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

The biggest mistake I made was holding a black painted mask too tight on my dolls face so she'd get a little dark smudge on her cheek. I then tried to rub it off and a little of the blushing came off too x.x Fortunately there's a face up artist in my city and she fixed the blushing on the cheek for me.
But from now on I'm careful about all things touching my girls faces!

 

Not getting a Bishonen House boy when I had the chance. *L* Instead, I went with a 'cheaper' doll which was a 70cm DZ Wing head on an Obitsu body with the boy chest piece. (!!) This was long, long before the 65cm boy came out, back in 2006 or 2007. Bishonen House had a LE elf or I could have had one specially made... so long ago now. I ended up going through several bodies, heads and mods for my boy which all equaled at LEAST the cost of the doll I could've just gotten outright and been happy with! But it was my first doll and my first foray into the BJD world, so mistakes will occur. I'm much better at hybridizing now! And much, MUCH better at cost effectiveness when it comes to BJDs. 2nd biggest was sculpey elf ears. Now that was a big, clunky, goofy mistake and I only made it once. *knocks on wood*

I think more a learning experience rather than mistake was being afraid to buy resin dolls. My first 5 were all Obitsus because resin scared me. I now have only one Obistu remaining (still outstanding engineering and poseability) and can't fathom why I was resin-reticent. Or tan-scared. A lot has changed over the years.

 

Uh oh! That's unfortunate. I would be so terrified and upset lmao.
I'm so glad you got your dollie fixed up, though!

 

So far, falling in love and buying a fairyland Minifee. They are so pricey!

 

Getting started in this hobby in the first place...no, no, just kidding! I love this hobby! One of my mistakes was not listening to my inner voice and denying myself SD dolls for illogical reasons. I used to think SD's were too expensive and bigger than anything I've ever collected (two feet! wow!). I finally got over it, and now have three SD's. I'm far more happier and satisfied with my collection now that I have the ones I should have gotten in the first place. I look back on all the money spent on wrong dolls that I could be spending on the right ones now...THAT is the biggest mistake, but lesson learned!

 

Hmm... While there has been a fair bit of trial and error involved in my time with the hobby, I can only think of one really huge mistake I made. I got involved in a shared-world role-play sort-of thing with a couple of friends "back in the day".

I don't have any regrets about the friends part of it. That was fun... The shared-world role-play bits, though? Oh, heck no. That was a disaster, and I was an idiot for not realizing just how big of a mistake it was going to be right from the start. So, never again. NEVER. It didn't end well, and I learned my lesson.

The whole mess *did* end up making me realize that I really am more of a "Collector"-type than a "Story"-type where these dolls are concerned, though, and that was useful even if everything else about it was a massive clusterf--k, so I guess in the end I can't say it was all bad.

 

My biggest mistake was collecting SD size. I thought bigger was better, right? Especially since I was wanting to sew my own costumes. But they completely overwhelmed their decorated display spaces, and that just didn't work for me personally (which took me an entire year and several dolls to figure out.) I made the very difficult decision to sell them all and start over with MSD size. It was the best decision I ever made.

 

I traded my Aria head for a Soo head and totally forgot to ask the person I traded with to trade COAs as well. So I now have a Soo with an Aria COA. I can't remember who I did the trade with, so I can't message them to see if they still have the COA.

 

Didn't get Nanuri 2014 when I had the chance. Now I'll probably never find her. U_U

 

Mine is starting into this hobby too late! There are some limited dolls which I really fall for them but they have been sold out for ages and I can't find any clue where to get them now. A big miss T T !!

Sent from my X9006 using Tapatalk

 

Well, so far it's been not getting the sleepy head for Minifee Liria. I didn't feel like I needed it when ordering, but the closer I get to receiving the doll, the more I'm starting to regret it.

I hope I could find one second hand later, but as if it isn't gonna be hard enough already, I picked the company face-up and it's gonna make it even harder to find the sleepy head, since I like the default and probably don't want to change it.

 

my experience was from a non-bjd doll

it was a blythe
i was attempting for a haircut
it was perfect until that point....after i freed out everything coz i think she is done, then j noticed a little spot i didnt like.
without a 2nd thought i cut ut...realizing in horror right after the protection was freed and i cut her pull right O_o

 

Yeah, started too late for me.
If I had started collecting when I first got interested in these dolls, I would have such an awesome collection by now!

 

Buying clothing in the wrong size. XD

 

yes!
i was interested in bjds but didnt buy any and continue my blythe collection
it was lati that got my interest then and now
if only i had been collecting then!

