Regretting Getting Involved in BJDs?

I have felt this way many times! but when I look at them all my negative feelings go away

The reason why sometimes I regret getting involved with this hobby is because I'm constantly moving from one place to another and I have to be careful with 7 dolls =.= I also worry too much about them "is the weather too hot? humid? someone might steal my dolls!" etc

And the biggest reason is the money. So much money spent on dolls, inanimate objects, just for my mere gratification. Regret is followed by guilt and then stress...but like I said before, one look at them and all is forgotten^^

 

Do I regret it?
A tiny, tiny bit when I look at the money I've spend for this hobby.
How difficult it is to get what you want, all these horrible limiteds and the way companies have changed throughout the years, the way some owners act in this hobby...it's sometimes really stressful and unnerving, especially with all the drama involved.

On the other hand I LOVE collecting dolls, I love taking pictures with them, being creative, and sometimes it's just nice to look at them.
Without them it would be so empty here

 

As others have said, I have no regrets over the dolls themselves - only the community & some of the stupid playground politics that goes on. But that's nothing to do with the dolls really; that's just people being idiots, and they'd be the same whatever the hobby. The Lolita crowd can make doll people look positively tame and civilised on their worst days by comparison, trust me! As can horse people. Get a large enough group of people together and the actual topic doesn't matter - they'll find ways to be elitist snobs or precious snowflakes or fragile little princesses or out-and-out trolls.

As for the creative sde of things, I've seen a few people mention that they wonder if dolls took up their creativity; in my case, they actually brought it back. I'd had a massive and total creative block for the better part of over 8 years. The dolls were a completely new creative outlet for me - and that in turn unlocked everything else. How can I regret that? A few people squabbling online is too trivial to worry about compared to that. The joy the dolls have brought me lifts me high above any such petty regrets. They are my little resin muses.

 

Amen I say!

 

I have no regrets. Sure, i have spent way more then i should but it's normal for me. All my life i have collected one thing or another. I love to collect. When i move onto a new collection, i sell my old collection for funds. I am a stay at home mom. I do not have a job to make money other then selling on e-bay. Or as call it, recycling My husband does not understand my hobby and he does not pay for it. Most he'll do is let me us the CC to fund a large purchase when i don't have enough funds at the time but i pay him back monthly. Ofcorse this is only for companies that does not do layaway (ahem, Lati). I started collecting in 2008 and sofar have 137 dolls and am waiting for 13 more. Before BJDs i was collecting Asian fashion dolls (Takara, Momoko, Volks, Anime....etc). I collected for like 12 years and acquired probably a 1000 more or less and before that it was Anime merchandise and before that it was Hello Kitty...see, always collecting something. So when i discovered BJD, i had to let my fashion dolls go. And i'm sure one day when the time comes and i move on to something else (hoping not for another 10 years or so i'll probably sell my BJDs and fund my next collection. Although i have no idea whatelse i can possibly be interested in at this point. Oh and did i mention, i get pretty obsessive when i get into a new hobby. I seriously don't even play with my dolls, all of them are like still in their box. I just enjoy the collecting part

 

I don't feel any regret.

Regret is about something that happened in the past. But for as long as I continue to buy and play with my dolls, my actions are in the present tense. And if I did decide that getting started in the hobby was a bad idea, it is entirely fixable. It's not some decision I made that is unalterable, after all. I can always leave the hobby.

Do I have frustrations with the hobby? Sure. Of course.

Sometimes the community can seem a bit petty and childish. But that's true of every community, whether you are talking hobbies, politics, work, or anything else. I wouldn't say the bjd community is more petty or childish than any other.

Sometimes the expense of the hobby is a bit daunting. But I have the choice to buy or not to buy, or to make things myself. I will never have enough money to buy every thing I want (and neither will most people on Earth), so I get over it. The sadness of not being able to afford every limited I want passes. Eventually.

So, yeah, no regrets here.

 

Very well said.

 

I've never regretted entering the hobby per se, but I have felt slightly... irked at the lack of understanding or the stigma directed at me--even by family members--as a result of my involvement in the hobby. As someone who lives a very fiscally restricted lifestyle (not by choice, in case you're wondering), I can empathize with anyone who expresses concern regarding the exorbitant monetary costs inherent in this hobby. However, any time a semblance of regret washes over me, my love of BJDs prevails, simply because I really, really like my BJDs and cannot imagine not having them around at this point (I'd certainly be able to cope without them, albeit unwillingly and more slowly).

As for the attitudes of fellow BJD-hobbyists; yeah, I can understand why that can be a major deterrent when one is considering involvement in/sustainment of this hobby. I've seen my fair share of pedantic, uppity doll people. Hopefully no one has to spend prolonged periods of time with these people if they wish otherwise.

I think the largest barrier that I, as an individual deeply involved in this hobby, must surmount is that of the self-deprecation and recrimination I experience occasionally. I've applied a lot of stigma to myself regarding the hobby: "What's wrong with me? I'm a big kid now. Why do I like these dolls so much?" Generally these periods are fleeting. I am perfectly okay with liking these dolls, and am glad that I do. I'm pleased at the liasons I've formed with other people over our mutual interest in BJD-dom (though these friendships don't involve BJDs exclusively). I think this hobby is condusive to not only establishing relationships, but artistic expression. Every BJD enthusiast I've met is an artist to some degree (I myself am no exception).
All in all, I love the awesome idiocyncracies BJDs exemplify and enable us to express, and am so happy and grateful I've found this hobby.

