Getting American Girl Dolls at a Great Price

My daughter became obsessed with American Girl in 2012, after seeing a conveniently placed advertisement in a Girl Scout events catalog.  We made a special (and long!) trip to an American Girl store for her birthday and she selected Caroline. Caroline was full price at $105 at the time, and as of right now they are $115 each, with Isabelle last year going up to $120!

Now, some girls love Barbie dolls, my girl loves American Girl.  As of the American Girl sale this morning, we have 15 of the full sized dolls, 3 mini-dolls, and 2 Biddy Babies in the house.  So, as you can imagine, I’ve developed a bit of a talent for finding the dolls at prices I can live with.  If you’re interested in my tips too, please keep reading!

1)  The most important thing you can do is be knowledgeable about the product.  The best way to do that is to browse through the American Girl website, and through fan pages or unboxing videos on YouTube to get a sense of all the different face molds, accessories, outfits, etc.  That is the only way to be certain that you don’t buy something from a stranger, then realize _____ part is missing. This does not just apply to used items either, because I’ve had small accessory pieces missing or broken when buying new from American Girl too (their customer service always replaced it, they are usually very good!).

Tons of moms are just now discovering American Girl with their daughters, and I keep seeing it happen over and over again where moms are getting scammed online or buying the wrong dolls off of eBay because they aren’t fully up to speed.  For example, I just saw a mother get very irate this morning because she thought she bought a Jess, but it was a Marisol doll in a Jess skirt.  She was claiming to have been scammed by the eBay seller, but pictures were provided and the person selling the doll may have had no clue what she had and took a guess.  Jess is Asian-American, Marisol is Hispanic-American, and the dolls look completely different, so any buyer who knew the product they were after would have caught that difference immediately.  So, if you are new to the scene, remember that there is ALWAYS another doll and ALWAYS another sale!  It might not be exactly what you want each time, but it’s best not to rush into anything for the sake of a “deal.”

2)  Set up a profile on AmericanGirl.com, even if you are not ready to order!  Make your account, have your computer save the login information, put in your shipping/billing address, and PUT A CREDIT CARD ON FILE!  I know lots of people hate having their cards on file, but trust me that it is valuable to do so.  When you check out, you will still have to input the security code from that card, so your kids or a hacker can’t place an order in your name anyways.

Why should you do this?  Because every few months (2-4 times a year) American Girl is featured on Jill’s Steals and Deals on the Today Show.  This morning they had the old style Kit, Caroline, Kaya, Rebecca, and Julie on sale – doll and an outfit – for $55 plus shipping/tax.  The deals sold out, as usual, within 15 minutes of going live.

Now, a big problem with these sales are that the stock is very, very limited (I personally disagree with them broadcasting it to millions of viewers to only have a small number of dolls for sale), and the American Girl shopping cart sucks!  It really does, and after years of customer complaints, they have not fixed their system.  Simply put, you can have an item in your cart, but that item can sell out while you are in the process of checking out – meaning it’s gone before you can submit and lock in your order.  The American Girl policy at that point is too-bad-so-sad, you missed out!  So, while having an account already set up may only save you a minute or two of typing, that is often the time difference between getting the sale doll and not getting it.  Most accessories and clothes, however, remain in stock for hours, so I do recommend adding a sale doll to your cart and checking out as fast as possible!  Do not add a sale doll to your cart then decide to shop for other items, or your doll will be gone!

3)  Restocks happen, but they aren’t guaranteed.  Sometimes American Girl dolls will show up on Zulily, sell out, then become available again.  With the Jill’s Steals and Deals offers there has consistently been an East Coast and West Coast inventory.  Meaning, if the offer is initially televised at 8am EST, and it sells out at 8:13am EST, get back to the website around 10:45am EST and keep refreshing the page through about noon. The majority of dolls do get restocked in that time frame. This happened after the first Today Show fiasco, where the dolls all sold out within minutes during the first run of the show, and the West Coast audience was completely teased with no hope of finding a doll.  American Girl has been fairly good about offering a second-run restock to help alleviate that complaint, but they still have very limited stock to offer.

If at any time the doll will add to your shopping cart, check out quickly!

