I had a discussion recently with a friend, who declined to be identified, in the doll hobby about how she often sold dolls to afford new ones. She called it “cycling” as in, one doll out, a new doll in. She has what she considers to be a “core group” and a “fluctuating group”, which I thought was interesting. Her core group consists of a Kenner, her first Blythe, and her first custom (that she did herself). Her fluctuating group is usually 3-4 dolls that changes every one to two years. She says its her way of not pouring even more money into the doll hobby, while always keeping her collection “fresh and exciting”. At one time, her fluctuating group was a group of one – she had a custom doll who was created by a sought after customizer at the time. Then she traded that doll for two dolls, and then she sold one of the customs and bought two other dolls with the proceeds. In her words, there are (surprisingly) more important things to spend money on than dolls, but she still wants to have the excitement of a new addition to her collection.

And then there’s me. I have only sold one doll before (a Fancy Pansy that never even made it out of her box – and to add insult to injury, I stripped her of her stock before shipping her off to her new home), the rest of my dolls enter into the family and here they will stay forever (barring unforeseen circumstances). And I know there are collectors out there like me – minimal selling, none of this “cycling” of money business, but I also know that this is not completely the norm. Some people sell, some people don’t – but it’s not a hard or fast rule that anyone should adhere too. What if I wake up one morning and decide that I need to sell a doll to afford something? Anyone who read this post would think that I’m a hypocrite and that’s okay – because presumably I’d either fallen out of love with a certain doll, or I really need the cash for something necessary in life – and that does not include doll clothes or shoes.

Do you “cycle” through dolls? Do you keep all your dolls? Or do you fall somewhere between the two extremes?

Everyday Collector is a feature I first wrote about in March 2016. It’s a feature to showcase the collectors in the Blythe community. If you are interested in being featured, please click here for more information.

Tell us about yourself.
Hi, I’m Ollie, a Melbourne born and bred teenage photographer, crafter, tea drinker, clothes-wearer and collector of small things. Oh, and an absolute addict to Blythe!

How did you discover Blythe?
In 2009, my cousin came back from Japan with this doll. She had these big, round eyes which magically changed with the pull of a string. I was in love, and I knew I just had to get my hands on one of my own! After discovering that the doll was a Blythe, I scoured the internet for days trying to find the perfect one. Then I saw the price tag. Whoa. Maybe I was just too used to $19 Barbies but $140 just seemed crazy for one doll! So I put my dolly dreams on hold for a while. But there was just something about Blythe that I just *needed* to have. So me and my wallet winced and hit the ‘Submit Order’ button on a Bohemian Peace. Nowadays I laugh at my old non-Blythe-educated self whilst I pay for $350 second-hand custom : )

Tell us about your Blythe family.
My Blythe family is forever changing and swapping. I go through phases of wanting ALL THE NEW RELEASES to eyeing off fancy customs. At the moment I’m pretty happy with my bundle (herd? flock? What’s the proper term?) of dollies. Sitting on the shelf I have Ellie, a Mondie, Chloe, a Yumiko Dolls Custom University of Love, Alex, a Royal Soliloquy, Mable, a Chu Things X MayYeo custom Simply Lilac, Nina, a Nenya Dolls custom FBL, and Audrey, a Strawberryland Dolls custom.

What is your favourite thing about Blythe?
My favourite thing about Blythe would be the creativity surrounding the dolls. There are just so many amazing people creating everything from tiny leather boots to carefully carved mouths. It still astonishes me how tiny stitches can get! Blythe wouldn’t be where she is today without folk like this.

What is your favourite aspect of the Blythe community?
My favourite aspect of the Blythe community is how inviting and lovely everyone is. I went to Blythe Fest last year and there wasn’t a single person in the room that I couldn’t chat to!  I also love how diverse the community is. Blythe seems to share the love with everyone, whether you’re brand new or have been collecting since ’72.

Ollie can be found on Flickr.

Photo by Meg/irulethegalaxy.

If money was not an obstacle and I had unlimited funds to spend on any one Blythe doll? I would get a Parco! Parco-Parco-Parco-Parco-Parco! Preferably one that came with her fantastic 90s-era cell phone. (I’ve become quite smitten with BLs, and while Sunday Best & Aztec Arrival are definitely on the ‘list’ of what I want – Parco will cost more pennies and is more out of my price range right now.)

If money wasn’t an issue, which Blythe doll would you buy right now?

I was recently having a conversation with a friend who asked me how many dolls I had now, and my go to answer was “Ummm… *mentally does some math* 16 Blythes with uhh, 2 Middies and 4 Petites.” This brought up the response of “Wait, weren’t you at like 8 recently? When did you get so many?”.

That is an excellent question (sort of), and I try not to think too hard about how many dolls that I have or how quickly I’ve acquired them, but it really isn’t that quick as one would assume. I’ve been collecting and acquiring dolls since 2009, so coming up on 7 years in June. In 2009, I got my first three Blythes (Sophie/Cappuccino Chat, Belarus/Love Mission, and Tertiary Jane/Simply Peppermint) and I maintained that increase by three dolls per year for a while. In 2010, I went up by three (Bennett/Margaret Meets Ladybug, Eden Mouse/Punkaholic People, Kindred/Velvet Minuet) as did 2011 (Emmalynn/Kenner, Moxie/Simply Bubble Boom, Mollie/Simply Sparkly Spark).

2012 saw me go up by three as well, but with two of the three being Kenners (Primrose and Lillian Rose), as well as my first custom (Halo, a Friends With Blythe customized Prima Dolly Saffy). I also added three in 2013, are you noticing a trend yet? I added Kitty Brighton (Jackie Ramone Middie) as my first Middie, Cedar (Monique Magnifique), and Minnow (Hi-Ho! Marine). If I had been adding at a rate of three per year, I would be up to 21 by the end of this year and so far I’m doing okay! 2014 saw me only add two dolls to the family (Cameo, another Friends With Blythe custom; and Lydia Melbourne, a Yellow Marshmallow Middie). In 2015 I did amazingly well because I was scrimping during my unemployment (and saving for BlytheCon Vancouver spending money) and only added one doll to the family – Lark, the I.G. Sirenita Petite who was a gift from my sister (after she’d won her from the raffle), although I usually don’t “count” Petites into my doll count because they’re so small and I only have four right now. And then that takes us to 2016, where I’ve added one Petite and one Mondrian.

If we don’t count the Petites (which I often don’t – sorry little ones!), that means that I average about 2.25 dolls per year. Which isn’t bad! I do have plans on adding an ADG soon, to round out the family a little bit, so that’ll skew with my numbers a little bit – but overall it’s not a huge surplus in dolls all the time. If I had the money, I’d probably increase the size of my collection by more than two-to-three dolls a year, but as it currently stands I have more pressing matters to contend with when it comes to if I can spend money on dolls (the answer is usually no, but that doesn’t stop me from watching auctions and paying attention to what’s going online when it comes to buying/selling dolls).

These are a pair of the tiniest shoes that I own, the tiniest of the tiny because they are sized for Petites! If you’ve never seen a Petite before, their feet are super small – just 10mm in length and 4mm in width, talk about small! I have zero clue which doll these shoes were originally released with (potentially with an LPS?) as I received Lark fully customized and dressed.

Lark is an I.G. Sirenita custom Petite that my sister won at BlytheCon Vancouver 2015 (and later gave to me). I included a pair of Neo-sized purple boots for size comparison between the sizes – it’s crazy!

Tiny Shoe Love is a feature on BlytheLife.com to showcase and share doll shoes that grace Michelle’s picky dolls’ feet. We love tiny shoes in this house, and we hope you do too!