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The dolly revolving door and the hobby slumps

Aug 20, 2014

    1. I think I started out in this hobby with no intent to sell my dolls, but I've sold quite a few now... I feel like my aesthetic preferences have changed a lot. ...and I apparently am terrible at keeping female dolls around... I got rid of one and reshelled another three times.

      So lately I'm feeling a little frustrated about my doll collection... And for the first time I've wanted to sell a doll the day I opened the box which I dunno why it makes me feel upset, but it kind of does? :atremblin I don't know. Maybe I'm just sort of in a slump at this point in the hobby.

      I guess I wanna ask you guys about how you deal with when it feels like you're having a slump.

      How do you feel when it seems like a lot of the dolls you're getting don't fit your crew as much as you thought? Does it make you question your future doll purchases?

      Do you wait until you've sold all the dolls you're not getting along with before buying more?

      How do you feel when you've had a doll sitting on the marketplace for a long time? Do you eventually give up and try to give the doll and new face-up and take a new whack at trying to bond? Do you just sit on it until it sells?
       
    2. Firstly, I think being upset over not liking a doll upon arrival its completely normal. Especially when you take into consideration the amount of time, effort, and money that goes into purchasing something like a BJD.

      My BJD aren't characters to me, so if I don't like one, there's no reshelling involved, it's just straight to the Marketplace with it. For the above reasons it's frustrating, but it also doesn't bother me as much as it could. I'll generally wait till whatever it was is sold before thinking of buying another, and I never give that doll another go even if it doesn't sell immediately; Once I decide to put up that sales thread I lose all emotional attachments to it. I've gone through about four dolls myself.

      As for slumps, I simply put my dolls away and focus my attentions on other things. Forcing yourself into something you're not completely enjoying, or are agonizing over, can be poisonous. Sometimes I'll be back to BJD'ing after a week. Recently I only just came back after nearly a year.
       
    3. I have had that feeling. There are 2 dolls currently in my possession that I'm not bonding with.
      One of them was more obvious. Opened box. Did not like sculpt. Decided to sell. End of dilemma.
      The other one I'm still very conflicted. I reshelled him into another character which made things easier for me but I don't play with him at all. However, every now and then I'll come across a nice picture on Deviantart or Flickr and start admiring the doll, only to realize that it's him. So this means I really do like the sculpt...I just haven't tried hard enough.

      I'm not sure which it is for you. Sometimes you JUST KNOW IT. Other times, it's because of the faceup, the hair or the clothes.

      I think for me it might be my own problem, because one was a new sculpt so no owner pics exists. The other sculpt is just really unpopular so not enough owner pics circulating. This both resulted in me getting a doll without being really sure of the sculpt. Maybe that's the problem for you? There's something about the face that you just dislike?
       
    4. I started thinking I'd never sell too... but twenty+ dolls later, hmm... I have a lot of frustrations with my doll family. It's not that I don't love them, I do, each and every one of them. I could tell you all their molds, names, characters, their life story, when I purchased them/their head/their body... and maybe even list their entire wardrobe... but I never planned for so many. But being as creative as I am it's hard to stick to a specific style and I fail to bond with dolls unless they have characters. As you may have noticed already this creates one major problem seeing how these things clash. I can't get "rid" of old dolls and I can't experiment with styles on my current dolls either, so to make something new, try new projects and styles I need to acquire new resin.

      Which, let's be honest, makes it really hard sometimes. It makes me want to come to a screeching halt and sell everyone without a second thought... but then I realized that's not so easy. Recently I made a post on tumblr with a feeler of dolls I'd like to sell once I'm back home. It started with almost half my collection but was shot down to a much smaller size over time. Why? Because some dolls were put up there due to frustrations I could actually try to rectify and just because I constantly feel like I have too many. And I've been feeling that way since doll no. 11, which is quite a long while now, considering I'm at 18 dolls and some heads right now if I'm to include all the things I'm waiting on -~-

      So all in all, frustrations exist, sometimes they're even necessary, there is a curve and eventually we'll get over it, and that's okay... I've seen worse than revolving door collections, sometimes people just collect that way. As for sales, I tend to sit on them until they sell... although I've pulled dolls marketplace several times due to them not selling before... I also buy while selling things if I have the funds. If I don't I wait, of course. But once I consider putting a doll up for sale then it remains for sale and isn't considered a part of my doll family unless I claim otherwise.
       
