All kinds of things are collectibles: baseball cards, stamps, postcards, first editions of books, toy trains, action figures, but popular collectible toys include vintage dolls. Anyone, regardless of their age, can dedicate themselves to collecting.

However, many novice collectors often find themselves confused when it comes to determining the value of antique dolls. In collecting, a pristine doll may be worth only a few dollars, while one that looks ugly may be worth hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.

Pricing can be a complicated process. For example, there are some that have a high value because they were made in certain designs by certain companies. Then there are those that have little or no value. Mary is a stay at home mom who found out about this when she held a garage sale. She pulled out several boxes of toys and dolls that had been sitting in her attic for years.

Mary had a friend who liked to collect dolls. When she saw the ones that her Mary was selling for less than a dollar each, she immediately removed the dolls from the tables and pulled Mary away from her.

After the garage sale, Mary’s friend pointed out that one of the ugly ones she tried to sell earlier for less than a dollar was worth at least a few hundred dollars. Mary never thought they were so valuable. Later, Mary discovered that many are rare and sought after by serious collectors.

In the world of collecting, appearances are deceiving. In Mary’s case, he thought the ugly ones she had were fit for the dump. He initially thought of throwing them away, but then decided to sell them cheap. He thought that perhaps someone might be interested in the old dolls and wouldn’t mind fixing them up.

Mary sold one of her vintage dolls during the garage sale. She sold it just before her friend walked in and discovered them. She sold one of the antique dolls to a man who was interested in collecting. He had several, but he told Mary that she wasn’t really in the collecting business.

Thanks to her friend, Maria was able to save many of them. She wouldn’t have known they were valuable. Shortly after the garage sale, Mary began her search for information about them. She did some research on how to identify which antique dolls have high value and which have less or no value.

Local bookstores are some of the good places to find information. However, buying books can be expensive, especially if the books have very little, or worse, no information about certain dolls. Libraries are inexpensive options, but going from one library to another and browsing books can be time consuming. Also, you may have to visit several libraries, since no one library has all the books on antique dolls you need.

The best and cheapest place to find information on antique dolls is the Internet. Do a simple Google search using the phrase “antique dolls” and you will have thousands of results. It may still take a bit of time to flip through the search results, but it’s a lot easier to click than it is to drive and read books. When you finally have enough knowledge, you may want to sell some of them in your collection and earn some money.