What was the biggest mistake you ever made in the hobby?

Traded handmade goods for a secondhand doll, found out it was a fake doll when it arrived. Happy ending, though! Dremeled words into back of head and body too deep to sand off and gave doll to a youth shelter on the rez.

 

It wasn't a huge mistake as far as mistakes go but I ordered a pair of shoes for one of my dolls, not realizing they were girl's shoes. It was when I got my first doll and I didn't have a great understanding of what the different doll sizes are (I had never seen one in person). So I found a beautiful pair of boots online and ordered them as they said they were for a 1/3 sized doll. Well months later and my slightly bigger then 60cm boy arrives and i try to put the new boots on. Of course they didn't fit. I was really upset. To this day I have yet to find a pair of boots that look as much like what I wanted as those.

 

Bought a doll recently that hasnt worked out for what I wanted. Shes really pretty but not very popular so she probably wont sell any time soon. I feel really disapointed and bundles of regret when I look at her

 

I've made a lot of small mistakes, like clothes/shoes/wigs that don't fit, or sculpts I don't like much in person, but my two biggest mistakes have been:

1. Limiting myself only to dolls from dealers in the US. For the first couple of years, I ONLY bought from JunkySpot, as I was uncomfortable with buying internationally and the long waits, but I've realized I limited myself so much on dolls, and bought a lot I really didn't like much because of it.

2. Using improper faceup materials as a newbie that looked awful and could have seriously damaged my doll.

 

Ive made a lot of little mistakes, like when buying clothing and getting the sizing completely wrong.

The most recent one being buying a 70cm jacket thinking it was 60cm. Totally my fault for rushing and not checking the measurements (item was not listed 70cm but the size of the doll modeling the coat was mentioned in the post). That one ended up not being too bad, a new local friend the hobby benefited with a $20 discount on the item and plans on using it for a upcoming cospaly outfit on their doll.

Right after the jacket incident happened, I had a wig lost in the mail after a month of waiting. Then another month after that I finally received the replacement wig and tried to cut it and just butchered the crap out of it. Now im waiting again for the 3rd wig. My husbands boy might have hair one day, hes been bald since he received him in December.

 

My most big mistake is that I did not order my first doll in November (when the decision was made) but only in February as I did. Now she would have been arrived home ...

 

Selling my first doll. The reasons I did it were... I guess you could say sound, but now I've been in a waiting game with the artist to re-release the sculpt as a full doll for five years just so I can have him again.

 

So many, especially when I was new.

* Didn't seal before body blushing and stained the heck out of my doll
* Kept ordering the wrong sized clothes because I wasn't paying attention to the fact that they were girl clothes and I had a boy doll
* Sold a doll that I've regretted selling - I could get him again, but since the company tweaked the sculpt a bit over the years, it's just not the same
* Refused to buy from anywhere but JunkySpot for the first couple years, so I really limited myself and got several dolls that just didn't do it for me
* Bought a *terrible* fur wig - fuzzy, scratchy, looked like a dead tribble - for my first dolls, and kept it on him for over a year...

There are others, but that's a few.

 

Hmmm, it's not so much a mistake as an irritation but I wish I'd bought the sleeping faceplate for my FL Pukipuki Rose. I didn't know you couldn't order them separately.

 

Biggest mistake is not starting sooner! Everything else was a valuable lesson learned.

 

Being too scared to be creative with dolls!

All of the dolls I've owned so far haven't worked out for me. I tried changing wigs, eyes, clothes, but I just didn't bond with them at all. Now, with the last doll I got I had a lot more fun! I modded her, changed her, tried things out on her, and that really helped me bond with her.

 

Too many layaways at the same time... Never. Ever. Again.

 

When I was painting face-up for the second time I decided to be stingy with MSC. After putting pastels on his lip and only using one coat of MSC I glossed his lips. Horrible idea... The pastels was smeared all over his lips. He looked like a sad little clown. Never again!

 

I think we've all ordered eyes or wigs or clothes that didn't fit I think my biggest mistake has got to be impulse buys. I've bought 3 dolls just on the spur of the moment, because I had the money, without really thinking about it. All 3 of those dolls got sold pretty quick! Now I wait and really consider the pros & cons of each doll purchase, even for things like outfits and eyes. I've frittered away so much $$ on wigs and eyes!

 

Buying my first two dolls on impulse, and not truly loving either one of them. I'm glad I was able to sell them.

 

Oh, mine is bad. I bought an elf doll, and the tip of her ear broke in the mail. It was the first time I fixed anything, so I asked around. Everyone said use epoxy. I went to the store and avoided the epoxies that said they dried an actual color. In my ignorance, I assumed those that didn't dried clear. Even when it started out gray,I didn't worry. I've had things start out one color and dry clear. NOPE. Now my lovely LE Leeke Daisy Elf in Lovely B has a gray line through her ear. *Sigh* Sheer idiocy, and I know no way to fix it. It's completely ruined the doll for me.

 

I got an incorrect can of sealer from Amazon. It was gloss not matte and I stupidly just assumed it was what I ordered and used it anyway. When I realized it was gloss I used W&N brush cleaner and a Mr Clean sponge on the heads to take it off thinking it would be okay. Well, in this case it wasn't because these dolls were dark blue and dark green and it took several layers of resin off and nearly ruined the heads. Supposedly Miro's dolls are colored all the way through but both of those heads ended up looking like there was NS pink showing through the dark color after my mess up. I am just not too sure that I believe that the colored resin goes all the way through the dolls. It sure looks more like a dye job to me on the 2 dark dolls that I have. Lesson learned, keep anything chemical or even mildly abrasive away from dark colored dolls, just in case.

Oh and my second biggest mistake is Miro related too, kind of. I got MSD heads to practice with and maybe to use but in the end I just did not like them. I never did end up doing much with them and honestly I don't think they're popular enough to sell or swap so now they're just sitting in a drawer and likely they'll never be used. It's okay, they were cheap heads, but still I wish I had not gone there. I wish I had waited and really gotten heads I liked instead. Since then I've learned that patience is a good thing with this hobby. Jump too quickly and likely you'll end up with buyer's remorse.

 

I'm in the same boat as a few others with the impulse buys. My first doll was chosen but my second and third were "OH SHINY" purchases and although I don't regret them, I wish I had taken a bit more time to research them first.

I think my biggest mistake was not knowing what sort of looks some of my crew would have before I bought them. I've got one boy in particular who's been kind of ignored for a very long time because I just don't have a look for him. Maybe he just hasn't told me yet what he wants to wear, but I feel bad for the poor guy. He's obtained all these siblings (who all have awesome wardrobes and face ups) and he hasn't had so much as a new shirt in years.

 

I WAY overpaid for a Volks SD boy body (back in 2005) because I didn't know the differences between them. Of course there were a lot fewer bodies back then, but STILL. Hopefully I won't ever do that again.

Linda S.
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