Now, not every doll on sale will restock, because the Kit pictured above did not at all, but pay attention for clues on a restock possibility.  Usually, if there is a Jill sale, there are other accessories on sale too as part of the offer (beds, clothing, pets, books, etc), which means there is an entire page of Steals and Deals on the American Girl website.  If a doll will not add to your cart, but it is still visible on that main sale page, it is highly probable that a restock will occur for the West Coast audience.

Also remember, if the offer says one offer per customer, don’t try to be sly and order extras, or to check out 2 different times with the same item.  Customer service usually catches on that people at the same address are trying to get more dolls than they’re allowed, and they will cancel the repeat order.  I’ve also heard moms complain that their entire order was cancelled and they got none of the sale items.

4)  Set up eBay alerts, and be specific!  If you make an alert for “American Girl,” you will get pretty much harassed with notifications.  If you want an Addy doll, set up an alert that says “American Girl Addy doll.”  If you want a specific outfit, you can make an alert that says “American Girl Gymnastics Outfit,” or whatever you want.  But, remember, eBay is often full of resellers who scalp toys (ie, they buy all the $55 Kit’s they can get their hands on, using 100 different relative’s addresses, then they resell them for $80-$1,000 each).  So the more you are willing to wait and shop around, the better your odds of finding a reasonably priced doll being offered by someone who isn’t scalping, but just trying to clean house.

5)  Craigstlist, Facebook, and other community resell pages are your friend!  Most people flock to eBay and they forget to check their local ads!  I actually found a Craigslist posting for 3 American Girl dolls that were in a second hand baby store.  I would have never known, or even attempted to look in that store, if I had not seen their posting online.  Unfortunately, the manager had a good sense of what the dolls were worth and priced them at $100 each, which wasn’t a super deal, but I did end up getting Kailey, the 2003 Girl of the Year (or Girl of Today, as it used to be).

6)  It doesn’t hurt to make some phone calls!  If you have any stores near you that accept donations for reselling purposes, chances are you have missed some great American Girl finds.  I constantly get American Girl books out of these kinds of places, and I pay about $0.25-1.00 for them, compared to the $7 retail price.  Every blue moon you’ll also come across a doll that way too.  Making calls might give you a heads up if anything is available – although don’t solely rely on calls, because the employees may not know what American Girl products look like compared to the Walmart dolls or anything else.  You can also talk to a manager and ask to be called if any dolls or a large amount of outfits come in.  Now, most Goodwill’s and larger second hand stores won’t do this because they have no system to handle it, but it’s worth trying with the smaller mom-and-pop stores that may be able to offer a more personable service to their clientele.

7)  Do not shop during Xmas and plan waaaaaay ahead for birthdays!  Not giving yourself a long time to shop around is the quickest death sentence to a good deal, and I have to admit that I flat out hate all the moms who come online and start whining “I need this very specific doll for $30 by the end of the week or else my daughter’s entire life is ruined and I’m a failure as a mother!”  Well, you’re certainly a failure as a planner!  I will buy things 12-18 months in advance and never think twice about stashing it in the attic or closet.  You should buy when you see an excellent deal on a new doll, or you find a bargain bin doll that is under $50.  Loads of people are willing to sell new and used dolls for $70-1,000, but that doesn’t mean the doll is worth that much.

Case in point, I got a Julie in today’s sale for $55.  Several times I had thought about buying her used around the $80 range – with no clothes!  Boy am I glad I didn’t!  Similarly, my parents bought Isabelle during my daughter’s dance recital.  They paid $120 in June and on December 10th there was a Jill’s Steals and Deals offer for Isabelle, her accessories, and her kitten plushie for $65 (around $160 full retail)!  There is always a deal coming, so don’t be quick to throw your money at a doll, especially one that is not part of a limited edition.  Yes, Girls of the Year are limited in terms of how long they are available, but they are not numbered in terms of 1 of 10,000 – there is no released information on the edition size, so millions of them could have been manufactured.

8)  Did anything just change?  While you keep current on what American Girl has to offer, take note of any big changes.  Is it rumored that a doll is going to be archived soon?  If so, American Girl may be having a mega-sale on their stock pile of that doll soon.

