Associated Press
NEW YORK — She was so pretty — so slender, so poised, her hair in a perfect blond ponytail. Or maybe she was a redhead with a bubble cut hairdo. Then one day she disappeared.
And now you want your Barbie back. You decide to keep searching until you find her.
That’s how the baby boomer quest for Barbie begins. Not the dolls on the shelf at Toys R Us or Wal-Mart, but the long-lost Barbies that some boomers would love to find again. The quest often takes them to antique dealers, doll fairs and Internet auction sites.
Dealers say it’s all about seeking the comforts of a simpler time.
"We have a lot of women who had them and who are rekindling their childhood," said Deanna Overdorf, a Barbie collector who also sells vintage dolls in her Adrian, Mich.-based business, D’s Dolls.
That’s helped drive up prices for older Barbies. Dolls that date back to 1959, Barbie’s first year, and the 1960s can run into the thousands of dollars.
It’s not just Barbie that boomers seek, there’s a big market for other vintage toys including GI Joe and other action figures, Matchbox and other miniature cars and board games.
But Barbie probably tugs on heartstrings more than any other toy. Boomer mothers, who have bought multiple Barbies for their children, are a big reason why the doll brings in $1.5 billion a year in revenue for Mattel Inc.
Many female boomers want to replace dolls that, like their brothers’ comic books, were tossed into the trash or sold at garage sales, Overdorf said.
For some, getting a replacement Barbie can become something very symbolic. Overdorf said of one of her customers, "Her psychiatrist told her to get the doll she had played with when she was young."
Boomers tend to look for dolls exactly like the ones they had as kids, said Sandi Holder, owner of Doll Attic, a store in Union City, Calif. So if a woman had a Barbie with a blond ponytail or one with a brunette bubble cut, that’s the doll she’ll seek.
Depending on when the doll was made, its condition and how many are still in existence, that could be pricey.
Collectors look for Barbies and accessories of the highest quality, those that have never been removed from the box or that are free of wear and tear. These items can command prices in three, four and sometimes five figures.
But Holder said that doesn’t faze customers looking for replacement Barbies.
"They usually know what they’re looking for, and they’re accustomed to hearing the prices," she said, noting that she’s sold a first-issue mint Barbie still in the box for over $10,000.
Holder was drawn to Barbie collecting for the same reason as many of her customers: "My mom tossed my Barbie, and I wanted to pass it to my daughters."
Some boomers might want to look for Barbie clones, dolls brought out over the years by Mattel competitors who tried and failed to outdo her.
If you still have your Barbie, but it’s showing the effects of having been slept with or used to bash your little brother, you might want to consider taking it to a doll hospital or a dealer who knows how to restore Barbies.
Some dealers say the economy has affected the Barbie business as well as collecting in general, but the demand for the dolls is still very good.
Jo Styers, a collector and dealer in Newton, N.C., reported her sales aren’t as robust as they were a few years ago. But, she said of business, "It goes on all the time."
Styers said she has between 4,000 and 5,000 Barbies — an easy total to achieve given the fact that as the doll’s popularity has grown Mattel has turned out hundreds of variations on Barbie.
That’s made Barbie a vastly different plaything today than 40 years ago. While the average boomer girl had one, maybe two Barbies, little girls now are likely to have Barbies running into the double digits.
"My niece is 4 and she has at least 30," Overdorf said.
Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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