It is amazing how many great, rare dolls go unsold or sell for bottom-dollar prices (to more savvy collectors), simply because someone didn't bother to look them up.

If you are serious about selling Barbie dolls, you'll need "The Ultimate Barbie Doll Book" by Marcie Melillo, which has close-up photographs of every Barbie, Ken, Skipper and all their assorted friends up until 1995.

For Kelly and Happy Family dolls, there are two major resources you'll need, and those are the super websites, "LilFriends.net" and "KattisDolls.com". Each website has detailed photographs of most of the Kelly dolls Mattel has produced, and Li’l Friends has a master checklist of every doll ever made, including the Happy Family collection. For detailed information regarding Ken and Tommy dolls, the website "ManBehindTheDoll.com" is also an essential resource.

To correctly identify your doll, look for certain markers, such as eye color and makeup, hair style and clothing that looks like it may be the original clothing. Pay close attention to the shape of the eyes, the number of eyelashes, and both eye shadow and lip colors for spot on matches.

Now, let’s say you have a naked doll and her hairstyle has come undone. How could you EVER tell who she was originally?! It’s all about the hair, makeup and eyes, folks.

Below is a nude Kelly doll I bought and cleaned. To first identify a doll, pay attention to the hair. Because it is not real, but synthetic, it often retains some of its original shape. This girl’s hair was undone and wild, but it had a part down the middle and looked like it was once in pigtails. I brushed it and pulled it back up into what looked like its original style.

I perused every photo on my online resources and found all of the dolls that had similar hairstyles as my doll.

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

I noticed a couple of the blonde-hair dolls had one unique feature. These two dolls had one little bang that fell to the right across their foreheads. Sure enough, so did my Kelly!

Secondly, I noticed that one doll’s hair color and makeup (Pet Lovin' Puppy Twins Kelly) was a bit darker then the other doll’s. Finally, I had found her! A second, clearer photo of the same doll confirmed my suspicions. This is an important step: if you have trouble seeing the item you are looking at, go to eBay or Amazon and find a different picture of the same doll.

Identification Process for Above Photos:
(1) Summer Kayla: Wrong lip color, no bangs, hair too light and pulled to far down on sides; (2) Springtime Kelly: Wrong lip color, hair too long, hair too light, no bangs; (3) Soccer Kelly: Wrong lip color, hair pulled in pigtails too low; (4) Art Student Kelly: Wrong lip color, no bangs; (5) Pet Lovin’ Puppy Twins Kelly: Right lip color and right bangs!

Photos courtesy Katti’s Dolls, Li’l Friends and eBay sellers. Thank you!