Should I sell my dolls?

So the “out of sight out of mind” technique also doesn’t work with me because I have adhd and my object permanence isn’t there—if I don’t see the doll for a while, it just won’t exist in my brain. Notable exception is shrike, who must always be in the Shrike Spot on my desk.

I know it’s time to sell a doll when the amount I could make off the doll is more important to me than the doll itself. And when I no longer feel inspired to do anything with them. Sometimes, I’ll just feel a doll seems wrong, and sell. Sometimes a doll doesn’t look like the right character, and I don’t know who else they could be. The other day I sold a project doll because I realized the project no longer mattered to me.

 

i always sell every doll after "i feel nothing" towards it. i'm not fan of "how can i sell it?! i just can't!" doll must give emotions. good emotions. not "i don't care".

 

I usually ask myself a ton of questions before purchasing a doll and after purchasing a doll and handling it in-person. Questions like: How well does it pose? Would it be difficult to buy clothes for them? Can it wear any of the clothes and wigs I already have? What's so special after this doll, that I couldn't get from playing with my other dolls? Usually after answering those questions in my head, I can think of I want to buy or keep a doll.

I haven't sold a doll yet, but plan to sell at least two in the future. Why? Because after getting the first doll, I didn't like the posing and how wigs looked on her so I never played with her much. As for the second, I just prefer my other dolls over that one so I think it should go to a better home instead.

I believe any action requires a lot of thought, especially selling a doll you might not be able to buy again.

 

I only have one doll I think I’d ever think of selling, and she was a full impulse buy.
The rest of them even if I don’t see them for some time I don’t think I could part emotionally to sell them.

If you’re not sure then that’s a pretty good sign that there’s something holding you back, otherwise you’d just sell them with little thought. If you can pinpoint where the hesitations coming from it’ll make deciding easier.

 

Usually as soon as I start having doubts about a specific doll chances are it's going to end up being sold.
I've used the pack it away method and it has worked some times, others it's just more about what some here were also saying about the doll feeling like work. I've had dolls that I thought were perfect for what I had in mind, but then when I get them it just doesn't work, and doesn't matter how much I try to make it work, it just doesn't. Many years ago this would make me feel guilty and I would try for a long time to make them fit despite feeling it like a chore. Nowadays as soon as it starts happening I give up and move on, it's less stressful and I waste less money trying to make them fit.

Sometimes I've had dolls for years and then one day they just don't click anymore, maybe because I've changed or maybe because I've seen a sculpt that fits better, and so I let them go to someone that might give them the attention I don't and I can focus on dolls that make me happier. Again, years ago this could take me even more than a year to decide especially for those more sentimental dolls, but with time I've learnt to give myself less and less time to think about it and these days, knowing myself at this point, it has become pretty automatic, if the doubt is there I rumiate for about a week maximum and unless the doubt disappears I sell. I haven't regretted any doll I sold so far, even when I think about some past doll and how nice it would be to have it back I remember the doubts I had and I end up to the same conclusion that my decision was ultimately a good one. So I guess I learnt over time to trust myself more maybe? haha or at least my gut reaction.

Funny enough, I find I tend to end up clicking more with less meditated buys than those I've been thinking about for a very long time, I think it's because I don't have everything very planned for the quicker buys and so I'm a lot more flexible with what I do with them once I get them, if things don't work out as intended in their customisation I change them and it's not a big deal. But for dolls I got with a specific idea in mind or for a specific character and so on, if they don't fit in that then I can't find anything else to do with them and they won't fit no matter what I do. I'm weird like that

 

The thing is with me that internet confuses me,so to me if I don't enjoy a doll outside the online community it has to go , that is my main rule . I had to move house 3times the last years and it was a burden to pack and move all the dolls and parts , now I still unpack stuff from my collection and my question to myself is can I display it or store it securely in an easily accessible manner? Do I like to see it , touch it , play or dress up this doll no matter the internet ? Is it practical space wise to keep this doll having in mind how many I want to keep? If all questions are replied with a yes the doll stays if not it has to go!!!
Every doll is pretty and beautiful the question to me do I want to have it myself in my house ,handle it and craft for it or I just like the pics in the second case I can always watch others pics online or save them in my pc to watch!!

 

Speaking from personal experience, I recently got back into the hobby and I had my dolls sitting in a box in a storage closet in my apartment for literally 10+ years (save for a few moves here and there, I always remembered to bring that long purple box with them).

I unfortunately miscounted my boys during one of my last moves before my more permanent homes and I do find myself missing and regretting not accounting for my DoD and Dollshe Husky head that are now probably long gone in the local Goodwill or Salvation Army...

My point here is that sometimes, even years in storage (heck, even a decade) doesn't mean you should sell them. If you've spent time saving up for a doll and deliberately building out their character, restringing them, customizing them with wigs, clothes, and custom faceups... A lot of consideration (and love) has gone into each one. I would be more deliberate than an "out of sight, out of mind" trick.

 

I’m currently browsing this thread because I’m experiencing this exact dilemma. I’ve been in-and-out of this hobby for almost a full decade now and I’m currently debating on whether or not I should sell some dolls that I bought a few years ago (call it “lockdown-induced purchasing”)…

While I love the idea of working on them and customizing them in theory, in reality I feel like it’s going to be a lot of time and energy and money that I should be using elsewhere. But I’m also suffering through the sunk cost fallacy because I saved up so much and waited so long for them to come (two of them are Dollshes that I had to fight for for over a year—I’m one of the lucky cases!) that it feels like I’m… I don’t know, ungrateful to have them? Unappreciative of my previous investment? I don’t know.

Anyway, all of these different opinions have been really fascinating, and I’m hoping to sleep on my decision and reconsider. Hope you also figured out what you want to do with your dolls!

 

One rule of thumb I've learned about selling ANYTHING, is that if you wouldn't notice it's absence it's time to sell it. When I returned to the hobby recently I sold off a head of mine that I still to this day enjoy, but I just had no more plans for it. I don't miss him, and I think it was a good decision. Someone else can love him, and I can move on to projects I want to do NOW.

 

Being in a tiny living space, I have to sell dolls when I buy new ones or they will literally physically obstruct day to day life