Patience in the hobby

Well, I've had to search for the doll I've currently got on layaway for 13 years. 13 years of fruitlessly searching the marketplace and never finding one for sale. I honestly believed that I wasn't ever going to find him; I kicked myself for not buying his sister sculpt when I had the chance way back when. And then few weeks ago, there he was! Almost missed him too, if not for some awesome people who notified me .

Now I'm getting impatient, 'cause I still have to pay him off and I want him NOW. Can you believe it? 13 years? No problem. Few months? Insanity!

 

The longest I have been waiting for a doll was 8 month, it was a Nikki Britt one. But I think this record will soon beaten by an order I made at Jpodolls last november, the doll are still been made at the factory. It feels like an eternity!!!

 

19 months and still waiting. Luckily layaways help with making it feel like less wait, but that was 13 months ago... Things I'm more impatient with are weekly restocks of secondhand stores, I love browsing new stuff!!

 

i feel like in this hobby theres a lot of waiting, whether it be for dolls, trying to find dolls, waiting for faceups or clothes etc. I got into bjds in 2006 and the doll i wanted more than anything was a volks Hewitt, but with my luck and little funds i just kept missing him. Now its 2022 and as of last year with A LOT of help and searching I managed to find one and now he's mine! Thats what 16 years of pining? that being said i am the MOST impatient person I know, layaways are a godsend for me to afford dolls but they're also hell because of the WAITING!

 

I'm very impatiently waiting for my first doll. I only ordered it a week or so ago and was told it will be ready in about two months. So it will probably be shipped sometime in December and then I have to wait for it to get here...

 

I have so many other hobbies that I’m always waiting for one thing or another…and also working on one project or another, so the time doesn’t feel like a slog.

 

Patience? It’s something I really had to learn to cultivate in this hobby! First of all, because of the price of the dolls themselves, layaway was always my best (and often only) bet. I’ve been collecting continuously since 2006, with a pretty substantial collection by now, and the vast majority of those were purchased on layaway so waiting was always a built-in factor from the get-go. Then considering the wait times from the companies themselves, which have gotten longer over the years as the hobby has grown and they struggle to keep up with demand. Then shipping times which have never quite fully recovered from the pandemic, it seems. I always feel like I’m waiting on something! So along the way, I learned to work on doll related stuff in the interim…character building, story-telling, sewing extensive wardrobes, planning for faceups and tattoos, general bjd research, choosing wigs and eyes and props if need be, and hanging out here on DoA of course, gleaning any information I can and passing the time.

 

At the moment I’m waiting on clothes and accessories from multiple international sources, since covid and now political conflicts there are a lot more delays in shipping than before. I’m also waiting on one doll from a dealer which always takes longer than ordering direct and I say I won’t do it again but I’m on my third dealer preorder

I guess I even get impatient waiting on domestic purchases. I try to be patient but it’s difficult when dolls are my main source of enjoyment.