Recently, a family brought a beautiful collection of vintage Barbie dolls and clothing for me to purchase. They had described how mint the items were over the phone (never played with!) and I was very excited to see the collection. Unfortunately, as soon as the family walked in the door, I became anxious...I could smell that they were smokers. And then they opened up the doll case, and I was saddened. Indeed the clothing was crisp and mint, but it also reeked of smoke. And you could see yellowing of the dolls faces. Do you smoke around your dolls? Here the top reasons not to do so!
1. Your Dolls and Their Clothing Will Reek
When someone smokes, the smell of the smoke gets in their hair, their clothing, their furniture. Unfortunately, the hair, the clothing, and the material your doll is made of also picks up the odor of smoke. It can be very difficult (if impossible) to get the odor of smoke out of doll clothing or hair, or the material that the doll is made of--plastics like vinyl will pick up the smoke smell (Barbie dolls), as will cloth (Raggedy Ann Dolls). Even wood and wax dolls will pick up smoke smells. Porcelain dolls don't tend to absorb smoke odor, but the hair and clothing of dolls will.2. Smoking Yellows The Vinyl In Many Vinyl Dolls
Not only will vinyl pick up the odor of smoke, but certain vinyl dolls will also discolor when exposed to smoke. Have you ever seen a mod vintage Barbie doll where the face is many shades of yellow different from the body of the doll? That is often because of smoke--the vinyl that the mod Barbie dolls was more susceptible to smoke than the vinyl the body of the dolls were made of, and it would discolor quicker.3. Doll Packaging Materials Will Yellow And Become Brittle
You know those fantastic modern Barbie dolls that you have so carefully kept mint in box for all those years? If you smoke around them, the plastic windows in the boxes will turn yellow and brittle. Over time, a yellow film will appear on the box, especially evident on those pretty clear parts of the window boxes. I've seen some collections heavily exposed to smoke where you can barely see the dolls in the boxes.4. It Will Be Very Difficult To Sell Your Dolls
Many collectors will not buy dolls or doll materials that have been exposed to smoke. Therefore, when it comes time for you or your family to sell your doll collection, you can expect to get much less for smoke-exposed dolls than you would otherwise get. Depending on the type of doll or doll clothing effected by smoke, some if not all of the smoke smells can be lessened or removed in time, but it is a long process which may or may not work.5. Smoke Will Make Your Antique and Vintage Dolls Disintergrate Quicker
Antique and vintage doll clothing is fragile. So are some of the materials that dolls are made of, such as magic vinyl dolls from the 1940s and 1950s. Smoke will help old fabrics disintegrate quicker, and will also make unstable substances (such as magic vinyl) break down faster.