 

I still regret parting with my very first doll, though at the time, it was the right decision. He's in a loving home now, with someone who was drawn into the hobby because of seeing him in the first place, but I still wish I could have him back. I got the same sculpt to replace him, but Leeke no longer makes the wig I had for him that I absolutely loved, so I'm struggling on accepting him as the same character, even though his current wig is lovely...

 

I regret not saving for the dolls I wanted and instead settling for cheap ones, I've learned since then but even though it seems harder it's worth it to save up for the perfect doll!!!

I've also messed up a few mods before beyond repair and that's super annoying, just going slow is the best option.

 

I have sold one of my first dolls, at the time I was new to the hobby and wanted lots of different sculpts/dolls. I wasn't able to find the doll of that particular sculpt for a long time after that, and I felt sorry for selling it so easily and without a good thought.

 

Going cheap on shipping and not getting tracking for a head. I'm sure it's somewhere having tea with a hatter.

 

I brought a recast minifee once worst mistake ever as there quite horrible it was a stupid convulsive buy, i will never ever do that again, there not anything like minifees quality

 

My biggest mistakes I've made have been in buying dolls that I didn't love at first sight. I liked them, and got them at a good price but wasn't absolutely taken with them. That tends to lead to them living in their box and sometimes not even getting a wig or clothes. Little more selective as of late.

 

Well, about 3 hours ago, I paid $575 out of my checking account instead of putting it in my credit card.

 

Probably buying a doll from ebay as my first was the biggest mistake. Thankfully it was not a recast, however the face-up wasn't what I paid for and it was actually a different sculpt. That was an SD and honestly I believe that's the reason I don't like SDs.... I sold her (and a blank littefee after her) and didn't have dolls for years until Liria from Fairyland was released. Another big regret was not getting her from FL or DDE with every possible option. I now have a lovely secondhand fullset Liria but she is lacking her sleeping head.... I feel so INCOMPLETE....

 

I think I would associate my biggest mistake with a bad (the first and so far, only) experience commissioning an outfit. I've always been careful to check feedback and look at sales posts with a critical eye, so I've never had a bad experience in that respect.

However, I didn't do my due diligence when I commissioned a seamstress for an outfit, and had a drawn out and somewhat frustrating experience. While her feedback had only positive reviews, it turned out that there were a few past problem transaction threads that described very similar experiences to what I experienced. Interestingly, someone else also contacted me about having similar problems during my transaction.

So, here's a word of advice, people with bad experiences don't always bother leaving feedback in someone's feedback thread (maybe they feel awkward doing it), so be sure to look in the problem transactions forum also when you're doing your research.

 

Buying an MSD when all my other dolls are SD size. I thought she would look like a child/young teen, but she just looked like an adult in a different scale. Fortunately I was able to sell her to someone for almost as much as I paid.

 

Using a cell phone and/or cheap camera and thinking that the photos were pretty good when I first started taking pictures of them. Photographing my dolls has always been one of my favorite things about owning them, and getting a nice camera was the best decision ever.

Another one for me was buying a tiny anthro. It wasn't a huge mistake because I learned that I didn't like the size, but I kind of knew in my gut that it wasn't right for me but I bought it anyways.

 

Wig stains...

 

Back when the Delfs were being discontinued at LUTS I got it into my head to sell my beloved Miyu and reshell her as a more "mature" sculpt I was totally sure I would love even more... so I sold her before her new shell arrived. It was a super depressing transaction because she broke in transit (what I thought was a secure packing job was not in the face of that Type 2 neck piece jiggling around in transit). Then her new owner couldn't wait for the replacement torso piece I immediately bought for her from LUTS, so I had to take one of my wife's dolls apart for her and send her a piece of it to make things ok on that end. One of our dolls was in pieces for a couple of months while we waited for LUTS to send the torso piece, and of course after several months of waiting for the new shell for my character it was utterly, totally wrong. I've finally gotten her back to a doll I love as much as I did that doll, but only after several years of trial and error and she is now the ELEVENTH iteration of the character. I pack things like I expect them to be sat on by elephants now and I try not to jump the gun when reshelling, because looking back I know I could've saved myself a lot of heartache if I'd just been more patient and hung onto the Miyu a little longer.

 

Hah yes, this. Who knew gray would stain?