    5. Like you, I started the hobby with no intentions of selling my dolls. I think I've managed to do that for the most part, although I admit I've entertained thoughts of selling some of them before.

      I have a doll I've shelled into 3 different characters, and it was frustrating when I had to keep reshelling him because I've always loved the sculpt and was super excited about buying it, but he didn't work out for the character(s) for a while. In the end I just did a faceup without thinking too hard about which character he should be and as a result, accidentally found a character for him. For this doll, I think it was the faceup and eyes and wigs that was just not working out for him so even though I was really tempted to just sell him (the reshelling took place over a year or so, during which I kept entertaining thoughts of whether I should sell), I'm glad revamping his character helped.

      There's another doll head that I have which I'm not too sure about, because I do like the sculpt but I don't really feel anything about it. I'm still thinking if I should sell or keep him...

      When I have such slumps, usually I would redo (or send them out for) faceups, change their wigs/eyes and see if something else might fit better...sometimes browse photos of that sculpt to see what I like and dislike about it. I've been pretty good at not selling so far, but sometimes during slumps, it's really hard to decide, so I often just leave that doll aside, and play with my others, if I'm in the mood.

      They don't usually affect my future doll purchases (unless they're supposed to be siblings), and I do buy new dolls (sometimes) when in such slumps. And as for selling, although I've not done it for dolls I'm really attached to (I've sold a head when I bought the doll for the body, with full intention of never making that head a character), I don't think that if I ever do it, I would stop buying new dolls or items for the rest. If it doesn't move on the marketplace, I'll most likely just lower the price, or add extra items until it sells. Like Soenatte, once I put something up for sale, it isn't considered part of my doll family.
       
    6. my dolls aren't based on any characters - I just buy what I find aesthetically attractive - which has changed and is constantly changing, since I got my first doll a mere 2 years ago. I like all my dolls out on display, so if one of them gets on my nerves for some reason, I pack them up - try again in a few months - see how I feel after a restyle, new wig and eyes make the most difference.

      I was up to about 25 dolls before I realised how much I envy people with just 2 or 3 dolls to love - how nice it must be to have affection for just a couple, instead of feeling bewildered by trying to style so many! So I have been selling and selling and selling - If I can list a doll on ebay without any doubts in my mind, I know it's right. I listed my B&G Sandra in my avatar yesterday, as she's not my kind of aesthetic any more - but it was hard to photograph her for sale - her eyes pleaded with me - I asked my son and he said oh no you must keep her - she's nice! So I ended the listing quickly and breathed a sigh of relief. She's still in her box and I'm not sure what to do with her, but I know I want to keep her a while longer at least. Because I hate dithering around I always price to sell - so my dolls rarely hang around on ebay for long - I'm very impatient and just want them gone once the decision has been made, so I lose a lot of money, but I gain peace of mind! I feel so much happier now I just have less than 10 dolls on display - it's lovely to spoil them with clothes I couldn't afford before, as I had so many unfinished dolls. The obvious advantage of selling dolls is money to buy MORE dolls though - I confess I have a weakness for filling the gap created with another one :XD:
       
    7. I definitely go through slumps where I decide I'm more interested in a different type of doll right now (I collect a lot of different kinds of dolls - monster high, barbie, fashion royalty, etc). But, inevitably, my mood changes and I'm into my BJDs again. I've been through those types of swings enough now to recognize them, and to not worry and rush off and sell everything, thinking I'm not interested anymore.

      I am very, very careful before selling any bjd or head. Once upon a time, if you didn't want a doll anymore, you really could get back what you paid for it, perhaps less the shipping cost, but that's it. NOW, a lot of stuff I have has gone down a lot in value. If I sold it, and decided I made a mistake, I might have a hard time getting it back again. So I really want to be absolutely POSITIVE before I sell anything.

      I don't have characters to shell, so that, thankfully, has never been a problem for me. I have definitely discovered that if I'm not bonding, I really have to take the time to sit with the doll, try on all my different eyes, and wigs. A doll that was sort of boring in a blonde wig might really come to life in a black one, and I would be sorry if I didn't give that doll a chance.

