A Doll’s Worth Limited Edition Barbies Too Popular To Keep In Stock

Here’s an investment tip: Buy a Barbie doll.

Better yet, buy a Happy Holidays Barbie.

The most sought after Barbie doll, it’s a decked out version of the traditional Barbie. Mattel has produced the doll each holiday season since 1988.

“It’s the one doll in the world of Barbie collecting that everyone seems to collect,” said Dan Miller, a Spokane Barbie expert. “It’s no secret, especially this year, everybody knows that the doll has a good chance of going up in value.”

Miller and his wife, Barbara, collect Barbies and produce a monthly newsletter and quarterly magazine about the dolls. He estimates their circulation at 30,000 worldwide.

Because of growing demand this year, stores in Spokane and nationwide ran out of the Caucasian version of the holiday Barbie. Miller guesses that a million of the dolls were manufactured.

That left some people paying around $100 for holiday Barbies from collectors and toy dealers until Mattel began offering a voucher for the doll. The doll retails for about $28.

People who buy the vouchers probably won’t get the dolls until spring.

Judy Roberts, who has more than 1,500 Barbies in her Spokane home, agreed the holiday series is the most popular to collect.

“A lot of people who don’t collect Barbies are buying the holiday Barbies,” she said.

Joan Moffitt of the Spokane Valley, is one of the lucky ones who already has her holiday Barbie.

“I collect just the holidays. I have all of them except the first one,” she said. “You can go nuts because there’s so many so I zeroed in on the holiday Barbie.”

Kathy Hall of Bonners Ferry, Idaho, tried to find a holiday Barbie before Thanksgiving and couldn’t. She’s also a holiday series collector. Her mother-in-law and aunt also couldn’t find the doll.

“We just couldn’t get them,” Hall said.

For her, the dolls are a way to channel motherly instincts her five daughters have no use for.

“Your girls are usually never as girlish as you want them to be,” she said. “They want to wear pants, not dresses.”

The popularity of the holiday doll in the last two years surprised Moffitt. “I’ve always waited until after Christmas and got them on sale,” she said.

Miller said the value of this year’s doll could go down for a while because of the vouchers. But in the long run, their value will rise.

He estimates that the 1988 holiday Barbie is now worth $700.

The cheapest Barbie dolls cost under $10, while some designer Barbies start at as much as $150, he said.

Even the high-priced Barbies have a market.

Some of the rich and famous - such as Demi Moore, Robin Williams and Richard Simmons - are avid Barbie collectors.

Kim Basinger is a suspected Barbie collector, although those rumors can’t be confirmed, Miller said.

Roberts said the holiday dolls are a great gift for children too.

“The dresses are fancy. They’re eye-appealing,” she said. “They’re just something you can encourage kids to leave in a box and not play with because they’ll be worth something someday.

For the holiday dolls to retain and grow in value, they should be left in the box, she said.

Miller said the popularity of the holiday doll can’t be attributed just to collectors.

“It could be an honest-to-goodness good Christmas present for kids,” he said. “I say that tongue in cheek because the collectors think, ‘Can you imagine buying this valuable investment for kids?”’

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo