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Tinies- too often budgeted as "inexpensive"?

Mar 24, 2010

    1. I am a big fan of tiny dolls. I realized a while ago that I easily put them on my mental wish list because I was budgeting them as inexpensive.

      We are constantly exposed to dolls that cost hundreds, sometimes around a thousand dollars. Tinies, in comparison, seem cheap. People often internally price things relative to other items in the same category. For example, in a dollar store, you are surrounded by items that only cost a dollar, sometimes two. A $5 dollar item seems quite a hefty price. Similarly, we are surrounded by items that cost $500, $600. A tiny that costs $150 seems inexpensive.

      I wonder if this affects our budgeting significantly when we buy tinies. If we were looking at a non-doll item that cost $150-$200, would we treat it differently?

      Edit: I read the replies, and people have brought up some very interesting points. I guess the debate would be "whether or not items and dolls that cost a fraction of the price of an SD sized doll are budgeted as inexpensive"
       
    2. I can't speak from experience about Tinies as I'm not a fan of them myself, but I just noticed that you're right about relative pricing coming in to play when it comes to accessories or other items. I find myself looking at $200 plus outfits/dresses and automatically thinking about buying several, simply because compared to the $1000 price tag of my doll, it seems cheap. lol That's definitely not a good thing...because several outfits add up in price quite quickly! :)

      I know personally that I should probably take more care in budgeting for accessories and outfits. But if you have the money and you like that cheaper Tiny or that special accessory for your doll, I'd say go for it. lol That's a really big plus if you're a fan of tinies. :)
       
    3. Also it depends on the tiny. If you start looking at Volks Yo-SD tinies, those run around $500.
       
    4. I don't think tinies cost less than regular dolls, really. They can be a bit cheaper, but not always by much.

      For example - From Luts, a HDF is only $10 cheaper than a KDF.
      A lot of the tinier dolls do cost more, if you think about it. My Beyla is my most expensive doll. Lati Yellow line can cost nearly as much as a MSD or YoSD. Volks dolls run cheaply at $500, where the limiteds can get up to the same price as a rare SD.

      Honestly, my Tiny/Yo-sized dolls end up costing me more. :sweat I don't buy them at because they are 'cheaper', they toll up quite easily. Their clothes tend to get more expensive, I think. If I was concerned about getting more for my money, I could hit the secondhand market and buy a bigger doll for not much more money.

      I hope that makes sense. I shouldn't post on forums when I've taken my pills to sleep :doh
       
    5. I used to class them as inexpensive, but then I looked at the CCC dolls and found them really expensive. Unidoll also had some really expensive tinies then they came down in price. I can also think of a unicorn tiny and others that aren't particularly cheap. I thought it may be easier to buy tinies and save cash, but the cost is relative. It is often easier to fit cheaper outfits that fit MSDs than SD and tinies can fit barbie and kelly items which you can pick up cheaply on ebay. It seems the moment you add BJD to a label the cost doubles. I know I've been able to pick up barbie outfits that fitted my Littlefee for $3 which was a nice change.

      I don't really know what the debate is - tinies can be cheaper but the tendency is to buy more with your cash. If you've got $500 to spend, you can get 1 littlefee with outfit, 1 SD depending on brand with outfit, 5 brownies or 4 customhouse Lt Juniors or Juniors or 6 Ange Ai. It pays to shop around and see what you want to buy with your cash. Yo-SDs range from $350 - $600.
       
    6. On the contrary, I always find tinies to seem very expensive - Possibly because (being so small) they seem like you get "less" for your money - Less detailed sculpting, less room to stamp your personality on the sculpt. Unless the owner has done a full zombie or fantasy theme, with modifications, I find most tinies to look alike. Also, as someone who enjoys making outfits for her dolls, I find the 100+ hours that I can spend making a full outfit for a 60cm doll or 45cm doll more rewarding than the hour or so it takes to clothe a tiny.
       
    7. I've looked at prices for some tinies and just shaken my head. My mom dearly likes pukis, she calls them 'baby dolls', because they're so cute, but the price for a puki is almost as much as I could get her a child-like MSD and an outfit! I think that's just ridiculous. So I don't see them as being 'inexpensive' at all. I'd rather spend the money on a bigger doll that will get more time and effort and love than something smaller than my hand that will probably get lost in my house. Unless of course I cave and buy her a puki, but that thing better come with clothes or something, because that price is just.... *shakes head and walks off*
       
    8. I'm not a fan of tinies either but I can relate to what the other DoA'ers above me have pointed out. A tiny does appear cheap relative to a msd or a sd, but their accessories and clothes add to be around the same? I find that ridiculous given the fact that less material is used in - and yet less detail is awarded to these peripherals. More resin for my moolah please!
       
