When do you have "too many" dolls?

I like to make the list now and then so that I never forget. Still, as a general rule, I like to keep my collection to 30ish. More than that and they overrun the display area. It seems to fluctuate in the 32-34 range, though now and then I've been able to dip down under the 30 mark. Some dolls I don't 'count', either, like the DZ babies. Meh...too little to count. Pukis don't count either, since they wouldn't take up any extra room.

 

This for me too. As long as the tiny ones can all fit in the little carry-on suitcase I keep them in, I don't really count them.

 

I didn't slow down, the economy slowed me down. I simply could not afford to keep buying dolls at the rate I was before. But it's okay- because I'm enjoying the ones I have more now. Plus, I find that I have a "core" group of dolls that I concentrate on, and the other ones I have chosen for various reasons. I do a lot of doll photography, so I get tired of shooting the same dolls over and over, and that's one reason why I like to get a new doll from time to time- just to have a new face/body to explore. But I find that for actual stories, it tends to be the small core group that I concentrate on. I can't bear to sell my dolls, although I have given away a few of them to people who I know would give them a good home.

 

I think it's a personal question, as everyone has their own saturation point. Mine personally is 18-20. Once I hit that number, I feel like I have just too darn many, and go on a selling spree. I'v gone through several of these cycles of purging and acquiring, but I am finally to where I am happy with almost all the dolls I own, and I have learned a lot more about my own personal tastes, whichmakes it easier to pass up prety (oh so very, very pretty) faces that are for sale.

 

Considering that I live in a city apartment, I'd have to draw the line at the moment the place starts looking like a doll museum. Basically, as long as I can entertain, and keep my guests oblivious of my doll hobby, I think I'm still ok.

 

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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



That made me laugh!! I also agree that guilt = too many its a simple rule and a good one to keep us all feeling good inside and out.

 

IF something that brings us such beauty into our lives such a s dolls gives us great joy too then I think that justifies the expense.

 

I don't think there is such a thing as 'too many' dolls, considering after I got my first one I couldn't help but get another. Think its more a matter of personal preference.

 

It had been said before, but still; its too many when you feel like its too many.
At the moment I have only one boy. I'm planning the second, a girl (already have the money for her to be more precise XD) and I'm thinking about a third one, an MSD, since my boy is an SD, as well as my girl is going to be. But I don't think that I'll have more than 3. 3 is okay, since its still possible to carry them at the same time. A bit difficult, but possible. Then even fit in a bigger carriage bag together. So they're easy to handle 5,6,7 or even more are quite difficult to deal with.
Plus, the more doll I have, the less attention I can pay to each of them. I mean... now I can spend all my time with my boy, sewing for him, etc, but as soon as the girl arrives, this'll be cut to half I guess.

 

I think I'd love my room to LOOK like a doll museum! I've pretty much given up my other expensive and room taking hobby (cosplay), so I am free to explore even more the different moulds, body types, sculpts etc.

 

For me, too many would be when I start feeling overwhelmed by the amount of dolls and amount of doll "stuff" and my enjoyment level of it all. Depending on the person, that may be 3, or 300! There is no magic number.

 

For me personally the "too many dolls" mark was struck when I bought a doll for a character and then decided she didn't work out for it...so I bought another doll for the character. I thought I'd keep the old one and reroll her as something else, but in the end it just felt like keeping it for keeping it's sake. I figured then it was time to say goodbye! So for me I guess too many dolls means dolls that I run out of characters for. Of course this isn't a hard number, more of a concept to keep my collection as personal as possible.

 

never!!!!!!

No seriously, when i have nowhere to put them..i have 7 and i think i have a relatively small collection.....they have overrun the chair so 2 are on my chest of drawers in my bedroom....

 

For me, I believe the "too many" mark would be 30. But that's just -for me-, I know there are so many others who have well over 30 or are approaching that number xD
Though I think if I ever got to 30 I'd have to slap myself, buckle down, and sell some for the extra cash and slimming down of the collection D:

 

When they need their own flat, that's too many.

Shame I can't put them to work to make rent.

 

Mine probably will need their own flat soon...

Oh well. I don't really need room for anything else. I don't collect anything else, I have video games but they are not really space hoggers.

 

I like the "museum" look, too. I also collect snowglobes & action figures & sculptures by my artist-friends, so there are shelves & shelves of weirdities & oddities.... some ninety-seven snowglobes, a shelf full of battling figurines, and then these condominium-shelving-units full of giant dolls wearing fabulous boots. There is never an awkward silence when your apartment is crammed with conversation-pieces.

But I want a second apartment too, just for storage! If I could store the clothes, eyes, wigs, shipping-boxes, etc. in another place, I'd be all too happy for my own apartment to turn into the Crazy Doll Museum. I'd charge admission, and really make these expensive little bastards work for me.

Word. ^^ I sometimes send the boys out on modelling-jobs, but they always work for freebies or discounts or just plain gratitude... never actual cash. But that doesn't mean I'm not still brainstorming ways to get these guys to pay some rent. Some day.

 

JennyNemesis, that sounds like a great idea. Charge entry . It's about time they got off their butts! *The dolls that is*.

97 snowglobes!!! Damn, thats a lotta shakin!

I only have BJDs around now. By the time I have all the ones from layaways etc, it'll be 78 x.x. I also have Pullips on top of this hahah. I AM creating an army. My partner has expressed an interest in collecting Warhammer...more to paint for me but I dunno where they would fit

 

It's my feeling that you have too many dolls when you have some of them stored in boxes.

 

Aw nuts! ALL my dolls are stored in boxes, LOL!

Actually, I didn't think it would be a problem as the boxes are so narrow and out of the way. Now that I have three SD sized dolls in their boxes stacking up (and a fourth on the way!) the "doll tower" is starting to be more and more in the way It toppled once as I tried to squeeze past it to get to the closet.

I'm gonna have to find a new home for my Dolkot soon and drop the doll tower down a notch. This may not be "too many dolls" for me, but it's definitely "too many dolls" for my tiny apartment!