My first adoption
"I'm on the side of the building at In & Out Burger, please hurry, people are giving me weird looks."
I had a most unique first adoption. But before I get into that it's time to backtrack.
The one thing I did right was to photograph the entire doll collection. I was able to start spreading the images around and right away people were able to help me figure out what was in the collection. I did meet some very nice people. One lady, in particular, helped level set my expectations. As it turns out, dolls are hitting a lull. And yet, there is a new generation of doll collectors. I saw this video and was blown away with the talent.
For example:
I have no interest in rebuilding dolls. These dolls are valuable and perhaps not the best things to start off rebuilding. The other thing I've learned over time is that sometimes it's better to get something you know is broken instead of something that appears to be fine but really isn't. I'd rather have something repaired to my standards.
With a lot of help I was able to identify many of the dolls. First on my list was a fair number of dolls in the collection known as Sigikids. These are German dolls that are similar to the American Girl dolls that are so popular in the United States.
These were limited edition dolls. The number on the left was the serial number for the dolls and the number on the right was the production number. This doll was somewhere in the 800s out of 1500 dolls. Each doll was hand made, and painted slightly differently. The eye colors were different and styles may be different. Thus no two dolls in the collection were exactly the same. The skin of the dolls is extremely real looking and thus the dolls have a real lifelike appearance.
As it turned out, people went nuts buying these dolls back in the 1990s. Everybody thought they would escalate in value. People thought that the $250 they were buying today would be selling in the thousands within ten years. It's been over 25 years and for the most part they are worth less today than the day they sold. I am very skeptical about collecting as an investment. Doll collecting was big at the time. Since then it's cooled down. Thus, when I sell these dolls I am not trying to position them as something that is a good longterm investment. I position them that they are something that is fun to own.
The Sigikids dolls are in the same league as American Girl Thus, it's a nice step-up doll to own. At 24" there is clothing and accessories available for these dolls.
This gal was my first adoption
She was all excited to meet her new mommy at In & Out Burger
I offered to buy her a regular hamburger, but she said her stomach was doing flips. After around ten minutes people started looking at me with a very strange look and I had to ask
"What's wrong, haven't you seen a man with his doll before?" After a while I had to call the prospective new mom to find out where she was at because I was getting strange looks. Worse yet, some people thought I had a very small person with me.
Anyway, new mommie showed up. It was love at first site and my first successful adoption. It was my first face to face with a doll collector. It turns out she wasn't really a doll collector. She was just a super mom. She has children of her own and adopted some as well. Dolls were an outpouring of her love for children.
Though it's been a while since I lost my mom it's been nice getting to know new people and knowing that my mom's stuff is going to people who will enjoy it.
I had a most unique first adoption. But before I get into that it's time to backtrack.
The one thing I did right was to photograph the entire doll collection. I was able to start spreading the images around and right away people were able to help me figure out what was in the collection. I did meet some very nice people. One lady, in particular, helped level set my expectations. As it turns out, dolls are hitting a lull. And yet, there is a new generation of doll collectors. I saw this video and was blown away with the talent.
For example:
I have no interest in rebuilding dolls. These dolls are valuable and perhaps not the best things to start off rebuilding. The other thing I've learned over time is that sometimes it's better to get something you know is broken instead of something that appears to be fine but really isn't. I'd rather have something repaired to my standards.
With a lot of help I was able to identify many of the dolls. First on my list was a fair number of dolls in the collection known as Sigikids. These are German dolls that are similar to the American Girl dolls that are so popular in the United States.
These were limited edition dolls. The number on the left was the serial number for the dolls and the number on the right was the production number. This doll was somewhere in the 800s out of 1500 dolls. Each doll was hand made, and painted slightly differently. The eye colors were different and styles may be different. Thus no two dolls in the collection were exactly the same. The skin of the dolls is extremely real looking and thus the dolls have a real lifelike appearance.
As it turned out, people went nuts buying these dolls back in the 1990s. Everybody thought they would escalate in value. People thought that the $250 they were buying today would be selling in the thousands within ten years. It's been over 25 years and for the most part they are worth less today than the day they sold. I am very skeptical about collecting as an investment. Doll collecting was big at the time. Since then it's cooled down. Thus, when I sell these dolls I am not trying to position them as something that is a good longterm investment. I position them that they are something that is fun to own.
The Sigikids dolls are in the same league as American Girl Thus, it's a nice step-up doll to own. At 24" there is clothing and accessories available for these dolls.
This gal was my first adoption
She was all excited to meet her new mommy at In & Out Burger
I offered to buy her a regular hamburger, but she said her stomach was doing flips. After around ten minutes people started looking at me with a very strange look and I had to ask
"What's wrong, haven't you seen a man with his doll before?" After a while I had to call the prospective new mom to find out where she was at because I was getting strange looks. Worse yet, some people thought I had a very small person with me.
Anyway, new mommie showed up. It was love at first site and my first successful adoption. It was my first face to face with a doll collector. It turns out she wasn't really a doll collector. She was just a super mom. She has children of her own and adopted some as well. Dolls were an outpouring of her love for children.
Though it's been a while since I lost my mom it's been nice getting to know new people and knowing that my mom's stuff is going to people who will enjoy it.
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