Lee Ann Koon, a collector for 15 years, believes the ‘best’ Barbies came from the 1960s. ‘The years 1965 and 1966 were the cream of the crop,’ she said, with a couture look and very fashionable clothing.
A self-described tomboy, she rarely played with the Barbie dolls she owned as a child - and didn’t even notice when her mother threw them away during a spate of spring cleaning.
“It was three or four years before I noticed they were missing,” she said, laughing.
Then, about 15 years ago, Koon came across a vintage Barbie at a yard sale and bought it for a dollar. It was in good condition, still had its original box and tag. After a little research and sprucing it up, she sold the toy for $400.
Realizing she might be onto something, Koon bought and sold a second older Barbie, but almost immediately regretted it. The 11.5-inch doll she didn’t care for as a little girl had begun to fascinate her as an adult.
“The vintage character of the dolls appeals to me,” she said. “And I like the clothes more than I like the dolls.”
Soon, Koon was buying other things at garage sales for resale and using her proceeds to buy Barbies, outfits and accessories.
“But only the old ones,” she said. “I don’t buy anything later than 1970. The quality of the older dolls and clothes is so much better than what is made today.”
The heyday years, she says, were 1964 to 1967.
Her collection includes about 40 Barbie dolls of varied years and styles, plus assorted friends and relatives - Ken, Skipper, Christie, Midge and more.
She also has hundreds of vintage outfits and accessories from the era when Mattel hired a real fashion designer to come up with Barbie’s garb and included tiny catalogs with wardrobe descriptions in each box. Koon has a good-sized assortment of the catalogs, too, some marked in childish hand by little girls of long ago who checked off outfits as they acquired them.
With care, she shows off cardigans with real buttonholes, a popular evening gown with layered blue and green net skirt, a fully lined spring coat and, yes, the black and white striped one-piece swimsuit that the first $3 Barbie made fa-mous.
Koon also has tackle boxes full of tiny shoes - hundreds of them, almost all high-heeled, including early closed-toe models, some embellished with “real” pearl trim and other ornamentation not found today. An array of sunglasses features tiny real hinges.
Mattel launched the Barbie doll at a toy show in 1959 and sold more than 300,000 the first year. Koon’s oldest doll is from that group, but a previous owner played “beautician” and trimmed its hair, cutting its value.
Herself the mother of four girls - Aubrey, 20; Lindsey, 19; Jesse; 12, and Avery, 6 - Koon smiles as she says, “Most of my Barbies have flaws. They’ve been played with.”
But not by her daughters. Each had her own Barbie and paraphernalia, though only Avery is a true fan. The girls know that mom’s Barbies aren’t toys.
Asked if she ever bothers them, Avery replied solemnly: “No, they might break.”
Koon is a low-key collector, acquiring about one “good Barbie” a year, enjoying the fun of the hunt but not obsessed by it. Many of her purchases have come from estate sales, where someone’s whole collection will be sold intact.
“That’s always fun, seeing someone’s collection,” she said.
Her husband, Jack Koon, occasionally suggests she might sell a few - the two older girls are in college, after all. But the collector isn’t quite ready to let go and with the economy down, she doesn’t think it’s a good time to sell.
Ebay has “changed everything” about doll collecting, opening up many more possibilities, but also lowering prices, she said.
She sees her collection as part pleasure, part investment.
“These dolls, the good ones, will hold their value,” she said.
Andrea Lovejoy can be reached at editor@ lagrangenews.com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 237.
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