Question about baby dolls

kaleidoscopecarousel

kaleidoscopecarousel

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My mom and I picked out several (33 to be exact) baby dolls at an estate/garage sale this weekend.
Almost all of them are from the 60's and 70's and in great condition.
My questions are:
1) What would I use to wash their hair to make it prettier or fall the right way since they have been in storage pretty much the whole time.
2) Are there any doll websites that will tell me what type of dolls most or all of them are. e

All of these dolls are the baby dolls that little girls play with. I am not too good at dating and describing dolls... but I am going to try. My mom talked me into doing this and well... Im not dragging them all to her house and sitting there for hours to get a description lol. I love my mom but I spent too much time garage and estate sale-ing with her this weekend lol.
So if anyone has any terrific info they can shoot my way, I would be so very thankful and greatful!!!
Billie jo
 
I would not mess with the hair unless there is a definite reason.....doll collectors put a premium on 'original set' hair. PRICE on dolls varies madly with condition, mint in box being best...played with, hair cut, original clothes lost, etc. being bad. You might try photographing GROUPS of dolls, and posting them to the Doll & Bear board at eBay. They might ignore you, bite your head off, OR help you out...with names, but probably not value. Armed with names, you can google doll sites for comparative value. Don't sell anything without having some what you have....'doll ladies' are WILY and 60s and 70s dolls can be pricier than you might expect. GOOD LUCK.
 
Almost all of the dolls I have are nude. There are only a few with clothes. I was just curious about the hair since a few have kind of funky hair from being in a baggy. The woman who owned these apparently undressed them. I have no clue what kind of clothes they would wear. I have only found a few of them on Ebay (present and sold in the last month). Most of them are made by Horsman. I dont intend to make big money on them... just cute old dolls and my mom thought it would be fun to sell them... and me do the listing (ma is new to the Ebay thing lol).
I have sold a few that I bought a few months back. One of them was an ugly squeak doll that someone bought for almost $20! I was astonished. It was an ugly doll.
Thanks for the information, I will leave their hair as I bought them.
 
I'd start with a few searches for the doll maker's name on ebay, to see if ther are any that you have that do well singly (like Shirley Temple).
Otherwise you might do well to do them in sets of 5, grouped by similarity, with a goodly amount of images for every set.

One of the best pieces of advice for new ebayers (like your mom) is "stick with what you know". I flirted with mason jars and cast iron figures for a bit about 4 years ago. Lost my shirt on most every piece. Find a specialty and learn every little bit you can about it. The most successfull ebay sellers are more specialists than generalists. Of course, if she's purely in it for the fun, then nevermind.
 
I do have a couple of doll books and value guides if you would want to post a pic of some.

You were given the right advice on not washing their hair. I sold a doll dress which belonged to me several years ago and I told in the auction description that the dress was freshly washed and ironed. You would have thought I had committed a sin. One lady emailed me and said I should have never done that. Told her it was my very own doll's dress and I would do what I liked..thank you. LOL Those doll collectors are something else.
 
My mother was the least toxic doll collector I knew....I bought for her alone.

One day I had a group of 40s/50s lady dolls from the GW AS-IS store, hidden under my sales counter, totally invisible from the front....but, if you hung over the counter/register you could barely spy a doll toe or two.

A collector expertized them from the single toe: no/wrong clothing, heads switched with other dolls, bogus wigs, absolute caca...I should be paying her to take them....but, what did I want for them? Mind you, she didn't see OR touch the dolls.

The only collectors that are scarier are Nazi collectors, but it's a close thing.
 
Oh my!!! I am frightened by baby doll collectors now lol!!
My mom bought these knowing what I like to sell... so Im the one stuck selling them. I cannot tell my mom no... as Im sure most of you wouldnt be able to either lol.
I have done a search on most of them. The main maker is Horsman. I think I am just going to list them for pretty cheap and see what goes from there.
My mom is new to Ebay but she makes butter crocks and dammit dolls (which are nothing like the darn baby mass going on in my house).
Thank you all for the advice. I havent done pics yet due to the fact that I have my own mountain of inventory to get through before I even consider touching those baby dolls... I love my mom but she is overwhelming me lol.
Have a great day and thanks again for the info...
Billie jo
Kaleidoscope Carousel
 
HI - My mom is a Doll Doctor and yes, one of the scary doll collectors. I do think that's part of why I love vintage fashion so much though - her 40s and 50s Madame Alexanders and Nancy Ann style Shows are just so amazing to see ! The tiny clothing on these things!

Anyway, there is a website that is www.twinpines.com. I have recommended on this and the VCA boards MULTIPLE times b/c I have NEVER found better cleaners in my whole life than on that website.

Twin Pines actually specializes in doll products - plastic, vinyl & composition cleaners and what not. I buy the PERK! w/ the boost accelerator and have only had it fail me once... and that was a long time ago on a very old orange juice looking stain. I have taken blood out of Victorian garments and 50 year old armpit stains... You really might consider looking it up. PURE MAGIC!

Oh... one more thing. I bought a cute Gigi Young piece for a party a few months back and there was a similar stain on it .. orange. I asked the guy for a better price and he (rather rudely) told me things were priced for certain reasons (even though all the dresses were the same price). ANYWAY, he pulled out a little stick of Whink stain remover and it took this gnarly stain right off... SILK! I keep meaning to get some but I forget. Here's the web site:

http://www.whink.com/instant_spot_remover.htm

Hope that helps!
 
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