      If a doll sits in the MP and doesn't sell, and you truly don't want it, put it on ebay. It'll go, maybe not for as much as you want, but if you start the bidding low enough, IT WILL GO. And that's another thing I've learned over time -- you just cannot be sure any given purchase will appreciate or at least stay the same value over time. So to make myself feel better about that, I say to myself:

      "This doll is gaining me zero dollars sitting on the shelf. If I sell it, this doll will GET me $300. And that's $300 I didn't have before.":) (Versus thinking, :...(%&$*, I paid $500 for this doll, I just LOST $200.:...()
       
    8. I started the hobby with no intention of selling as well, but just a few weeks ago I did it for the first time. (She was a limited I bought used, mostly an impulse buy because I got her cheap, but in whiteskin, which has never really agreed with me. But I loved the sculpt.)

      And now I'm (tentatively) considering selling my first doll as well. My aesthetic preferences have changed very much since I started out (only one grail doll I've loved all the way through), but with this one I think I have too much of an emotional attachment to actually go through with a sale.

      Reminding myself that when it comes down to it, they really are "just toys" helps me tone down the bonding if I'm trying to sell.

      I think "slumps" are completely natural with any interest, not just the doll hobby. When I go through a slump I'll usually just naturally pack the dolls away a little at a time when I need space for other things, and then I'll unpack them again when I feel like it. My longest slump lasted more than a year, but there wasn't much frustration involved. I just felt like picking up one of the again one day, and I fell in love all over again. And now I'm back :)

      I've only ever once received a doll I didn't like, but I played around with her for a few months before deciding she really wasn't for me. As for having new dolls fit into your crew badly, I've never actually had a "crew". My dolls don't have stories, and they're rarely all out at the same time anyway.
       
    9. totally agree with you sher - I've noticed the days when dolls were an investment are long gone, unless they are very special, and even then you have to wait for a willing buyer to come along, which can take a year or more! I also take the view of 'this doll is dead money' if I don't want it, rather than holding onto it because of what it cost me, or holding out on a sales thread for what I paid for it - I'd rather have some cash to buy another doll I like better!
       
    10. Unless you are going for a very limited release when you buy, you probably won't get back what you paid nowadays. 7-8 years ago BJD were hard to get so their value was very high. Now there are so many companies to choose from the market is constantly flooded with new dolls.

      I go through slumps like all of you. I have never sold one, although as my collection has grown I would like to thin it down a bit. I find that having many dolls gets a bit overwhelming. Maybe one day I will sell some and keep only the ones that are dearest to me, but as I don't have any pressing financial needs right now there is no rush.

      It takes time to bond sometimes, it took me 1 1/2 years to bond with my Volks SDC Kaede don't ask me why. But one day I realized she was the most beautiful girl. I need to work on the doll, make clothes, choose wigs and eyes and photograph them for the bonding to occur. For that reason I don't worry if a new doll sits in its box for a long while (right now I have 3 without faceups waiting for their turn). I don't give them elaborate characters although when I get them I sketch out their characters in general and give them a short bio. I also find that I have a tendency to focus my attention on only one doll at a time to the exclusion of the others.

      For me the hobby has to be enjoyable, If I don't feel like playing with them, that's fine I don't feel guilty about it I know I will get back to them in a little while, I don't obsess about it.
       

    11. Yeah buying new or unpopular dolls always feels like more of a gamble since you haven't seen as much variety in owner photos. It worked out for me with my Nabarro's Boys Har, but not so much with Soom Sov.

      For me, it seems to be size woes because I've decided Yo-SD size just isn't working for me. And my other doll would have been fine if his head was like... 5%-10% bigger because it turns out my other big dolls have bigger heads which makes him look weird.

      Yeah sometimes I have the "I like this sculpt but I dunno what I am doing with this" sort of sentiment. Because I liked the Zaoll Luv sculpt, but eh... it just wasn't working for what I envisioned. I also learned I will never ever buy a white skin doll again because I think they are very hard to work with.

      Well, I sort of have that sentiment when I am browsing dolls to buy too. "You're so beautiful! ....who will you be ??? ???? I don't know..." Leeke Mihael is one of the dolls that I love to see but totally don't need to own.

      Yeah, I suppose some money is better than no money.

