What would make you quit this hobby?

Justlikewasabi- I am a lot like you. Depression and all. I get obsessed with hobbies and then just...drop everything. I've been really nervous about getting back into this hobby because of that. It's quite an investment to just leave >_>. Not that I would LEAVE LEAVE, I'd put my dolls away somewhere safe like I did last time. I've recently fallen off the polymer clay world, and dove right into this world. I do feel fickle. I really hate it. I never get good at anything, REALLY good, because I don't stick to it long enough. But I completely lose interest. Just completely. Not a drop of my being wants to do it. It frightens me.

 

Mostly it will be about money. Since they are expensive. Most likely i won't quit the hobby but will stop buying doll and focus more on their outfit =)

 

I had to sell almost all of my dolls due to financial difficulties, and I think that if I even have to sell one more I'd just quit altogether. Lately, the thought of quitting (temporarily) has gone through my mind very often, but I think it's just because I don't have the time or money to invest in them as much as I used to. I got used to a new doll every 8 months, and making a new outfit every other week, but 'aint nobody got time for that' in the last year of college! x'D But I have been into the hobby for a whopping 6 years now, so I know it will never be quite as fun and new asit was in the beginning - and ironically enough, as a 21 year old I have waaaay less money to spend than when I was still a teenager.

One day when I can start saving up for my dolls again, then I will really know if I'm still going to stay in this hobby.

 

I don't really think anything would make me totally quit the hobby.

All of my dolls' characters get role played with my bff and I think if she quit RPing, I'd probably lose interest in well over half of my collection, and probably sell most of them. But I do have about 6-8 that I just cannot possibly imagine selling ever. I've had some horrible experiences with role play partners using me for plotlines and destroying my characters, and only my strongest characters were able to bounce back and not get sold. I'm not sure I could do it again and if things fell through this time, I WOULD quit RP, but I don't think I'd quit the doll hobby.

Emotional or mental problems wouldn't stop me, my dolls bring me great joy. When I'm depressed, holding Amir actually makes me feel a lot better. Physical issues will make me cut back on the hobby, but not quit. i have severe nerve damage in my left hand and arm and before my surgery, I couldn't even grip a wig to pick it up. That made me stop sewing and faceups temporarily, but I still played with my dolls.

The drama.....honestly, when it comes to all the "mean" people of forums "causing fights", I have never personally experienced this in 5 years in the hobby. Maybe not everybody is sugary sweet, some are much more opinionated and blunt than others, but I honestly think a lot of the drama isn't from the "mean" people, but taken wrong by the overly sensitive people that find a way to get offended by anything, even if it wasn't meant to be offensive. In other words, yes, I think most of the "drama" is made up and blown WAY out of proportion. I wouldn't let people who have opinions run me out of the hobby, even if they different from my own. The cries of "elitist" and "horrible mean members/mods" would make me avoid a forum more than the "mean" people, but I wouldn't quit the hobby over that either. It's easy to ignore comments.

One thing that might make me stop buying more dolls would be quality control and customer service issues. It seems quite a few of the recent dolls I've bought had problems, either scratches, cut marks, damage or wildly inconsistent resin. Customer service is horrible when wait times are 3-5 times longer than listed and there is NO communication at all, questions go unanswered. Even secondhand has been rough lately with all the flakers, scammers and recasts. THAT is extremely discouraging and makes me consider not buying more dolls. But it doesn't mean that I won't keep the ones I have.

 

When I was still in college, I had more money to spend on dolls than I do now. I love my cat and my house, but they are money eating monsters. Both of them.

 

Hmmm ... I've never really considered my BJDs as a hobby, unless owning pretty things is, a priori, a hobby. Are you active in the hobby only if you keep buying new dolls?

I really like the dolls I've got now, and I don't think I'm in any immediate danger of selling them off. They are a pleasant part of my surroundings. They make me smile.

