I have a William Tung porcelain doll and do not know it's value. It is in perfect condition. It has a stand and is stamped on the back of the neck.
Please help!!
She is interesting. I have never seen her before, so I can't give you today's market value on her.
My suggestion is to check eBay periodically to see if she comes up for sale and if she sells, that will give you today's current market value.
I can tell you generally, most Tung dolls (lately) are sitting on many sites, unsold as low as 1.99 and up into the high $40s.
If you wanted to sell her without a comparable value, you could always start her in the middle at like 19.99 in a 7 day auction and let the market dictate the value.
Best to wait until closer to the holidays when the demand will have a slight increase. Right now the doll market is in the can and values are at an all time low.
Thanks for sharing your lovely! Post back how your sale goes!
This doll sure has a lot of facial details and her clothes are very beautiful. Unfortunately, most of them are sell for $30 to $50 online.
She is unusual as it is not often we see dolls dressed in a black gala outfit.
You can do research but you may never find where an identical doll is listed for sale or one that has sold so that kinda leaves finding the 'current' value up in the air.
The problem with researching dolls is there are so many variables:
Size (inches tall), brand, artist, doll name, hair color, color of outfit, ethnicity, COA, Box, new, preowned/used.
Sellers do not always list all of these descriptions and most may list only one or two so it is difficult to find a specific doll. A doll name is usually a big help but then many sellers do not know the name of the doll or the doll was never given a 'name'.
You do not state that you have the COA or a tag showing the name of your doll and you do not give the size so this cuts down on being able to find an identical doll.
You can check eBay posted listings for William Tung dolls and place a watch on any doll that looks similar in any way to your doll to see if it sells. Asking prices do not reflect the value of an item it only shows what a seller would like to receive for their item.
www.ebay.com/
You can always check sold listings on eBay as this is considered current value because it shows what someone actually paid for these dolls.
You may never find your doll on either link but similar dolls may be a good shot to value.
www.ebay.com/
You can check other sites but eBay is the site that appraisers use to find current value.
If you Google 'William Tung dolls' (this is all of the real information you have supplied) you will find where beautiful dolls have sold on various sites over the past several years (not very many sold) and find that some sold for as little as $1 -$25 plus shipping.
I like your doll and feel that she may be a little special so I would suggest that you list her for a higher price and wait for a couple of months to see if she sells.
If listing on eBay, start her at $150 plus shipping and best offer to see what happens. Dolls are rarely fast sellers and new sellers do not get a lot of 'hits' so 2-3 months may be a good start.
Will she sell? She may have just as good a chance at a high price as a lower price because it will take a special person - looking for an unusual doll - to want to buy her.
You can always lower the price at different intervals if no one shows an interest.
You might want to list her on local sites like Craigslist, OfferUp, LetGo so you can list her as 'pick up only' with no high cost of shipping.
If you do have to ship her be very sure she is packed and repacked as many dolls are damaged in shipping and insurance is almost a joke.
Ask a QuestionHere are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community or ask a new question.
I have three large porcelain dolls with the William Tung signature on the back of the neck and have no idea what their names are. They also have a mark next to the signature such at 1/1 or 0/0. I'm curious what this means. They stand about 32 inches except for the one that is in a sitting position.
They have cloth bodies and the porcelain cuts off at mid chest, wrists, and mid thigh. Does anyone know any information about these dolls?
It seems you have been doing your research and you may be correct as these dolls have beautiful outfits and hairstyles that do not seem to match other William Tung dolls.
You can post your pictures and ask questions on this doll forum as they love to respond to doll collector's questions (as long as good pictures are furnished and size is given).
This is a neat post! I sold dolls for years in various retail settings and at the "hey day" of doll sales (in the 1980s mostly) there were rumors of "prototype" dolls that were kept in secure vaults and such...and some even destroyed if the maker did not get good consumer feedback from focus groups.
To me prototype dolls were always a unicorn or a rumor...something never found in the wild. Since you posted, I have been scouring all of my sources and it looks like some were given to people and got outside of the company...some on purpose and some "fell off the truck" so to speak.
Do you know any of the history of the dolls...where you got them, where the person you got them from got them? The history would help authenticate what you have...but the wonky numbering is consistent with a prototype/sample.
Now for value...that is something only the market can dictate because there are most likely NOT going to be any comparable items.
You could see what some of the other protypes sell for....I haven't found too many out there--I did see the one you saw on Worthpoint, but I no longer have a membership so I can't see the sold price.
You could contact a doll museum (I will post a list below) and see if they have any interest in owning/buying them from you:
www.thesprucecrafts.com/
The non-prototype Tung dolls are all over the place in value from $1.00 to the low three hundreds for some of the 42 inch dolls.
I would check the museums first to get their feedback. Then if they aren't interested, you can always set an arbitrary number of what you want for them and set up a 7 day reserve auction for the doll on eBay.
The reserve auction will set you back a chunk of change (last one I did was 15.00 (it is based on the reserve amount). But if it does not sell, you are not obligated to take lower. It can help you gauge what the item is worth in the market.
I will tell you, shipping these will be a challenge, especially with the USPS new DIM (dimensional) mailing. Fragile dolls should be double boxed, not touching the sides of the inner box. The box is going to be big since the doll is big....so the shipping may scare off any potential buyers as it may be as much as the doll is worth to a collector.
Please post back how you proceed!! I am so excited to see a prototype in the wild!
I don't want to be a downer, but I do hope yours were come by honestly...I am not sure about statutes of limitations of they were the ones that made it out of the plant by less than honorable methods. I don't think the Tung company is still around..so maybe it is a moot point.
I am just always about safety first!!
