Should I sell my dolls?

I haven’t sold any of my BJDs because I tend to see why I liked them the moment I pick them up again. I think the only thing that would make me sell is needing the money for some kind of emergency.

 

What I usually do is pack them away in their boxes for awhile... Somewhere completely out of the way and out of sight.

If you find yourself missing them, and going to get one or another of them back out, that's a pretty good indication that you're not really ready to let them go yet. If six months pass by without you really thinking about them or wanting to retrieve them from the closet-of-exile? Then it may be time to send them on.

 

Yeah... If they've been out of sight and out of mind for years, it probably is time to send them off to their next adventure.

 

A lot of people do the "put them away and see if you miss them" trick. For me personally, not noticing their absence isn't enough to warrant selling. I hilariously left one of my dolls in a bag after going to a meetup and he was in that bag for six months until one day I was like, "Uh, where's Gremory?" And he's one of my dolls that I would probably never sell because I love him so much! But I have a lot of dolls, so I think it's understandable if I don't actively admire all of them all the time. I focus on a few, and others get ignored, and this cycles around, but that doesn't mean the ignored ones should get sold

I often find myself selling dolls that feel like work. And usually it's my own fault that those dolls feel like work- I'm the one who decided to make their character design something hard to achieve, or whatever. But sometimes the effort to make a doll look "right" is really fun and inspiring. Other times, it feels like I try and try and try but they're never right. Or what needs to be done to them is so daunting that I put it off for literal years. By that point I need to just accept that I will never do what it takes to make the doll how I want it to be. Those dolls get sold, and it feels like a relief. I don't want to look at my dolls and feel frustrated or exhausted by them!

 

I've done the "put them in a box for a while and see if I miss them" test a few times. If I don't miss them, and handling them again when I pull them out doesn't change my mind, they get sold. I've also had a few that caused me enough frustration to out weigh the joy I got from them. They're meant to make me happy and inspire me. If a specific doll makes me feel mostly frustrated or indifferent, they get sold.

 

This is exactly how I feel about my 63cm Loong Soul girl. I never did get to see her complete before I decided to sell her, and sometimes it haunts me. I wonder, if I had gotten to see her looking the way I envisioned her, would I have chosen to keep her?

I relate to this so much too, and it leads into my conclusion about my Loong Soul girl. It got to that point where trying to complete her was too daunting and just too much work. Part of this was because of her size, part of it was because of the cost of outfitting an SD doll, and part of it was because I got her at a time in my life where I didn't have a lot of energy to devote to dolls period. Whatever the reason, I never did just get it done. So at this point, it's kind of like I want the doll she could be, not the doll she is right now. And if I'm never going to feel able to turn her into what she could be, I think it's time to let her go and make room for dolls that I'll feel more equipped to complete. It's a difficult decision to make since I still love her, but I'm hopeful it will bring me more peace with my collection in the long run.

 

I think you’ve answered your own question right there. If there’s even an inkling of doubt, especially with hard to find sculpts then hang on to them or you’ll probably regret it. When the time is right you’ll either get them finished or feel they need to go without doubts.

I’ve sold most of my collection before, over a decade ago but kept a few that had sentimental value above anything else. I did regret selling two of the ones I had back then, not going to lie. A couple of years ago however I felt ready to start collecting again and have managed to rebuy one of the sculpts, had to as I missed him so much.

Personally I think it’s time to rehome a doll if I feel frustrated with it more than getting any enjoyment out of it, that’s my main reason. I ask myself what the first thought is that I have upon looking at it. If it’s something like ‘those legs annoy me’ or ‘nothing ever looks right with you’ instead of ‘your face just makes me smile’ then that’s a pretty good indication that I’m not the right person for that doll and they need to be with someone who can realise their potential better than I can.

It’s a hard choice and realistically one only you can make in the end but I wish you luck.

 

I haven't sold a lot of dolls but I feel like the same thing applies to most hobbies or items for me - once I get the glimpse of a thought to sell, it eats itself further and further until I understand that it would really relieve me to let go. With bjds especially, if I struggle to feel inspired to keep interacting with them, I best move on as I don't like having them just on display or box in the same way indefinitely. I'll just feel sad to neglect them if someone could be handling them more often.

