PM sent me a photo of a hyper realistic baby doll. I don’t complain about appearing on the list doll appraisers, but as my readers know, I don’t like DOLLS. Yet, for some reason I got a reputation for appraising dolls. I don’t have a natural affinity to the form at all, for a good reason. When VERY young, I found a doll of mine glowed in a drawer where I stuffed her because I did NOT want her on my bed. She glows in my dreams to this day. But Murphy’s Law says that when you hide from something you fear, it comes to BITE you.
Susan Krey designed PM’s doll. Ms. Krey is a good artist with formal training in art from the Royal Academy in England. She taught art in Australia, and designed dolls in the USA for more than 30 years. This involves a knowledge of sculpting, because she must make a clay maquette and create porcelain head and finish it with wax, from which she further sculpts the face. So, her dolls are beautiful if you like realistic children in miniature, but for my liking, too realistic.
She writes on her website that she paints the head “and puts the eyes in place, and then waits until the doll Speaks to her” I find that rather frightening to imagine.
Realistic Baby Doll Market
That brings me to the market for dolls from those ladies who collected dolls in the 1980-90’s. I’ve seen more than enough trailers and houses filled with such dolls.
The market today for dolls of the era 1980-1990 and even into the early 2000’s is rather dire, because that craze for doll collecting of ‘limited edition’ dolls is GONE. And in this Pandemic market, it is really gone, but a few collectors will pay $1,000 for such vintage. However, the COMMON market will pay about $25 for such a doll, yet the division between those few ladies who want a Susan Krey doll and those who kind of like the doll for their grandkids is VAST. So, we see a split between $1,000 and $25 in this market.
The answer, if you want to sell, choose the market in which to advertise. If, of course, you want to insure the doll, go to the highest market and pay THAT higher premium for insurance and hope the insurance company doesn’t question your comparable sales IF you lose that doll.
What’s the doll WORTH?
That’s impossible to determine, especially in the 1990 era dolls, because of this wide divergence in the market for that vintage today. If you find someone who wants THAT particular doll, then you’re in the $1,000 range. If you do not, you’re in the “OK I want the doll for my grandbaby” $25 range. So as an appraiser, I look at the market, and say, “Well, if you find THAT person, that doll is worth a bunch, if you don’t, it is NOT.” Then the seller is ON THEIR OWN to find the best market in which to advertise and sell.
I say the VERY best way to sell a doll is at a Doll Show in those big convention centers when we can do that again. A few of them are very good. Susan Quinlan Doll Museum presented, in the pre-pandemic past, a list of great dolls shows. Take the doll to the show and ASK who might BUY. That’s the very best way to get a doll sold. Online you’ll find lots of “I might take it for my grandchild” buyers, and it’s rare someone pays you a bunch. You’re looking for the few older ladies who WANT that particular doll and they’re few and far between…
This doll from PM GLOWED for me. In other words, it’s spooky to see a baby doll so realistic, after just having my first grandchild. Then to see it SHOWN large and come up on the computer screen. WOW, that’s why I have an allergy to dolls in general. The sculptors are SO GOOD and that’s scary for this appraiser!