      I put one of them on ebay with no bites at all, but maybe I didn't go low enough...
       
    12. I am totally going through this right now. Also after I bought a doll and immediately disliked her out of the box.

      It just... I dunno. I started out the hobby also with the intention of never selling dolls (didn't we all), but I've sold all but one of the ones I bought. (Which is like.... 8 dolls, I think?) And usually it was pretty organic, like, after a year or two I'd drift away from the aesthetic for the character, maybe lose interest in the character the doll was meant to be, maybe it would just be a year or two of me not having enough time or money to complete the doll and within a few months the doll would be on its way to another owner (I'd usually take a bit of a loss, but it was never more than 10% of what I originally paid), and I'd be saving up for another doll.

      But this one just upset me. I feel like I can't trust myself anymore, because I was SO excited and SO sure this was the doll I wanted, and then she showed up and I couldn't muster anything but apathy mixed in with a bit of... disgust, actually. Not that the doll was GROSS or anything like that. She was just so completely wrong for ME in every sense and was lacking everything I wanted out of her, straight out of the box. I feel like I've been trying to settle this whole time, and that there are actually no dolls out there that really fit my aesthetic preferences. :(


      Honestly, my way of dealing with it right now is just to sell the doll and avoid buying more dolls for a little while. There is a doll I'm eyeing right now (for the same character as the one meant for the doll that was completely wrong out of the box), but a) I set a goal I need to reach before I can buy her and b) I've wanted/liked her since my first year in the hobby, so I figured if I'm still interested 5 years later, it's probably a safer bet.
       
    13. I always buy a BJD with no intention to sell it, ever. Sometimes I will have doubts even before I buy it, and that is a bad sign for me. I always end up selling that doll. I've found that dolls I fall in love with immediately from their pictures alone are a good bet. I have kept every single one of them. I do not buy dolls with intention to resell them, unless I am buying a doll just for its body and plan to sell the head, or vice versa.

      As for your reshelling female characters, I understand your frustration. I have bought NINE dolls in an attempt to embody ONE female character! All of them have left except for two who ended up becoming new characters for me, and the third who is still here. I am hopeful she will work.

      How do you feel when it seems like a lot of the dolls you're getting don't fit your crew as much as you thought?
      I am one of those people whose dolls all have characters. I intend to give every doll I keep a working character. However... I will not introduce a doll in a story or as a character unless I am sure I am going to keep it. And right now, I am "waffling" over more dolls at one time than I ever have before. I have four or five who have not been introduced. It is overwhelming to have so many dolls that I'm not actively playing with or at least thinking about. I do know logically that the dolls will wait as long as I want... but it's a little frustrating to have them sitting around doing nothing.

      Does it make you question your future doll purchases?
      It seems to have NO effect on slowing down my future doll purchases!! LOL! I am still buying, but I do know I need to tone it down and/or begin to sell some things. I feel I am reaching critical mass.

      Do you wait until you've sold all the dolls you're not getting along with before buying more?
      I should, but I don't. I feel like I want to make the ones I have work before buying more. But then I see one that I am SURE I can make work right away and I buy it too, though the moving forward with that new character doesn't always happen as soon as I think it will.

      How do you feel when you've had a doll sitting on the marketplace for a long time? Do you eventually give up and try to give the doll and new face-up and take a new whack at trying to bond? Do you just sit on it until it sells?
      I bump it faithfully until it sells. I've never had one absolutely not sell. Once I list it, I am sure I don't want it any more, so I will not be trying to bond with it after I list it.

      Linda S.
      galatia9
       
    14. I agree...it's usually sculpts I love with no character that makes me go "urghhhh, I love you, but I don't know who you can be, you nameless doll D:" The Mihael comment made me laugh because I own a Mihael, and I want a Zaoll Luv (well, dreaming Luv) in WS. I definitely have a lot of dolls I like but no characters for, and I've been good at not buying them so I won't have to sell them, but when it does come to a slump... urgh, it's really hard.

