I have 11 Seymour Mann baby dolls in their boxes. They belonged to my mother who passed away and left them to me. I am not a doll collector. Is there anywhere I can find the value? I have all the code numbers. We are moving soon and do not have space for 11 dolls.
Thank you.
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Seymour Mann dolls are mass-produced and decrease in value. Check on eBay to see the price your dolls sold for.
HELLO I HAVE LOOKED ON E BAY BUT I COULD ONLY FIND ONE DOLL THAT MY MUM HAD THE REFERANCE NUMBERS ARE ON THE SIDE OF EACH BOX BUT I CANT FIND THEM I MISS MY MUM SO VERY MUCH BUT I AM DISABLED AND IN A WHEELCHAIR SO I HAVE GOT TO MOVE TO A BUNGALLOW AND DONT HAVE ROOM FOR THE 11 DOLLS THANK YOU .SHEILA
The mourning period is so challenging...and add to it having to move and your own issues can be very overwhelming. Since you have so many things on your plate.
When researching, try just putting the doll maker in the search and looking at the pictures. Unfortunately the research is time consuming and the outcome of the values is often not worth the time.
That all said, your best bet may be to put them all for sale as a lot (all together) on a site like Facebook or NextDoor.Com or a Pennysaver classified if you have one and ask $100 or best offer...and then you can decide if you will take the offer or not.
If selling them doesn't work, maybe to honor your mom's memory, find a place to donate...like a children's hospital, or shelter for women and children or even since Christmas will be here before you know it, Toys for Tots or an organization that gets toys into the hands of children with none.
Please be easy on yourself and don't rush through your mourning process. Your mom probably would not want you agonizing over the dolls...dolls were meant to be loved and enjoyed...
You will be in my prayers! Good luck!!
You have my deepest condolences on the loss of your mom.
The best way to find the value is to look up each doll on eBay and go to the sold section to see what people are paying for them. This gives you the current market value.
While most of the Seymour Mann dolls did not hold their value, and sell in the $10-$20 range (selling price + shipping), there are still a few that have held their value, like one of the bride dolls and specialty dolls like one designed by Edna Dali and another by J.C. Lee. These are getting in the low $100s, maybe up to $200.
Research is easy when you know the doll maker. With these steps:
1. Type the doll info into eBays search engine (sometimes you need to scale back the info and if you can't find the exact match the firs time just put Mann Doll and scroll through pictures to match)
2. Click to search
3. Go to the left side of the screen and click sold auctions
4. Match your doll to the photo and that gives you the value.
6. If your dolls are not section, unclick the sold button and look to see what people are askingthat does not give you a value (value is only what people pay), but it will show you what people think they are worth.
Selling dolls on eBay (and Etsy) is a tedious process and your profit (value is what you ask, profit is what you get after everyone takes their fees) is small since the fees are killer.
Shipping them is even worse as they are so fragile and must be packed very carefully. If you dont figure shipping right you can end up losing the value of the doll and more, which is why I tell everyone if you are going to sell, package and weigh the doll BEFORE you list it so you put it into eBays calculator correctly DO NOT let eBay calculate the shipping cost. It is wrong almost always!
For these type of dolls, unless you have some of the rarer ones of high value, I suggest that people--if they can, find a child who can love and enjoy the dolls, since that is what dolls were mean to do.bring joy to a child.
If you dont have someone in your life who can enjoy them, see if a hospital, a shelter that takes in women and children can give them to a child in need.
Toy drives around Christmas time may also take themlike Toys for Tots or those run by your local police or fire department.
If you donate to a non profit, and can take the tax credit, a child wins and you win.
I am sorry you won't be able to retire off the proceeds.
hi i searched e bay but could not find even one referance number ,for the mann dolls dont know where to look now,any ideas please .thank you sheila,
It sounds like you are spinning your wheels with this. It can be very frustrating. If you want true values you have to research in a variety of ways:
Some sellers online are dealers and they have no clue about the doll history, so they just list it by Mann doll OR worse, they list a doll as 18 inches, or whatever size it is with brown hair and a blue dress.
Truthfully, you may never find an exact match to your doll the first time out...it may take weeks to find one...and it doesn't sound like you have weeks to do this research.
It may be time to rethink what you want from the dolls...if you want money--it is going to take a lot of time and effort and probably have a very low return on your investment.
If you want rid of them you have the options written out below...but it may take a lot of time.
I am sorry to be a Debbie Downer...I know there have been other posts in this thread that talk about this...when you are all done with your research, you may find your dolls have values of $25 or under...and you have spent weeks learning this. Since most dolls have not held their value, is it worth your time and energy to spend all the time doing the research or do you just want to sell the dolls, take what you get and take the money and run.
In 99 out of 100 cases, you are not going to make much money for ANY doll...unless you have some super rare, one of a kind doll. That these are Mann dolls, there are VERY FEW worth much--if you spent a hundred hours researching and your hourly rate is 10 an hour, you have spent 1000 of your life hours on this. You will DEFINITELY not get any return on investment in that research as if you are lucky, the dolls will all sell for $100, maybe less.
It is a sad fact. I wish I could change that. Please know I am not being disrespectful in this discussion, I am being honest with you. I have this conversation at least once a week with my clients. Sometimes you just need to step back and figure out what you want.
I know this is part of your mom's estate and there is a lot of emotion tied up into these. Having stuff makes the grieving process twice as hard...I have worn (and in some cases) still am wearing these shoes...I have my dad's hats that after 13 years I can't part with...sometimes I hear him telling me I am silly to keep them, but I still do....I didn't know your mom, but I would have to hope she would tell you that it is just STUFF and not her or her memory. You will ALWAYS have her and her memory in your heart. Let go of the stuff and you will feel better!! I have just started doing this with other things of my dad's and I do feel better!
So to reiterate the other posts...You can do one of 4 things....you can give up on the research and....
1. You can put the entire lot up for sale and take what someone bids and be done with it (the market will dictate the final price)n you set the starting price. I would suggest a 7 day auction starting at $25 for all...only do this if you are OK with getting that minimum amount...you set the minimum...if you want it to be 100 you can do that also...then wait and see. This could go on for many rounds of 7 day ads with them not selling.
You can use this ad as an example of how to work your ad and take your photos. This is a lot of work, you need to be able to wrap them very carefully and get them to the post office also...so figure that into your time efforts.
www.ebay.com/
2. You could put them for sale on Facebook Marketplace the same way and set a price for the lot and take best offer. This way you don't have to deal with shipping you just have to think about do you want people coming to your house to get them. Again this could go on for many rounds with them not selling.
3. You can call around to see if any consignment store in your town will consign them for you. You get them out of your house and if they sell you get a percentage of sale. If they don't, you can work out with the consignment store what they do with them after the consignment period ends..
4. You can donate them and take the tax right off.
I will keep you in my prayers that you can find a solution that will work for you!
HI THANK YOU I JUST REMEMBERED THAT MY MUM BOUGHT ALL THE DOLL IN 200O AS MY DAD DIED IN 1999 AND I THINK MY MUM WAS SO LONELY SHE WAS JUST BYING LOTS OF THINGS OF A SHOPPING CHANNEL I KNOW SHE HAS 3 MY SPECIAL ANGEL COLLECTOR VYNEL DOLLS ,
I am not familiar with that doll. Is that a brand name?
Most of the collectibles purchased in the late 1990s have not held their value or increased.
If you have a lot of items from the estate, you may want to have someone come in and sell all off for you. They take a percentage, but it removes the emotional burden of you selling it yourself. Just a thought. Prayers for you for a healing heart!
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