Today’s Jill’s Steals and Deals offer only existed for Caroline, Kit, Kaya, Rebecca, and Julie because BeForever was recently introduced into the line.  BeForever has offered reprinted books and new outfits for the dolls, meaning that the older styles on sale for $55 today were all over stock dolls that could not be sold on the website any longer.  Prior to this blow out deal, many of the older books were priced at $3 on the American Girl website (which, I prefer the old books due to the pictures!).  So remember, like every other business, American Girl makes too much too!

9)  Don’t get overly invested in one doll.  If you decided that your child can’t live without Kanani, be prepared to pay around $300 for her, as she was one of their most popular dolls and is no longer in production.  In fact, I highly recommend to stay away from most of the Girl of the Year dolls – don’t even show the older ones to your kids!  They are only available for one year, and once January 1st hits, you can never buy that doll in stores again – which makes the price of the used ones sky rocket.  If you happen to find one for a good price, by all means grab it, but don’t subject yourself to getting your child invested in owning them.

At best, have your kids make a priority list of dolls.  For example, let them look at the website and write down that their first pick would be Kit, their second pick would be Grave, their third pick Kaya, and on and on.  That way, you get a nice spectrum to search for.

If you want to hunt for sale dolls, you have to be ready and willing to take whatever becomes available.  Do not fixate on finding that one specific doll.  The more flexible you are, the easier your quest will be.

10)  Can you fix the doll?  A doll with a lot of marks, nail polish, cut hair, bad eyes, or a number of other issues may cross your path for a very low price.  Did you realize that you can rewig a doll, tighten the strings, remove many marks with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, and even send the doll to the hospital to get new arms, legs, or a head?  If the price is low enough, there are worthwhile and cost effect ways to fix the doll and put her in very good condition again!

11)  We had a great comment suggesting networking, which is a fabulous idea too!  Anyone with older daughters may have American Girl dolls just sitting around.  It doesn’t hurt to ask around and let people be aware that you are looking!  You never know what you’ll find before you ask.

But, having many, many over-zealous aunts myself, please keep in mind that these dolls were always very expensive, and an owner may want to save their doll as a keepsake, or for their own children someday, so do not get overly attached to the idea of getting an older doll from a friend or relative.  If someone does not seem interested or ready to sell, do not push them or get angry with them.  Also don’t expect to get dolls for free, and do not even suggest it!  While American Girl is a doll powerhouse right now, they weren’t always that way, and the older dolls and retired outfits are, and will always be, worth a lot more than the items released after Matel purchased American Girl (they mass produce to an extreme, meaning there are more items, less rarity, and less collectible value overall in new dolls/items).

Plus, I have to admit, I was one of the older cousins in my family, and, growing up, if the younger ones wanted something that I had been told I had “outgrown,” I was expected to hand it over, or else a family fight would break out over how I was being spoiled and selfish.  It’s really a no-fun situation to be put in, and I still have resentment over the issue (more over feeling taken advantage of and bullied than over the actual items lost).  So, with that in mind, be respectful of others at all times!  Don’t pounce, pry, or demand anything from American Girl doll owners, don’t give them your sob stories or talk about your financial issues to guilt them, because, after all, this is 100% a luxury item that your daughter does not have to own to survive.  At the end of the day, if you cannot afford a $120 doll, then maybe your child doesn’t need one.

Those are my basic tips.  I hope you all have a happy hunting experience, and please feel free to comment any of your awesome finds!

I Think We’ll Pass on the 2015 American Girl of the Year

I have to say, my daughter is a very avid fan of American Girl, and for a number of years we have always gone after the latest Girl of the Year.  However, in the most recent years, I am noticing a pattern of lazy doll design, and I think I am frustrated enough to skip the 2015 Girl of the Year (GOTY), Grace Thomas.

