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.
galatia9

 

Probably trusting company measurements haha! Always measure yourself just to make sure it doesnt take that long but will save you lots of effort in the long run

 

Choosing the wrong resin colour.

 

Thinking I was an expert and buying lots of unnecessary, expensive things from a company which isn't known for low prices...

 

impulse buy and regretting it after i do the payment and of course it can't be cancelled and it didn't happened only once*facepalm*

 

Maybe - not buying a more expensive doll (or doll head) that I really wanted and instead, going for several lower-priced dolls that I didn't want quite as much but got because they were cheaper. In the end, I spent much more money than I would have if I had got the more expensive item right away, so I'm not doing that again.

 

I guess...buying and adopting female BJD. I adopted one (DollnDoll Chloe) from second hand market with cheap price and another, was ordered directly from company (JID Asa)...They are cute but I'm not good at making female outfit nor styling them. I felt a bit regret and should really own only male dolls.

 

A huge mistake I made was getting the "Christsmas bag" from Dollmore for $50. I thought I was going to get cool stuff because the sale said that the "$50 bag" was worth $100 etc. So I jumped in but I received only crap None of the stuff I got was good quality: eyes were acrylic, shirts with ugly patterns, even a pair of trouser that I already had and had gotten them in 2005! (I hate them btw), instead of sending new stuff I think they were getting rid of the old ones *sighs* that money went to the garbage because even if I try to sell those items no one would buy them so I will have to give them out for very cheap. Overall, the bag was worth like $20 of garbage.

No more surprise bags from anywhere!

 

Gah, that sucks D: Thanks for sharing though! I'm glad I read it... Won't be buying any surprise bags now, especially not from DollMore ^^"

 

It's not so much a mistake as a slight regret, but my first BJD (an SD guy) needed a companion so I bought the cheapest girl I could find, a Mirodoll Wind. She's pretty, and I'm sure I'll love her to bits when I'm finished with her mods, but the headache of all her mods was probably not worth the cheaper price tag.

Unless I give up first and just buy her a body from some other company. >.>

 

Biggest regrets so far: Selling my first doll out of frustration instead of just selling her body and finding a new one for her. Second regret was buying a ''rebound'' doll, thinking that what I would have preferred was a tiny(but not the case so much). Live and learn...

 

Buying expensive outfits for dolls that I don't own and realizing I probably never will.

Not using a stand when taking photographs outside. The guy fell on his face and his nose was broken. That has put me off taking dolls outside.

 

Oh! I have made several mistakes over my five years on the hobby. As a former student with a limited budget , I would only buy clothes that were cheap, hoping that the quality will be good enough. However, I was always disappointed and regretted buying them. Now, I prefer to buy clothes that have better quality, even when the price is higher because I know that they are better made and I would not regret buying them. My other mistake was to buy only MSD size dolls because I was scared of the SD size - a 60cm doll was too big for me. I prefer mature looking dolls, so it was a pain to find MSDs in that style. I perception changed after I bought my first SD doll in a convention. He is what I was looking for in MSDs, but never found. Sometimes I feel like selling all my MSD dolls to change them for SDs, but I am too attach to them to do it.

 

Not paying closer attention to the range of sizes with SD-sized dolls. When I first had my K-Doll Kian head I put him on a 55 cm Obitsu body with a male chest plate but I wanted resin body for him. Eventually I saved up for a Domuya Flexi body, which was very expensive at the time, and it turned out to make him a 67 cm doll! Too large to fit well with the rest of the family, too leggy for the character (Luke Skywalker) but too precious (and too expensive) to sell. Now almost a decade later I'm putting a shorter Mirroworld body on my wishlist and finally thinking about getting this fixed. Luke will be back to 55 cm.

 

Thinking that any inexpensive body would be good enough for a modding project I had in mind. The body I got, while reasonably engineered, didn't suit the character in build or height, and even with the mods planned, because of the scope of modding it would take to get the entire body looking the way I wanted it to look, I never actually did anything with it. (The body is long since sold off.)

That body ended up turning me off from the project for a while; it ended up being several years before I returned to it, because I went on a hobby hiatus after that happened. When coming back, I spent a lot more time researching the look of different bodies, not just the price, and ended up with one of the most expensive options I could have gotten; but that doll is now a cherished part of my collection, instead of a frustrating floating head and ill-fitting body. Honestly, though, I think I had to make that mistake to understand what I really needed to do with that doll, and decide internally how much I really wanted to shell him.

And on the upside, it's got me much more interested in body types for my dolls, instead of just facial sculpts, and my collection's gotten a lot more interesting as a result!

 

Not researching a doll before purchasing it. Then, when he arrived I was absolutely in love with him, but realized I could not afford to clothe him. I have been heart broken for years and he has been half-naked.