    9. This is one of the biggest misconceptions about tinies being inexpensive I think.
      The cost associated with making outfits is often more a matter of time rather than materials. It often takes a similar amount of time to make an outfit for an SD or a tiny, sometimes even longer for a tiny because the details are so small. When you're dealing with small amounts of fabric to make doll clothes anyway, using 30cm or 10cm of something is really irrelevant in the overall cost of the outfit.

      Tinies are like any other size - there can be 'cheap' ones and 'expensive' ones. A recent tiny I bought was the cheapest doll I've ever bought as it was on sale. Other tinies have been more expensive than SDs I've bought. It all depends on the company.
       
    10. Oh, I'm on the fence with this debate. I do agree that sometimes tinies do get bulk into the "inexpensive" BJD category, but I also agree that they too can get a bit expensive.

      I think for a starter doll, tinies are great because they are anywhere from $500 and below, and it is more compact for traveling around with you. And if you have $1000 to spend (hahaha, I know, I know), you can totally get a tiny with face-up, eyes, wig, clothes, shoes, and possibly more accessories. Or if you don't mind nakedness, you can two or three tinies depending on which company you get them from. On the other hand, for $1000 for a bigger doll, you might get at least a face-up and wig, but not much else. So it seems lucrative to buy tinies as they appear to be cost effective.

      However, like some of the others were saying, a tiny may even be the same cost as a bigger BJD depending on which one you are interested in. And honestly, for my tiny, I'm having a hard time trying to find her more outfits as they seem pricier compared to my SD and SD13 girls' outfits even though the tiny's outfits are made with less material. And really, it does add up to the point where you'll be like, "Huh...I could have bought that SD sized LE by now for how much I invested in tiny accessories."

      But, like you said, if you were to equate the price of a tiny to say a ring, would one feel just as justified buying a $1000 plus ring versus one that cost more than half as much when the purpose of the ring was just personal pleasure of having it? It's hard to say. Both would make me happy, but depending on someone's budget, and if they are trying to be a one dolly owner or have a horde for themselves, it really all depends. ;) So yes, tinies can be inexpensive if you are a one dolly owner with one outfit for it and it is from a company that is generally on the cheap side. But no if you are planning on having more dolls, want to have a plethora of accessories, or are buying from a more high end company. I hope this made sense. :p
       
    11. I'm not sure where the debate is here; many tinies are just as expensive as their larger counterparts, and many can sell for astronomical amounts on the after-market, like Volks Sei- and Rei-Tenshi! As with most dolls, cost depends on which company you buy from. Bobobie's tinies are quite sweet looking and are relatively inexpensive compared with a PukiPuki, but if you pay the extra for the Puki, you really are paying for the hours of engineering and design work that went into making such a compact doll so incredibly poseable, and if you pay less for your Bobobie, it means you accept the posing limitations of that little body. You really do get what you pay for in this hobby.

      Most high quality BJD clothes seem overpriced, but when you actually calculate the time it took to make the clothing, the planning and consideration that went into making the pattern, the research that went into finding the right weight material so it will hang properly on such small bodies, the skill needed to reproduce excellent quality in miniature, the research that went into finding fasteners that are in-scale, the right colour and the right fit... Do you start to see where these costs might mount up? It may only be a small amount of material, but the skills needed to turn that little bit of material into a useable and beautiful item of clothing don't come cheap and why should they come cheap? If you can't make these items yourself, you're paying for someone else to spend 100+ hours on making it on your behalf. Just because it's a small item of clothing doesn't mean a seamstress has to sell her skills short. A bargain is in the eye of the beholder.

      Sometimes in any hobby you have to decide what works best for you, having one doll and a ton of outfits or having lots of dolls and a few outfits for each. Neither choice is better or worse than the other, but it'll make you a happier collector in the long run if you can see which type of collector you are now.
       
    12. Actually, I think tinies are some of the most EXPENSIVE dolls if you go by cost per inch of resin. They don't intrest me anyway, but that is just another reason why I dislike them - their very expensive for their size
       
    13. all high quality clothes are overpriced-doll, human, cat lol
      what was once a necessity and a simple thing in life is one of our biggest money makers
      I buy like 10 pairs of pants and "hope for the best" when it comes to shopping for myself
      my doll won't have to, you know go to work, so its easier to want to buy her nicer clothes because they won't get ruined...
      I went off topic a bit there lol
       