Call me crazy, but, aside from slapping a new backstory onto the doll, it is essentially the same doll that American Girl has sold us a dozen times.  I know, I know, Barbie and Monster High do the same basic thing, but, most 12″ fashion dolls tend to cap out around $25, whereas American Girl was charging $120 for the 2014 Girl of the Year, Isabelle (I believe Grace here went down to $115 – the first doll price drop in years).  Basically, Grace is just the 2012 GOTY, McKenna, with darker hair and bangs – or, if you prefer, the 2009 GOTY, Chrissa, with longer hair and bangs.

Lets look at the chart of all the previous Girl of the Year dolls, so you can share in my disappointment with me (image swiped from livingadollslife.blogspot.com ):

The 2001, 2003, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2013, and 2014 Girl of the Year (Lindsey, Kailey, Nikki, Mia, Lanie, Saige, and Isabelle) have had the Classic face mold, which is the most widely used face mold in the American Girl line up.  After that, the next most popular mold is the Josephina mold, which was used for the 2005, 2009, 2012, and 2014 Girl of the Year (Marisol, Chrissa, and McKenna).  The remaining two dolls, 2006 and 2011 (Jess and Kanani), use the Jess face mold, which was first introduced and used on the 2006 Girl of the Year doll, Jess.  Call me crazy, but I’m ready to see something very different from American Girl.  Even a brown haired doll with brown eyes would at least be something a little different at this point.

I’d also like to point out the the 2013 GOTY, Saige, and the 2007 GOTY, Nikki, are pretty identical.  Redish-brownish hair, freckles, both Western in theme and crazy about horses.  Don’t let the photo fool you, Nikki dolls came with a braid just like Saige’s.  There was very little that you could call different between these dolls and their general backgrounds.  I’m not sure if this is because Nikki sold well or because the design team didn’t bother to look at previous stories, but it was not their finest moment and they seem to be repeating that same kind of rehashing with Grace’s appearance.

Next, I feel disappointed in Grace Thomas’s story.  Some of the GOTY tales are hit or miss, and too many of them focus on girly girl activities like horses, dancing, gymnastics, ice skating, etc. Things that you expect to see a young girl take part in.  Other girls have had more interesting interests though:  Kailey was a surfer girl, Jess was an explorer, Chrissa was a swimmer with a very bad bullying problem.  These were are all stories that I was excited to show my daughter.  Tough girls doing things that a lot of girls wouldn’t consider trying because it’s not a girly thing to do.

Grace, though, takes the cake in gender stereotypes – literally!  She’s a girl that loves to cook.  WOW!  That’s so original!  Why don’t we drown her in pink and give her a baby and a kitchen to clean so that she can continue being a figure that does not encourage girls to break the mold…  Grace also runs her own business, as much as a child can at least, but that is not a redeeming quality for the story.  I know there are millions of women who do love to cook, but why can’t Grace have a brother who loves to cook and she runs the business end of things?  Or why can’t she make skateboards or be a karate champion or an aspiring engineer who builds cool gadgets?  Why does it have to be a girl obsessed with France and cooking, like a 1950s stereotype?  I want my daughter to think outside of the kitchen!  Girls will never do that without having plenty of role models, and I would like my girl to say “hey, Grace is doing ‘boy’ things and maybe I want to try that too!”

I’d also like to see a an economically disadvantaged Girl of the Year.  Most of the girls have been upper middle class kids whose parents have the means to spend hundreds a month to indulge their children’s interests.  In fact, most of the GOTY dolls have a story that defines the girl based on a very expensive, luxury activity.  But what about the huge portion of girls who cannot afford such things on a regular basis?  What do they do?  How do they define themselves without a key activity like horseback riding or being on a costly team?  Maybe it’s time to see a backstory that teaches the highly privileged girls of the world that they are very fortunate, and not everyone has the opportunities that they do (because, lets face it, any little girl who owns at least one doll that cost over $100 is a very fortunate child, indeed).  And I want to see that life through the Girl of the Year’s eyes, not as a side story for their buddy or someone else they’re trying to help in an almost piteous way.  What does it feel like to have to accept hand-me-downs from a friend or to shop at a thrift store?  We may see a GOTY donate or fundraise to do good, or even befriend the poor kid to show how nice they are, but being on the receiving end of charity is a whole other ballgame that I would like to see explored.  Hmm, that might actually be an award winning book right there.