      I second "some money is better than no money at all". Once I decide to sell something, I'll just list it and if no one buys, I'll lower the price until it sells. I did that with a body once, and even though I lost a fair bit of money on it, I was just really glad to sell it and get some money to buy new stuff rather than have a body I don't want in the house. It's hard to tell what's "low enough" though :/
       
    15. I generally won't go less than 2 thirds of what I paid for the doll, unless I think it's a really unpopular sculpt and therefore nobody's going to want it, or if I'm just desperate for the money ASAP, in which case I'll go a bit lower than that - usually sells quickly then, although I don't want to be 'scalped' by someone just wanting to sell the doll on at a profit! Also as I use ebay, the fees are phenomenal - 10% of what I get for the doll :sweat So I need to factor that in too, whereas selling on the MP here you don't have that added cost. I prefer ebay though, as I use all the filters for buyers, so I pay through the nose for it LOL
       
    16. So far I have not sold or even thought about selling any of my dolls. I don't think its a bad thing to do that though. Some people like the change and it is better to be honest with yourself and sell the doll than to leave it somewhere to collect dust and feel guilty for doing so. On the other hand, if you feel like it just needs a new face up and wig then you should try it. But I wouldn't force anything if that isn't what you want.
       
    17. I can totally relate to what you are going through!

      From the time I started the hobby my style has changed a lot. I really love my mature mini's and even want to add a couple of SD's to my collection. Now I've started contemplating selling my first doll, and I never thought that would happen... I've gotten into a slump too!
      However, I am trying to push through it. I have sold a few dolls that I knew would never work for me, and am working on making the remaining ones exactly what I want them to be. I have sent all but two out for custom face-ups. There are very few dolls I want at this point (that are readily available) so I'm trying to focus on making them everything I want before I list them on the marketplace. That being said...when a doll is on the marketplace I usually just let them sit there until they sell. Sometimes I don't bump them up for weeks though! It's a bad habit of mine...
       
    18. Haha what a coincidence! Your Mihael is handsome.


      I guess I'm sort of alright with losing some money the more I think about it. Breaking even would be best, but I can either sit on this doll I don't like doing nothing (and get moderately annoyed at how it's not getting out of my house fast enough) or I can get some money to spend on doll stuff I want to have. Niccolo having a new Freedom Teller suit makes me a lot happier than dolls I don't want... now if only I could decide between beige and black...

      Yeah I think I'm gonna focus on fixing up and dressing the dolls I want to keep and then sorting out which direction I want to keep going in for new additions to my collection. My bigger dolls need more clothes in their wardrobe.

      I'm not sure how much bumping helps. Minus when I'm looking for like a cheap head to mess around with, I don't really browse the marketplace in any way besides just searching for the doll I want. For my own sales threads, I usually go in cycles of bumping every other day and then forgetting about it and then getting impatient and bumping again. Haha.
       
    19. I had that doll I never bonded with and no matter what I tried...nothing worked. Even putting him up on sale frustrated me because he never got sold, I wanted to get rid of him so bad so I sold his body and stayed with the head. Now I'm using the head for modification, I plan to make the eyes bigger and sand his nose and cheeks a little bit...I might even do more to see how far i can get with modifications and to practice. However, this whole experience taught me to think twice before buying.

      No, scratch that...that was a doll I wanted a lot just to end up hating it. Come to think on it, this has happened to me twice since there is another doll that was a grail doll and very expensive for me but when I got it I just felt...nothing and I sold the dolls soon after (and this was a very popular doll so it was easy to get rid off). I wish i didn't have to but it is what it is.
       
    20. I don't sell my dolls, although sometimes I wish I could be a revolving-door shopper so I could get to own hundreds of dolls without storing hundreds at once (the apartment only fits 40). I did sell one doll, once, in order to exchange him for a same doll in a different color, and even just selling him to a good friend who lives nearby was still hard. I'm sentimental about them. :chocoberry I have been building this giant collection for the past 9 years, and it contains many different styles/phases/looks... right now I'm not buying any more, and am just enjoying the ones I have.

      I suppose I look at my doll collection the way I look at my tattoo collection-- each one represents what I wanted & felt at a certain point in life, and whether or not it's still significant to me today, I still like having a 'library' to look back on. :3 My tattoos are entries in the scrapbook that is me, and my dolls fill sort of the same function in a more external way.

      (For that matter, I never throw out any of my music collection after I stop adoring this-or-that band or style of music, because I never know when I'll want to dust it off and listen to it again with a big smile.)