Perhaps you're a big doll fan. Maybe you're looking for a new hobby and snowboarding is just too yuppie. Or it could be that you enjoy taking care of things, but your pets and plants keep dying on you. Whatever your crazy reason is, if starting a doll collection is what you want to do, we've got your covered. And since the dolls in the market today - like Baby Burps-A-Lot and Tracy Talks-Too-Much - make us cringe, our plan is to get you well acquainted with the world of antique doll collecting.

Antique doll collecting is actually the second largest collection hobby in the United States (after stamp collecting). It is a fun and rewarding experience, but it can also be confusing and expensive. Don't dive into the challenge without reading up on it first because there are arcane terms to learn and shrewd little old women to do business with. We'll help you deal with both obstacles. You're on your own with your pediophobia (the fear of dolls).

1. DECIDE WHAT KIND OF DOLLS YOU'D LIKE TO COLLECT

We know that you want something with hair and eyes that calls you "Mamma," but we suggest that you get a little more specific than that. Believe it or not, antique doll collecting branches out to at least a few dozen different genres. If you'd prefer to not go broke and crazy, our advice is that you pick one type of doll stick with it for a while to see if you even enjoy collecting dolls. You've got plenty of time and opportunity to branch out later.

Here are just some of your choices:

Doll genres
Dolls from specific doll companies

Doll genres

  • Artist Dolls. Typically, artist dolls are one of a kind finds, produced by the hand of a professional doll artist.

  • Baby Dolls. These dolls are made to look like real babies. They're often the same size as a two-month-old baby.

  • Cloth Dolls. Raggedy Ann and Andy are not as worthless as they look. Cloth dolls like the Raggedys and Madeleine are favorites of many doll enthusiasts.

  • Ethnic Dolls. As their category implies, ethnic dolls come in all shapes and sizes. There are African wooden dolls, Asian porcelain dolls, European all-bisque dolls. It's a small world after all.

  • Fashion Dolls. Fashion dolls are mass-produced and usually collected for their wide range of clothes and accessories. In other words: Barbie.

  • Fifties Dolls. Doll companies that were popular in the fifties, like Vogue and Madame Alexander produced dolls that are still widely collected today.

  • Miniature Dolls. To qualify to be a miniature doll, a doll has to be less than six inches tall. Some extend only a couple of centimeters (you can get a doll for your doll!).

  • Sixties and Seventies Dolls. This genre includes dolls that were big in the sixties and seventies, like Tammy, Dawn, and Chatty Cathy.

  • Wooden Dolls. Wooden dolls are generally foreign and very old. They are meticulously carved from wood and adorned with clothes and wigs.

Dolls produced by specific doll companies

After you have chosen a doll, thoroughly educate yourself on it. The links above will start you off on your path, but do some more detailed research on the history, availability, and prices of your type of doll before moving onto the next step. An extensive knowledge on your type of doll will bolster your pathetic haggling attempts. At the very least, it'll keep you from getting bamboozled.

Another thing to keep in mind before you begin your collection is that doll collecting can get indecently expensive; dolls can (and often do) cost up to several thousand dollars each. Even a "cheap" doll can put you out of a few hundred bucks. We don't want you to have to choose between completing your doll collection and making rent, so make sure that the type of the doll you want to collect doesn't clash with your financial situation. There's no point in collecting herds of dolls if you're all just going to end up homeless together.

Some doll enthusiasts choose to collect ragged, damaged, and half-naked dolls (a.k.a. "affordable" dolls) with the intention of fixing them up and knitting them cute little clothes. That's a whole other hobby right there, and we recommend it as an alternative to anybody with student loans.

2. LEARN THE LINGO

If you're not familiar with terms like "bisque" and "flange neck," learn them now. Like any other hobby, doll collecting comes with its own secret language. Learn how to talk the talk so you won't be duped or befuddled.

Materials
Doll features
Abbreviations

Materials

  • Bisque. Many old, foreign dolls have heads and/or bodies made of bisque, which is an unglazed porcelain material.

  • Composition. Composition is a (surprise!) composition of wood pulp, sawdust, and glue. The mixture was used to make heads and/or bodies of dolls before plastic came along and took over the industry.

  • Celluloid. Before hard plastic came out, dolls were made of celluloid, a thin, highly flammable type of plastic. Don't smoke near your celluloid doll!

  • China. Besides the country. Many dolls that came out in the mid-1800s were constructed from glazed porcelain called "china."

  • Hard Plastic. A very durable plastic that was popular in constructing dolls in during the mid-1900s.

  • Vinyl. Vinyl was often used in dolls of the 1960s. It can be hard or soft, and it sometimes has that that yummy plastic smell.

Doll Features

  • Ball Jointed. This refers to the fact that the doll's limbs can be twisted and bent with the help of little wooden balls for joints.

  • Closed Mouth. Bisque dolls that feature closed mouths, with no teeth or tongue showing, are generally worth more than dolls with open mouths.

  • Flange Neck. This term describes the part of the doll head where the edge of the neck flares out so that it can be attached to the doll's body. It's a little scary to think about so try not to picture it.

  • Flirty Eyes. Eyes on a doll that move from side to side.

  • Googly Eyes. These are large, round eyes that usually look to the side. They were very popular on dolls made in the early 1900s.

  • Intaglio Eyes. Eyes that are molded onto a dolls head and painted.

  • Inset Eyes. These are eyes that are set in a doll's head. They don't move…or they're not supposed to, anyway. (Insert scary music.)

  • Mohair. Sounds funky, but mohair is actually the very soft hair of an Angora goat. It is used to make antique doll wigs (and it's very expensive).