American Girl, I love you in general, but I’m afraid I have to give Grace Thomas a big thumbs down for design and background story.  I hope in 2016 the company will bring us something different and give collectors and kids a doll that they can really admire.  For me, Grace is not it in the least…

Are American Girl Dolls “Worth It?”

My daughter just brought home her 3rd American Girl doll today. She now owns Caroline (bought with her birthday money in November), McKenna (lucky raffle ticket winners), and Saige (doll bought with Xmas money from grandparents – all other outfits courtesy of daddy being a push over). These dolls were $105 each, with Saige ringing in 2013 with a universal price increase of $5 per doll. A lot of people are not shy to freak out and cackle, “how can you buy these things?” (or let her “waste” her money on them).

Yes, yes, I fully understand that these are just toys, and they may well sit in a closet someday, never seeing the light of day. My mom certainly doesn’t seem to understand the value of American Girl versus the Target, Walmart, or Toys R’ Us brand of 18″ dolls (and in some areas/items, I agree as well) but here are some reasons why I like the American Girl line:

1) It has a history. Literally! The Historic dolls (ie, the ones with 6+ books in their series, who lived in a specific time frame) open up the past and let children experience history through stories that still feel relevant and relatable to them. The company is also roughly as old as I am, and gaining significant new ground with their stores, so I see no reason to assume the American Girl line will go under any time soon (R.I.P. Magic Attic Club…).

I can remember going to Sam’s Club in the mid-1990s and seeing Felicity, Addy, Samantha, and Kirsten books (Molly apparently existed back then too, but I never recall seeing her). While these were never dolls I owned as a child, reading the books from the library is still a memory that I have and can transfer forward to my daughter.  Except, this time around, my daughter owns a few of the book sets herself.  My local library still has American Girl on the shelves, but rarely a “Meet” book that is the first in the series.  So, when my daughter wanted Caroline, I paid to upgrade to the set with her complete book series as well.

2) There is an amazing online community fro American Girl on YouTube. This happens a lot and for a lot of different topics, but I have seen my five-year-old click away on YouTube watching fan made video after video, and now she’s motivated to make her own. They don’t always make sense, and they aren’t the most polished creations, but they’re hers, and they’re getting her creativity flowing. And, as a vlogger, I know the generalized world of haters and trolls, but I have rarely seen this happen within the American Girl community. They are mostly young girls (some adult women as well) who enjoy their dolls and support each other, and that makes my daughter smile when I read her a comment someone left on her video.  Yes, there could have been something else that my daughter connected with via YouTube, but the bottom line is that she did not (she also loves My Little Pony, but the brony community online has a lot of adults who make videos with vulgarity or other themes that are at a college or higher age level).  She makes American Girl fan videos because she enjoys watching them herself.

3) I get to have that time to sit down and read the stories with her. Aside from the Girl Scout Journey books, we don’t have many titles that take more than one sitting to read. The stories are for older girls, but it also helps develop my five year old’s cognitive, logic, and reasoning skills as she has to pay attention and retain the stories from one night to the next. We also break frequently to discuss what happened, why she thinks it happened, and what she thinks will go on next.  I did this with my son and he reads at a fifth grade level as a second grader now.

4) McKenna saved my sanity. Alright, let me paint this picture: five-year-old terrorist in gymnastics class, won’t listen, won’t cooperate, they’re ready to throw her out. We started reading McKenna’s books, watched her movie, and a flip seemed to switch in her head. She went from “I can never do that so why even bother,” to “McKenna struggled and got better and so can I!” (well, not in so many words, but it’s there in her attitude!). So far, so good, and she always talks about McKenna – sometimes spacing out and calling her “the gymnastics girl” – when she does well in class.  For those of you who say a doll, book, and movie cannot do this, I can only respond with: you’d be surprised.  The week my daughter saw McKenna’s movie, she got her first ribbon for being the best student in a class of fifteen girls and had no complaints about her behavior for the first time in her four months of lessons.  Will an American Girl offer the same types of change in your own daughter?  That I cannot say for certain, but I am impressed.