 

Like so many others already said, I don't think I'd quite the hobby. I'm just not as active anymore. Actually I'm more like a collector so inactive periods don't bother me at all. I love my way to play with my dollies and I don't think I'll stop that for a while.

 

Difficulties finding or keeping or making friends in the hobby.

I don't have the same social priorities as most people and I am what gets called an Old Soul, "Born Old" or Old Fart. I don't have patience for what a lot of people think is acceptable behavior and that means the list of people I find tolerable is very short, because I'm just so picky. It's me expecting too much of others, I think.

 

Hmm... it would take a lot, I think! This hobby mostly brings me joy, but not always, and I think I can handle mostly anything it throws at me because I've seen a bit of it already! I'm at a stage in my life now where, thanks to counselling and good friends, I'm much stronger than I've been in a long time and, for the first time in ages, I feel equipped to deal with pretty much anything (no, fate, I am not trying to tempt you). However, there will always exist the possibility for unexpected circumstances that would require me to sell my dolls, but that would be a really last resort.

The fact of the matter is, no matter how rational and scientific I am, I sense the presences of my dolls in such a powerful and unique way that I've bonded to them, personally, rather than as just big expensive lumps of plastic. I know that's what they are, but I feel like they're... friends? Allies? Very strong personalities, anyway, and I'd miss them terribly if I were without them. I miss them even if I go away for a weekend - just the fact that they're there. I couldn't cope with losing them, so I can't really think of anything that would make me quit the hobby!

 

Perhaps I could suffer brain injury that would alter my personality and make me lose interest in them >_> yes...
Other than that, if I was older and no longer actively collecting, and all of my dolls were lost somehow (destroyed in a fire or something of that nature) I would probably not try to get any more.

I like looking at my dolls, so even if/when I do not have time/interest for doing things with them, I think I will keep most of them on display somewhere. However, I can see myself dropping out of the active hobby one day due to not having any time or having collected so many, I know longer feel the need to get anymore.

 

I wouldn't quit but drop from the scene, basically. I'd still buy the dolls, and clothes, but in a way I kinda have quit the hobby. I rarely take pictures of my crew. I don't talk about them much...they're here, but that's about it.

 

This is actually something I've recently experienced. I'd sold all of my dolls by April this year for financial reasons and as much as I love hobbies and things, they're always the first things I cut from my life when I need to rally money quickly. I was in a pretty awful spot for half the year. Like, only able to afford ramen twice a day sort of spot and I wish I was exaggerating. Naturally, the price of this luxury hobby really started weighing on me. Is it worth it? This money can be put to better use. My parents could use this money more etc.

Add to these thoughts the crazy drama the recast situation brought up plus all the negative confessions popping up on the confession blogs, the blogs that post owner pictures just to sneer. It became overwhelming. Why participate in such an expensive hobby with so people who will just feed the negativity I was already experiencing? It put the whole hobby in perspective for me.

I even stopped looking at bjd related things for a while there and didn't miss it as much as I thought I would. I've decided -not- to leave the hobby for now but, I'm definitely more relaxed and come what may about the idea of it. I definitely don't care as much about interacting with the broader community as much as I did before.

 

I don't think I'd leave the hobby. I mean I see the hobby as enjoying the dolls and making things for them and taking photos and even just enjoying them. As long as I enjoy them, I'll be around in some way shape or form. I've had burnout and periods of no free time to invest in the dolls and even times of not wanting to do anything with them. But I've never thought I wanted to sell them all and leave. I just took a break and when I was ready I looked at photos, came back to the forums, and now I'm restyling dolls and working on them again.