 

Not thinking about heads needing to fit on necks when buying with the intent to make a hybrid.

 

Having 2 layaways going on at the same time and clearly I haven't learnt my lesson 'cause I DID IT AGAIN!!

 

Buying a new doll when you already have one on layaway...yeah it's not a good idea. Haven't done it often, but enough to know that I really shouldn't. My problem is when a doll that I really want comes up on the secondhand market for a good price, I'm just a sucker for a good deal.

 

Buying a $500 doll. Period.
This hobby is like crack; you just get addicted to the dolls and you suddenly have to have all the beautiful resin babies! That and leaving my Aya in just about full sun exposure for the first almost month of owning her. She actually didn't yellow (as far as I can tell) but I feel like I was such a noob and reflect on it painfully every now and then.

 

A few impulsive doll purchases earlier on before I joined DoA and knew nothing much about bjds. I have sold those earlier purchases once I found the aesthetics I like and decided to shell both my OCs and favorite character dolls.

 

Biggest mistake (in hindsight) was bidding on a non L.E doll on ebay in my noob years.
The seller had moved him from the marketplace here to there for whatever reason. I did get him, but at a high price.
And this doll was also an impulse buy. I kinda disliked the sculpt when he finally arrived... so yeah not the greatest move ever.

 

I bought a 'practice head' not realising that it was a recast as opposed to a damaged legit head. >_< It fortunately wasn't too expensive but I still cringe to think that I was so stupid.

 

making a trade with someone that had no feedback and knowone knew whom she was...getting a bad body..also sending an item before a trade was finalized...never got a trade back.NEVER AGEIN

 

My biggest mistake was ordering Sato FCS instead of going after Luna in the Volks lottery when she was released. I've regretted that decision for years.

 

Thinking I could just "gently remove" an eyelash. It ended up ruining the face up and I had to send it back out to be redone - so I paid twice.

 

Don't even ask lol...

second biggest mistake was selling a doll on layaway and not making the down payment non refundable.

 

There's an easier way - just balance your doll on the back deck railing, step back to take a photo and watch her do a header off the second-floor deck into a six-foot-deep pile of snow. Amazingly, the only damage when I dug her out was that she no longer had eyelashes.

 

Gotta say my biggest mistake is my MSD dolls, too. I don't feel like making clothes for them cause they're a bit too small. I enjoy making clothes, taking pictures, and playing with my SDs more...

 

Lol @ LadyMadrigal

I would say my biggest mistake was my first doll purchase.... see this thread for info.

In hindsight obviously I should have asked more questions before purchasing....but I was a 100% fresh noob (still am!) and really had no idea that such a thing could happen.

My other biggest mistake was not doing an unbox video for my FeePle 65 Chloe. The back half of the head came broken. (I did take photos.) Also I didn't contact Fairyland about it right away (it was Christmastime and I was busy.) So now I'm stuck with a broken head piece that I need to repair, and if I ever want to sell her, she is damaged. Lesson learned.

 

I've made a couple of mistakes, they aren't super major and are really just more annoying than anything else, I guess in a way I'm interpreting "mistake" to basically mean "if-you-were-to-start-again-what-would-you-do-differently" as well as generally messing up.

I feel like maybe I shouldn't have bought my second doll before I finished up my first one, I have no money to finish them off and had I just got one at a time I'd have one completed doll rather than two incomplete dolls Dx you live and you learn though, no more dolls for me until these two are finished and when I'm buying the third I'll try to make sure I can actually get the doll finished within a reasonable time frame. My two sat around naked and bald for a whole year and Bryn (formally known as Cato, not sure if that name is sticking either though) still hasn't got anything that is actually right for his character. I didn't think about the possibility of winding up unemployed when I bought them >_< At the very least I should've waited until I had my Dollshe boy in my hands so I could better imagine how they'd look together.

Then neither of my two turned out to be who I thought they'd be so now I have two dolls that aren't connected to one another who have characters with no real stories and that isn't what I had anticipated. Not sure if it's the fact that they have no stories or what but something still feels off. This is because I didn't do enough planning before I got them, I think. I did a ton of research on the dolls and such (although I found that I don't like the size difference in person was okay in owner photos though), but the story they were supposed to belong to I ended up dropping because I just wasn't inspired by it or gelling with it at all and the characters went with it, my girl kept her name but got a totally different personality and I love her to bits (on the fence whether I'll ever buy her friends since there's no real story, we shall see), but while my Dollshe Bernard holds a special place in my heart and I adore the doll I still feel like something is off with his character, so that sucks. I'd also say that a contributing factor to this is that I had to move somewhat quickly on both of my dolls, had there been no time constraints this mightn't have happened.