5) The My American Girl dolls (the ones with no official story lines, but many options to “twin” out your daughter) have some really sweet options to them. Whereas, once, you could only get ears pierced on your doll, now you can have hearing aids installed. They even have a newer option to make your doll bald so that even those little girls fighting cancer can have a twin. I can’t say the photos I see posted online of little girls with hearing aids or no hair holding their matching dolls don’t make me cry.

6) The value seems to retain well, even for dolls in less than pristine condition. This can always change in the future (*cough* Beanie Babies *cough*), and American Girl is very “hot” right now, but I’ve consistently noticed that used dolls and new dolls hold a very similar price, even after years of play time.  There are also lots of stories about moms giving daughters their old dolls, so obviously, the dolls are not designed to fall apart in an hour, like many other toys seem to be these days.

7) Maybe this should be #1, but the quality and attention to detail for the dolls are very impressive. When my mom talks about just buying the Walmart off brand clothes, I cringe a little. Yes, I certainly see that a $35 outfit for a doll is more than I’ve spent on myself in clothes in the past two years, but, if I could find a dress from 1812 that had that much quality and attention to detail for $100, I would probably covet it as well for myself. The difference being that I can afford the doll fashion more. And whereas an off brand would have flat, shinny, dull, or generally cheap fabric and bad stitching, American Girl uses high quality material. Even their accessories, like hats and pianos and pets, have amazing attention to detail. Compare Kit’s Preserves kit to an off brand doll food set at Toys R Us – it doesn’t compare at all! Now, having said this, I am a fan of the Target version of the bathtub, wooden dresser, kitchen, and horses, and they are significantly cheaper when you can find the items in the store. But as far as outfits and the actual dolls, I don’t see any competition for American Girl’s production in the near future.

My only major negatives with American Girl is that the items are costly and large, with lots of things always coming out and retiring. I wanted to get my daughter a cupcake set and was somewhat horrified to find out that I could only get the cupcakes if I bought the $85 table (that I had nowhere to store). I also thought that Saige’s Hot Air Balloon was interesting, until I saw it was roughly 50″ tall! There are also no real dollhouses for 18-inch-ers, so storage can become tricky if you enjoy owning the furniture.

Another complaint that I see constantly, but do not have myself, is that the dolls are not made in America.  People, stay with me here, but what in the world is made in the US anymore?  First, a US factory might say “made in America” on the tag, but who would the workers be?  Illegal immigrants are the most likely candidate, and I for one would rather support an entire community in China than pay illegals to make our country a little bit worse.  I couldn’t imagine how much the dolls would cost if you paid an American factory with US citizens to produce the toys.  In the beginning, the dolls were made in West Germany, so no jobs have been lost for Americans.  Matel bought the company years ago and moved production to China.  In China, an average factory worker makes roughly $50 US Dollars a YEAR.  Tell me a person in American that would accept that same salary.  Not even illegal immigrant workers would take that little.  In the US, we want $2-4,000 a month in salary, plus health care and other benefits.  Our economy has priced our own people out of the market, so seeing a doll called American Girl does not mean she was made in America.  She was designed in America, written about in America, goes to the doll hospital in America, and has employed at least several hundred US citizens to work for her in stores and customer services.  What else do you want?  Go see how many people are complaining about the dolls price going from $105 in 2012 to $110 in 2013 and tell me, realistically, that American Girl could survive paying all US salaries.

But, in short, if you don’t think the dolls are worth it, don’t buy them. It’s up to you to decide how many, if any, your child gets, and most of the dolls (aside from the Girl of the Year that retires once she sells out) are always available, making them a motivational tool that parents can use to prompt their children to experience budgeting and saving techniques. That way, you turn a potential, bank-breaking negative into a positive learning experience, and you might get someone else to sweep and vacuum to boot.

American Girling

So, I’m still being very lazy about getting my blog back together (Girl Scouts seems to have me running around like crazy), so here is a long overdue post from my vlog.

I’m quickly learning about American Girl dolls these days, so expect some posts about them to come up in the future.  My daughter got into Caroline, and I recently got wind of the Today Show deal and got ahold of Cecile and Marie-Grace for an amazing price.  I made a little show off video below: