Holiday Barbie Values

Holiday Barbie Values - One of the biggest questions I get here is,"How do I figure out what my Holiday Barbie is worth?"

Although I do have a page dedicated to each of the values of the Holiday Barbies in the collection, it still can be a bit confusing and I'm sure most of you wonder where I get the numbers from.

The answer is simple - I get these values through online research.

Now, I'm sure a lot of you are saying, "I don't have time to research all these Barbies, I just want to know what MINE is worth."  Well you're in luck!  Because the fastest form of research can be done right on one of biggest internet sites around in mere minutes - eBay!

That's right, the place you browse through the most looking for the best for your buck can be your key in determining what your Barbie is worth and I'm about to explain to you how to do it.

• Step 1:

Go to eBay's Home Page

• Step 2:

Type in the name of your Barbie (The ENTIRE name, Year and all, so if you have a '1988 Happy Holiday Barbie' you type in '1988 Happy Holiday Barbie' )

• Note - Try not to be TOO specific though - if you start entering in the hair color, or words like 'Exclusive' into the search you'll narrow your search.  Most people don't know what they have or if it's special, so they'll simply type in the year and what's written on the front of the Barbie, which is what you want to search for so you get ALL the results you can.

• Step 3: 

On the LEFT SIDE MARGIN look for a section called 'Show Only'  Under that you will find an option to select 'SOLD LISTINGS'.  Click on this and ONLY this one.

• Step 4: 

At the TOP RIGHT - JUST ABOVE THE LISTINGS look for a drop down box with 'SORT' next to it and select - "PRICE + SHIPPING: LOWEST FIRST"

• Step 5: 

Scroll until you reach the FIRST Barbie in the same condition as your own and observe the price it was SOLD for.




The end result of following these steps is you will have a list, that is dated with the days these Barbies were SOLD and what people paid to gain these Happy Holiday Barbies.

The trick of finding out what your item is worth, is to find out what people are willing to PAY.

Once one of these Barbies goes off the shelves, a number of things happen.

• First thing that happens is everyone calculates what they PAID for their Barbie, (Just so you have an idea, the average Holiday Barbie sells for between $35 to $50 at your local store).  

• The next thing people think about is how well their Barbie is kept.  Big collectors who are looking for good quality Barbies will be the ones looking for 'Mint in Box' listings, but everyone else is just looking for the Barbie in 'A' Box, they're not really thinking about if it's 'Mint' but common sense tells anyone that a Barbie 'IN' the Box is worth more than one 'OUT' of the box.

• Then they determine how OLD the Holiday Barbie is. (90% of all things grow in price as they grow in age.)

• The last thing people do (who are looking to sell) is figure out WHERE they want to sell their Holiday Barbie because if you want to sell it at your local yard sale you may gain more (but it might take more time) but if you sell it online you'll have to consider shipping costs or the cost of the website you're selling it on (such as eBay's listing fees).

This is where people come up with their prices that you see.  What they don't know is that not everyone is going to pay THEIR price and they're not always going to get back what they invested into their Barbie (which is the goal of every collector looking to sell).  The reason this is, is because of one final variable they're not thinking about - Over Production.

While there are many Barbies with a limited amount made, (such as Platinum Label Barbies with only 1,000 made or Gold Label Barbies with only 5,000 made) the Holiday Barbies are made as Supply and Demand dictate.  Meaning if Wal-Mart orders 10,000 Holiday Barbies, Matell will SEND 10,000 Holiday Barbies, and then that will be 10,000 Holiday Barbies your ONE Barbie has to compete with in price.  So you have to put yourself in the shoes of your potential Buyer - If one person is selling their Barbie at $30 with Free Shipping on eBay (meaning the person selling it is only making about $15 out of the deal) and you're selling yours at $90 with $15 Shipping attached - who do you think they are going to buy from?

Now I'm not saying this is true for every Barbie and person trying to sell, you might actually get lucky and sell yours at the $90 + $15 Shipping cost, but the odds are against you if you fight to sell your Barbie at an over-inflated price so it's better to look up what others are selling their Barbies at, and go from there.

Also, just FYI, these steps can work for ANY item you're looking to price.  So if you have a cell phone you're looking to sell, a computer, or even a DVD, just follow these steps and you'll get an idea of what you should sell yours for!


So now you know where I obtained my numbers for the Holiday Barbies Collection Value page I created for all of you to compare your Barbies to.  I did this to save you the time of looking up the information yourself as there are, as of right now, over 60 different Holiday Barbies out there, but if you want to verify the information yourself, you now have an idea on how to do it quickly and efficiently!

Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below you have for me any time and as always - Have a Great Day!

2014 Holiday Barbie Released!

Hello again!  I apologize for the long delay between posts but my newborn son came into the world the beginning of August and as you can imagine, I've been very preoccupied juggling school starting with my older two children and taking care of my newborn son.

But, I am back and wanted to let everyone know about the new 2014 Holiday Barbie that was released!

Like 2013, this one has an Exclusive release with it that can only be found at K-Mart.

