Starting at the beginning....

Well I missed an entry yesterday, the 9 to 5 had kept me up to late for a few nights in a row so I crashed early. I had to get up early today to take care of loose ends at work, got those straightened out so I have my weekend free for other things I need to do around the house and for my other love antiques and collectibles.

This will be a short installment tonight but I want to set the stage for the next few entries.

When I first started in antiques I picked a item I liked: antique dolls (turns out a lot of the top dealers and collectors are men!). My older sister, mother and younger sister were collecting Madame Alexander at that time. Well, really it was my older sister first, our mother had bought her one doll at each birthday from the time she was little, so she had a few, then she started collecting when she had money of her own. This sparked my mother and younger sister to "help" my older sister locate dolls for her collection and at the same time started their own collections. I didn't particularly like the Alexanders as the faces all looked kind of the same and I saw them everywhere. Don't get me wrong, they are a good collectible doll, just not what I liked.

I leaned more toward the bisque dolls, I especially like the French Fashion dolls and the Googlies (think wide round eyes, and impish grins). The bisque dolls while not particularly rare as a category are also not common fare at flea markets and general line shows, but they can be found. They tend to be more expensive due this and their respective popularity.

These dolls (and all dolls) take a bit of learning before buying as there are many things to look for and factors to consider before laying out several hundred dollars minimun for a doll. Some of these go for thousands. Just recently a doll sold for $175,000.00! (more about that one later).

Over the next few entries I will cover what qualities to look for in a doll, and what tools you'll need when shopping for a doll. I bet you didn't know you'd need tools!

Till the next time, Good Night!