Rinker on Collectibles

RINKER ON COLLECTIBLES — Column #1790

R.I.P. Collectible Barbie

My good friend Jane Sarasohn Kahn sent me a link to Tanya Dua’s article entitled “Inside Barbie’s comeback: How Mattel repositioned the 60-year-old as a woke role model and reversed its sales slump” that appeared in “Business Insider” on February 23, 2021. [Read the full article at: https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-barbies-brand-comeback-with-global-gross-billings-up-19-percent. It will cost $1.00 to do so.].

Each time Barbie’s career appears over, Mattel successfully resurrects her from the dead. Although these resurrections are usually short-lived, they are legendary. Barbie’s principal achievement now is her ability as an older woman (she is long past middle age) to reinvent herself. Remarkable. Truly remarkable.

For a non-poseable doll, Barbie has been repositioned so many times she probably suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. The good news is that each subsequent generation of Barbie users is largely unaware of Barbie’s historic past. They accept Barbie for what she represents at the moment with no concern for whom she once was and how she evolved. Ignorance is bliss.

[Author’s Aside: Mattel has proven especially adept at keeping Barbie in tune with the latest Buzz word crazes. Having given Mattel credit, “woke” is over the top. “Woke” is the in-word of the early 2020s. It first appeared in the 1940s as a term meaning being awake and not asleep and evolved into meaning being aware of the truth behind things that some do not want to know. It now symbolizes awareness of social issues such as injustice, inequality, and prejudice – just one of its many definitions. Woke has been appropriated by so many activist groups that it has become colorless and meaningless. The Woke bandwagon has gone off the track. When it is necessary to make a toy, or in this case a doll, socially relevant and politically correct in order to market it, something is not right—or so it seems to this old-fashioned guy.]

Rau points out that: “In the past five years, Mattel expanded the once-identical, primarily white dolls with waif-like wrists and high-heel poised feet to as many as 175 different skin tones, ethnicities, eye and hair colors, body types, and disabilities (including a doll with a prosthetic limb). What Mattel has done is drive the final nail into the Barbie collectible coffin. Barbie may live on, but the beginning of the end has arrived for her career as Queen of the Hill among collectible dolls.

This was not always the case. There was a time “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” when Mattel and the Barbie collecting community had a symbiotic relationship. Mattel understood the dollar potential of the collector market and produced product for it. Barbie signature dolls such as the Bob Mackie Collectible Barbies are an example. The Mackie collection proved the exception rather than the rule for Barbie adult collector market dolls that survived, albeit secondary market prices for some of the older examples often sell below their initial retail cost. Holiday Barbies are a complete bust on the secondary market. A May 2, 2021 WorthPoint.com search for “Bob Mackie Barbie” resulted in 105,280 listings, a compelling argument for the “sinking ship” phenomenon.

The love relationship between Barbie and collectors began to turn sour in the mid-1900s with the arrival of the Barbie Pink Box era. Collectors always relied on Mattel to provide accurate production numbers. These numbers were essential to hoarding and speculating. Secondary market sellers were able to corner the market on select dolls and sell them profitably on eBay and at Barbie shows. When Mattel broke faith with collectors and dealers and manufactured production runs that exceeded the “official” production number, the proverbial s—t hit the fan. The Pink Box revolt caught Mattel by surprise. Corporate America does not respond well to organized criticism.

A limited number of objects is critical to collecting. Limited can mean low thousands provided the manufacturer carefully controls the release and manipulates the collectibles market through variations and other clever marketing tools. Scarcity also is a factor, albeit this also can have a negative effect as Mattel eventually learned.

In the 1990s, many Barbie collectors tried to buy one or more of every new issue. The argument was a basic one – buy at or near list price now and profit from the increase in value. Collectors developed a short-term profit mentality due to the immediate rise in prices for an example that went out of production. This mentality was fueled by a continuing flow of Barbie prices guides for Barbie and her accessories and outfits that supported the inevitable linear climb in value myth. Where are these price guides today? They are almost non-existent. No one likes reading that their precious collectibles are worth less than they paid.

Barbie exclusives, models limited to sale by Big Box stores or other business entities, were a great sales promotion for Mattel but a nightmare for the “one example of everything” collector. All of a sudden collecting Barbie became time consuming and expensive. Collectors’ financial budgets were stretched to the point where many collectors reached an “it is not worth it” conclusion.

While Mattel’s decision to alter Barbie’s physical appearance to make her realistic as opposed to idealistic made marketing sense, it destroyed one of Barbie’s key collecting components. Mattel was not reacting to complaints from consumers but from the mothers of consumers who had problems with their figures not conforming to those of Barbie. Barbie was a toy. Toy proportions are notoriously not realistic. Kids never seemed to care. They loved playing with the toys no matter if their appearance was proportional or not. Now Barbie has smaller breasts and a thicker waist and thighs. For collectors, Barbie’s collectability now divides between Fantasy or Idealist Barbie and Realistic Barbie.

Mattel’s purchase of the American Character Doll provided internal competition for Barbie’s market dominance. Although never a threat at the collector level, the American Character Doll, at least temporarily, redirected some consumer purchases away from Barbie.

Finally, Mattel had serious problems with innovative modern artists creating Barbie adaptations. Admittedly, some exceeded the bounds of propriety. There are times when ignoring an issue rather than protesting it is a quicker way to remove it from the public’s attention. The media focus on these pseudo-Barbie creations lasted far longer than necessary.

Events occurred that were outside Mattel’s control. First, the first two generations that grew up with Barbie have become senior citizens. A person who was ten in 1964 is now 67. These individuals are done collecting their childhood memories. They may not be ready to sell, but they are not adding to them. Barbie is a generational collectible. Each generation focuses on the Barbie’s they had and not those which came before or after.

Second, prior to the end of the 20th century, Barbie was able to bury her competitors. All attempts to imitate and/or replace her as Queen of the Hill failed. The Bratz dolls were the first major challenge that Barbie was unable to squelch. Disney’s “Frozen Dolls” dislodged Barbie from her throne. Monster Hi dolls demonstrated her continued vulnerability.

Third, the 2008-2009 Great Recession impacted secondary market collectible values. There were few exceptions, Barbie was not one of them. The Covid-19 pandemic caused another downward turn.

Fourth, the new woke model based on correctness has created over 175 Barbie variants. Variants aid collecting as long as their number is small, less than 20. 175 is too many. When foreign issues are added to the mix, collecting Barbie is now equivalent to the problems involved in collecting coffee mugs, logoed hats, Pogs, T-shirts, and telephone credit cards. Too many, simply too many!

Many Barbie collectors will cry foul. I expect this. This column is a harbinger of things to come. Wait until 2061 to see which of us is correct. My guess is that Barbie will not last another 40 years.

Harry L. Rinker welcomes questions from readers about collectibles, those mass-produced items from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Selected letters will be answered in this column. Harry cannot provide personal answers. Photos and other material submitted cannot be returned. Send your questions to: Rinker on Collectibles, 5955 Mill Point Court SE, Kentwood, MI 49512. You also can e-mail your questions to harrylrinker@aol.com. Only e-mails containing a full name and mailing address will be considered.

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