The very first version of the doll\u2014with downcast eyes, a curled blonde ponytail and black and white striped swimsuit\u2014has holes in her feet so she can attach to a stand; in the second version, the holes were patched up the after children ended up breaking the stands; the third edition of Barbie wears mascara, while the fourth version is the first made from a vinyl plastic blend rather than polyvinyl chloride (PVC).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Zalkin started his Barbieland journey in his 20s, when he was running a toy shop in Tampa that was filled with cast-iron Tonkin Replica<\/a> trucks and antiques. It was the early \u201990s, and his staff of primarily older women convinced him to focus on the intricacies and allure of Barbie dolls instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey taught me all about Barbies,\u201d Zalkin told Fortune, \u201c<\/em>everything I wanted to know and more.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Zalkin has now been selling Barbie dolls for over 30 years, developing a talent for discerning the subtle differences between the earliest versions of Mattel\u2019s star bombshell. But he has been unofficially selling toys, learning the trade from influential women in his life, since much younger: At age 5, his grandmother taught him about her hobby, collecting glassware, pottery and figurines in his hometown of Liberty, New York; at 13, after his family moved to Tampa, he decided that was \u201cold lady stuff,\u201d and began buying and selling toys instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n Courtesy of Bruce Zalkin (2)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n His 40-year-long career as an antique toy dealer now deals primarily with Barbie collections\u2014mostly vintage models with alluring downcast eyes and feathery blonde ponytails. Over the years, Zalkin estimates he\u2019s sold\u00a0 $2 million worth of vintage Barbies, working through eBay, toy shows<\/a>, and auctions. While it\u2019s not a profession he encourages others to join (it\u2019s \u201cjust not a good investment,\u201d he says), he\u2019s managed to lean into the charm, variety and nuance of the doll\u2014along with its lucrative market power\u2014to create a sustainable livelihood.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not really a collector of Barbies, I\u2019m more of a dealer,\u201d he told Fortune.<\/em> \u201cThis is how I make my living.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Buyers of his vintage Barbies include those nostalgic to own the dolls they grew up with, or weren\u2019t allowed to buy, along with professional collectors.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s the kids that grew up with parents who would never buy them a Barbie doll,\u201d Zalkin said.<\/p>\n Then there are specific lines geared toward collectors that Mattel introduced in the 1980s\u2014including limited-edition dolls designed by esteemed fashion designer<\/a> Bob Mackie<\/a> and silkstone models<\/a>, which were released in the 2000s. Those often sport lingerie and, Zalkin says, \u201cwere never meant for children.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n They are, however, \u201chighly sought by collectors\u201d and can fetch as much as 400 on eBay.<\/a><\/p>\n Spotting the right collections can take work, as the rare dolls Zalkin hunts for aren\u2019t easily found at yard sales or on social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n This week, Zalkin viewed a Florida woman\u2019s collection of over 150 dolls, which she decided to sell as she\u2019s moving, and because her child has outgrown them. Zalkin brought along Marl Davidson<\/a>, a friend of 38 years whom he calls \u201cthe number one dealer in the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Going through the dolls, Zalkin said, \u201cshe didn\u2019t have any super rare items,\u201d but luckily for him, the majority of dolls were vintage, which means they were released before the 1980s.\u00a0<\/p>\n Zalkin and Davidson spent around $4,000 to buy the collection. Once purchased, the duo then spent about two hours packing the dolls, wrapping them individually in paper or plastic (so \u201cwe don\u2019t mess up their hair\u201d) and making ziplock bags of the dolls\u2019 accessories.\u00a0<\/p>\n Next comes the following phase of the dolls\u2019 journey: rehoming. \u201cIt will take a few months to sort through,\u201d Zalkin said. \u201cWe bought 100 pairs of shoes, all in little baggies, that have to be sorted to see whether they\u2019re vintage or modern, because people pay very different amounts of money depending on what they are.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The accessories, he said, often sell for more than pieces of clothing and at times even the dolls themselves, because \u201cthose are the first things that get lost or vacuumed up.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The answer, Zalkin said, usually depends on how much she was loved, the rarity of the edition, and whether her clothes sport Mattel\u2019s signature hot pink Barbie tag.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEven to this day, all the clothing is tagged,\u201d he said. In the 1960s, he added, \u201cMattel sold pattern books so that women could make clothes for the Barbies, because it was cheaper to do that than buy the Mattel clothes.\u201d<\/p>\n The rarity of Barbie clothes and editions can be the difference between a doll worth pennies and upwards $5,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the 1960s, for example, Mattel came out with a line of Barbies that was only available in Japan.