 

Putting dolls away to see if I miss them doesn’t work for me either. I usually know it’s time to sell a doll when I start thinking about what I would do with the shelf space and/or money I would gain from selling them, or I start thinking about how another mold would suit their character more. I know I’ve emotionally detached at that point.

 

Easy! Are your dolls on my wishlist? If yes, you should sell them.

Actual answer: Play with them and remember why you bought them.

I decided I didn't want any of my boys around 10 years ago and put them all away during my extended college experience. I did not touch them for a very long time. I took them back out and played a little... and then played a lot and now I'm obsessed with them all over again. They are perfect and I would have regretted selling them so much.

In the last year, I've put a lot more effort into making them look like I want than I did when I first got them. That is my new big regret. They could have been gorgeous all those years but instead I just bought MORE DOLLS. I already had what I wanted, I just didn't realize it.

 

For me, I often cycle through phases of being very fixated/invested in my collection and largely absent/disinterested in it, so I don't hold myself to any kind of standard when it comes to deciding to sell. What usually pushes me over the edge is that I look at a doll and actively think about selling them - get them down to nude, take pictures, post them, pack them away, et cetera. If it turns out that I do want to sell them, this is usually enough to get the selling bug to bite me and I am suddenly chomping at the bit to be rid of them. If it doesn't happen, then the doll's a keeper until further notice.

Incidentally, there is a high overlap between "dolls I like but don't really have any desire to play with" and "dolls that get put on the chopping block as soon as I feel the urge to sell." I went through a period of FOMO buying for a few years and most of the dolls I bought due to FOMO have since been moved on. The ones that stuck on my wishlist for years and took me ages to get my hands on? Those are my forever keepers.

 

Oh geez, I am in a similar boat that you are in. I have debated for about two weeks now, if I should sell some of the dolls I have. I even thought about making a similar post as yours to ask for advice!
I recently was able to get a grail doll that I have wanted for eons and now that I have her, I feel like my other dolls pale in comparison and now all I want are the dolls from the company that made my grail doll.

I just feel conflicted, and I am not sure what to do. I have dolls that I like the face sculpts but despise their bodies. There are some I can't sell the body separate because the resin is in special colours and I know I will regret selling a entire doll, missing their face sculpt lol. I am not the most active in the community and for months at a time I will just drop off the radar. I am starting to question do I need so many of them, I do love the hobby though and have been apart of it since '09.

 

The useful questions for me are: "do I still enjoy the doll as time goes by?" Whatever "enjoyment" means in this hobby - playing with the doll, photography, sewing/crafting, having them out and looking pretty...

If the doll is not in a state to be enjoyed (no faceup/clothes, or I no longer like how they're styled anymore) ... then the next question is "am I willing to put in the effort/money/time to complete them so I can enjoy them?" It takes effort to complete or change a doll, but the process - and the payoff - can be very rewarding. However, if the reward of enjoyment is not enough incentive for me to put in any effort... then it's probably time to sell the doll.

For me, I enjoy the BJD hobby by playing with my dolls, posing them, taking photos. I once sold a doll body because I just didn't enjoy playing with it, my dislike for the body increased to the point I just didn't want to do anything with it, not even restring/maintenance to help it pose better. So I sold it and bought a new body for my doll, which I liked playing with much more. The thing is, this new body required a LOT of maintenance (much more than the previous body!) to get it posing to my satisfaction -- but I was willing to put in the effort, and the payoff was worth it.

So I use enjoyment as my gauge. If I'm not enjoying the doll and don't want to work on it anymore, and no longer see it as a meaningful member of my doll crew... is there any reason to keep it? If there's no reason, I don't think I'll regret selling this doll.

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But if you're asking about cashing out and leaving the hobby completely? That's a different thing, and a lot harder to decide.

