Barbie
Buy and sell Barbie in Costa Rica.
A boxed Fashionista bought as a gift, a Dreamhouse a family has outgrown, a shoebox of loose dolls with their tiny shoes: Barbie changes hands new and pre-owned in all of those forms. Barbie rarely travels alone: Ken, little sister Chelsea, the camper and the horse tend to come in the same lot, and whether they fit together is the first thing to ask. Costa Rican families give dolls for the Día de la Niñez on 9 September as well as at Christmas, and for either one a Barbie that still has its box is the one that works as a present.
Chelsea, Skipper and the Barbie-sized world around them:
scale is what decides whether a used outfit, car or house is any good to you. Barbie and Ken stand at around 29 cm, and her cars, campers and the Dreamhouse are built to that height. Chelsea is about half that and has her own smaller houses and vehicles; Barbie’s car seats and furniture swamp her. Skipper is the awkward one, because she began a head shorter than Barbie and later versions grew almost to her height, so clothes from one Skipper may not fit another. When a lot mixes all three, ask which doll each piece was made for.
Fashionistas, Made to Move and Signature Barbies:
are three different purchases. Fashionistas are the everyday play dolls, numbered on the box and sold in one outfit, and they are what most children own. Made to Move dolls have 22 flexible joints, so they kneel, sit cross-legged and hold a yoga pose; they suit a child who acts out stories, and adult collectors buy them as bodies to swap heads onto. Signature and holiday dolls are made for display and hold their value only while the box stays sealed. A child who wants Elsa, Moana or Ariel is after the Disney princesses, not a Barbie in a princess gown, and the big-eyed, platform-shoed look belongs to Bratz, a different maker whose clothes do not swap neatly with Barbie’s.
Where the money sits in a used Barbie:
not in the dolls themselves. A basic Barbie is about ₡4,000 new and a Fashionista about ₡8,000, so a loose doll in a single outfit sells for small change, and a bag of ten is priced as a bag. The value is in the big pieces, a Dreamhouse, a camper or a pool set with every clip and slide, and in collector dolls that were never taken out. A playset missing its small parts loses most of its appeal, because those parts were the point of buying it.
The 1966 stamp, sticky vinyl and fake movie dolls:
catch out buyers and sellers alike. The year moulded on a Barbie’s lower back or bottom is the date of the body design, not the year the doll was made; plenty of dolls stamped 1966 came off the line decades later, so date a doll by her face, hair and clothes instead. A tacky, shiny film on the arms or legs is plasticizer seeping out of ageing vinyl and shows up on older dolls. On a Made to Move, bend every joint and check that it holds. Counterfeits go after the dolls worth faking: celebrity, film and Signature editions. One offered loose or in a plastic bag, well below the price of the real one, is the warning sign. On a boxed set, look up the product code printed on the box; Mattel’s listing for it shows exactly what should be inside.
A Barbie lot listed before 9 September or Christmas:
meets parents who are already shopping for gifts, so August and November are the months to photograph what you have. Lay every doll, outfit and accessory out in daylight, shoot the faces close up, and count playset pieces against the number on the box. Name the lines, Fashionista, Made to Move, Chelsea, and say plainly what is missing, especially the shoes, which vanish first. For a Dreamhouse, say whether it goes assembled or flat in its box, because a buyer driving from Grecia or Limón needs to know if it fits in the car.