Collector warns about the risk of buying fake dolls

The box office hit 'Barbie' has sparked interest in the vintage dolls and an avid collector is warning new fanfare of the risk of buying fake dolls.

Transcript

00:00 One of the biggest surprises from the movie, the most recent movie that has put Barbie

00:07 into the spotlight, is that Alan has become a superstar. So with Alan, in the movie he's

00:14 a very endearing, very humorous character. Previously, he was a doll that was very much

00:21 overlooked. People kind of glanced sidewards and said, "Oh, he's more of Ken's friend,

00:27 they might have a bit of a relationship there." Very naughty connotations. But really, with

00:34 Alan, now he's the doll that everybody wants in their collection.

00:39 The Barbie movie has really had a very interesting effect on doll collecting. It's brought more

00:45 awareness to Barbie and the story of Barbie and the characters within the Barbie movie.

00:50 What's happening now is that the old original Barbie dolls are being put more into the spotlight.

00:55 There's always been collectors, but recently I saw that one Barbie number one has gone

01:01 for in excess of $40,000 American dollars. There's scamming more often now due to the

01:09 Barbie movie and the incredible popularity of Barbie and Barbie's family. It's really

01:14 important that you know what you're buying, and particularly be careful if you're buying

01:18 online and you can't touch and hold and feel the doll.

01:22 With collectability of dolls, what we're looking for is original clothes. You can see by the

01:28 graphics on the box that that is his original outfit there. So this Ken doll is about as

01:34 mint as a Ken doll can be.

01:37 When I first collected dolls, I thought I was a bit strange. Then you go to a doll club

01:47 and you realise there's a lot of strange people. Then you go online and you realise that there's

01:51 hundreds and hundreds of doll clubs that are all involved in different types of dolls.

01:56 You're really making worldwide friendships out of dolls.

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