This has been the strangest collecting year for me. I decided that I simply would no longer allow myself to be stressed out by my hobby. I did some very serious re-evaluation and came to some startling discoveries.
1. I realized I had been "cheating" on my guidelines. I had so many dolls coming into my home in previous years that I wasn't listing them all. I rationalized this by telling myself, "If they may not stay, I shouldn't add them to the list." As long as they were NRFB, in the closet, and in the "consideration" stage, they were in Limbo Land. This freed me to buy as many dolls as I wanted without any accountability. Good for me, right?
2. But bad for my bank account. After remarrying, my husband and I focused on getting out of debt as part of plan for upcoming retirement. We got very serious and cut out many luxuries from our lives. We both actually paid off all of our credit cards! Somehow over the past three years, I had gotten myself back into credit card debt to the tune of several thousand dollars. ACK! I decided to sell a lot of dolls that weren't being enjoyed. By July, I had paid off my credit card and haven't carried a balance since.
3. This made me make some major collecting decisions.
1. I realized I had been "cheating" on my guidelines. I had so many dolls coming into my home in previous years that I wasn't listing them all. I rationalized this by telling myself, "If they may not stay, I shouldn't add them to the list." As long as they were NRFB, in the closet, and in the "consideration" stage, they were in Limbo Land. This freed me to buy as many dolls as I wanted without any accountability. Good for me, right?
2. But bad for my bank account. After remarrying, my husband and I focused on getting out of debt as part of plan for upcoming retirement. We got very serious and cut out many luxuries from our lives. We both actually paid off all of our credit cards! Somehow over the past three years, I had gotten myself back into credit card debt to the tune of several thousand dollars. ACK! I decided to sell a lot of dolls that weren't being enjoyed. By July, I had paid off my credit card and haven't carried a balance since.
3. This made me make some major collecting decisions.
- I would not purchase dolls unless I had the money at the end of the month to pay for them.
- I had to sell dolls in order to buy dolls.
- Any new doll had to be more desirable than the ones that I was selling.
- I would not pay high secondary market prices for any retail doll. CAP: $50 over original cost.
- I would never pay more than $325 for any doll.
This put some serious restrictions on purchases. This is one of the reasons that several dolls released in 2018 will not appear in my countdown.
- Jason Wu Special Release Elyse dolls are not included in my countdown because they cost too much on secondary market.
- The same is true for Summer of Love, Peace of My Heart, and Miss Behave Style Lab versions of Poppy Parker.
- Affluent Demeanor Agnes Von Weiss will not appear in my countdown because I prefer Queen of Everything which is currently in my collection.
- Public Adoration Eden Blair does not appear because her secondary market price is out of reach. I'm also not sure about the texture of pink hair. It usually feels coarser than other hair.
EDIT: One of my Christmas gifts was an empty box with an "I.O.U." in it from my husband. He explained that he had purchased me something that didn't get delivered before the holiday. It arrived this week and was Public Adoration Eden Blair, so she may appear in my list after all.
- Optic Illusion Giselle Diefendorf is not on my list because I'm still waiting on an e-bay coupon and didn't have the cash to pay for her this month.
Do I regret my decisions? Not at all. For once in a very long time, I am beginning to feel more in control of my hobby. I am less stressed and happier with my choices. All of the dolls I added to my collection this year were purchased at original cost (or less than $50 over retail). Using e-bay coupons, I was even able to add a couple dolls to my collection that I had missed over the years. I have managed to actually put some money in my savings account. I was able to be more generous this Christmas with family and friends. It feels good!