<\/a> Clothes from that line, Zalkin said, \u201care super-expensive and super rare. I\u2019ve only had a few of those outfits and they sell in the multi-thousands range.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Zalkin has sold individual dolls for $10,000. He recalled one octogenarian couple\u2019s lifetime collection\u2014 over 500 \u201cmint condition, original dolls and clothing still in the original packages\u201d\u2014which he sold for $250,000, mostly to private collectors.<\/p>\n Vintage Barbies, and specifically the earliest versions of the doll, tend to be the most valuable. An original 1959 Barbie, in perfect condition, is worth between $5,000 to $10,000, Zalkin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll have some people collecting for investment or they want mint perfect items, and they\u2019re going to pay the top premium for it,\u201d he said. \u201cOther collectors just want the doll, get it at one-tenth of the price, and they\u2019ll redo the makeup, redo the hair and have the doll they want.\u201d<\/p>\n To be sure, the line of work is not without challenges. One of the biggest, Zalkin said, is finding collections, or inventory, to buy. He finds the majority of his business through word of mouth, with websites like Facebook Marketplace<\/a> and Craiglist only accounting for a small fraction of his sales. He also often buys back collections from people he\u2019s made sales with over the decades he\u2019s been in the trade, who reach out to him after life events, like death or divorce, prompt them to part ways with their collections.\u00a0<\/p>\n Greta Gerwig\u2019s highly-anticipated Barbie<\/a> movie, released last year, has lured more collectors to enter the market. Dolls that were featured in the movie, specifically \u2018Pregnant Midge\u2019<\/a> and \u2018Growing up Skipper\u2019<\/a> (which has a twistable arm that makes her grow taller and her chest expand) doubled in price.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRight when the movie came out, there was a huge uptick in Barbie sales,\u201d he said, adding that the prices still haven\u2019t returned to pre-movie levels.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to estimates<\/a> by Barbie Wiki, a fandom website, there are over 100,000 Barbie collectors over the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPrimarily older women are the main market, either new collectors, because of the new movie, or older women whose brothers blew up their dolls with GI Joe, or had parents who sold them in a yard sale,\u201d Zalkin said. \u201cBelieve it or not, the gay men\u2019s community also buys a lot of Barbie dolls.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n For better or worse, Barbie is an undoubtable cultural icon. She\u2019s been the centerpiece of\u00a0 museum exhibitions<\/a> and was the subject of a documentary<\/a> on Hulu<\/a>. Gerwig\u2019s movie brought close to $1.3 billion at the worldwide box office, becoming one of the few female-dominated movies among the top-grossing films of all time, NPR<\/em> reported<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The doll was also a game changer for both toymakers and young kids alike. According to a history by Encyclopedia Britannica<\/a>, baby dolls were the norm in the early 1950s, and often encouraged young girls to envision themselves as nurturers, mothers or caregivers. Barbie, however, was marketed as a woman<\/a> of many careers\u2014like hospital volunteer, astronaut, surgeon, and CEO\u2014with outfits to match. When kids played with her, they could imagine themselves in careers that don\u2019t have enough female representation.<\/p>\n Still, the dollmaker faced pushback for setting unrealistic body standards. Researchers in Finland<\/a> concluded that if a real woman had the proportions of the doll, she wouldn\u2019t have enough body fat to menstruate.\u00a0<\/p>\n Between 2012 and 2018, Mattel faced several quarters of nosediving sales<\/a> and criticism continued as other companies<\/a> manufactured dolls that better reflected the diversity of Americans in size, color and physical ability.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the mid-2010s, after Mattel released more diverse dolls, sales turned up. According to Mattel\u2019s website<\/a>, Barbie is now \u201cthe most diverse doll line,\u201d available in 35 skin tones, 97 hairstyles, and 9 body types.\u201d The brand has since released dolls with disabilities, such as Down syndrome, prosthetic legs and wheelchairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s been decades since Zalkin first dove into the world of Barbie as a seller, but he has no plans of turning away. He\u2019s recently started his own auction site, partly to avoid eBay\u2019s rising seller fees, and counts over 150 toy shows under his belt, which he runs with his wife, Laura.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we\u2019re at a buying show, we\u2019ll be sitting behind tables as people come to sell their stuff,\u201d he said. \u201cNaturally, if they have Barbie dolls, they\u2019ll walk over to my wife, who says, \u2018my husband does Barbies. I do all the cast iron trucks.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Diptych](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Bruce-Zalkin-Barbie-Dealer-image000004-2.jpg?w=1440&q=75\"\/)
On the hunt for rarities<\/strong><\/h2>\n
What makes a Barbie worth her dollars?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Greta Gerwig generated a new batch of collectors<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The key to Barbie\u2019s mainstay market power<\/strong><\/h2>\n