 

Impulse buying I will buy a doll or doll head and then not bond with it and come to dislike it, but be worried about regretting selling it after it sells :/

 

Well I bought a doll head from the marketplace in the mold I wanted and I bought the same sculpt full doll brand new directly from Soom because I wanted twins... I bought a cheaper AOD body for my floating head and then found out my boy was now taller than his twin D: also the cheaper body was nicer looking and more buff. So I sold the doll body from Soom and suddenly realized that I LIKED that the twins were not the same height and that one of them was buffer and athletic and maybe the shorter twin was sickly so I bought ANOTHER body directly from Soom lol

it wasn't a terrible mistake but it did cost me more money than I would have originally spent if I thought of that beforehand!

 

I started the hobby with vinyl dolls instead of resin, but they are still the large 60cm bodies. Due to the overwhelming amount of information available on the internet, it is not always easy to find the correct info you need. So the mistake I made was I ended up with a bunch of outfits and body parts that didn't really fit. It was a very sad sight to see a nice doll dress that I really liked not fit the dolls I have.

 

At first I was really bad with impulse buying with clothes and dolls.
Now my current mistake is I didn't buy the whole Venitu doll when I had the chance. I'm gonna have his head but his body was discontinued.

 

For me my biggest mistake so far was also impulse buying. I was very new to the hobby (still ) and I was caught up in the excitement of getting the dolls quickly so I could have a group to work with. I wish I had taken my time and saved for my grail doll instead of just jumping right in.

 

I consider it a mistake because it is one of the things that I always tell new owners not to do now, but I'm happy with how it worked out for me so I don't really regret it...
I settled for my first doll.
because I was intimidated by the idea of receiving my first doll blank and what not, and because I wanted to feel like I was getting more for my money, I ended up buying a fullset mini from dollzone that came with a whole bunch of stuff that I had literally no use for instead of the basic minifee that I actually wanted for the character I had in mind.
so eventually I decided I just couldn't deal anymore, the dollzone aimi was not my character.
I still love my first doll, and she has since developed a character of her own, but she was just not what I really wanted.
if you have a doll in mind that you feel is the one then just get it. it may take longer to save for, it may not come with all the bells and whistles, but in the end it's worth it to have what you really wanted rather than something that kind of sort of works.

 

I have made a couple of mistakes since I started in this hobby.
The first and greatest is related to buying my first doll. I researched for about a year but my budget was very limiting. I couldn't find the doll I loved for sale so I settled for another doll that I could afford but it just wasn't what I wanted. Fortunately the head of the doll I loved appeared in the marketplace several months later and I was able to purchase it ^w^
Another mistake I made was trying to force a character into a doll that was trying to express itself. I had a very hard time with that, trying to make it work, changing things, I even had a couple of anxiety attacks. But in the end I finally realized that the doll wasn't the problem, I was the problem. And I learnt that sometimes the dolls can speak for themselves and they can tell us who they are or want to be.

 

My first mistake was buying a head from the marketplace instead of a full doll for my first doll. I didn't know what to do with this thing. I gave him to a friend for Christmas that year because I felt bad wiping the pretty faceup to learn to do them myself and she loved him just the way he was.

The biggest mistake/s took me a while to learn. I love fantasy dolls, and I fall prey to the "OMG it's limited = must have it" rather easily, so SOOM got me for the longest time. I would fall in love with their promo pictures, but once the doll was home, I was unhappy with one thing or another. A lot of it was I needed to realize what kind of collector I am. Dolls that are "just pretty" don't do it for me; my dolls need to have characters/back stories attached. I ended up selling over 9 full dolls and several heads because I loved how pretty they were but could never fall in love with them. A few I even sold immediately upon arrival. I do my research on a doll now, and make sure I'm not just buying because of the "ooh shiny" factor.

 

The mistake I regret the most is not starting sooner. I was looking at BJDs for about 4-5 years before joining DoA or purchasing my first doll and because of that there are a lot of sculpts I would love to have but they are very difficult or almost impossible to find now.

The second mistake came with my first doll, I purchased her on the MP from a company I was less familiar with. Within the year I had wiped her faceup and sold her body, not realizing she was an LE40 I tried selling her at one point out of frustration of not finding any resin matches for her new body and due to the changes I made no one was interested. The head sat in a box for years until May when I put her on a new KDF body just to see her on a body again and discovered that 5 year old Dollmore resin matches perfectly with new Luts resin. Fortunately this made me fall back in love with her sculpt again and I have re-imagined her character and am working to get another KDF body for her.
While this has thankfully worked out, it has made me much more careful about my doll purchases and I do all the research I can on a sculpt before purchase.

