Hear! Hear! Mine, too.
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Definitely agree with you on this.
My first doll was painted because I thought I could do it cheaper, but little did I know, this was a lot harder than it looked. My first doll was horrible. 
I found myself addicted pretty quickly and ended up spending a couple thousand dollars within a relatively short period of time. Some of what I bought I ended up not needing, but there was no way to know that at the time. I don’t even need to explain to anyone here that this is an expensive hobby.
It had to happen that way because I ended up needing to paint for years until I was able to create anything good. During that time I bought a doll from a prototype artist that took my breath away. Had I not fallen in love with painting, it would have been so much cheaper to buy him and leave it at that.
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I don’t feel I am giving away minutes to painting. I paint because I really enjoy It, is good for my soul, helps me get out of myself, brings me joy, but not always, and I think it is good to push myself sometimes from what is not comfortable for me, and last it may keep me young [in my mind only]. I am much older than you and my overall body pain keeps me from doing a lot of the things I once did, I don’t know what I’d do with my days if I didn’t have reborns!
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Time spent feeling joy is exactly what I’m talking about. 
If someone thinks they will just make one doll cheaper than they can buy one, I feel like the time is wasted.
I think that perhaps that is what sucks a lot of artists into it though. Like, “Oh the kits are cheap enough. The supplies for one doll are way cheaper than buying a doll. I’m gonna make one for myself!”
One of two things happen. Either they end up finding lots of joy in creating reborns, or, they find out they wasted their money and sell their kit and supplies to make some back and call it a day.
When I say giving up minutes of your life for a doll, I literally mean one doll. Unless you find yourself wrapped up in reborning in a good way, you’re wasting countless minutes of your life to save a few hundred bucks. THAT isn’t worth it at all.
Side Bar: I got sucked into it through curiosity and a desire to slightly improve a doll I already bought. 
By the time I was done destroying that one, I was so dang excited because there is SO much to learn. Ergo, my goofy butt started into painting babies because I wanted better hair on ONE doll. At first, it wasn’t about getting a reborn for cheap, it was about really ugly hair. Then there was this cool new polymer that I never thought of past the seal around my tub.
I’m like you these days, I get so much joy painting babies! I don’t think it is a waste of my time either. Had I just stopped at that first doll, I think that would have been a waste.
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Oh, I misunderstood, we’re on the same page 
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Well also, I still have paint left over, so I’m only paying for kits until that runs out. There’s also if I buy colors I didn’t have. For argument, say I’m painting for myself. I understand about time, but it IS hard to assign a specific value too, when it comes to this. It is all too, based on how you sell or whatever. A baby I’m working on, super slowly, obviously isn’t prototype, but I think he looks quite well and would be second finished. I think I’ll be able to get decent for him. Way more than I actually paid for the supplies, since I actually used what I already had. Now shipping, as he isn’t for me, would def help jack up the price! Excluding time, I think once I had the skill, for the price of making one doll, I think it would be cheaper. I understand the process to that point will cost more. Butt just saying for making one, of a great quality, the technicalities of that one baby.
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