A lot of people write on here wondering about the value of their old dolls, so I wanted to post a small guide that may or may not prove helpful.
For another view on the 'value' of porcelain dolls, especially those from collectors' series of more recent vintage (40 years old and newer), we can look to the wise words in doll reference.com:
"Modern porcelain collector dolls sold from about the 1980s to present, were meant to appeal to adult doll collectors, not children. The theory was; buy it, keep it in the box or debox, but keep it unplayed with, after some time passes, you'll be able to sell it for more money than your original purchase and make a profit. Dolls were easily found in department stores, grocery store toy aisles, card shops, toy stores and on TV from QVC etc. The quantities sold of each collector doll could be large, it's the sheer quantity of all available porcelain collector dolls today, that is determining the current value, as they flood the market place, online and elsewhere..... Sad to say, but these dolls are now available in such large quantities they have little to no value today."
For decades, doll manufacturers used some very specific glyphs and symbols as 'signatures' that kind of look like Satanic amulet markings to identify their creations. These marks usually appear on the back of the dolls head, on the back, under arms, bottoms of the feet, but could really be anywhere.
Some links that identify these marks are here:
Also learn to distinguish what materials your dolls are made out of. Dolls can be made out of bisque, celluloid, china, hard plastic, cloth, composition, wax, metal, or wood. Knowing the materials can give a hint as to the doll's ages. For instance, bisque was mainly used in the 1800's, and if you have a celluloid doll you know it cannot be older than 1940, which is when the material was outlawed.
"with the name, maker or type of doll, use the below link to; Ebay Advanced Search - Find Items - Doll Sold Listings. Fill in the details on the form on the page link, check the Completed Auctions Only box and you will see recently
sold doll prices which are shown in green and that's as current a doll value, as you can get.
First of all there is the issue of actual intrinsic value to consider. Under these circumstances, most certainly any doll manufactured from the 70s and older that happens to be in impeccable condition should have some intrinsic value.
The second issue, however, is what the marketplace will bear. Who is buying these dolls? How much are they willing to pay for them? If something theoretically is worth $1000 but nobody wants to buy it, is it really worth that? These are some of the contradictions of capitalism that have been around since the days of the tulip frenzy of the 1600s and that continue on through today with the overvalued and essentially worthless tech startups of Silicon Valley. Anybody remember the Beanie Baby craze of the 90s? Or the yearly bloodletting at Black Friday as folks mow each other down to get the newest Hatchling or whatever other commodified abomination is trending that Christmas season? Well, next time any of these 'phenoms' involves porcelain dolls, (and the commodity fetish marketplace is so fickle that, really, you never know) then all of you, dear friends, wanting to extract monetary value from your pretty dolls will be laughing all the way to the bank.
Source: Dollreference.com
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I have three plastic dolls with flat shoes. One comes off but the other are part of the doll. Their eyes close and open.
Their arms move but not their legs. One can move her head. They are in old fashioned clothes.
How tall are they?
You said the eyes open and close? Can you show them laying down with the eyes closed? Most sleepy dolls the lashes go down, but these look painted--can you confirm?
Are the dolls plastic or celluloid? Plastic is harder, celluloid is brittle.
Can you tell if the hair is real (or mohair) or is it synthetic?
Do any of them have AE on the back--whichis Allied Eastern?
There are a lot of possibilities of who they are depending on the answers.
They look a lot like what are called Grocery Store dolls, but those are usually 18 inches and up. These look smaller, which may mean they are carnival dolls.
Value will depend on who they are.
Can you tell if the clothes are handmade? They look handmade--the lace on the one that is read looks like 60s lace, as does the funky fabric.
Hoping I can give you more info with more details! Thanks for sharing!! They are fun!!
I found this antique doll in the trash. I have been searching for weeks trying to identify it but to no avail. It is a 16-inch, bisque head/arms and legs, a cloth body, painted hair, and obviously the clothes.
There are no markings, except inside the head and one of the legs is an "etched" letter 'B'. There are no tags on the clothing. Can anyone please help me find what this is?
Thanks for the additional photos and the photo of the scale. The scale is very cool! They sell in the 20-30 range online! That was an especially nice find.
I doubt the doll and the scale are related by year.
