2015 Holiday Barbie Revealed!!

2015 Holiday Barbie is revealed! 

Although I haven't found the design listed on Matell's collector website, the Barbies have been viewed on many other well known websites who have been very accurate in portraying the new year's design!

So it's safe to say, these will be the Holiday Barbies for 2015... and most likely there will be an exclusive release as well, however we can probably expect to see that in either May, June or July 2015!!

For now we will at least have the design of the dress to admire.  I lacey deep red dress, typically designed for the Holidays, with a beautiful white snow flake design under layer.

Tis the Season for Clearances!

For the next few months you might have noticed all your local stores are putting EVERYTHING on Clearance!!

This includes the remainder of their Black Friday items, stocking stuffers, holiday items, and of course, the seasonal toys! A.K.A.  Holiday Barbies!

Soon it'll be time to put out all the Easter items (Easter this year is April 5th 2015) so sold or not sold, they will be empting those shelves to make room for all their left over Valentine's and after Easter, Easter items!

Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Toys R US, Target, etc... they all do these sales at the same time because they're all competing to get the next items on the shelves FIRST.  You might be annoyed when you walk into your local Wal-Mart and see Easter already on the shelves and it's not even the end of February (I know I always do) but it's out there for a reason.  The reason behind this is because, even though the economy is slowly recovering, people are still buying things ahead of time because they're going pay check to pay check and they want to have things bought and packaged BEFORE the Holidays, rather than wait until the last minute to find out they don't have the time nor the cash.

I personally am just as annoyed as the next person to walk into a store and see Christmas stuff out in August... BUT I'm usually buying my Christmas gifts starting back in June... so really the actual annoyance is knowing Christmas is on it's way and it's like the stores are literally rubbing it in your face that you have 'this' much time to get everything for your kids before Christmas arrives.

I never used to be a Black Friday person, I'd sit at home on that day and wait until the morning... the same goes for sales, I never would actually look into who's having a sale and when, and even though someone was having a sale, I'd say "Well, I don't 'really' need it, I'll get it when I do."  I have a completely different outlook to this now being that person who lives check to check... now I say "I'm going to need that in 4 months, but if I wait I'll have to pay $40 more! Might as well get it now and keep it until then!"  I am also the person who goes out to Wal-Mart and waits to get the best deals... not that I want to and I feel terrible for the workers, but me staying home isn't going to make Wal-Mart change it's Black Friday sale times no matter how much I want it to... there will be others excited for the deal and Wal-Mart knows this, so I have to huff it out for the deals or lose out, those are the choices... whining about the time isn't going to change anything.  (Trust me I wish it would but all I can do is send in my complaints to them and cross my fingers next year they'll do something different).

But getting back to the clearances -  You all should notice that the prices have dropped to prices BELOW what Black Friday offered!  Sure you're not getting a gift for your family member, but $1 instant coffee packages is a huge deal compared to paying $8 per box!  And so are the Holiday Barbie prices which have dropped to $15!!  If you hit the right store, you might even find them for less than $15!!  That's a huge discount compared to the $50 they were charging off the shelves, almost 75% off!  So if you're looking to grab your Holiday Barbie don't hesitate to take a small detour to the clearance isle while you're picking up milk or toliet paper, you might find yourself a huge deal that you didn't think was there!

2014 AND 2013 Holiday Barbie with Ornaments - WalMart Exclusive!

 

So, just after posting that previous blog I went looking for the ornament versions and discovered the reason behind the Ornment and now see that the Ornament versions AND K-Mart Exclusive Brunette will most definately carry the higher value of the series.

Turns out that WalMart had an Exclusive Holiday Barbie too, the Holiday Barbie containing the Ornaments.

So this means that ONLY the Blonde and African American versions carry this extra ornament because WalMart did not sell the K-Mart Exclusive Brunette, only K-Mart carried her and they did NOT have one with this ornament inside.

This being said, the Wal-Mart exclusives will most certainly obtain the higher value along side the Brunettes from K-Mart.

Also, upon discovering this, I also found that last year, during the 2013 Holiday Barbie Release - Wal-Mart had another exclusive ornament release in their Holiday Barbies stock.  So if you find a pretty silver snowflake in the top left (looking at you) with a red ribbon, you have the WalMart Exclusive release!  And the same thing goes for it, only the Blonde and African American versions were released with this snow flake as the Auburn version was only released by K-Mart!  So keep an eye out on the list, I will be updating it appropriately with these Barbies in both the List and the Value chart!

2014 Holiday Barbie - with an Ornament!

Well today I acquired the African American 2014 Holiday Barbie for my daughter's collection, but I was in for a surprise when I brought her home to add to her sisters.

Right away, as I put her on the shelf with the others, I noticed an extra piece in her box compared to the Brunette and Blonde 2014 Holiday Barbie - an ornament!  A beautiful gold snowflake with a red ribbon tied at the top.

Seeing this difference, I immediately went and did some research and low and behold, Matell did in fact release - not only 3 different hair/skin style Barbies, but each of them with AND without this ornament!

So now I will update our list of Barbies to include each of these Barbies with - and - without the ornament!  So, when you go to look at your 2014 Holiday Barbie, check that top left (if she's facing you) corner of the box.  See if you have the one with or without the ornament!  I'm sure it'll eventually come up in price and seeing as the ornament set was released later in the series until the season ended, I'm actually assuming the one WITHOUT the ornament will eventually be the higher priced doll as it was the earlier released... but only time will tell!