Selling dolls

[vmliferesources]

I don't know why my dolls don't sell. The photos are good, titles are good, prices are good, but even when I promote them, they don't show on placement. Any advice?

[redmodelt]

My opinion, others may differ.

Could just simply be that people are not buying the type of dolls you are selling. The little bit I know about the doll market is that mass produced dolls sold as collectors' items are not as in demand as actual vintage dolls. (Like Beany Babies, mass-produced item fostered on the public as collectors' items that have no real value)

The Goodwill I shop at; the toy isle is full of the type of dolls you have listed.  

Unless there has been an upswing, even the market for vintage dolls a while back, the bottom kinda dropped out. 

I do wish you well in your sales! 

[stainlessenginecovers]

Your 'Wendy' doll (inputting "Madame Alexander Wendy' in the search) and yours is the 4th one shown out of 4.900 listings. 

So placement is showing.

Why not selling? 4900 listings. 

[stainlessenginecovers]

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@vmliferesources wrote:

I don't know why my dolls don't sell. The photos are good, titles are good, prices are good, but even when I promote them, they don't show on placement. Any advice?

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@vmliferesources I just got an offer because you have 'offers' automated' for JUST looking at your Wendy Doll offer is $25. Why don't you just lower your $35 price to $25 (and do all items for whatever your offer is) and then

a.) you will be, by far, the lowest

b.) maybe then things will sell

[toysaver]

Your dolls do sell.  You sold 2 in September, 1 in August and 1 in July.  You can expect to sell more the closer we get to Christmas.   

[shado-x]

I don't know why my dolls don't sell. The photos are good, titles are good, prices are good, but even when I promote them, they don't show on placement. Any advice?

You want to find dolls in demand.  Porcelain dolls are tougher and not in demand, no one can handle them like an actual doll as they are subject to breaking (including shipping them).  You want to go with Barbie, American Girl, Cabbage Patch Kids, and yes Princess Diana dolls from The Franklin Mint (to give examples).  Vintage Japanese dolls from anime are big.  The more vintage, 80s and before, the better.  Those with their original boxes are best.   I have a 1950s Ideal Shirley Temple doll in box in stock, but refuse to post it, family members will go nuts if it disappears.  The original Shirley Temple doll from the 1930s goes for a ton.  Hope that is encouraging to brighten your day!

[mudshark61369 · Accepted solution]

@vmliferesources,

Your dolls may not be selling in part because of the economy, and in part because of the time of year, just after parents paid for their kids school supplies and clothing.  Your sales may improve the closer we get to Christmas.

Redmodelt's reply may have something to do with the lack of sales, as may a couple of other reasons people have given.

  Something I did not know until doing an advanced search of M.A. dolls today, is that they were marketed as McDonalds happy meals premiums, which has to have had an affect on the value of the Brand over all. 

  Since many M.A. dolls were made over a few decades you might want to check the back of their heads for Mfr. year info, and I've also heard that clothing tags can give an indication of a M.A. dolls age. You may be able to find out more information which could benefit your listings by going to the Doll reference guide. I'm sure they have a section just for M.A. dolls.

https://www.dollreference.com/

 My take on it. is the market is soft on collectible dolls right now as are a few other categories of toys that were once lucrative. 

  Kids are not much interested in collecting any more, they want the newest/latest, mass produced dolls.  These days it seems the hottest tickets are Barbie, Hello Dollie, Cry Babies, Funko Pops... etc. Most of which are based on kids TV shows or advertised on them.

   I set up at several "Toy" shows each year, and see Madame Alexander and other collectible dolls being passed up by parents with kids in tow, in favor of the latest fad dolls.  Even the older "collectible" Barbie dolls get passed up in favor of the "Pink fashioned" dolls based on the movie. 

 Anecdotally:  couple of years back I helped my cousins set up an estate sale after their mother passed away. She had a very nice collection of dolls going back to the early 20th century, some of which were my mother's (10 years her senior) and grandmother's.

  They had been offered to her younger grand daughters, 6-11 year olds, who turned them down.  Even their moms who are in their early to mid 30s had no interest in them. Only a few sold at the estate sale.

   The collection was finally taken to an auction house along with some other of her items.  Even when the collection was listed in an antique/vintage toys, specialty auction, that was well attended, some of the realized prices were less than hoped for. While others sold for quite high prices. 

  I attended it because of some other items that were on the block, and noticed that most of the bids came from people of around my Aunt's age. For that matter most of the attendees were older people.

[kathiec]

Something I did not know until doing an advanced search of M.A. dolls today, is that they were marketed as McDonalds happy meals premiums, which has to have had an affect on the value of the Brand over all. 

This statement is somewhat misleading. The McDonalds Happy Meal toys weren't actual MA dolls; they were cheap plastic representations of MA dolls. While McDonalds did, of course, get the licensing rights from the Madame Alexander Doll Co., the dolls were not manufactured by Madame Alexander. It's really no different than the many iterations of Barbie Happy Meal toys, which have had zero impact on the Barbie brand.

[kathiec]

@vmliferesources 

In my experience as a doll collector for many years, people buy dolls for two reasons: as toys for children to play with or as collectibles for adults. Unfortunately the dolls you have listed just aren't that desirable in either of those categories. You have very few dolls that today's children would want to play with. And the collectible dolls largely fall in the category of modern dolls that were severely over-produced, which means you're competing with tens of thousands of listings for similar dolls. Unless you're selling a doll that's truly rare (hint: the doll you have listed as rare isn't) or of high enough quality to interest collectors, dolls are a hard sell even with good prices.

[mudshark61369]

@kathiec,

You're right, and I probably could have worded that part of my reply better.

Still IMO,  letting McDonalds licensing a well known name brand's items, so they can make cheap toys of their items, only serves to cheapen the brand's name. It's one thing to make a toy of a comic or movie character, another to do that with a well known company's products.

[kathiec]

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@mudshark61369 wrote:

@kathiec,

You're right, and I probably could have worded that part of my reply better.

Still IMO,  letting McDonalds licensing a well known name brand's items, so they can make cheap toys of their items, only serves to cheapen the brand's name. It's one thing to make a toy of a comic or movie character, another to do that with a well known company's products.

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I was on a Barbie Collector Advisory Panel back in 2008. One of the things we did was a full day meeting with Mattel design and marketing folks at the Mattel Design Center. The marketing people shared that they very actively pursue licensing deals with entities such as McDonald's. So they don't think it cheapens their brand at all; they view it as promoting the brand. 

[tobaccocardyahoo]

There was a time, about 15 or 20 years ago, when I got what I thought was a great deal on Madame Alexander Dolls in new condition. A small fraction of list price.

I wound up sending them to an in person auction after trying to sell them online. Broke even after commissions.

I am not a doll seller, and that experience taught me a lesson. If I want to dabble in dolls, I'll do it with Barbie.

[kathiec]

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@tobaccocardyahoo wrote:

There was a time, about 15 or 20 years ago, when I got what I thought was a great deal on Madame Alexander Dolls in new condition. A small fraction of list price.

I wound up sending them to an in person auction after trying to sell them online. Broke even after commissions.

I am not a doll seller, and that experience taught me a lesson. If I want to dabble in dolls, I'll do it with Barbie.

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Dabbling in Barbie would be just as big a mistake. Just like MA there are Barbies that are worth a lot and Barbies you're lucky to give away. I'm asked over and over what, in general, a vintage Barbie is worth. My answer is always "anywhere from $10 to $25,000". Modern Barbies are about the same except there are many, many modern collector Barbies you can't even get $10 for.