  • Open Head. Don't take the description too literally, even though the term refers to dolls that at one time had the tops of their heads taken off so that their eyes could be inserted from the inside. A wig is usually used to cover evidence of the lobotomy.

  • Sleep Eyes. This refers to eyes that open and close, depending on the vertical or horizontal positioning of the doll's body.

  • Voice Box. This is the thing in a doll's body that allows it to call you its Mamma.

Abbreviations

  • BTE (Breveté). French for "patented."

  • GES (Gesch). German for "patented."

  • DEP. This mark is often found on French and German antique dolls. It's short for a word that means "patented."

  • HTF. It stands for "Hard To Find." You'll see this abbreviation a lot in descriptions for dolls being sold online and in ads.

3. FIND THE DOLLS

Since there's no "Antique Dolls" aisle in Toys 'R' Us, you'll have to do a little detective work to track down your dolls. Here are some places to visit:

Antique/specialty doll dealers
Auctions
Doll shows
Garage sales, flea markets, antique stores

Antique/specialty doll dealers

You may not find the cheapest dolls in these places, but you'll find dolls of the best quality. Look up an antique doll dealer near you in your phone book or go to online antique doll stores. Some sites you should check out include DollFinder.com and DollUniverse.com.

Auctions

  • Online Auctions. Auction sites like eBay and Amazon are great places to find antique dolls at reasonable prices. In fact, the easy access that online auctions provide have drastically reduced the market values of many kinds of dolls - good news for you; bad news for those looking forward to "SYW Get Rid of Your Antique Doll Collection?" There is, however, a serious problem with buying an antique doll online: you won't get to personally inspect it before making the purchase. Because each antique doll is unique in its aging process, buying one without examining it first may be risky. This is especially true when it comes to online auctions, since a seller may also be a beginner who don't know how to describe a doll properly.

  • Live Auctions. You'll actually have to get out of your PJs to attend one (at least, if you're not an eccentric billionaire), but live auctions can be exciting events. For auction dates and other info on attending a live auction, visit the websites for two doll auctioning giants, Theriaults and McMastersHarris.

Doll shows

If you're up to taking a trip and getting together with a bunch of weirdos (a.k.a. "avid doll collectors"), then visit a doll show. Organizations like the United Federation of Doll Clubs and doll businesses like Seeley's host these conventions on weekends and during the summer. Doll experts recommend that you, as a beginning doll collector, attend these shows so that you can learn from experts and get a chance to inspect dolls before you purchase them. Don't forget to BYOPIAB (bring your own poodle in a bag) to the show or you'll feel like a loser. And who wants to feel like a loser at a doll show?

Garage sales, flea markets, antique stores

You never know what you can find at these places. Don't blame us if you walk away with not only some interesting dolls, but also a bunch of mismatched old shoes, a seashell collection, and a broken phonograph. It's happened more than once.

For more doll-buying resources, it's a good idea to check out special antique doll collecting magazines, like the very appropriately named Antique Doll Collector Magazine. Besides getting updated on the world of doll collecting, there are plenty of ads for doll stores, auctions, shows, and other places to locate them.

4. DETERMINE THE VALUE OF YOUR DOLLS

If your intention is to collect dolls for their value, you'll want to identify and determine your doll's worth.

Condition
Reproductions
Identification
Value

Condition

The first thing you'll want to look for in a doll is that it's in good condition - no cracks in the hairline or any other noticeable imperfections. While it's very difficult to find an antique doll in mint condition (meaning, still in their original boxes), you don't want to buy one with a missing arm either - not only is that creepy, but it's too difficult to work with. If you can't afford to (or don't care to) buy a doll in good condition, buy one that still has hope of being repaired, and then have fun repairing it. Many collectors enjoy the challenge of finding their barefoot doll a cute pair of shoes or making a new wig for their prematurely balding doll.

Reproductions

Doll artists often copy a popular or expensive doll and sell it as a reproduction (kinda like buying a Van Gogh poster and putting it in a really nice frame). While there's nothing wrong with buying a reproduction (some people only collect reproduced dolls), you have the right to know that what you're buying is not the original. Look at a doll's marks before buying it and be wary of counterfeit doll scams. On the same token, don't you try scamming other people into buying a reproduced doll if you ever end up reselling one, or we'll report you to the antique doll collecting police. They're tougher than they sound.

Identification

Most valuable antique dolls have some sort of ID on them, so do a strip search and look for the doll manufacturer's mark. Many marks are in the form of abbreviations, so you should get yourself a doll collector's guide to determine what the initials stand for. If your doll doesn't have any marks, or if the marks on your doll elicit a head-scratching motion, you can get it appraised at a doll shop or doll show. (Appraising your doll should cost no more than $20.) Keep in mind, though, that not all dolls can be identified. Poor orphans.

Value

  • Book value. After you've ID-ed your doll, determine its book value by going through a doll value guide. Sometimes you can even find pictures of your unidentified dolls and use the book to ID them. Keep in mind, though, that the prices listed in the guide will be for dolls in excellent condition. If the doll doesn't come with a box, you can already deduct 50% of the listed price. And if your doll is in even a little less than excellent condition, it's probably only worth a fraction of what's written in the book.

  • Market value. Unfortunately, the book value isn't necessarily the same as the market value, which is usually a lot less. To find out the market value of your doll, visit online auctions and check out the closing prices of dolls similar to yours.

If you don't trust your own judgment on the condition of your doll, you can always get it appraised at a doll shop or an online appraisal service like Eppraisals.com. They'll examine your doll with an objective eye and a cold heart.

And that's all you need to know about getting started with your antique doll collection. Oh, one last thing: don't purchase dolls named Chucky.