Only allowing yourself to buy "cheaper" dolls?

well I can only afford cheaper dolls right now, and if I'm honest I do love cheap dolls, the first doll I saw that got me hooked on the hobby is cheap. I can't ever see me having the patients to save up for an expensive one or be able to justifie the cost, its bad enough spending what I am speading.

so I guess what I'm trying to say is as long as you love the doll it doesn't really matter if its cheap or expensive, as long as it makes you happy thats all that counts

 

Sadly, my favorite usually is a more expensive one. The quality is there. It is not always the case, but mainly. It helps, somewhat, that I am into very tiny bjds, so they do not cost was sd size do. Still, they can be very expensive. Especially for limited special face up ones or something. I am always trying to find a way to get another doll. They are so much money! I adore my dolls. Even if it is less money, I still have a difficult time parting with it, if I have to.
This is my second response because I find this topic rather interesting.

 

Well, right now, the only dolls I've seen that I really like/would buy are MSD sized. (With the exceptionon Homme Duncan >w<) And they tend to be cheaper then larger sizes anyways. (AFAIK)
I can really onlt afford chaper dolls right now, so I just have a look aroung and try to find cheaper ones that I like. Though if there was a more expensive doll that I really liked, I would probably save up for it.

 

I'm a fan of BBBs also and am saving up for Mei. $150 US might seem "cheap" in the world of BJDs but in my world that's a whole lot of groceries! Hehe. I actually just purchased a really cheap vinyl BJD to get my feet wet and practice faceups and such without the fear of screwing up a $150 doll. I have every intention of loving that doll also - she's too cute not to! I don't think its wrong to spend what you can afford on anything, even a doll. What I think is wrong would be going into debt and putting out money you can't afford to part with just because you "have to have it". I'd rather sit on the sidelines with a doll or dolls I enjoy and can afford.

 

i had to pay for a lot of stuff i didn't need

 

Wow, Usagi he sounds fantastic - you'll have to submit photos when you get him!

 

I don't think it's wrong, since they're not cheap, they're inexpensive! And also, the tinier dolls tend to be lower priced, and so long as you like the face mold and feel you should add them to your collection, go ahead and get them! Like AoD's or BBB's, the price is low but the quality is still pretty high.

 

if i am ever in the financial situation to be able to spend $500+ on something like a dool, i might be able to justify it, but for now i wont even look at it as an option. i am a college student trying to get her sea legs, i need the money for more practical things like food. not to say i'll NEVER get an expensive doll, i just dont see the opportunity arising anytime soon. i love my dolls, and no, i will not buy a doll i do not love, even if it's cheaper, because for me, $25 is expencive for a doll, let alone $150-$200.

 

Cheap/expensive are so relative that this is a difficult topic to tackle. I started with Bobobie dolls and it was a great way to get more dolls than I could have gotten had I spent more money per doll. They are great looking and I like them alot, but if I hadn't liked the sculpts and just bought them because they were relatively inexpensive it would have been a waste.

 

I think it's not really fair to put such an emphasis on the word "cheap", because this hobby is not cheap in any way, no matter how many corners you try to cut. I did start off with a cheaper doll, and I was one of those people who had sworn off paying more than $200 for a BJD. Obviously that has changed now, but only because I realized the doll I initially bought (AOD Chi) did not do for me what I had wanted him to. It wasn't that he was "cheap", it was that he didn't fulfill the right aesthetic I was looking for. I think that buying a doll JUST because it is cheap is a bad idea, only because the owner has a good chance of not enjoying it as much as they would had they saved up for a doll they really liked. But as it's been said many times, there is nothing "wrong" with buying a cheaper doll if the buyer is going to enjoy that sculpt. It's all about taste and what a person enjoys, price should have nothing to do with it.

 

That's a very good point about taste, as I also own an AoD Chi, and he's absolutely perfect for what I want from him.

 

I like the expensive dolls, but they seem terribly impractical to me. I'm a college student, so I can imagine myself spending a maximum of $150 on a BJD twice a year. That's part of why I'm looking at Felix Brownies and Delilah (who I think is gorgeous anyway).

I'm interested in the collecting and customization aspects of the hobby more than the having a gynormously expensive child sized doll in my tiny room aspect. And no, I can't paint. I'm more interested in the part where I pick out a pair of beautiful $20 eyes every once in a while and find used doll clothing that fits my doll. I'm industrious. I would make an excellent personal shopper for a person, let alone a doll. I'm good at finding a deal and recognizing quality.

Do I want some dolls just because they're dolls? No. That's why I'm not buying a Barbie, even though they made a delightful Phantom of the Opera two pack. I want something that speaks to me, and Delilah and the Brownies do, and they're in my price range, which is very important. I have some major concerns right now about how trustworthy some of these companies are. I'm really leaning towards Delilah now, because at least she would come from a trustworthy American company. And she's beautiful. She may be made of vinyl, but she's beautiful.

There are some anthro dolls in my price range too, but I would so very much prefer for my first doll to be of a person.

What I may do is save and then buy a doll while I'm at Dragon*Con next year. They had dolls this year, but I didn't find them until after I'd already bought some souvenirs.

 

Depends on what you consider as cheap. My first doll was rather cheap (Serendipity Alice), but she is also a small 42cm doll and I don't know what the average amout for such a doll is, but I thought that she was rather cheap compared to 60 cm dolls. I also think that the standard SD10 dolls have a very reasonable price.
My most expensive doll was R-ASIAM, who cost &#8364;599,-- (without custom tax) according to my notes. This amount is, for my personal thinking already quite high. I usually allow myself to buy dolls that are located in the middle price range, because those dolls are already expensive enough, if I add shipping cost, the evil custom tax, wigs, outfits.

I'd really love to own a limited SD13 one day, but the overall costs are too high for me.

 

If you love the sculpt, why not? I think that there are people whose dream doll is inexpensive.

 

I do this to some extent. My first doll was a MSD, because although I would have liked him to be one of the bigger dolls, I chose to get a mini just in case I found that the hobby wasn't for me. That way I wouldn't have wasted a ton of money. After I figured out the price I wanted to pay, I looked at all the dolls in that size-range and eventually found one (or quite a few!) that I had to have.
Now I don't even want a SD anymore ^^ hahah.

Now, although I am one of those "if you love the doll, buy it" people, there are some prices I simply cannot justify. For example, some of those Volks limited fullsets and Delf Woosoo. No matter how much love I've fallen into for those guys, I will never be able to spend that much on what is ultimately "just a doll". It's not that I can't afford them, it's that I can't justify paying that much.

 

I just adore the was Soom dolls look but I can't justify to myself spending THAT much money on a doll. As much as I love them I stick to dolls that are less expensive and that way I can spend more on stuff for them instead of on the dolls themselves.

 

The only way I could even consider getting a doll was because I was a college student with a grant coming in every semester. When I got a job to help me support my studies as well, I was able to afford more. My first doll was a Soulkid Snyder who was cheaper in price because Souldoll had just discontinued them and she was one of their less popular sculpts, I got her for much less than retail.

I'm quite rigid with what I will allow myself to bring into my collection, so I think that having a limit on what you can afford is practical. I do believe it is important to love the dolls you buy, so for me it is more about the doll than the price because if I want a particular doll enough I will save hard for it. What I think people sometimes forget is that the cheaper dolls are still pretty darn expensive, particularly for teens who legally cannot get regular paid work or adults on a low income or working part-time/college part-time. Getting a doll from any price bracket is a financial achievement in itself, but I do believe that if you prefer a slightly higher priced doll to an equivalent lower priced doll, it is probably better to save a bit more and go for the more expensive doll because you already know you like it more. However, if you're torn between two dolls and the only difference is price, it might be better to get the lower priced one and then you'll have more to spend on accessories and clothes!

 

personally, I think you should go for the doll you want. If you "settle" for a cheap doll, you most likely won't feel the connection and will feel like youn wasted money. I've done this before and my longing for the more expensive doll never went away....

that being said, I think most of my dream dolls probably are considered "cheap" by some ppl. None of the dolls I really want are over $500 and the one doll I already own that I am most attached to only cost $175.

I think you should go for the doll you want, whether he's $50 or $5000.

 

Right now with me being in college and paying off student loans I can only afford to get the cheaper dolls right now.

 

Price doesn't have anything to do with it. The important thing is the sense of personality that you see in a doll's face, and how you interact with it.