A lot of people write on here wondering about the value of their old dolls, so I wanted to post a small guide that may or may not prove helpful.
For another view on the 'value' of porcelain dolls, especially those from collectors' series of more recent vintage (40 years old and newer), we can look to the wise words in doll reference.com:
"Modern porcelain collector dolls sold from about the 1980s to present, were meant to appeal to adult doll collectors, not children. The theory was; buy it, keep it in the box or debox, but keep it unplayed with, after some time passes, you'll be able to sell it for more money than your original purchase and make a profit. Dolls were easily found in department stores, grocery store toy aisles, card shops, toy stores and on TV from QVC etc. The quantities sold of each collector doll could be large, it's the sheer quantity of all available porcelain collector dolls today, that is determining the current value, as they flood the market place, online and elsewhere..... Sad to say, but these dolls are now available in such large quantities they have little to no value today."
For decades, doll manufacturers used some very specific glyphs and symbols as 'signatures' that kind of look like Satanic amulet markings to identify their creations. These marks usually appear on the back of the dolls head, on the back, under arms, bottoms of the feet, but could really be anywhere.
Some links that identify these marks are here:
Also learn to distinguish what materials your dolls are made out of. Dolls can be made out of bisque, celluloid, china, hard plastic, cloth, composition, wax, metal, or wood. Knowing the materials can give a hint as to the doll's ages. For instance, bisque was mainly used in the 1800's, and if you have a celluloid doll you know it cannot be older than 1940, which is when the material was outlawed.
"with the name, maker or type of doll, use the below link to; Ebay Advanced Search - Find Items - Doll Sold Listings. Fill in the details on the form on the page link, check the Completed Auctions Only box and you will see recently
sold doll prices which are shown in green and that's as current a doll value, as you can get.
First of all there is the issue of actual intrinsic value to consider. Under these circumstances, most certainly any doll manufactured from the 70s and older that happens to be in impeccable condition should have some intrinsic value.
The second issue, however, is what the marketplace will bear. Who is buying these dolls? How much are they willing to pay for them? If something theoretically is worth $1000 but nobody wants to buy it, is it really worth that? These are some of the contradictions of capitalism that have been around since the days of the tulip frenzy of the 1600s and that continue on through today with the overvalued and essentially worthless tech startups of Silicon Valley. Anybody remember the Beanie Baby craze of the 90s? Or the yearly bloodletting at Black Friday as folks mow each other down to get the newest Hatchling or whatever other commodified abomination is trending that Christmas season? Well, next time any of these 'phenoms' involves porcelain dolls, (and the commodity fetish marketplace is so fickle that, really, you never know) then all of you, dear friends, wanting to extract monetary value from your pretty dolls will be laughing all the way to the bank.
Source: Dollreference.com
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I have three plastic dolls with flat shoes. One comes off but the other are part of the doll. Their eyes close and open.
Their arms move but not their legs. One can move her head. They are in old fashioned clothes.
How tall are they?
You said the eyes open and close? Can you show them laying down with the eyes closed? Most sleepy dolls the lashes go down, but these look painted--can you confirm?
Are the dolls plastic or celluloid? Plastic is harder, celluloid is brittle.
Can you tell if the hair is real (or mohair) or is it synthetic?
Do any of them have AE on the back--whichis Allied Eastern?
There are a lot of possibilities of who they are depending on the answers.
They look a lot like what are called Grocery Store dolls, but those are usually 18 inches and up. These look smaller, which may mean they are carnival dolls.
Value will depend on who they are.
Can you tell if the clothes are handmade? They look handmade--the lace on the one that is read looks like 60s lace, as does the funky fabric.
Hoping I can give you more info with more details! Thanks for sharing!! They are fun!!
I found this antique doll in the trash. I have been searching for weeks trying to identify it but to no avail. It is a 16-inch, bisque head/arms and legs, a cloth body, painted hair, and obviously the clothes.
