Inspecting Holiday Barbies that come through the Mail

 

If you've ever bought anything online, when you receive it, you expect it to be what was listed.

A lot of people tend to list things on eBay as 'new' because it looks 'new' to them.

When it comes to collecting, MIB means Mint in the Box and NRFB means Never Removed From Box.  It is important to know the difference.  The reason being is many people will mark a Barbie NRFB because it's not MIB.  Basically, the Barbie is still inside the box and locked in, but the box itself is damaged.

Every little nick and scratch or crack takes away from the value of the Barbie.  Where little, barely noticable things can be ignored, big things, like the top of the box being crushed or the plastic front covering cracking cannot.

This is where you must be tough and firm with your sellers.  It can be very hard for some people to be 'direct' with the people they buy from because they don't want to sound mean but it is important that when you find something wrong, you tell them and demand part of your money or all of it back.  If you buy something and they say it's new and it's not, accepting it is like throwing your money away.

These Barbies are worth next to nothing without their boxes, so that box needs to be as in good a shape as the Barbie itself!

There are a few occasions you may have to ignore, such as the coloring of the plastic, (due to you can't stop the plastic from aging) but other things like the box falling apart, is due to their personal care of the box.  If they had taken better care of it, it wouldn't be falling apart.

On that note too, do NOT be afraid to take a chance with new sellers on eBay.

The sad truth about eBay is it fully protects its BUYERS, not sellers.  This means, if you don't believe you got your money's worth, eBay will give it back without any hesitation.  There are many who take advantage of that fact and it makes sellers very antsy, about listing items, but it means full security for you.  So where as many people won't buy a single thing from a person with 0 feedback, you might find a great deal with them since no one else is willing to deal with them because they're afraid of getting ripped off.  At the same time, if that person does pull a scam on you, or tries to defraud you, it takes only a day or two to get your money back.  Again, eBay won't hesitate to give it back to you so you have full protection at all times!

I'm going to go into my collection now and you can collect with me!  Remember to keep the checklist in mind when you're gathering your Barbies!