When do you have "too many" dolls?

I'd say when you run out of space to keep them, but in my tiny Japanese dorm room I don't really have enough room for the one doll I own so that would put me out already!

Really, it's up to the person and whether they feel they have too many. I guess with loads of dolls it's harder to pay attention to an individual doll, and everyone probably has a point at which they feel overwhelmed. As long as a person is happy with the amount they have, then there's no problem.

 

I have MANY dolls.....MANY MANY ! There are many different varieties also....antique, artist, retro, BJDs, cloth, felt..I could go on........I have a neat, clean house...( no clutter) and I do not pay for them with credit cards....or not eat...or use household funds that should be going to pay bills.....or donate to a good cause.
I enjoy them all....and have seldom if ever bought one that I later decided I didn't want any longer.
These are not children.....I do not have to pay minute to minute attention to each and every one as I did my children, who are now all grown and college and grad school educated.They do not require braces on their teeth...college tuition...or weddings... ( my husband's great joy...HA!)
My question is...why do I have to decide if I have too many dolls at all ? I feel no guilt about my dolls....and if you do....then you definitely have too many.

 

I like that litmus-test of yours, RoseAnn.

No Guilt = Not Too Many.

That sure keeps life simple!

 

I think it is completely a personal thing when you have too many dolls. I have three, and technically have only been in the hobby for about 5 months, but i bought two second hand and they have not impacted my finances, and I am aware of the posibility that I will leave the hobby as quickly as I entered it, but I am that kind of person. I think as long as you are happy with your number of dolls, and love them all, and are capable to buy one without hurting your financial situation its OK to buy them because it means you are doing something for yourself, and thats allowed. Its when your dolls start a negative impact in your life that it isnt a good thing.

 

To many dolls????? I'll know when I can't find a place for their boxes.

 

i think it's not too much as long as it does not interfere with your daily life and paying bills and reality in general. i think as long as you stay from the extremes you're fine.

 

For me personally, I found myself planning out my purchases. I decided that I didn't want over 4 or 5 Yo-SD sized dolls, and 3 MSD sized dolls. Puki/ Pet/ Exceptionally tiny tinies... no more than a handful ^_^ (~5-7) since they take up exceptionally less space. I was never so much concerned about the money, but rather how much STUFF they'd have and my ability to 'build' their characters and interact with them. I'm really detail oriented so I figured it would get overwhelming with any more than that.

On top of the fact that I have other hobbies/ interests that I like to devote time and money to... Of course, I may not even reach the limits I've set for myself, but for my personal little world, I thought those limits were sufficient. (I left myself a little wiggle room in case a doll I'm dying to have is released. It's less about the number and more about the feeling I have from the 'troop'.) I may always love many more sculpts and dolls out there, but I'm ok with just watching others enjoy them on DoA.

So it's a matter of personal preference. Just think deeply about your own situation and needs/wants/desires, and set your own limits. As long as you're meeting 'life-needs', you only live once, so enjoy it. If that means completing your trio, get the third! And if you don't want his purchase to 'open the door' to getting more, so to speak, don't let it. Shut the door behind your third boy XP.

Plus there's always that option to sell if you find yourself with too many! Thank goodness these dolls hold their value well, so you don't have to live with regrets if you change your mind about the size of your collection.

 

Never.

As long as I still enjoy them and can afford to bring them here, I still have room.

 

Probably when I start buying them for no reason. I.E. I don't have any sort of story or place for them among my existing dolls. OR when I start to forget names/stories/etc. of each doll because I haven't been able to give each of them enough "work time"

 

I agree. If you can't at least remember their names and sculpts when some one asks you about your doll family, you have too many. Personally, I think you should be able to remember the order that they were purchased in as well. If you are capable of naming off 50 some dolls, more power to ya, if not, don't even try. Honestly, I can't see myself having more than a dozen.

 

If you can't afford to buy the doll (it's cutting into paying for neccessitys) your not at the 'too much' point, your at the 'you shouldn't get it because you don't have the money' point. Few months down the road, save up, get a better job, etc...you can get more dolls.

Space...that's an issue. I am running into that. I've just gotten better at putting my dolls into the same space. Instead of having four dolls sitting in chairs, I can fit about 10 dolls standing in that same area. Do I have too many dolls? Nope. If they were cats and needed food and room to move around, then maybe, but dolls don't need such things.

'Finished' dolls. Oh I hate this whole reason. The idea that you should wait to get a new doll until the ones you have are finished. I just 'finished' a doll that was waiting around for an entire year for me to get it the right body. If I had to wait to finish that doll off before getting others I would have gone crazy. I have the money, so I buy dolls I want when I see them, because I don't want to pay second hand costs. Or I buy when there is a special deal going on, to save money on the doll which has made me able to buy alot more dolls then if I just waited and paid second marker prices. If that means another doll has to wait for an outfit, so be it. I tend to have 'temporary' clothing available for the dolls in the mean time. Then I have dolls that are just waiting for me to have time to make them their proper outfits. It's so much easier/takes less time to order a new doll then to make outfits, etc.. I've slowed down my buying and have been now able to focus on outfits and properly fleshing out the characters I have, but if a doll shows up that fills in a missing character, I'm going to get it.

I know the molds and names of all my dolls. People have asked me list them to them at doll meetups, so I just visialize the room they all stay in and go shelf by shelf. It's not that diffecult (except for the tinies who tend to not sit in nice rows, but run around amuck). ofcourse I do forget dolls, but those would be dolls I'm selling. If it's being sold, then it out of my head, not part of my collection.

Some people think you have too many if you can't give attention to each doll. Well I just did a photostory that used 12 of my dolls in it. Could have used more but didn't have room. I'm looking at doing another photostory with the other set of dolls that didn't get used. If I don't get around to it, doesn't mean I have too many dolls, just not having enough time. Heck there are weeks that I I just don't have time to go into the doll room at all. However I do tend to have plenty time at work to shop for new dolls. (And figure out how/where they will fit in the doll room).

As my friend says, never put 'limits' on your collection, or you'll just end up breaking those 'limits'. How true she is.

 

When you keep ordering dolls, even though opening the boxes just doesn't thrill you that much anymore - you probably have too many. Beyond that, why set limits?

 

oh my i just watched the dollfie special on youtube and there was man with a ROOMFUL and i do mean FULL of dollfies....it's amazing...there has got to be insurance put on that room. now THAT i think is a little much

 

Well, currently I have

50 full dolls
17 heads

with 3 heads on the way and 5 full dolls on the way. I have some more planned and some bodies to buy, and this isn't counting the Little Apple Dolls and Pullips I have too. Colour me crazy . I really dont feel guilty about it, sometimes I have thought maybe I should sell but...I never do. I think I would like to open a museum like Anne Rice xD.

 

Saywha? ...?? Where do these bizarrely arbitrary notions COME from?? If you can't rattle off your whole family, in birth order, you have too many? And you don't deserve to have them? If that's true, my own mother should've stopped at only 1 child. After ~40 years she STILL always calls me & my sisters by each other's names (and sometimes, she calls us by her sisters' names).

That reminds me of the drunk-test scene in "Tapeheads", where John Cusack + sidekick are made to cover one eye and recite the alphabet, backwards, skipping all the vowels, & doing each letter simultaneously in sign-language. XD


(I again invoke RoseAnn's Law.... No Guilt = Not Too Many!)

 

I suppose I'll never have 'too many' dolls, because having ZERO MONEYS has caused me to mature a lot faster than I think a lot of noobs do. I have already created a HUMONGEOUS wishlist of dolls, and gotten over them, and realized I don't need them. I'm just going to focus on loving and buying things for the only two dolls I have right now. It's like buying anything: If I don't NEED it, I don't need it.

 

I so want to see that now >XD

I don't think there could ever be too many dolls. Some people have dedicated entire rooms in their homes to their collection. Personally, If I owned one or two of every bjd I ever wanted, I'd never consider them "too many" because I'd have the satisfaction of owning them regardless if I rarely pull them out of their boxes. Plus, they'd probably only take up half of my bedroom anyway.

My definition of too many would probably involve an unhealthy connection to them. If you can't live comfortably in your own home because the collection is just taking over every inch of living space, that might be too many... for that home. lol

 

I used to think about this in terms of numbers, like "ok ill only stop once I reach 10, thats too many!" then I started developing more characters than the 10 and i was upset they would never have physical form. Then I met my boyfriend who collects guns and oddly all of our conversations are the same! saving money, which ones to get with which accessories, how to afford them in the future and where to put them, etc. so one day I asked "so whats your limit? how many are you going to buy total?" and he looked at me so strangely and replied "what? no limit! Ill buy as many as I want " Then the little light went on and I realized he was right XD theres no use in trying to set limits for ourselves. If you want it, save up and buy it. We even came up with compromises like how I can have a bunkbed dollhouse, he can hang/display his guns on the wall, and well both just share the batcave basement XD Even with this new philosophy and the ability to have as many dolls as I want (in my mind lol) my list has only reached 20 (only 20 lol but it could be like 50!) and i guess im kinda maturing because of it since I look at them now as who would I really bond with and who is nice to look at but not for me to own.

 

I just think about all the dolls I don't buy and don't want, ever. There must be hundreds, so the amount I actually do have seems paltry in comparison. I don't have to remember their names and sculpts because I have a list to remind me. ; )

 

I have a giant wishlist. Its bad. I'd like to think one day I can own them all, its like Pokemon!