    14. I found with a lot of hobbies...if you love/want something that much, the price becomes irrelevant.
       
    15. many tinies are not inexpensive, shipping ends up being the same and outfits and acessories can get very costly. (i'm always trying to recover from wigs that look good online and not on the doll eyes etc. I think in a larger doll you can know better what you are going to get and how it will look. Tinies often have no shape (bodies are undetailed and sometimes disproportionate)
       
    16. This (sort of) actually came up recently when I had some good money saved in my doll fund and it was a toss up between a Littlefee Ante and a 62cm boy. It kind of gave me pause that for such a size difference, the price was basically the same. Naturally after shipping costs the boy was a bit more, but he comes with eyes, hair, faceup, and sanded, brand spanking new from the company, where the Littlefee was secondhand, or if bought new, would be the same price as the stocked boy, but the littlefee would come completely bare. Before this instance, I didn't really think of just how much one could spend on a smaller doll because by comparison to most larger dolls, they're cheaper. If we're talking puki size, I've never paid more than $80 for one, and she was a full set with faceup and sleeping faceplate and extras out the wazoo, also brand new from the company, so she was a great deal in my opinion. It's like the world of designer handbags or shoes; paying $50 for a $250 pair of shoes is a great deal, even if that same amount of money could feed you for a week. It's all about perspective.
       
    17. I find this debate a bit... unnerving. I greatly prefer tinies, especially in the Yo-scale. I look and admire SDs and most MSDs from afar, but have never considered bringing one home for long. Yos are small and super cute, while not being so small that you can't do anything easily with them and you don't have to worry about them disappearing in the house.

      I started off with tinies, and will only get my first MSD doll in the mail tomorrow. I'm worried I'll have a hard time with her large size. She's only 40cm! But I also bought my first tinies since they were cheaper. Only after I had gotten them, did I realize how crazily priced Yos and smaller are. They really aren't cheaper at all!

      But anyway, what many collectors I think fail to see, that has been touched upon by other posters, is that a tiny doll's unique scale brings a whole new set a challenges when it comes to producing them and their accessories. Since everything is scaled down, it takes a different set of skills to make them work. The casting process may be cheaper since less material may be used, but everything else is harder.

      Clothing is so much smaller, leaving less room for error, and often means getting extra creative with embellishments and detailing to keep from looking out of proportion (or at least make it look good). Smaller faces often means even the most basic face-ups take more patience and detail work than a regular larger doll. The vast variations in sizes and body types amounts to fewer specialists in making clothes and accessories for them, amounting to less to choose from and higher prices (less competition and customer base).

      If you add anthro dolls to the mix, the same all applies, only it gets a bit pricier since they aim to a very small portion of the tiny doll audience, and not many sculptors make anthros, because of how obviously different they are to regular tinies.

      As an aside, also, take into account how some of the most popular tinies are produced. Volks tinies are only made in limited quantities. SOOM Teenie Gems are much the same when it comes to their MDs, with the added addition of many extra pieces and parts. Fairyland tinies are brilliantly engineered and sculpted, but also very complicated to cast and string together. (For those with $70 Brownie fullsets, as amazing as that deal was, don't forget that FelixDoll was being so dramatically undercut that they went bankrupt for selling their tinies at that price!)

      After taking the route myself, I don't think I could point to a tiny doll and say, "Get that one, it's cheaper." Since it's not. Sure, that turn off many collectors, who feel like they are getting more bang for their buck with larger dolls, I don't since I don't like larger dolls to begin with. It's just a matter of taste, like with anything else.
       
    18. I have a Honey Delf, Kid Delf and an off-topic 11.5cm tiny. Guess which one was most expensive? The tiny... :XD: True he was limited edition, and a full set, but it doesn't always go that a teenie tiny is going to be a lower investment than, say, an MSD.

      As far as accessories go, personally I would rather have my 3 current dolls perfected before I buy more dolls, so I don't see the problem with also spending money on shoes/clothes/etc that 'would have added up to the price of another doll'. If I'm doing it to the point of 'it would have added up to my food/bills/rent', thats when its a problem, and like a lot of topics on here, its really all about sensible money management and getting your priorities straight :XD:
       
    19. I think that goes for all dolls, regardless of size. A lot of dolls like B&G are marketed as "cheap" sometimes because their SD's run around $300, which in comparison to say, a Soom MD is fairly cheap ;) but really, a $300 doll ... well, I mean come on, it's a three-hundred dollar doll. Love 'em to death, but there is a reason why non-bjd people always freak out at the price haha
       
    20. I have never seen tinies and yosds as cheap.
      When seeing their price I usually think 'Expensive!' because they are so small.
      Comparing the size and the price, I don't think them as cheap compared to the bigger dolls.
      You can't compare the differences in price when you don't keep the differences in size in mind, in my opinion.