Quitting your hobbies because dolls are expensive

I used to me a huge My Little Pony toy collector. I still have all my vintage ponies but I stopped buying new ones almost as soon as I started buying dolls.

 

Interesting. Most of my hobbies are the sort where you're making things so I've been spending more to create stuff that works with a doll, from tiny clothes and homegoods to scale props that incorporate techniques and materials from older hobbies. I guess there's a difference for those of us who are really into the straight "making things" hobbies instead of the straight "collecting things" hobbies.

 

When I first joined the hobby I sold all of my dollhouses and their furnishings to buy bjds. That lasted for seven years. Then just this year I’ve decided to go back to dollhouse miniatures and buy less bjds as the prices are more than I can justify. I plan on making more and collecting less.

 

I'm not sure how many dolls I originally intended to have when I first joined the hobby, but I really do like my dolls and customizing them. Probably about a year after I started buying dolls, I decided to focus on my doll collection. I have cut back on a ton of other hobbies that require money or a lot of time. It's a bit hard to invest time into everything, especially while working and attempting to balance all of my hobbies. I have quit several other hobbies and have also sold a lot of items that lost my interest in order to have more money and room for my current and future dolls. My interests seem to change a lot, but BJDs always seem to have something new for me.

 

I collect and customize my bjd’s and American Girl dolls. I tend to only focus on one type of doll at a time, and right now my bjd’s are taking a backseat. I’ve only got so much energy to spend, it is what it is.

 

I’m a huge figure collector (mostly game and anime figures). Now that I’ve recently got into collecting dolls, I think I’ll be toning down my figure preorders and maybe sell some of my collection. I really like dolls since I can actually play with them and change them up and mod them.

 

I used to cosplay, but toned it back for a few reasons - getting into dolls was one of them.

 

Yes me! Although I didn't intend for it to happen.

I got my first doll soon after completing my first cosplay. I had put a LOT of time+effort into the costume too (I entered it in a competition, won an award... it turned out really good, if I do say so myself haha!). I had full intentions of making more, but it's never happened No regrets, because BJDs are my main squeeze now, but it's funny to think about.

As others have said, I have also limited/stopped spending money on other things I collect. Priorities have changed

 

My hobbies all revolve around crafts so bjds fit well into my already existing hobbies I did sell my entire mh and eah doll collection to afford my first bjd though.

 

Most of my hobbies are creative, so only difference is, I started buying fabrics in larger numbers and more frequently than before and tend to design clothes more.

Dolls, in fact, give me more possibilities for being creative. I only painted and made jewellery before. Crafting for dolls is better than for humans -- results take up less space, practicality as same as wearability of designs in not an issue and so on. For example, I know several textile crafts, like lace-making or embroidery, I learned during my studies, but never really did in my free time. There was simply no use or purpose for them. Now there is use for them, but it results in having too many irons in fire. I have too many works in progress, now. It's bit stressful sometimes.

There are two things pending. New camera and PC. First one isn't very important, but I do need better PC for my job...so...I can just go for cheeper one, but in that case, I can very well keep on useing the old one. You got the picture. On other hand, it's not primarily because of dolls, at all. I had too many inventible expenses this year.

 

Not really. I used to collect Monster High dolls... but my motivation was to make new outfits for them, and after a while that started getting old. So I stopped collecting them when I moved on to BJDs, but I didn't stop because of money, I stopped because BJDs filled the same outlet, only better than Monster High dolls.
I still do needlepoint, play video games, read books, and go to ren faires.

 

I collected a lot of anime and manga series before bjd.

Haven’t purchased a manga or anime dvd in years! lol

 

I've never sold any of my collections because they were too expensive to keep up with. If I ever felt like the hobbies I have are too expensive, then I stop collecting, but I don't sell any of my collections. I did sell a DZ BB body once, because I don't really like baby dolls, and I wasn't doing much with that doll anyway. My best friend's sister was having trouble financing collage back then, so I sold the body to help her out a little. Otherwise, I don't sell my toys in order to afford another hobby. I simply stop collecting, if I can't afford them anymore. I stopped purchasing BJD around ten years ago, but that was simply because I am not interested in owning anymore. I don't see any doll that I am interested in, I do find a few head sculpts interesting, but body proportions are not to my liking in general so I don't purchase anymore BJD (I still purchase a lot of OT anime/video-game and other toys and dolls though, I'm shameless toy hoarder).

 

I gave up cosplaying and going to cons for dolls. With how much I was spending to do one con, factoring in cosplay stuff costs, travel costs, hotel, food, spending money...I could get a doll with that. While there were a couple other factors, I overall gave it up to fund getting dolls instead. I started getting more enjoyment out of dolls than cosplaying

And an unexpected one that I hadn't realized until recently, buying art. I haven't commissioned much art such I got into dolls, mostly since most of my spare funds goes to dolls and it doesn't leave a lot left for other things because I prioritize poorly

 

Not really. last year I learned to crochet and am making things to sell for dolls. Yarn can be inexpensive and sometimes free. I got a ton of yarn for free from a Hoarder. I plan to make a blanket with some of it, some of it make doll clothes and sell later on when I perfect my pattern I'm working on. I am turning one hobby into something I make money off of that goes towards dolls. lol

 

I left the fashion doll hobby to buy my first BJD. I had over 200 Barbies, Brats and others, now I'm down to 9 dolls in the 1/6 range. If I buy new dolls like that, they have to have quality, posing and sculpting on par with BJDs. Once I got my BJDs, the appeal of mass produced play line fashion dolls just wasn't there for me anymore.

I also used to have a ton of action figures, now I probably have less than 10.

Other hobbies just kind of changed, like I started sewing for dolls, my painted shifted from canvas to faceups.

But I'm not giving up my retro video games. If it came down to choosing between dolls and games, I'm not sure what I'd pick.

 

I spent many years collecting original animation artwork (cels were my favorite, although I also bought a lot of sketches and concept art). My interest in BJDs came at a really good time, because as animation turned more and more towards computer generated productions, it became harder to find really good artwork. I haven't purchased a new piece in years, but I still have the majority of that collection, and while I love several of my cels dearly, when I need doll money quickly - say, for a limited one that I can't justify raiding my bank account for at the moment - I will part with one or two less favored pieces (yes, they were as absurdly expensive as dolls. ) It's funny to me that my interests literally grew from two dimensional to three dimensional, but at this point there are still cels I own that I would never part with for the sake of a new doll, and dolls I own that I would never part with for the sake of a new cel. Conversely, there are some of each that I would give up in a heartbeat for an amazing one of the other. So after rambling on for far too long, I guess my answer is a sad little...sort of?

 

Been cosplaying and collecting fountain pens for 10 years while enjoying BJD from the far. Both are equally or more expensive as BJD so I just allocate those resources to BJD instead. Honestly, BJD makes me a lot happier than cosplaying because I can still make the cosplay but time and cost is a lot cheaper (materials, con fees hotels, travel, etc).

I still collect fountain pen but only buying 1 pen every other year which I'm okay with because there can only be so much I can do with a pen vs BJD.

Now that I think about it, dolls in general is a good combination of my old hobbies. I get to use the pens and ink to draw and create pattern to make cosplay for my dolls.