been out of this hobby for many years but here i am back again lol

 

I understand entirely, I try not to be too hard on myself because I am someone who impulse buys especially when I'm new to a hobby. So when I first started collecting BJD's I immediately impulse bought a beautiful nYID doll on the secondhand market because she looked exactly like one of the characters I was trying to create a shell for.

Fast-forward to a month or two later I do now regret having been so quick to purchase. I didn't realize just how much BJD sizes differed. The perfect shell for the partner I had in mind for her turned out to be 75cm tall ID size boy so she was absolutely dwarfed by him. I ended up really liking the larger size too. So now I'm constantly in flux on whether to sell her or not, because even if I do sell her to find a 68-70cm girl will always be a struggle and finding clothes for her in that size will be even more of a struggle.

 

Most of the things I buy are impulse buys. I just try to justify the purchase and stay in denial that it isn't a problem most times.

 

I've impulse bought 3 dolls now, I've only regeted and resold 1, a resinsoul doll, and it was mostly because I wasn't happy with her limited posablity of her fantasy parts. I hadn't really thought about it before purchasing her as I was in live with her overall look rather than her functionality. The other two I still adore. If I impulse buy its usually because the second I lay my eyes on the doll and my heart does the little flutter thing and the squeak of adoration comes out I know I gotta get them. I've come to know the feeling of 'I know I won't regret it if I purchase this doll' so the worry of regret has lessened somewhat

 

Zero regrets at all, i wouldn't be here right now hadn't i decided to impulse buy my current bjd. It's a good thing most bjds i like are always sold out or out of my price range.

 

Definitely, but it also cured my FOMO impulse buying.
When I started collecting earlier this year, I knew I loved Fairyland dolls from their pics, and ended up with a secondhand Minifee and fullsets of three Fairyland dolls from DDE in very rapid succession. And when they got here, I thought were alright. I still looked around sales to see if the one I would absolutely love popped up. I thought I'd never be able to find those fullsets again.
Then I discovered another doll sculptor I adored and...realized I only loved Fairyland in the photos.

So every one of those quick Fairyland purchases became an immediate regret. I knew I was never going to really love them and they would sit in their boxes for the rest of their lives, and if I wanted the outfits, they'd eventually pop up for sale secondhand.
They are some expensive regrets, but they definitely taught me to A) sit back and wait and B) just because its pretty in the photo does not mean I will like it in my hands or on my shelves.
I haven't bought a secondhand doll since unless it's from my favorite company. A secondhand girl from them popped up one day and I snatched it up within five minutes, and I have absolutely zero regrets about that one. She'll live with me forever.

 

Oh gosh yes.....I went through a mania the last 2.5 months (since I just got back into the hobby) and with bday money, some commission money, some spending money my mom surprised me with, and an early christmas present--I went nuts with getting some dream dolls lol. (Also I leave near Denver Doll Emporium, so extra dangerous)

Thankfully I got the most expensive ones from a friend leaving the hobby--I also had a few left from 2013 when I left the hobby for monetary reasons...but goodness coming back to all these beautiful new dolls (especially the new animal dolls!!) was so very dangerous.

I did tell myself I HAD to get blank dolls (second hand if I could) so I could customize them myself this time, and if I got brand new ones, also had to get them blank. When I first got into the hobby I always paid for makeup and faceups and customizations, but this time I have to do it ALL MYSELF! This keeps me from going TOO crazy.

I have SOME regrets, mostly cause I know I should have saved some of that money, but I am very excited to start the hobby again and get back into this kind of art. I also purchased a ton of doll-friendly art supplies which I got for great deals, so I'm even more excited to get started. I did my first faceup on a little Cocoriang Tobi sleeping faceplate and I'm in love with it all already, so not as many regrets as I originally had!

 

Oh gosh yeah I'm really nervous haha. I'm not gonna do any major mods or anything yet, but makeup and maybe some horns and accessories and stuff like that...Also some sewing since I got some ball-and-socket armature to make a tail for my little soom cheshire. I hope you can get into it soon too!!

 

I've questioned my own motives for buying a doll a few times, but in most cases I end up loving the doll after giving it a second chance. However, my most recent purchase was done for the wrong reasons, and I regretted it as soon as I ordered it.
I was depressed and also I have a nervous disorder which causes panic attacks. I believed that buying a doll - any doll - would help calm and center myself.. Wrong! It did the opposite. I spent money I shouldn't have, and bought a doll which I would never have bought if I had not been in such a vulnerable emotional state. Spending the money only added to my distress and depression. I plan on selling it in the near future.

 

Yes I am guilty of impulse buying, fomo is the worst.

 

I am guilty of impulse buying too! Sometime with no regrets (like my Maskcat Lisette discovered and ordered the same day back in 2015, and still with me) and sometimes with regrets (like this minifee Alan that I found a buyer for before I even received it).
When I'm stressed, I'm more likely to buy on impulse. Now I know it, and I try to restrain myself.

 

My weakness is cheap secondhand dolls who need tlc. So I impulse buy them and then half the time, once i've cleaned them up I lose interest. My interest was the fixing, not the doll. Figuring that out is difficult though, I try to justify purchases now but I still get sucked in by "cheap! want to make pretty!"

Of my dolls, let me see...

My first doll was an impulse, a resinsoul song for well. .a song lol. I love her though, she's a really beautiful doll.

I "impulse" bought 5 dollmore dolls a while back. I can't say it was that much of an impulse because I had to arrange a courier and all sorts of work went into obtaining them, but it was a pretty out of nowhere purchase for me. I really wanted two of the five and the seller wouldn't separate and wanted very little for all of them. So I nabbed the whole family lol. I ended up rehoming three of them after giving them some tlc but I did get a few outfits, several wigs and shoes and eyes plus two dolls I actually really wanted out of the deal, including one who's discontinued.

I impulse bought a Luts kid for cheap mostly because I wanted his clothes (lol) and have been trying to rehome him since because cute as he is, he doesn't fit with my gang and I can't find a head I like better that works on the chunky kid body. Alas. It's a really nice body, but it's also quite child-like and most of my dolls aren't so baby faced.
similarly I impulse bought an illusion spirit boy for really cheap and while I like him, he also aesthetically doesn't fit. That said, I put another head on the body a few days ago and while the resin match isn't great, I kinda dig the proportions so the head might get to keep this body <_< lol.

these were both "cheap!" purchases, impulses based solely on price and wanting a "new doll" to distract myself with.

I've had a few likes this that i've either ended up really falling for (like my doll leaves yoko) or rehomed eventually.

right now i'm arguing with myself over another very cheap doll and whether I LOVE her or am just curious because she's a sculpt i've never seen before. I mean, I really like the body sculpt... but it's entirely the wrong colour for me to use for a hybrid without having to colour match a head.
but yeah... it's a real argument i'm having lol.