I believe the doll is a kit doll also. Which one is a challenge because many of them had no markings or were marked like yours with a single letter.
The snaps on the clothing do appear to be older than the doll--maybe 1960s snaps so perhaps the owner used a real child outfit on the kit doll made at a later time--maybe for that child's child in the 1980s or 1990s.
Kit dolls like these gained huge popularity from the 1970 through the 1990s and even in to the early 2000s. I would place yours 1980s ish.
Why I believe it to be a "newer" kit doll is for a number of reasons... the head/neck is very cleanly crafted--a true antique doll head is (usually) very roughly made and the neck has wear. Also many of the very old dolls had rooted hair (usually real or mohair).
The body also looks very new (and clean), machine made.
The stuffing is also newer. Old dolls were often stuffed with a sawdust mixture or straw or rags.
I belong to a number of Facebook groups where there are gals and guys who have specialties and someone may be able to pinpoint the maker or give you more info. You cannot ask value there, but I can help with value if they can give you more specifics. I can give you lots of general info.
The group is called Porcelain doll collector's + accessories buy and sell. You have to ask to join and then you can upload all of your photos and ask if anyone can confirm the maker.
Looking forward to learning more. Post back what you learn and thanks again for the additional photos. Good luck with the scale also!
After reading your second description of the doll and how it is made this doll is made by a kit. I fear that the person had the kit stored for several years and that is why the body looks older than the stuffing. the stuffing in the kit could have gone bad and that is why they purchased new stuffing to stuff the doll with. Considering the legs and arms are hand sewn on the body of the doll indicates again this is from a kit. You normally sew the body of the doll, then stuff the parts, and hand-sewn them to the body of the doll before you finish the doll. When my daughter was in grade school she had to do a report and make a doll to go with her report. I ended up buying the different parts at a hobby store to help her make her doll. We did have to modify a lot of the stuff I bought because the doll was a history doll to go along with her report. I know the body of the doll is exactly as you are describing here and these types of bodies always came in a kit. My mother has some very old dolls that are around 80 years old and the construction of these dolls is very different even though they have soft stuffed bodies.
This was my mother's doll when she was 5, in 1941. I'm trying to find out if it's actually worth anything? It's in pretty bad shape and I cannot distinguish any markings to identify it. The head, legs, and arms are a ceramic type material the body is soft. The eyes are sleepy eyes with actual lashes. Any help would be useful. 
Wow, that's vintage! After searching and finding similar 1940's dolls, I am surprise to learn that the age does not give good value to such vintage construction. These dolls are priced like so many online for $10 to $40. It may be that it will only truly be valuable when it is 100 years of age. Here is some info on 1940's dolls - www.etsy.com/
Can you tell me how long she is? Also can you show the body?
She resembbles a very valuable 1940s Arranbee Dream Baby, but I believe the dream baby is only 12 inches and this one apepars to be bigger.
I think the head is composition, not ceramic. Composition is like glue and sawdust mixed and it gets that weird discoloration that I see on yours.
The doll can be restored by a professional and many people do this kind of work and will pay a lot for the doll to fix or use for parts.
Maybe with more info I can confirm who she is and if these are her original clothes, which I doubt because they look to new...but you never know.
I would like to know more about the clothes also--if they are handmade (hand stitched) or machine and how the seams are finished.
Hopefully with more info, I can get you better values and details! Thanks for sharing!
To tell you the truth about this doll it would be best to try and talk with an auction house and speak with an expert there. They know a lot about these types of dolls and if they hold any type of value or not. It is really hard to tell you how much this doll is worth because a lot of people just sell them off for a small amount to get rid of them then, on the other hand, there are collectors that will pay a large amount for this doll. I think in your case talking with an auction house and speaking with an expert is your best option to finding out how much this doll is really worth.
I've had this doll for a while and I know nothing about it. There are no marking except for a tag the says PA-3915 (TH), Made in China.
When my granddaughter was very small she received a lot of these types of dolls to play with. The doll you have is a no-name doll that was designed for small children to play with and give a name to the doll. They are not a big seller and normally you could pick one of these dolls up in the market for around $10 or so during the holidays or other times of the year. If you are interested in selling this doll you may get around $1 for the doll because it was mass-produced in China as a child's toy to play with. The reason I am saying this is because of the hair on the doll and the way it sits. A lot of these types of dolls were bought to sit on a child's bed in their room and the child could also play with the doll.
