My grandma recently gave me two beautiful dolls to check for value, but the problem is it's a lot harder than I thought! Can someone help me out? It'd be greatly appreciated!
The one in the red dress has a very faint marking that says 754. I've read around that any markings help so hopefully it'll be useful!
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The doll is probably #734 of the lot. That is a great number of dolls, so it probably is not worth too much.
Ah really? I thought that was pretty low :o
That sucks! Looks like I'll be keeping that one around for longer than I thought. Thank you for the help!
They are both quite lovely!
Sounds like you have 2 issues--1st is to ID who they are (that can be the challenging part). 2nd is to find out value.
I have some advise on both:
ID--First, you need to check hidden places for markings or the maker--you found the one number, but there may be others that are in not so obvious places.
Check for markings on the scalp (like top of head), under the hair, on the small of the back, on the feet, and on the tush.
If you can't find any maker or markings you will have a some challenges. But it isn't impossible. It will take a lot of work.
If there are no markings, you can:
--show her to everyone you know and put her on other doll websites as everyone has their own little niche and someone may recognize her immediately. This one is a little bit of a challenge because there have been millions of dolls made around the world...and finding the right person the first time out is a little like finding a needle in a haystack :(
--the second easiest way to start is to go to Google images and type in her description, like the height, hair color, dress style etc. to piece together info.
--the third easiest way is you can do this same type of search in eBay to learn more by reading posts.
Other things that may give you more info (like their age or composition) are:
--you can do things like figure out if the hair is human or synthetic by burning a strand (human hair is usually a doll of more value than synthetic--but not always):
This YouTube video talks about that. www.youtube.com/
--you can try to see what she is stuffed with (always risky because you don't want to damage), but typically really old dolls were stuffed with things like sawdust or cotton (not modern synthetic materials)
--you can try to figure out of the face is porcelain or bisque
en.wikipedia.org/
A couple of my favorite sites are below that may be useful to you, although some seem to recently have broken links (GRR):
www.thesprucecrafts.com/
antiques.lovetoknow.com/
There are also a list of doll museums that I have been considering putting my my bucket list to call to see if they help with identifications. If one is near you, maybe you could take her for a road trip:
www.thesprucecrafts.com/
VALUE_-Now for the valuing part...that is easy once you know who they are. How I would research to find a current market value is as follows:
--Go out to eBay and search completed auctions and look for an apples to apples match to find your EXACT dolls (one at a time) and see if each sold and what the selling price was.
If you use something similar you are not going to get an exact value as sometimes there are similar dolls where one has a lot of value and the similar none...so if there are no sold listing for your exact doll keep checking back.
You may want to see if there is an exact match in the active auctions and set up an eBay WATCH to see when/if it sells and for how much.
If there are multiple exact dolls sold for different prices, I usually do an average to help me value my items I sell.
I recommend ONLY using sold price not using current auctions and asking price as people can ask the world, but value is only what people will pay.
When trying to determine your selling price (value), I use the price people paid PLUS shipping (which I know a lot of people disagree with me about) because if you are selling them at a face to face venue, it is helpful to know the EXACT amount someone forked over for an item when setting your price.
So, if someone paid $100 with free shipping (you could value the item at 100). If someone paid 100 for an item and 5 for shipping, same thing (100 + 5 = 105).
The thing with VALUE is it is TOTALLY DIFFERENT THAN PROFIT. Meaning in the eBay example, if the item sold for $100 with free shipping, the seller only netted (and I am using round numbers for reference only) around $85 because shipping is expensive (dolls must be wrapped EXTRA carefully as they are very fragile) in in this case free shipping (free to buyer) is paid for by you (the seller) plus the eBay and Paypal fees are paid by the seller also.
It is the same principle if the buyer pays shipping--if the item sold at $50+ 5 shipping the VALUE would be $55, BUT the seller can't count shipping as profit because even though the buyer paid for it, YOU spend that $5 to get it to the buyer. You still have all the fees that come off your profit as above.
Condition is everything, so if someone is selling a pristine doll and it sold for $100, a less than pristine set would go for anywhere from 15-20% less...or even more if the condition is really bad (although yours look nice in the photos...but you have to be brutally honest when selling and any flaw must be detailed out in the auction or you risk negative feedback).
Hope this gets you started in identifying and valuing your dolls!
Thank you so much for this very detailed guide! I just got 5 other dolls and this'll help out so much! I was dreading identifying all the dolls but thanks to the guide it'll be a breeze!
Your dolls are lovely but as you have found out it is a daunting task to find a "needle in a haystack" so to speak. Even with identifying marks it is not always easy to locate the exact same doll on any sale sites and sold dolls is how anyone determines the "value" of the doll. Most likely these are mass produced dolls (made in China) that are sold to many different stores all over the world. This does not mean that the dolls are not lovely dolls and usually well made, it just means they are not going to be worth very much money.
Thank you for info! I'll really need it since I have bunch more to identify! I thought that since I'm on the internet so much, figuring out the names and makers would be easy but as you tell it hasn't been working out haha. I really appreciate the help!
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