TL;DR
1. I didn't organise my funds properly and jumped into the second doll too quickly, leaving me with two incomplete dolls over two years after their arrival.
2. I didn't think through my doll's stories and characters enough and now I have two dolls with no stories and no connection to one another one with a character I like and the other one I'm somewhat lost with.

 

Biggest, hugest, most idiotic mistake? Not buying the Shinsengumi Bermann from Tensiya in 2005 while I had the chance.

 

My biggest mistake was buying a doll I wasn't totally in love with. It was my first doll, and I bought her because she was affordable and I was impatient to get into the hobby. She's an RS Mei and she IS an adorable doll, but I got her in white skin because it was in stock at DDE. I think I would love her more if she were natural skin tone. Now that I have more dolls, I have realized I don't like the white skin. I keep changing my mind about keeping her or not.

 

For a long time I felt like I made a mistake in entering a giveaway for my Dollstown Mari. She's a seven year old body but is the same height as my two other dolls who are 25 and 20 respectively.

I put her away for a long while. Just pulled her out the other day with a last ditch idea since no one was buying her and I ended up loving her more. So there's a happy ending ;v;

 

I can't really think of any mistakes that I've made in this hobby, I do a lot of research before I buy something so things have always fit and been exactly what I thought it would be or better.
I guess not buying certain outfits or asking sellers if they'd be willing to split something that I really wanted and have not seen come up for sale again would be my mistake.
Oh and not checking seller feedback when buying things from the marketplace, nothing has ever gone wrong thankfully but it's only after I order that I think to check the feedback threads ^^;

 

One thing I am learning is "if it doesn't fit a doll, don't buy it" stylistically. Sometimes I see an outfit and buy it because I like it or it's cheaper price wise--and then realize I hate it on the dolls I have. XD I also once got a body in pink skin and realized the head was closer to yellow. It turned out all right though because I was going to have his face up redone and the person also could resin match! (One of my newer girls has a slight resin mismatch on a Miro body with a Luts head, but the face up is too beautiful to take off, and it's a reason I got her. I may have some body blushing done on her just because it's a fantastic body, which could also help diminish the difference.)

 

My biggest mistake? Buying MSC UV-cut gloss. I sprayed my whole doll in it, thinking it was matte. NEWP.

Went to my first doll meet ever, totally ashamed, toting around a RS Yao who looked like someone lubed her up. Someone was restringing her for me and lifted the doll in the air and shouted, "WHY IS THIS DOLL GREASY?" So embarrassing. The lesson here is to read what's on the can before you buy it. The gloss is great for hooves and swords and things but not for a whole doll.

 

Any open credit card and too much enthusiasm ...
BUT, that said, I love what I have!

 

I bought a pair of elf ears for my MSD F-13 and, while trying to insert them into her ear holes, broke one of the stems while it was inside her head. I had no way to get the stem out, so I just stuck the ear on with a dot of white glue. Luckily I have no plans to change her ears or sell her, but I still can't believe I was so stupid.

I have also made two impulse purchases, both tinies, that I rarely do anything with, and yet I can't seem to pull the trigger and sell them. Darn them for being so cute.

 

- Leaving a doll in a room containing a toddler and a pot of acrylic paint Xx Thank goodness he didn't at the time have a faceup and that acrylic paint comes off resin!
- Actually listening to some of the bull that some other doll owners were saying. One group of doll owners I used to meet up with had a couple of members who liked telling people what others should do with their own dolls, and if it wasn't to their tastes, they would try and drive that doll owner out unless the doll conformed to their ideas. It caused me to dislike one of my own dolls to such the point of selling him (I have him back now, though now a sleeping eye version of the same head instead of open eye) and drove me away from the hobby for a time. Back to it now and not letting others dictate what I do with my own dolls.
- Letting an in-country dealer bully me out of something I wanted for my doll, and now they refuse to reply to me. They owe me a lot of money and a wig + outfit for my doll, but after three years they still refuse to give me a reply. I am unsure on how to work that one out though ><

 

Looking back? Getting my first doll in WS instead of pink skin. He has turned into a lovely creamy white now, so he is pretty and all that, but suppose I were to order him again, I'd choose pink... Even very pale-skinned people don't look creamy white, and though I have ordered more WS dolls after him, it is perfect for them but not for him. I wouldn't sell and reshell him because of it though. He was my very first doll and he is what he is; he won't ever leave me .

I have become more careful with doll sizes, too, as I have learnt I am really bad at estimating just how small or how large a doll will turn out to be. I have a small MSD I oughtn't to have bought because he turned ou to be far too small for his character. I have reshelled him as an SD, but somehow I can't let go of the MSD. I have been struggling with him ever since. Sometimes I think I ought to sell him, but I am very bad at giving up on dolls.