The Evolution of A Collectible

I sat and thought about all the dolls and toys I'd had over the years, and those I had seen in stores and taken for granted. I always thought I could pick it up one day, and I made mistakes in not buying. I should have brought home Twiggy and the two versions of Truly Scrumptious; I should have kept my Seance and Voice of the Mummy games; I should have kept my Lil Abner piano and my Uncle's old bears and Robots; I should have bought the Douglass Triplets from My Three Sons, as well as Myrtle; I should have looked for the first Barbie earlier, when no one wanted them; I should have bought the compo Alexander Scarlett; the 99.00 unmarked Bru; the Ivory Faced Inuit doll from Boston; the red haired miniature german bisque from Ralph's Antique Dolls; the German Bisque clown from The Old Curiosity Shoppe; the Alexandre French doll; the all porcelain sitting little girls and Baby Kirshna in San Jose, the Angels from Carmel, the list goes on and on.

I did however take a guess, and pick up many, many dolls that I had a hunch would one day be hot collectibles. Harry Rinker advocated buying five to ten new toy/dolls each year to put in a toy closet for posterity. He usually waited till they went on sale. I wait till the "hot" toys end up at yard sales, a year or so down the road. All speculation in the secondary market ceases then, and if I still like the dolls, I get them to add to my long-term museum collection for a song. I like to look for dolls that get controversial publicity, or toys that are parodied in MAD or elsewhere. I look for new dolls commemorating political elections or famous people. These, of course, I keep. I still love Beanies, and years later, found one of the rare dinosaurs. I gound Elmos and Furbies when no one could, and my mom, who had real doll Karma, could walk in a store in the middle of a toy craze, and pick up the said toy for a song, no lines, no violence, no sweat.

I also like to keep the Toys R Us Christmas flyer each year as a historical record, and YouTube is great about archiving vintage toy cartoons. Always collect what you like, but it is interesting to watch an item move from toy shelf; to yard sale, to collectible price guide, to museum, and back.