My records show that dolls marked PA are "unknown American USA doll maker" that are mostly made in China.
The doll looks like it has had a haircut, which if that is the case, will devalue it.
It is a "quasi" reborn doll or a reborn style--but not a Reborn doll.
Reborn means dolls that are realistic to the touch and feel and smell. Yours is in the style of that with the realistic face, but the body and hands are not of that style.
This kind of doll--if you are asking for value--does best sold at a consignment shop for whatever price your local market will bear for it. That could be as low as $5.
If you want to double check me--because I am far from perfect with my doll ID, but I have researched for years, show the doll on Facebook at one of the doll groups. The one that may do the best for you is called let's id our dolls -- type it in to the Facebook search as typed here with the lower case letters.
They only ID dolls. The will not value so don't ask.
If they tell you something different, please come back and I can help you value the doll!
Thanks for sharing!! Blessings and good wishes!
My grandma has these old dolls. I believe they were even my great grandmother's. Any information on these would be appreciated.
My mum gave me these dolls. I don't know anything about them and they have any markings from what I can see. It would be a shame to just give them away, if any was worth anything.
It would be great if anyone had any knowledge.
What is this doll worth? My aunt probably got it in the late 1950's. There is no maker name on the box. It also came with an additional dress.
She has a soft body that appears to be filled with crushed cork and she has hard limbs and head made from an unknown material. She has sleep eyes, her head appears to be glued to the body fabric, her arms are attached together via metal, and her legs are also attached via metal.
She is approximately 20" tall and in need of a lot of TLC.
Any information would be great. Thanks.
The doll's body parts are composition material. Giving a doll a fabric torso was made for weight reduction that a full body composition doll would have. This makes it easy for a child to carry and hold while playing with the doll and given the name of "mama dolls" even though manufacturers gave their dolls a new name. The composition doll came to existence in 1900s and ended sometime in the 1950s as a more durable and lightweight material was introduced.
Do you have any markings: number or name on the composition body parts which can be found on back of neck, head or bottom of foot. Oftentimes, doll parts were switched with other doll manufacturers and identification of original clothing on the doll helps determine the maker's name. I was not able to learn when cork filling was used in a cloth body; perhaps the owner bought a doll kit and used an on hand ready filler or it came from another country. Notice the hands on your doll. You can find other dolls with the same hands, but painted nails and flesh coloring must match up with the particular manufacturer. The shape of the one piece shoulder/head came in lots of forms; some rounded, with-w/o a shoulder.
You might determine a closer time frame by learning when: open/shut eyes were used
lifelike eyelashes replaced the painted ones
when wigs were used on composition doll heads
Wow! Very cool! I am thinking she is a "marriage" doll as the arms are not in proportion to the body or head. The body also looks like it may not be correct either. I am going to do some digging on the head. When you ping the head does it make a dull sound? I am thinking the head may be a sawdust, composition mix. Trying to figure out how to describe the sound that would make...like a dull thunk.
Let me know! Will post back with more hopefully soon.
I have 7, unused in their original boxes, Vogue 8 inch Ginny "Far Away Lands" dolls. I would like to sell all seven. What are they worth?
They seem to be with $15-$20 each. www.etsy.com/
There are a number of factors here...are they the ones from the 50s or the "newer" ones? Which countries to you have (as some are much more rare than others)?
Look at this link from eBay SOLD and match each one that you have with the sold price and you will know today's current market value:
www.ebay.com/
If you have the older ones, you may be best to break them up and sell them off one at a time since those seem to fetch more by piece than if you have the newer ones, which fetch less overall.
These are neat dolls but there are just a lot of variables that I don't have to give you the correct value for what you have.
Happy sales!!
I was curious to what kind of doll I have and if it might be of any value.
I stumbled across your website and found it so interesting that I dug this doll out of a dark closet! She probably has no value, but for giggles, perhaps you can give me some info on her.
The mark is U 39 and as far as I can tell she is made of hard plastic, the eyes open and close. Thank you for your time.
These were called "bed pillow or boudoir dolls" and were very popular in the 70-80's.
