davidd's A DOLL A DAY 2023

[davidd]

Did it work?

I haven't checked. In my eerience, the de-staining process usually takes several days to a number of weeks.

But I'm gonna have to bring the head inside because there's rain in the forecast and the sky is clouding up.

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23 September - A Doll A Day 2023:

Scarlett O'Barbie

Appropriately, the wind blew the box lid closed as I was snapping the photo of this Gone With The Wind Barbie doll.

This "Hollywood Legends" Barbie doll commemorating the motion picture Gone With The Wind was released back in 1994 -- thirty years ago for those of you who may be keeping track. Today these dolls are practically worthless. Nicely boxed examples of these thirty year old "collectable" dolls are frequently available for ten bucks or less (plus fifteen for shipping) online.

See, what's happening with some of this stuff, particularly the "collector editions," is that the collectors who purchased these things thirty years ago are "leaving the hobby" (a polite euphemism for dying off), and nobody wants their stuff. The collectors kept their collectibles in nicely preserved, boxed condition. Now all those like-new examples are showing up on the secondary market at the same time. Supply outpaces demand.

Meanwhile,  I recently sold a ten year old Novi Stars doll for $275 on eBay. It sold in under an hour. I probably had it underpriced, since some people ask $500 and up, but the one I sold was unboxed and was missing its accessories. One of the differences is that Novi Stars dolls were "playline dolls" marketed to kids. They weren't sold as items for collectors. Thus, fewer of them survived intact.

Plus, of course, the Novi Stars doll had three eyes and skeleton wings. Sorry, Barbie, you can't compete with that, no way!

The future secondary market is difficult to predict. Some dolls and toys escalate in price immediately upon being discontinued and continue to increase in price for years. Other items -- usually the ones designed to be "collector items" -- fail to hold even their original retail price.

Note: rational discussion about the pricing issue does not pertain to dolls released by Integrity Toys. That's an entirely different world in which sanity does not exist.

Meh, I'm rambling. But having picked this doll up myself on eBay in conjunction with another "collector" Barbie for under twenty bucks for the pair, I'm just kinda moodily musing over the value, or lack of value, of the things we buy, save, treasure, or discard.

Anyway... I'm gonna rip open the box and see if the cool red dress fits on a TBLeague seamless figure. Poor ol' nekkid Scarlett O'Barbie will be sent off to a donation station... which is probably a worse fate than would have befallen a nekkid Scarlett at the grubby hands of the Union Army back in the day.

23 September - A Doll A Day 2023

P.S.: and why, you ask, did I sell the Novi Stars doll? Because two-hunnert senny-five bucks for a seven inch tall plastic doll, that's why!