Moving on and selling dolls

I'd say if you look at them and worry that you'd regret selling them, maybe just put them away (e.g. I have a few dolls whose bodies I had to sell for bills, couldn't part with the limited heads, so I put them in a little chest for later when I could rebuild them).

I think it's perfectly healthy to give yourself a break from the hobby before you decide for sure if you want to clear everything out. If you find that they're put away and you don't think about them that often, or want to use the space for something else, maybe that's really the time to consider selling them?

If it is the case where some NEED to go, maybe consider them not by rarity but by your individual attachment to the sculpt first, and then the difficulty of obtaining the sculpt again should you decide you want to get it again...

(that said, I hope you get a lot of feedback - I took a break from doll collecting for quite a few years and thinking about selling any of my dolls makes me misty-eyed as most are limited! Even when I need money I hope everything turns out well for you!)

 

Are the dolls/heads where you can see them in plain view? Cause keeping things somewhere where you won't see them much can determine which ones you would miss if you sold them off. If you've forgotten your original plans for those dolls, ask yourself why that is and listen to your gut. Was it the idea that stopped appealing to you, or the doll itself? If you want to give yourself a more manageable amount of dolls to work on and that's why you're thinning the herd, then you could always lay out the heads/dolls in order of which are your absolute favorites (because even if a doll may be rarer to come by, if it isn't holding your attention, why keep it? Just my opinion, though ) almost like it's a tier list!

Also remember, no doll is ever really impossible to get ahold of again, some are just more difficult than others and may take a while but if you really happen to want one again, I'm sure with enough time and patience, you'll find it. Or something new will fill the void the other left behind just as well. Good luck!

 

I've been in a similar situation, where I lost my passion for dolls. This too was a symptom of depression. Know that you're in good company!

If you feel like you'd regret selling your dolls, then don't do it. They will likely hold their value and be there should you decide to do so in the future. Of course, if you need to do so for financial reasons, I 100% support that decision. (We've all been in similar situations, I'm sure.)

My suggestion to you is to put them away for a bit. Do you miss them? Sell whichever ones you really don't miss.

 

Well.. as for myself, I have gone through many elaborate excercises to decide how I decide which to sell or not to sell during difficult or transitional times.
I advise keeping some written notes over a period of time to help you organize your thoughts. Think about the dolls when you are not looking at them. If there are some you think of a lot more than others in a positive way maybe you can keep those ones. If something is out of sight and you completely forget it, you aren't that attached to it.
Look at them in person. How do they make you feel when you look at them? If you have strong feelings for some, but want to reduce even further examine the nature of your feelings. I've noticed I can feel sentimental to something but simultaneously it weighs me down and makes me sad, whereas other ones make me feel happy or peaceful.
If you want to collect items for the energy they bring to your life and your environment then this train of thought could help.
I have thought up so many more thought experiments it's ridiculous but for each you think to sell, really imagine it. If you start to feel really sad or anxious about that one then honestly you probably aren't ready to sell that one yet.
Most importantly, if you are thinking on all this and you start to get extremely overwhelmed id advise you to give yourself a rest of possible. I've been needing to sell a lot of dolls this year but realistically I can only bear so much at once and that's all there is to it.

 

Agree with everything that has been said. I took a 6 year break after a tragedy that spun me into severe depression. I put all my dolls in storage and left them there. Just a wee month ago I took them out again cause I felt ready. All my dear heads were no longer available so I had to be 100% sure about selling them, so how I went about it was pretty much gut feeling. I took them out one by one and tried to marie kondo my way through, which ones made me happy and which ones didnt awaken any kind of feeling. And before selling I separated the ones that made me happy from the ones that were just 'meh' and it felt right. Sorry for my rambly response

 

A small add- you're still young. Life will have many different periods over the decades. Perhaps a compromise is in order. Choose 2 to sell only as it's good to gain that experience. Wait another year to see how you feel then, maybe you'll want to sell two more? Or, know that buying more in the future could be fun too, if you decide in better times that the hobby calls to you again. I do not recommend you sell them if you're not sure.

 

Ask yourself "If I sell this head, will I be upset that I might not be able to ever have it back if I change my mind?" Or if you use it as a character doll, are there other sculpts that would be just as good if you wanted the character shelled again? This usually helps me when it comes to being on the fence about selling rare dolls.

 

I was going to suggest this too.

Teddy

 

@ClearSkyStudios I would say that you shouldn't worry about future you. Even if they wish they had some doll heads that they don't, it will be more than made up for by the fact that they aren't feeling so depressed. Heck, they may even enjoy tracking those heads down again. Whatever you decide, they will forgive you and just be grateful that you made it through.

So if you need to sell some heads, just sell the ones you like the least right now. If none of them are bringing you any joy at all, choose randomly. No one with half a heart, including future you, will judge you for it.

 

There's lots of good advice already in this thread so I'll just say this, as someone who dealt with severe depression and other mental health issues for about 5 years - if you're still in the thick of your health struggles, you may want to hold off on deciding to sell any of your dolls.
Depression is literally an altered state of mind, and you are definitely not at your best. If you need to sell dolls for financial relief that's one thing, but if you're simply feeling apathetic/uninterested in the hobby right now then wait. I chose to get rid of and sell a lot of stuff during some upheavals during my depression, and then once I was on the other side of things I really regretted some of those decisions with a clearer mental state. There are quite a few things, dolls included, I wish I hadn't sold/donated/etc at the time.
I was not at all interested in this hobby during the whole time I was dealing with these problems, and then some, and I've only recently gotten back into it and grabbed the dolls I have left out of storage. It's been like a breath of fresh air to reconnect to my dolls and start making plans for them again, and I'm glad that even if I had zero interest for years while things were rough, that I did not end up getting rid of them all!

I wish you the best of luck and hope you feel better soon!