Sellers guilt

This! It isn't your fault that things happened this way. I daresay that you probably may not have bought him if you been able handle him in person before buying. I have been lucky so far; there was only one doll that I sold, and that was because I needed cash to buy a doll that turned out to be a better fit for me. If you have been through several face ups and several months of ownership only to still find yourself unsatisfied, then selling him and getting the other doll is the right thing for you to do. These things happen, please don't feel guilty!

 

It's a doll, not a child.You have no obligation to keep it around if it isn't working for you. Sell it and put the money towards the doll you do want. Forget the idea that disliking or being unable to "bond" with a doll is somehow bad or wrong or your fault and get what you really want. If you've done everything you can think of to make yourself enjoy the doll you have and it isn't working, that doll is most likely not for you. There's nothing wrong with that, every member of the hobby can't like every doll. There are certain dolls I thought I liked but, after seeing them in person, they just weren't what I thought. I know if I'd bought them before seeing the ones other people owned, I'd have been terribly disappointed. If it's not working, it's not working, and there's no point keeping something that doesn't make you happy.

 

I would say that your experience is a rather common one for a new collector. When I just started out in this hobby, my tastes were still being refined and developed, as I didn't really know what I liked and didn't like until I got to see various dolls in person. In the process, I purchased dolls that I did not enjoy as much as I thought I would. I, too, tried to make them work. In fact, I kept them around for almost 7 years before finally deciding to sell them last year. After realizing that I never take the dolls in question out of the closet to display or "play" with, I knew that they had to go. It took me a very long time to reach that point, and I truly wish that I had sold them sooner - they could have been enjoyed and loved by someone all those years instead of being locked away in my closet.

I have a suggestion. Could you try and put your doll away for a week? Don't look at him, play with him, etc. - just let him rest out of sight. Will you miss him? Will you wish that he was there to play with and to look at? Sometimes, it's difficult to bond with a doll for whatever reason, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's the wrong doll for you. You may feel frustrated and stressed over not being able to bond, so giving yourself a little break and some distance from him may help you answer the important question - to keep or sell?

 

I think I'm one of these people who's just starting to learn what dolls work for me and what don't. As a consequence, I feel like one of my dolls... I chose the wrong mold. She doesn't resemble her sister as well as I thought she would, for one thing. She's cute, but she doesn't truly fit. I sort of want to re-shell her into another mold, and I sometimes wonder if I should sell her when I do.

At the same time, though, I feel bad for doing it. Whether it's guilt towards her character or the doll itself, that's still kind of mixed up in my head, because the two are mixed together. Yes, of course I know she's just a piece of plastic and all, but that's not how I like to look at things or how I find meaning in them. The girl that I imagine her to be has feelings that I like to respect, even if it's all in my head.

So... yes. I'm still deciding whether I should try to keep her and make her into a new, unrelated character, and keep saving up to buy a doll that better fits the original character, or whether I should sell her after all. How confusing.

 

Oh gosh, lol, what a pertinent topic for me right now. For the last few months, I have been overwhelmed by the amount of resin I've amassed. I have more dolls than I have time to play with and money to accessorize. I have almost 20 dolls and I wish I had about 8 >__<

I do sort of feel bad when I think about selling dolls, because they all meant a lot to me at some time or another. But now they don't, and I know from experience that I don't miss dolls I have sold, so... Really, I feel bad because I know selling dolls is a royal pain in the butt!

 

Occasionally I will see something MSD sized and wish I still had Aleksi. Sometimes I miss Lena. However, I don't seriously regret selling them. I may reshell Lena one day, though.

I regret selling outfits more than dolls. I sold a beautiful Persimmon Fer not long ago. I did not use it much, but over autumn, I wished I had it to put it on one of my dolls and take pictures in the leaves.

