Holiday Barbies. What do I do with them!

[nkereina]

Well, it's been almost 4 years. What did you do with them, OP?

My own zombie thread resurrected! I feel like its a Dis Boards accomplishment

For anyone still curious, I did end up selling some on eBay back in 2015. I don't remember how much, it was minimal - $150 maybe? I'm sure I would have made more going to a local place or a collector, but I was in the midst of a massive clean out and didn't have the time or energy. For the rest that didn't sell, I donated them to our church who was collecting new and gently used toys for kids at Christmas. Glad they are getting love and out of my basement! LOL!

 

[cabanafrau]

The collectibles market has been falling drastically in recent years. A good friend's mother was positive she was going to get a tremendous payday last year when she decided it was time to give up her Dicken's Village and Avon plates collections. She was absolutely crushed when not a single one sold, not a single one. I had tried to prepare my friend ahead of time because I knew she would have no idea herself because she herself is adamantly against any kind of knick knacks whatsoever -- probably because of her mother's out of control collecting habits. She thought that there were sure to be people looking for the early Dicken's pieces and was a bit surprised to find out that there was not. It was kind of heartbreaking to know her mother actually sobbed when reality set in. She had assumed for years she was sitting on a growing fortune.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

Yeah, most of the "collectibles" these days aren't collectible at all. All those displayable objects that one would keep in a cabinet... the Precious Moments, the Hummels, the decorative plates, anything Danbury Mint, all those silly perfume bottles from Avon, etc. NASCAR collectibles only sell to OTHER fans of those certain drivers LOL

Anyone else's older loved ones collect those little silver spoons? AUGH I have two shoeboxes full of spoons from ~3 great/grand-aunts and their collections.

One of the moms from my kid's school was laughing with me about this, she went to help her mom clean/donate things in her home. Turns out the whole curio cabinet of typical "collectibles" was filled with BROKEN art objects that have just been lovingly turned to the side so you didn't see the broken parts LOL

 

[luvsJack]

Yeah, most of the "collectibles" these days aren't collectible at all. All those displayable objects that one would keep in a cabinet... the Precious Moments, the Hummels, the decorative plates, anything Danbury Mint, all those silly perfume bottles from Avon, etc. NASCAR collectibles only sell to OTHER fans of those certain drivers LOL

Anyone else's older loved ones collect those little silver spoons? AUGH I have two shoeboxes full of spoons from ~3 great/grand-aunts and their collections.

It seems like those that end up "sitting on a fortune" with things like that, it is usually an accident. Certain toys, the odd baseball card, old bottles, etc. It has to be something that not everyone collected so the term "collectible" rarely means "will go up in value". In fact just the opposite.

DH has a very old Coke bottle stamped with a bottling company that hasn't existed for a very long time. Its worth quite a bit to a Coke collector or sometimes bottling companies will buy them. He found it when he worked on a bridge crew and they were breaking ground for a new bridge. Until we met someone that worked for Coke, we just thought it was a neat bottle. But, for whatever reason Coke bottles and memorabilia can be worth a lot. But it almost has to be stuff that no one would have ever kept!

My parents used to have a small grocery store and Coke was always bringing in things to display. Like the life size cardboard Coke Santa. The guy at the bottling company got all excited when I was telling him about all that stuff. But very disappointed when I had to tell him it all was thrown out. Who would keep something like that? But he said, anyone that did was a very lucky person indeed as old Coke signs and displays could be worth quite a bit.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Which is why I said she would need to find a toy/Barbie collector. As in call a person not try to sell on eBay. The article I saw was a toy collector not someone trying to sell, just giving information.

Why would anybody reasonably think a Barbie collector doesn't already own all the collectible dolls and would be willing to pay such an outrageous figure? Anyway, this http://happyholidaybarbies.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_8.html appears to be a much more reasonable realistic value list.

 

[Imzadi]

The collectibles market has been falling drastically in recent years. A good friend's mother was positive she was going to get a tremendous payday last year when she decided it was time to give up her Dicken's Village and Avon plates collections. She was absolutely crushed when not a single one sold, not a single one.

Yeah, most of the "collectibles" these days aren't collectible at all. All those displayable objects that one would keep in a cabinet... the Precious Moments, the Hummels, the decorative plates, anything Danbury Mint, all those silly perfume bottles from Avon, etc. NASCAR collectibles only sell to OTHER fans of those certain drivers LOL

I wonder if the "Collectibles" era came about from the generation right after the Great Depression when things were so scarce there was nothing to collect. The Post-Depression Era children were able to have and collect stuff and trade/sell them. HAVING a plethora of stuff made it valuable. And the collectibles were rare items that weren't made or kept in the thousands.

But, now, we live in a culture that's overly-saturated with mass marketed goods. Machines can produce thousands of products in a matter of hours that no one wants long term. Truly First World excesses. We even have 3-D printers in which people can now make anything they can think of, then toss them aside when they have no interest in them any longer. Why collect things when one can get the newest, latest thing that's trendy? The desire for specific objects last as long as a tweet nowadays, which is about a millisecond.

 

[luvsJack]

Why would anybody reasonably think a Barbie collector doesn't already own all the collectible dolls and would be willing to pay such an outrageous figure? Anyway, this http://happyholidaybarbies.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_8.html appears to be a much more reasonable value list.

You do realize that people begin collecting things all the time, right? I mean they aren't born as collectors, they start later. People that START a collection have to get the dolls from somewhere, and so they buy them and the possibility of a doll being valuable is born.

PSSSSTTTT--the list you posted has just as much potential of being wrong as the article I read. Which is why someone with something of possible value should talk to a collector. A collector that may either want the item or can guide one to someone who does.