When Bruce Zalkin, a 59-year-old New York native who has lived in Florida since 1976, looks through even the earliest editions of the original 1959 Barbie, he can spot the subtle differences that differentiate a doll that costs thousands of dollars from one that costs pennies. .
The very first version of the doll—with droopy eyes, a curled blonde tail, and a black-and-white striped swimsuit—has holes in her legs so she can be attached to a stand; in the second version, the holes were patched after the children broke the stands; the third edition of Barbie wears mascara, and the fourth edition is the first to be made from a vinyl plastic blend rather than polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
Zalkin began his journey into Barbieland when he was 20 years old, running a toy store in Tampa filled with cast iron items. Tonkin Replica trucks and antiques. It was the early ’90s, and his staff of mostly older women convinced him to focus instead on the intricacies and appeal of Barbie dolls.
“They taught me everything about Barbie,” Zalkin said. Luck, “everything I wanted to know and more.”
Zalkin has been selling Barbie dolls for more than 30 years, developing a talent for spotting the subtle differences between the earliest versions of Mattel’s star bombshell. But he sold toys informally, learning the craft from influential women in his life from a much earlier age: at age 5, his grandmother told him about her hobby of collecting glassware, ceramics and figurines in his hometown of Liberty, New York; at age 13, after his family moved to Tampa, he decided they were “old lady things” and began buying and selling toys instead.
Courtesy of Bruce Zalkin (2)
His 40-year career as an antique toy dealer now revolves mostly around Barbie collections—mostly vintage models with adorable droopy eyes and fluffy blonde ponytails. Over the years, Zalkin estimates he’s sold $2 million worth of vintage Barbies through eBay. toy showand auctions. While he doesn’t encourage others to join the profession (it’s “just not a good investment,” he says), he has been able to leverage the doll’s charm, diversity and nuances—along with its lucrative market power—to create a sustainable profession. livelihood.
“I’m not really a Barbie collector, I’m more of a dealer,” he said. Luck. “This is how I make a living.”
Buyers of his vintage Barbies include those nostalgic for the dolls they grew up with or were not allowed to buy, as well as professional collectors.
“There are kids who grew up with parents who would never buy them a Barbie doll,” Zalkin said.
In addition, there are special lines aimed at collectors that Mattel introduced in the 1980s, including limited edition dolls created by respected fashion designer Bob Mackie And silk stone models, released in the 2000s. They often wear sports underwear and, according to Zalkin, were “never intended for children.”
However, they are “highly sought after by collectors” and can cost as much as 400 on eBay.
In search of rarities
Choosing the right collections can take a lot of effort, since the rare dolls Zalkin is after aren’t easily found at sales or on social media.
This week, Zalkin looked through a Florida woman’s collection of more than 150 dolls, which she decided to sell when she moved and because her child had outgrown them. Zalkin took with him Marl DavidsonA 38-year-old friend he calls “the number one dealer in the world.”
Looking through the dolls, Zalkin said, “She didn’t have any super rare things,” but, fortunately for him, most of the dolls were vintage, that is, produced before the 1980s.
Zalkin and Davidson spent about $4,000 to purchase the collection. After purchasing, the duo spent about two hours packaging the dolls, wrapping them individually in paper or plastic (so as not to “ruin their hair”) and making ziplock bags out of the dolls’ accessories.
Then comes the next stage of the dolls’ journey: returning home. “It will take several months to figure it out,” Zalkin said. “We bought 100 pairs of shoes, all in little bags that you have to sort through to determine if they are vintage or modern, because people pay very different amounts of money depending on what they are.”
Accessories, he said, often sell for more than clothing items, and sometimes even the dolls themselves, because “those are the first things that get lost or vacuumed up.”
What makes Barbie worth the money?
The answer, Zalkin says, usually depends on how much she was loved, the rarity of the edition and whether her clothes carry Mattel’s signature hot pink Barbie tag.
“Even to this day, all clothing is labeled,” he said. In the 1960s, he added, “Mattel sold pattern books so women could make Barbie clothes because it was cheaper than buying Mattel clothes.”