 

My first doll was an Iplehouse JID Asa. Being my first doll, I wasn't terribly knowledgeable about doll clothing sizes. This was before I had a DoA account, so I didn't have access to things like the 'what fits' threads. So, I bought her from Iplehouse naked and went on Etsy and ordered a bunch of clothes- which I thought were the right size (I mean, they said MSD, afterall!). You can see where this is going, right? She shows up and half the stuff I got from her is waaaay too small. Poor dear spends the first few weeks of her 'life' in a box because she's naked from the waist down. Whoops.

 

My biggest mistake in this hobby is impatience. As in when it comes to limited dolls or, my Kryptonite, Volks dolls, I tend to buy first think later. While I've got a lot of lovely dolls and I adore them all, I know I wouldn't have bought at least one or two of them if I'd been more patient in waiting for the exact right one to come along. Lesson learned - don't settle; that perfect doll will come along when s/he is good and ready for you to find them.

 

Um, buying too many dolls?

Seriously, though... I look back at a group pic taken 9 months into collecting, and think, "OH, simpler times!"

 

My current biggest regret is one I am hoping to fix in April and one I had been so adamant about being perfect when I first got her. I bought a Dikadoll Lola and had her switched up to the 65cm body so she'd be taller. At first, this seemed like a grand idea and I loved her when I first got her. But, over time, I realized I should've just kept her on the 58cm body she would have came on. That body was newly sculpted and didn't have massive hands and feet and awkwardly long arms. In the end, yes, she would've been super short but I would've been happier over all.

My other biggest regret that I think about a lot is not getting a Luts Soony. My Elf Soony from Fairyland really is great but I wish I had a Delf Soony and wish I hadn't kept pushing her back at the beginning of the hobby. I kept lowering her importance and then, one day, she was just gone. So frustrating!

My last regret is impulse buying just for the freebies but also NOT impulse buying just for the freebies. LOL! I guess what I mean is I need to choose my freebies carefully. I don't like fantasy or super tiny dolls so ordering just for that kind of doll is not the wisest decision. But, also, if a head really speaks to me, I should try to go for it if I have the funds so I don't have to scour and pay way too much in the marketplace. I guess it's just a matter of filtering and choosing events wisely, especially when it comes to Fairyland.

 

I did a photoshoot on concrete and my very first (and favourite) BJD fell down and dented his nose.

 

I do have one doll I regret selling, and I've never seen one for sale since (and I think the person who bought her from me was banned), so that has been gnawing at me for a few years. Other than that, there were some times where I bought too many dolls at once, and I consider that a mistake because I never got around to completing them, and most of them ended up moving on anyway.

 

I guess my two biggest mistakes involve my first doll. The first one I made was getting her, I guess, as sad as that sounds. I never truly bonded with her. I bought her because I had been in love with the BJD hobby for years and when I finally had the chance to get a doll that was remotely close to what I wanted, I jumped on the opportunity, and I was completely in love with her for awhile until I realized I just had no clue what to do with her. I think something was wrong with her joints when she was cast because her legs pose horribly and the socket of one looks slightly different than the other. And I get a bratty character vibe from her the more I'm with her for some reason, and I really don't like that.

The second mistake I made was taking off her default faceup (which was beautifully done) because I wanted to try my hand at customization to see if I could get anywhere close to what I wanted with her. Her default was a bit too brown-toned for my liking and I was looking for something cheerier with pinks. And I actually did an alright job when I did my first few experimental faceups on her. I have an artistic background and I researched what I was going to do beforehand. But I'm not entirely sure what happened and whether it was the materials or the sealant, but she ended up getting stained. I've used rubbing alcohol, very small amounts of acetone, and even gentle sanding to remove it, and she still has little crevices around her eyes that I just can't get the staining out of. So now I'm left with a blank doll that's slightly stained and can't pose at all unless it involves careful sitting.

I don't know. I don't want to sell her because she meant a lot to me at the time and I still consider her a part of my collection, but until I work up the effort to plan her a whole new wardrobe and faceup with wigs and eyes and everything, she's just going to sit in her box for now. I feel like I underestimated how much of a project she was going to be and that was my biggest mistake.

 

@RainyAeon, if you want to remove the stains, you can try what I did with one of my rescue boys. It used a very small set of tools: 90+% rubbing alcohol, magic erasers cut into small pieces, a basin of some sort, wooden toothpicks, gloves, and Netflix. The alcohol helps dissolve the remaining sealant (you'll want to soak the head for an hour, probably not much longer than that, before you start), the magic erasers and toothpicks help work it out of the spots where it's still trapped, the gloves protect your hands from the alcohol, and the Netflix keeps you entertained because it's going to take you a long time. Still, I was able to bring a badly stained head all the way back to "like new" in about an hour and a half of active scrubbing time doing this. Crevices do tend to get sealant stuck in them, and are hard to get cleaned out; I generally resort to things like stiff toothbrushes (bad for your teeth, good for resin!) and toothpicks to get them clean, if I'm going for 100% scrubbed, or just blush over them if I'm not.

