Antique Collecting: Barbie Dolls at Garage Sales

Video Transcript

"Let’s talk about Barbie, although Barbie, yeah we have got to cover Barbie because she is a garage sale staple. Now every time you go to a garage sale you find a Barbie, do you know how many people find a Barbie? Me, Expert Villagers, they are everywhere, but the Barbies that you see at garage sales are the yucky Barbies. They are too new; they just keep cranking out those Barbies, okay so what you need to do is look for Barbies that are either special or old. One of the very earliest Barbies, you know the one that has the black and white bathing suit and she has got little earrings. Those can go for hundreds and thousands of dollars if they are in their original box but odds are you will not find one of those at a garage sale, what you may find are some of the themed Barbies like this one. This is a Frank Sinatra and Barbie collector edition; these are still real findable, if that is a word at garage sales. I think this one is about ten years old, I am just guessing and this one probably retails for, I would say about sixty-five dollars, forty-five to sixty-five dollars, these are the kinds of things that you can pick up at garage sales for five, six, seven or eight dollars. So this would be highly collectible but it is almost a no-brainer because it is a special series. Yet other things to look for in Barbies are Barbies that aren’t modern, Barbies that aren’t in the little cutesy boxes, Barbies that are older but if they are damaged some kids like to, yikes, cut the hair on their Barbies and that is just sad, some people have little, you know like, when I was a kid, here is what I did, this is really kind of cold, I had a scavenger hunt for a birthday party once and I said that one of the things that I wanted people to bring was Barbie doll limbs. Now that is frightening, but that just shows how Barbie dolls really, really were damaged and they are hard to find so kids played the heck out of them, so find Barbies that are older, they are very collectible. "