 

I think I agree with you. There has been several occasions I had to restrain myself from replying to a new thread in the "Debate" sub-forum because I've done it before and some people got offended and called me names and I swear I was only giving my opinion! I never intended to offend anyone.

Maybe because when someone's opinion differs from mine I just accept it and I understand that not everyone thinks the same way I do but not everyone is that way so, I have to be -very- careful with my replies in here because this is the only place I can interact with other people with the same interest (BJDs) and I don't want to leave this place just for some drama.

 

I definitely agree with you there. Perhaps the only things I would regret about getting into this hobby are 1. the amount of money spent, and 2. allowing the drama to get to me too much. I got really upset over some drama that happened on one of the debate threads a while back, and I know the funk I was in brought down my husband's mood as well- it wasn't fair to him, so that's why I'm staying as far away from drama as possible from here on out.

 

I don't regret being involved in the hobby, but I do regret how consumed I was with it for a while. I bought sooo many dolls! I just want a more manageable collection now. Luckily I can sell the dolls for more or less what I paid for them, which is great. It's rare to have a hobby where you are able to recover almost all of your money.

I am noticing people complaining about the amount of drama, or the perceived amount of drama, on the thread. I must be oblivious, I'm totally missing it I've always been like that, though, I never notice drama XD

 

In all honesty, I do sometimes have twinges of regret of my personal involvement in the hobby. Mostly it's the cost of it all. It just sounds really insane that I pay a few hundred dollars for a doll, as beautiful as it may be. I work, and I have financial obligations like most everyone else, and there are the times when I look at the dolls and see dollar signs if I could just sell the lot of them and get out of the BJD hobby. But then I get to thinking it over and I realize that having the dolls around make me calmer and happier than I would be if I didn't have them around. And really, if I didn't have the dolls, I'd most likely just be spending my money elsewhere. The dolls have also inspired me to sew and learn to use my sewing machine, and I like taking photos of them...so my camera gets used too. There are good and bad points to being involved with the doll hobby, as with any hobby, so yes...I have regrets at times, but then I get over it and carry on.

 

Regret no, I do some times think my life would be a little easier if I never discovered them though. But I love them all and I'm glad I found them.

 

I come from the land of Blythe and have not got a BJD yet, so this thread is really interesting.
I feel a littel digusted at myself already for the money and time I have spent on Blythe, with grand plans of customising and selling at a profit. I am so obsessed that my artwork is suffering.
To be honest, I am pretty worried about getting a BJD as, one one hand, she'll be the perfect model for some paintings, but on the other, I may spend more time shopping for her, than working with her.
Some days, I want to sell everything, then other days I could just spend hours messing about with the 'girls'. It is terrible dilema, especiallt when artists are meant to be working ALL the time!

As for drama, we don't have any in that I have seen in Blythe land, but maybe I have just been lucky.

 

I only regret the cost of the dolls! Everything else about them has been very positive!

 

I don't really think I'm into it enough yet, but dolls can get expensive in general. And honestly, nothing feels worse than missing out on something that you immediately adore on sight.

 

Sometimes yes, Mostly due to some of the people who have not been so great. Now and then I chastise myself due to huge amounts of money spent and often hasty regretted purchases although I am better with that now.
I get a huge buzz from dolls when it does go right though..So it sort of balances. Maybe its like a marriage..Most of the time harmonious but with rough patches where you want to throw all of your partners clothes out of the window and jump up and down like a disgruntled child.

 

Nope.

I actually have worried that I will fall out of love with the hobby and not love my dolls anymore... but I never regretted getting into the hobby in the first place.

 

Honestly, I can see why people might regret getting into this or any other hobby.

This is a hobby that takes a lot of time and money. Sometimes people don't realize just how much of both it's going to be. Even beyond the searching and purchasing. I'm always learning something new about the hobby, because we're always discovering, and then there's basic maintenance on dolls. Elastic wears out, face ups fade, sealant wears off, all more work. But all of that said, I don't regret the hobby.

Have I regretted certain parts of the hobby? Yes. I rushed in with my first doll, I didn't get the doll I truly wanted and settled for a cheaper doll. I trimmed a wig with no knowledge and messed it up. I've found that MSD is really the only size for me and found it the hard way (purchasing a doll who wasn't a MSD). But that's life and that's this hobby. And I think that IS one of the parts I like about it so much! You have to learn so much on your own. Now days with the internet you can just google something and know everything, but with this hobby you can't always do that! Sure we know a lot, but there is still so much that we have to do ourselves. How is this wig going to look on my doll? How will these eyes go with the new faceup? How will she look in this dress I just made? I enjoy that. In a way, they're like people that you get to know more about every day.

One thing I struggled with and am just overcoming is holding onto a doll out of guilt. I've held onto my first doll since 2008 even though we never really clicked and bonded. I didn't even understand that until my second girl. I can never get rid of her. She's like a part of me. She's sitting on my bed right now watching me type. But for so long I felt like I 'had to' hold onto my first girl because, she was my first! You have to be attached to them! You have to keep them! I've realized, no I really don't. And I don't have to feel guilty about putting her in the marketplace. She'll go somewhere she can truly be enjoyed and I can move on. It'll still be hard to see her go, but I have to look at the situation realistically too.

 

I only regret how poor it has made me.
Sometimes I wish I could use my money on other hobbies, but I always end up going with the BJD stuff instead. This hobby is very dear to me, because it mixes with my love for writing.
The drama in the community means nothing to me, honestly. I don't care if someone doesn't agree with me or even hate something I do, their opinion isn't that important to me. It doens't ruin my experience that other people don't feel the same as me.