The rarity of Barbie clothing and releases can be the difference between a doll costing pennies to $5,000.
For example, in the 1960s, Mattel released a line of Barbie that was just available in Japan. The line’s clothing, according to Zalkin, is “super expensive and super rare. I only had a few of these outfits, but their sales number in the thousands.”
Zalkin sold individual dolls for $10,000. He recalled one octogenarian couple’s lifetime collection—more than 500 “in mint condition, original dolls and clothes in original packaging”—which he sold for $250,000, mostly to private collectors.
Vintage Barbies, and especially the earliest versions of the dolls, are usually the most valuable. According to Zalkin, an original 1959 Barbie in mint condition is worth between $5,000 and $10,000.
“Some people will be raising funds for investment or they want the perfect thing and they will pay top dollar for it,” he said. “Other collectors just want a doll, get it for one-tenth the price, redo the makeup, redo the hair, and get the doll they want.”
Of course, this work is not without its challenges. According to Zalkin, one of the most important issues is finding collections or inventory to purchase. He gets most of his business through word of mouth, with sites like Facebook Marketplace and Craiglist accounting for only a small portion of his sales. He also often buys back collections from people he has sold to over the decades he has been in the trade and who come to him after life events, such as death or divorce, that prompt them to part with their collections.
Greta Gerwig has given birth to a new crop of collectors
The long-awaited premiere of Greta Gerwig Barbie The film, released last year, attracted more collectors to the market. The dolls that were shown in the film, in particular “Pregnant Midge” And “Growing Up Skipper” (which has a swivel arm that makes her taller and expands her chest) has doubled in price.
“When the movie came out, Barbie sales skyrocketed,” he said, adding that prices still haven’t returned to pre-movie levels.
In accordance with estimates According to the fandom website Barbie Wiki, there are over 100,000 Barbie collectors worldwide.
“The main market is primarily older women: either new collectors because of a new movie, or older women whose brothers blew up their dolls with GI Joe or whose parents sold them at a yard sale,” Zalkin said. “Believe it or not, the gay community also buys a lot of Barbie dolls.”
The Key to Barbie’s Market Power
For better or worse, Barbie is an undeniable cultural icon. She was the centerpiece museum exhibitions and was the subject documentary on Hulu. Gerwig’s film grossed an estimated $1.3 billion worldwide, becoming one of the few female-dominated films among the highest-grossing films of all time. NPR reported.
This doll was also a game changer for both toy makers and young children. According to history written Encyclopedia BritannicaIn the early 1950s, dolls were the norm and often encouraged young girls to see themselves as educators, mothers, or caretakers. Barbie, however, was positioned as a woman representatives of many professions – for example, hospital volunteer, astronaut, surgeon and CEO – with appropriate clothing. When children played with it, they could imagine themselves in a career where there weren’t enough women.
However, the puppeteer faced resistance for setting unrealistic body standards. Researchers in Finland concluded that if a real woman had the proportions of a doll, she would not have enough fat to menstruate.
Between 2012 and 2018, Mattel faced several quarters of sharp decline in sales and the criticism continued as other companies produced dolls that better reflected the diversity of Americans in size, color, and physical ability.
In the mid-2010s, after Mattel released more diverse dolls, sales increased. According to Mattel Web siteBarbie now represents “the most diverse line of dolls ever,” available in 35 skin tones, 97 hairstyles and 9 body types.” Since then, the brand has released dolls with disabilities such as those with Down syndrome, prosthetic legs, and wheelchairs.
It’s been decades since Zalkin first delved into the world of Barbie as a salesman, but he has no plans to look away. He recently launched his own auction site, partly to avoid rising commissions for eBay sellers, and counts more than 150 toy shows under his belt, which he hosts with his wife Laura.
“When we’re at a shopping expo, we’ll sit at tables and people come in to sell their stuff,” he said. “Naturally, if they have Barbie dolls, they come up to my wife, who says, ‘My husband makes Barbies.’ I make all cast iron trucks.”