 

@vicemage, thank you for the advice! I did try everything except soaking it in pure rubbing alcohol and repeating the steps again, I think. And I can't remember if I tried toothbrushes. If not, then I'm a dope because that should have been my first idea. Most of the staining is in the creases of the eyes in addition to sealant buildup inside the ears (elf ears are the worst for this). I'll be sure to follow these steps in my next attempt at cleaning her up, though.

 

@RainyAeon, you'll want to pick up a "firm" toothbrush to do this--basically the kind your dentist generally tells you to not use. It's better for getting down into the crevices and really scrubbing at them; the toothpick lets you scrape out the rest, and is soft enough to not mar the resin while you're doing it. With that and patience, I think you'll be very pleased with the result, and prepared to take on a fresh look for your girl!

 

my first mistake was when i just got in to bjds and i didnt realise that ns wasnt the same from all companies so i picked a head from one and a body from another. when i found out they didnt match i couldn't afford to complete either doll and then one of the companies quit selling the heads/bodies separately so i never was able to complete that doll.

my other big one has been impulse buying a le doll because it was an le. impulse dolls seldom work out for me and usually end up selling for less than i paid by the time you factor in shipping and customs fees..

 

My biggest mistake was waiting to order the Delf doll I wanted. I had just come into a large sum of money and could easily have gotten a doll, but thought I should wait and buy one as a graduation present to myself. Literally a week later when I checked Luts, the Delfs were discontinued. I finally got an Angel Elf Soo head with the original face up, and now she needs a body. I also have a full AES coming with a new face up that's pretty! I also left my first doll, a Leeke Sweet, in the living room of my old place after taking pics of her and she got A LOT of sun before I realized I'd forgotten her for at least a week! AND I DID IT MORE THAN ONCE! She's starting to get pretty yellow now. Sigh.

 

Sizes! My crew is mainly sd-sized, and then somehow I wound up with a mature tiny, and I have no clue what she's supposed to do in this verse. I want to sell her. I really, really should, but I overpaid a bit for her, and I'll never break even.

 

Oh my god the biggest mistake I ever made was thinking about getting a recast and I was about to buy one I am so happy that I changed my mind waiting and saving up money now that I look back I am like what was I thinking! But now I finally put supia doll hael on order and I am so happy that I didnt buy a recast. I will, never ever think of getting a recast ever again. I support bjd artists

 

My greatest mistake was ordering a wig which cost me 150 USD -_- Finally, it was absolutely spoiled when I was trying to fix hairdo
Instead of it I failed to buy one of IH BID's when they were available in Addiction series. Anyway the last mistake is possible to fix, though it'll cost me a lot again XD

 

I haven't been in the hobby too long, but the biggest mistake I think so far was ordering my first doll with a face-up. It was a pretty big sum of money and I only did it because the company wouldn't include eyes otherwise, and all the eyes I could buy separately on their site were like $50 for some reason. And I guess I didn't realize there were tons of options for places to buy eyes. But anyway, I wiped her face-up and redid it within a week, lol.

 

I sold a body for one of my most beloved dolls when I really needed money. I figured I'd just buy it again later. In the meantime they stopped making the bodies, and I haven't found one since. :/

 

My biggest mistake was forgetting to buy msc when I got my first doll and decided to redo her face up. Oh god. Still haven't gotten back to the look I wanted

 

Impulse buying inexpensive dolls that I don't like that much >_<

 

Trading a Fairyland Karsh for an SD that had a lot more yellowing than the other party mentioned. :/ It didn't show up in their pictures but it's really uneven and it looks like they tried to sand some of it off. I might just use that body to practice modding, but now I'm definitely more wary about that kind of stuff.

 

My biggest mistake was deciding to base my characters off of demons in the Ars Goetia. Dammit I should have picked a theme with less names because there's 72 demons and I just keep getting more and more of them!!! XD

Other than that... there was this cool grey bolero with tails and a fur trim that I had... and I sold it. I miss it but I've never seen anything like it since then! Whoops. Also this awesome shoulder armor by Luts that is super rare now and I sold that too T_T

 

I haven't made any huge mistakes. I did buy a 1/4 size shoe for my DD Miku. That was before I knew about sizes. I just assumed there was only one size for dolls. Silly me.