Last weekend we were at a cousin's birthday party, and of all the gifts that were unwrapped, one in particular made all the other children go "WOOOAAHHH", after which they scrambled around the big pink box to get a better view. It was a Barbie set.
Barbie has been around since 1959. She was the brainchild of a lady named Ruth Handler (a Mattel co-founder), who invented the doll after seeing her little daughter play with her own dolls, pretending them to be grown-ups. Most dolls of the days were modelled after babies or children, so Ruth Handler thought it might be a good idea to create a teenage fashion doll. She named her doll Barbie, after her daughter.
The Barbie 1959 #1 model ponytail Barbie (product #850), clad in black and white knit swimsuit, is on the wishlist of every vintage Barbie collector. Barbie #1 was available as a blonde and a brunette, and had a small set of accessories: white sunglasses with blue lenses, black open-toe shoes, and hoop earrings. The #2 Barbie is almost identical, in fact the only difference is that the #1 had holes in her feet to fit her on her doll stand. This model was produced through 1961.
The sample in the picture above sold for $2,000, as a 'bare' doll without accessories or box. Samples in perfect condition (with no blemishes to paint like nailpolish, brows and eyes), with accessories and box, can sell for multiples of that. The Barbie collectibles niche is large, because of Barbie's worldwide appeal. We have seen single pieces of rare Barbie clothing sell for hundreds of dollars, but those are for the die-hard collectors that already have everything else.
A good site to start your Barbie research is barbiecollector.com, a site maintained by Mattel. It has a good portion of history, information for collectors, as well as a nice doll showcase with many pictures. Just Google for private collections and dealers. Alternatively, there are quite a few books about Barbie available online, which can help you learn more about the history as well as values of vintage Barbie items.
Barbie has been around since 1959. She was the brainchild of a lady named Ruth Handler (a Mattel co-founder), who invented the doll after seeing her little daughter play with her own dolls, pretending them to be grown-ups. Most dolls of the days were modelled after babies or children, so Ruth Handler thought it might be a good idea to create a teenage fashion doll. She named her doll Barbie, after her daughter.
The Barbie 1959 #1 model ponytail Barbie (product #850), clad in black and white knit swimsuit, is on the wishlist of every vintage Barbie collector. Barbie #1 was available as a blonde and a brunette, and had a small set of accessories: white sunglasses with blue lenses, black open-toe shoes, and hoop earrings. The #2 Barbie is almost identical, in fact the only difference is that the #1 had holes in her feet to fit her on her doll stand. This model was produced through 1961.The sample in the picture above sold for $2,000, as a 'bare' doll without accessories or box. Samples in perfect condition (with no blemishes to paint like nailpolish, brows and eyes), with accessories and box, can sell for multiples of that. The Barbie collectibles niche is large, because of Barbie's worldwide appeal. We have seen single pieces of rare Barbie clothing sell for hundreds of dollars, but those are for the die-hard collectors that already have everything else.
A good site to start your Barbie research is barbiecollector.com, a site maintained by Mattel. It has a good portion of history, information for collectors, as well as a nice doll showcase with many pictures. Just Google for private collections and dealers. Alternatively, there are quite a few books about Barbie available online, which can help you learn more about the history as well as values of vintage Barbie items.
1 comments:
Believe it or not I had one of these. When I was in the 1st grade my grandparents gave me one that they got in a box of toys from an auction sale. No one in my family recognized it as valuable. I cut her hair off and eventually the dog got a hold of her.
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