There have been years where the exclusive released to Wal-Mart and Toys R Us, but K-Mart has been winning the bid on the exclusive almost 90% of the time.

The Exclusive is a beautiful Brunette release, pictured here.  Only recently has it showed up on their website however so if you're looking to grab a 2014 for your collection, I'd advise grabbing the Brunette first before the Blonde or African American version as it'll be the first one to disappear off the shelves as history has shown us!

However, getting back to the 2014 Holiday Barbie outfit, one of the things that pops out to me first is all the gold flare added to her outfit, as well as the box display as well.

There have been Holiday Barbies in the past that have had a small amount of gold added to their outfit, but this one shows off just as much Gold as it does Red, giving the whole thing an overall warm glow to her that is a welcomed change this Holiday Season :)

I'll be updating her into the Value Price Guide along with her Blonde and African American versions as well and will be grabbing her myself and adding her to the collection.  Very excited that Matell is continuing to add more Holiday Barbies to the collection, after all, the more they make, the more valuable the collection will be.  Each year adds one more vintage year to all predecessors in the series!  Enjoy everyone!

2003 Holiday Visions (Winter Fantasy) Barbie - Holiday Barbie found at local Yard Sale!

I know that I haven't posted here in quite some time, but as stated in previous posts we had to put our collection on hold because of everything that was going on here.

However, it doesn't mean that we haven't stopped looking for these Barbies, and through that causal browsing, we came across a chance find that just proves that as long as you keep your eyes open, you can still find these Holiday Barbies anywhere!

Since we have a new baby due in August and Memorial Day has come and went, the big thing has been Yard Sales, Yard Sales and more Yard Sales (and of course Garage Sales!). 

The saying is true - "One person's trash is another person's treasure!"

You never know what you're going to find at a Yard Sale, but I will tell you the best time to look for them is on the Weekends (Friday Thru Sunday) starting at 8:00am!

There are those select few yard sales that begin at 9 and 10am, but if you want to get the good stuff, you want to make sure you are awake, out the door and at THEIR yard sale by 8am!

You can find yard sales in the paper, advertised on facebook or simply driving around!

Our sole purpose that day was to look for baby items for our new arrival, but while we were searching we came across a yard sale where in front of us stood a 2003 Holiday Visions Barbie, still perfectly preserved in her box!

These are the best kinds of finds because the reason someone's starting a yard sale is to make money and clear up some space in their own home.  They don't know when they're going to get another potential buyer, so you can haggle with them (unless they already have a low low offer that you can't refuse!).

Now, I was in the mood to haggle that day, but when a perfect - mint in box -2003 Holiday Visions Barbie is staring me in the face, and the woman selling it is only asking for $10,  I'm going to give her the $10 because that is a DEAL!

So remember to keep your eyes open during your yard sale searches because you might come across a Holiday Barbie that you're looking for, and again these are the best kind because you can PHYSICALLY inspect that Barbie!  Unlike eBay, where all you have to go by are pictures and the seller's word, you can actually LOOK at this Barbie and see if it's worth the actually price that it's labelled and even if it isn't, you can still haggle with them if it's still in great shape to be worthy for your shelf at home!

We can now cross this one off our list as collected!

And as always, please check out my eBay store here at: http://stores.ebay.com/ArtsyCellCases

We just added new cases to our lists, including Samsung Galaxy S5 Cases and I will begin some Penny Auctions starting TODAY!  (And ONLY YOU, who are reading this right now, have the heads up that these Penny Auctions are coming so you can be prepared and have first dibs on these cases coming up for sale!)

Simply Click here to Access our eBay store now: Artsy Cell Cases!
Thank you all for reading!

Working through all the changes

These past 12 months have been very difficult to move through.

It has put a temporary halt on our Holiday Barbie search and caused us to reconsider how we're going to go about resuming it.

With the unexpected lost of my father last August, the surprise pregnancy of our 3rd child due this August, and this incredible weather we've been experiencing our wallet has been taking a major hit.

I've been long awaiting the end of this dreaded winter, but it didn't seem to come until the beginning of May, much later than what was expected, and now trying to grab every last thing for our new addition, budgeting for Holiday Barbies has been extremely tight.

Not surprisingly, our sales have plummeted for our cell cases, so it has been putting a harder squeeze on our cash flow so there has been no room to breathe for the collection.

In anticipation of this we've even set up an exclusive BOGO sale on our cases, making the entire store:  
Buy 2 - Get 1 50% Off at this link: http://ebay.us/5uvBRq

 Although, not to worry, we're still on the search and keeping an eye out for the best deals on the missing collection pieces, we're just crossing our fingers that we don't miss out while we wait for this financial storm to lift!

Please feel free to browse our eBay Store: Artsy Cell Cases and take advantage of our BOGO sale!

Remember, this is an exclusive BOGO sale that we specifically made for you, our wonderful viewers!  You can view our store anytime but to take avantage of the BOGO make sure you visit this specific link: http://ebay.us/5uvBRq or click the picture above (linked to the same BOGO sale).

Have a great day everyone! ^_^