 

I've found this really interesting as I'm trying to decide whether to rehome my first doll. I love her but I don't bother with her much, and she doesn't fit the rest of my doll family. When I initially made the decision to sell her it felt almost... freeing, to finally sell a doll that just isn't working. I don't feel any real attachment to this doll like I do with my other girls but I still worry that she will move on and I will suddenly miss her and regret selling her. I don't necessarily feel guilty about parting with her, if anything I would rather she go and live with someone that enjoys her and wants to spend time with her.

 

As anyone who knows me can tell anyone who doesn't I have a thing about selling dolls soon after they arrive. I don't think I have ever looked for a doll to be a certain way as far as charecter. I work with whatever they want to be most times. My thing more is face and posing ability. Other then that no real rules set in stone. The reason I sell most times is I went over board in not only getting the doll, but stuff for it as well as the others here. So if the doll & I don't mesh then he or she is sold. My bigger fear is CC dent. Most dolls I buy if there is a love there I know I can either buy it back from person who bought from me or buy a newer version. Fact is if I was creating a character first and finding doll next I would be lost. I am creative, but I don't RPG, I don't write in a blog or Live Journal. My dolls come to me as they are and sometimes something forms I can work with and place among the others, sometimes not. But If I love the doll, the face the body and it allows me to take great pics, then they stay and the personality will come out.

 

Personally I have never sold a doll, BUT I am generally a hoader.
and when I hoard i tend to get attached to things so I can bear to sell them off,
for dolls it proabably wouldnt be any different. But i could only sell a doll when I feel no longer attached to them anymore, or felt that the Dolls really deserved a better home.

 

Do you ever get sellers guilt?
Oh totally. I didn't even give my Asleep Eidolon girl that long. I liked her and I started getting a story for her and everything and then sold her within a month. In a way I'm really glad because I just do not have time for two 1/3 size girls. I barely give my Feeple enough time right now. And then my PukiPuki? I think I gave him 24 hours. I just knew right away he was too tiny for my tastes... however... now I think it might have been fun to play with him.

 

I sometimes feel I must rehome a doll because I have been neglecting her but as soon as I get her out and start taking pics again I fall back in love with her >_< I have sold a few dollies though, and although I miss them I don't regret my decision. This is such an expensive hobby, there must be some casualties :P

 

I've sold one doll and gave away two to friends, but I don't feel bad about any of ones that left. It makes me happy to see what their new owners do with them.

 

I really regret selling my Soom Heliot-girl. She was amazing, but a bit big for my taste back then. Now I only own SD's, so I would love to get her back...

 

I didn't feel guilty at all until I told my mom I was selling a doll. She got really mad. So, it's not really doll guilt but mom guilt.
On a slightly related note, I do feel a slight twinge of guilt every time I want to buy a new doll.

 

I can't even imagine selling one of my dolls... If I had to out of some necessity, I'd feel really sad and guilty, and I'd probably be upset to see someone posting pictures of him around DoA, too. >_> I'm sentimental with them.

 

A friend of mine sold her doll to me having said that she just never bonded with her and had been contemplating selling her for a while. When I saw her I fell absolutely in love but I felt so guilty taking her away from my friend even though she wasn't cut up at all about loosing her to me- on the contrary she says that she loves now being able to see Nancy get the treatment she deserves with me. I think it's odd that whilst a lot of you may feel guilty for selling your dolls, sometimes us buyers can feel guilty too.

 

That's a good point. I've seen tons of people in the marketplace saying they're selling their dolls to pay for medical bills, even though they love them and don't want to lose them. So while you're helping the financial situation for buying them, you're also taking their beloved treasures... But ultimately it's the seller's decision to give up this or that doll, even out of necessity.

 

You're not the only one. I share the same remorse, but I just have to remember that every time
I looked at my first I felt more remorse over buying her in the first place. I felt I had wasted my money on something that didn't really please me, but she was cheap. I just recently her and the only thing I miss is that he was the best posing doll I've had so far.

 

I just wish I could keep seeing them on someones flickr account, It stinks to sell them and they they disappear into the dolly abyss. It would be nice to know what happend to them.