| Organizing Your Doll Collection | |
Before you can properly store, display, inventory or insure your collection, the FIRST thing you need to do is review your entire collection. A proper initial review of your collection will enable each of the following organizational tasks to go more smoothly, and it may even reveal things about your collection that you weren't focusing on before your review.
Organizing Tasks
The FIRST thing to do is to look at each doll, and divide them into two groups--dolls that you want to keep in your collection (the "keep pile"), and dolls that you no longer want to keep in your collection (the "sell pile").
OK--some of you are absolutely horrified at this point--you couldn't part with one of your dolls no matter what. Great--the first step of your doll review will be very easy then--ALL dolls go into the keep pile.
To Sell Or Not To Sell?
But....first, a word in favor of winnowing down your collection. As a doll collector, tastes often change and grow. Maybe you started out collecting vinyl baby dolls, but then moved on to fashion dolls. Perhaps you started with Armand Marseilles, but now your tastes run to Lencis. Maybe you began collecting Barbie with the pink box line, but now you concentrate on collectible line dolls, or even vintage Barbie...
If your collecting tastes have changed in this way, then you MIGHT want to sell the vinyl baby dolls to buy more fashion dolls, sell the Armand Marseilles for more Lencis, or sell your modern Barbie to buy more vintage Barbie (or, just sell the older dolls and buy some new china for your house!). Or, you might decide to keep the older dolls, even if you are no longer actively collecting them.
Other collectors have not so much moved onto new TYPES of dolls as simply focused their collections. For instance, a Barbie collector who has collected ALL sorts of modern Barbies for years might decide to concentrate her collection on ONLY modern Barbies with a Hollywood theme. A vintage Barbie collector might decide to focus only on the 1600 series of outfits and the mid-60s dolls. An antique doll collector might decide to concentrate only on one maker of dolls--say, Kestner or Jumeau, or one type of dolls; perhaps poupees or all-bisques. Again, these collectors might want to part with some of their earlier acquired dolls.
If you are one of those collectors who find it hard to part with ANY of your dolls (even if you feel you should!) remember that a larger collection is not necessarily a BETTER collection--sometimes, focusing your collection can make your collection more enjoyable, affordable, and controllable. Also, you don't have to sell your dolls to winnow your collection--even though I named one of our sorting piles the sell pile, if you don't want the hassle of selling your dolls, there are other worthwhile methods of winnowing down your doll collection (see below).
As you sort your dolls into the sell pile and the keep pile, do it quickly--base your sorting on your first impulse regarding each doll. Don't agonize! In this first go-through, put any dolls that you are not sure about into a "maybe" pile, and come back to them at the end.
Some collectors will have NO dolls in their sell pile. Generally, these will be collectors with very small or highly focused collections. Some collectors will have very LARGE sell/not wanted piles. Often, such collectors are collectors who are in transition--their collecting tastes are changing, as discussed above, OR they are in a personal transition--a move to a smaller house or apartment or other life change means that they won't have as much physical room for their dolls soon.
Doing this review of your collection NOW will save you steps later--you won't have to worry about detailed inventories for the dolls you wish to immediately move out of your collection, and, if you are going to get rid of these dolls immediately, you also might not have a need to insure them.
Display Or Storage?
NOW that you have the dolls into two piles, put aside the dolls you want to sell/dispose of (we'll come back to these later). The NEXT thing you want to do is further sort and review the dolls you are going to keep into two additional piles--the "display pile" and the "storage pile." The number of dolls that you choose for display will vary greatly depending on the amount of space you have to display your dolls, the condition of your display area (are your display dolls protected from heat, light and dust?) and your clutter tolerance.
As you sort through the dolls this time, put aside any dolls needing immediate cleaning or repair attention--perhaps the eyes have become unglued in a porcelain doll, perhaps you have a few messy wigs, or some very dusty or dirty dolls. These dolls should be attended to before they are either stored or displayed.
Ways To Dispose of Unwanted Dolls:
- Find a site to list free "for Sale" or "for Trade" ads online.
- Sell your dolls on eBay, www.ebay.com, Yahoo, www.yahoo.com or Amazon, www.amazon.com via auctions or store sales.
- Sell your dolls on a private web site
- Rent a table at a local doll show (you won't sell ALL your dolls this way, but may do well if your prices are very reasonable
- auction your dolls in a live auction (perhaps through www.theriaults.com)
- Donate your dolls to the UFDC to use as Helpers at the next UFDC Convention (tax deductible donation!)
- Give your dolls to a young friend or family member who has admired them--start them on a lifetime of doll collecting!
Task Two: Displaying Dolls
Task Three: Storing Your Dolls
Task Four: Taking an Inventory
And, Don't Miss: Strategies For Organizing Your Dolls: An Overview
Meet Other Doll Collectors In Chat!
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Denise Van Patten, © 2001. All rights reserved.