 

Ahahahaha. I got a chuckle. =P



I think things would have to be in pretty desperate, unlikely straits for me to give up this hobby completely. I wouldn't sell the dolls I have short of serious financial emergency, and even then with the few I have I'd only get maybe $350 overall. I often go in and out of interest for hobbies and other things, but I rarely give up on something forever; I'm tenacious about keeping things on the backburner until I'm interested again. Even if my tastes really change or I'm into different things, the great thing about BJDs is all the things they have to offer: photography, faceups, clothes shopping, sewing, and design, jewelry making, and so on and so forth.

ali

 

I'd quit if I lost most or all my dolls in a disaster. The BJD startup cost is so high, I don't think I have the mental and emotional energy -- to say nothing of money and time -- to re-establish the hobby in my life if everything was wiped out.

I'd also quit if I've lost interest in dolls to the point that they become dead weight. I'm quite ruthless about jettisoning things from my life if I feel like they're holding me down. I did go on a long hiatus once (my dolls were in their boxes for the better part of a year), and during that time, I thought many times about cashing out and leaving the hobby entirely. And I've always pulled back because I'm still attached to my dolls and they don't feel like dead weight yet. But once they do, it's time for them to go.

 

I don't quit hobbies either, I just like to take a break once in a while. I have done it. I have put aside my BJD hobby for some time and I come back when I feel ready again. I would never get rid of the dolls I have right now but I would probably stop buying more dolls, and jump from one hobby to another. In the end, I always come back to my dolls so I know that to me, this is a hobby for life.

 

Yeah, I don't really ever quit a hobby. It just gets shelved for a while. Even if I sold my dolls, I'd probably get back into it later when a new sculpt of something got me re-interested. But, I know I'm a lot less into it than I would have been if I got into it a decade ago. I guess I'm more cautious with my spending and making sure I really want what I'm buying first.

 

If I lost interest... I do not know if that would make me quit I think I would just shelf them for a while until I got the interest back, but if it did not after let's say 5 years or something then that would probably be the end of the hobby for me Otherwise the only other way would be if we went completely and helplessly broke so I had to sell all my dolls to make ends meat and then we never were able to get back up from that hole so forever we could not afford anything but food and a place to live But then it would not be by choice

 

I can't think of anything that would make me quit the hobby, unless I developed an awful allergy to resin, or I had some sort of horrible trauma that I would somehow associate to my dolls, or something. ^^; I'm confident enough in myself and my choices that others wouldn't be able to peer-pressure me into quitting and no future husband of mine could persuade me to give them up (unless he developed an awful allergy to resin, or had some sort of horrible trauma that made him afraid of dolls... haha!) and the dolls have become part of my identity, just as much as me being a writer or an animator. There will come a time when I stop expanding my resin family or I fade away from the community, but to me, that isn't quitting.

To me, QUITTING the hobby would equal selling my dolls and giving away all my doll things, which I don't ever see myself doing.

But I have gone on hiatus, and I can see myself doing that again. The hobby is expensive, and it's tough keeping up to date with everything when you have other things on your plate. And if you TRY to keep up, you end up wanting every other doll that comes out!

Money is the big reason I'd go on hiatus. If I don't have a lot of it coming in, or if I need to use it responsibly, or if I want to save it up for something else... well, I back off the aspect of the hobby that involves going to doll sites and ogling them. ^^; The longest hiatus I went on was two years. (It was such a pain playing catchup... and in the process of catching up, I ended up buying four more! Bah.)

But I love my dolls, and I love this hobby. I have plans for so many resin additions that I can't see myself disappearing any time soon. My friend and I were just talking about how I'll probably be in the hobby ten years from now... and how I'll need a room just for the dolls, with apartments installed on the walls for them all to live in.... ^^;

 

Ehhh I don't exactly consider myself 'in' the hobby, so to speak. I don't really eel involved, ect with other people. My dolls are about me and what I want and honestly if there was no place for me to share them I'd still love them.

If my dolls were lost/stolen or something because of the cost and the fact that my favorite doll was limited, I may possibly not bother trying to acquire a new one. Iplehouse's Claude looks just like my Eli, and he's the whole reason I ever got into the hobby. I think that if I couldn't have him around there would be no point.