There are no markings, except inside the head and one of the legs is an "etched" letter 'B'. There are no tags on the clothing. Can anyone please help me find what this is?
Thanks for the additional photos and the photo of the scale. The scale is very cool! They sell in the 20-30 range online! That was an especially nice find.
I doubt the doll and the scale are related by year.
I believe the doll is a kit doll also. Which one is a challenge because many of them had no markings or were marked like yours with a single letter.
The snaps on the clothing do appear to be older than the doll--maybe 1960s snaps so perhaps the owner used a real child outfit on the kit doll made at a later time--maybe for that child's child in the 1980s or 1990s.
Kit dolls like these gained huge popularity from the 1970 through the 1990s and even in to the early 2000s. I would place yours 1980s ish.
Why I believe it to be a "newer" kit doll is for a number of reasons... the head/neck is very cleanly crafted--a true antique doll head is (usually) very roughly made and the neck has wear. Also many of the very old dolls had rooted hair (usually real or mohair).
The body also looks very new (and clean), machine made.
The stuffing is also newer. Old dolls were often stuffed with a sawdust mixture or straw or rags.
I belong to a number of Facebook groups where there are gals and guys who have specialties and someone may be able to pinpoint the maker or give you more info. You cannot ask value there, but I can help with value if they can give you more specifics. I can give you lots of general info.
The group is called Porcelain doll collector's + accessories buy and sell. You have to ask to join and then you can upload all of your photos and ask if anyone can confirm the maker.
Looking forward to learning more. Post back what you learn and thanks again for the additional photos. Good luck with the scale also!
This was my mother's doll when she was 5, in 1941. I'm trying to find out if it's actually worth anything? It's in pretty bad shape and I cannot distinguish any markings to identify it. The head, legs, and arms are a ceramic type material the body is soft. The eyes are sleepy eyes with actual lashes. Any help would be useful. 
Wow, that's vintage! After searching and finding similar 1940's dolls, I am surprise to learn that the age does not give good value to such vintage construction. These dolls are priced like so many online for $10 to $40. It may be that it will only truly be valuable when it is 100 years of age. Here is some info on 1940's dolls - www.etsy.com/
Can you tell me how long she is? Also can you show the body?
She resembbles a very valuable 1940s Arranbee Dream Baby, but I believe the dream baby is only 12 inches and this one apepars to be bigger.
I think the head is composition, not ceramic. Composition is like glue and sawdust mixed and it gets that weird discoloration that I see on yours.
The doll can be restored by a professional and many people do this kind of work and will pay a lot for the doll to fix or use for parts.
Maybe with more info I can confirm who she is and if these are her original clothes, which I doubt because they look to new...but you never know.
I would like to know more about the clothes also--if they are handmade (hand stitched) or machine and how the seams are finished.
Hopefully with more info, I can get you better values and details! Thanks for sharing!
To tell you the truth about this doll it would be best to try and talk with an auction house and speak with an expert there. They know a lot about these types of dolls and if they hold any type of value or not. It is really hard to tell you how much this doll is worth because a lot of people just sell them off for a small amount to get rid of them then, on the other hand, there are collectors that will pay a large amount for this doll. I think in your case talking with an auction house and speaking with an expert is your best option to finding out how much this doll is really worth.
I've had this doll for a while and I know nothing about it. There are no marking except for a tag the says PA-3915 (TH), Made in China.
When my granddaughter was very small she received a lot of these types of dolls to play with. The doll you have is a no-name doll that was designed for small children to play with and give a name to the doll. They are not a big seller and normally you could pick one of these dolls up in the market for around $10 or so during the holidays or other times of the year. If you are interested in selling this doll you may get around $1 for the doll because it was mass-produced in China as a child's toy to play with. The reason I am saying this is because of the hair on the doll and the way it sits. A lot of these types of dolls were bought to sit on a child's bed in their room and the child could also play with the doll.