In 2013 I lost interest in the BJD hobby, put my dolls away into a closet and didn't look at them once -- in fact, I forgot about their existence for years at a stretch. Around 2019 or 2020 (about year 8 of the hiatus), I came to the conclusion that I was completely done with BJDs - I mean, if you've been out of a hobby for 8 years, what's the chances of returning? So I wrote in my diary a goal for that year: "sell BJDs and cash out of the hobby." I also made a goal to cash out of a different hobby, and did so (no regrets) -- but I never got around to touching my dolls that year, and eventually dropped the goal.

One fine day at the end of 2022, I pulled my dolls out of the closet for the first time in ~10 years -- and I remembered why I loved BJDs in the first place. I started playing with my dolls, and my enjoyment just increased. So instead of cashing out, I dove back into the hobby! Who knows: if I pulled my dolls out in 2019 when I was in the leave-the-hobby mood, would this love have reignited? If I'd pulled my dolls out and indeed felt nothing for them and no more interest in the hobby, then that would've been the sign to indeed cash out and leave. OTOH, knowing my personality, I'm sure I would've been ruthless, stuck to my goal, and sold all my BJDs... and maybe regretted it later. Who knows.

But instead of feeling nothing, my love for my dolls reignited, and I'm back and enjoying the hobby more than ever. I'm so glad that I hung onto my dolls for all those 10 years. Sometimes the love does come back after a long break! But only you can judge that, and whether you want to sell your beloved dolls with the risk of never recovering them.

 

With mine it's whewther they've had any attention in the past...{insert time period here}...

If they're just sat untouched on the shelf, or taken down, changed into a different outfit then left untouched again, they're not getting enough attention.

My dolls are playthings and there's no point in having them (taking up increasingly valuable space) if I'm not, or no longer, drawn to pick them up and play with them. I currently have a list of about ten potential outgoing BJD, that I realized had been in the same outfits for several years and had barely been touched in that time (despite my being stuck at home all the way through the Covid Lockdowns). One of them immediately sold to a friend who I happened to mention this too, but the rest are stil here mostly because I'm terrible at getting around to creating adn posting sales listings.

But, we are shortly to receive some large pieces of (inherited) family furniture that is going to eat up a current chunk of doll-display real-estate so the numbers really do need reducing, and moving on the ones on the list would go a ways toward alleviating the space crisis for the displaced dolls. That might prompt me to get my finger out on puttign up those listings.

Teddy

 

I'm in the same boat right now... Most of my dolls have been hidden away in my closet, some of them since I got them. It's hard to part with them but I feel like I have to accept the fact that I'll never do anything with them and I should just let them go...

 

Perhaps sharing my experience will be of some help to you. The exact same thing happened to me over a decade ago. I received the Dollzone Anson in my avatar…she had become an “instant grail”, and I’d have done absolutely anything to bring that doll home. I literally haunted my doll dealer until they finally put up her buy button, and struck so fast when they did, I swear smoke was rising from my keyboard! Prior to her arrival, I’d been happily collecting for 4 or 5 years and really enjoying the process. But when my grail doll finally arrived home, she simply eclipsed every other doll in my collection in both beauty and character to the point where they just all felt redundant to me. It was a shocking realization, but after thinking on it for several days, I made the tough decision to sell them all. I just couldn’t reconcile “them” with “her”.

Well, it turned out to be the best decision I ever made. From that point on, I collected with a thought to what sort of characters would live in my Dollzone Anson’s world…and it’s been an amazing experience ever since. I’ve amassed a good sized collection and am still utterly fascinated by every doll (and every character) I have. After that big initial sell off, I’ve only sold extremely rarely since (and only when a sculpt didn’t work out for a specific character.) Today, every single doll is a treasured and cherished member of my crew, right along with that Dollzone Anson who initiated that drastic change so long ago.

 

I see a handful of the pack away method, i sort of do the opposite. I keep finished dolls on display, and after a while, if i get bored with seeing them, and dont have any inspiration to change them, i list them for sale.

Mind my adhd gets in the way of actually listing them. I got 5 dolls that ive been meaning to sell, but i gotta take the sale pictures first xD