In this compact guide, I will reveal various approaches to the hobby of doll collecting to show other novice collectors that the only challenges are time, timing and money.  I also will mention a few resources -- both printed and on-line -- that I found indispensable when researching, browsing and acquiring both antique and vintage dolls.  First, here is a bit of history to show how I was transported to the amazing land of dolls.

As a young girl, I viewed all of my dolls as playthings, including the elaborately costumed souvenir dolls that my maternal grandparents brought back from cruise vacations in the Caribbean. I cherished the beautiful, graceful hard-plastic doll adorned with gold-plated hoop earrings and a fruit-bearing headdress. I handled most of my dolls meticulously as if to assure myself that I would be able to keep them forever. That would not come to pass. My mother forced me to donate my near-mint-condition dolls to less fortunate relatives and tossed the ones that needed a few body stitches into a passing sanitation truck. Then in the summer of my 13th year, I had an epiphany. I would begin using my allowance to purchase teen dolls, beginning with my first Malibu Barbie, and then no one could ever take the dolls away again. During that trip to the shopping center, my first long-distance trip on my own, the seeds of doll collecting were sown.

I continue to associate doll acquisition with the independence and freedom that I experienced in that rite of passage at age 13. Doll collecting is an exciting hobby that can turn into an obsession. There is no age limit; the only limit is one's budget. Many longtime doll collectors and doll-lovers have transformed their hobby into lucrative careers, whether as doll dealers, doll appraisers or manufacturers of doll clothing and accessories. While doll collecting has never gone out of style, it currently is enjoying a renaissance of sorts. Thanks to such educational programs as PBS's "Antiques Roadshow" and BBC America's "Cash in the Attic," TV viewers worldwide are joining habitues of open-air markets, stoop sales, yard sales and estate auctions to find that authentic needle in the haystack among the bric-a-brac.

  It is no surprise, and a known fact, that the most valuable dolls often disappear into the hands of savvy collectors, who awaken earlier than the proverbial worm to arrive at flea markets and other second-market venues.

With a small amount of capital and a great deal of knowledge, you too can become a doll collector. I am not a professional doll collector but would like to share with you several skills that I have learned and continue to learn by staying attuned to trends in the doll industry.  Let's get started.

Antique or Vintage?

First, determine whether you would like to collect antique or vintage dolls, or both. In doll collecting parlance, the words antique and vintage are not synonymous. Antique refers to dolls that are at least a century old. Examples include 19th-century chinahead dolls and French Jumeau Bebes. Vintage describes dolls from post-WWI through the 1970s (though the range is arguable). For example, doll expert Jan Foulke considers the Chrissy doll, from the 1970s, to be modern, not vintage. Of course, as the years progress, the time periods of each category will change, and perhaps there will always be overlap in the "vintage" category.

Within both of the broad categories of "antique" and "vintage," you will need to narrow your interests so that you do not spread your investment too thin. Collecting antique dolls is extremely challenging for the novice collector, myself included. For example, I learned from a reputable doll surgeon and doll dealer in New York that it is far better to spend hundreds, even thousands, of dollars on a professionally appraised, rare bisque shoulderhead German Googly doll (an in-demand kind of antique doll) than to spend smaller amounts of dollars in great frequency on dolls of a similar age that were produced in large numbers. When you start out collecting antique dolls, you will find that age, manufacturer (and manufacturer's mark), rarity, condition, wig and clothing (whether they are original), setting of eyes, hairstyle molding, head mold numbers, and country of origin are keys to determining an antique's doll value.

For vintage dolls, some of the above criteria for antique dolls apply, but collectors put higher value on condition and the presence of the doll's original box or packaging, and that extends to the doll's accessories. After all, it may be harder to find a 19th-century Armand Marseilles doll with its original box. However, it is not impracticable to expect a vintage doll -- say, a Nancy Ann Storybook Doll -- to be complete, from outfit and wig to wrist tag and box. To illustrate further, collectors would be less lenient toward acquiring vintage dolls that have odors, pin pricks or moth-eaten clothing.

When I bid on my first vintage Ponytail Barbie (a transitional No. 3) on eBay, I asked the seller an exhausting amount of questions about the doll's condition. Although the seller provided photos in his eBay listing, I did not have the benefit of picking up the doll with my bare hands and using a magnifying glass to inspect every inch of the vintage Barbie. 

In contrast, at a live doll auction attendees have a chance to inspect dolls on which they intend to bid.

Before visiting your local doll dealer or doll surgeon, or e-mailing the many professional doll collectors and professional doll appraisers found on-line, ask yourself which antique dolls you find aesthetically pleasing. Ask yourself the same question with regard to vintage dolls. The following fabulous guide will help you unravel the mystery of doll identification and has many vivid photographs: Jan Foulke's Guide to Dolls: A Definitive Identification and Price Guide. Author Foulke is a world-renowned doll authority, and her doll I.D. and price guides -- including Blue Book Dolls and Values (latest is the 16th edition) -- are like bibles for amateur and experienced doll collectors alike. The precious images in the aforementioned guide are the work of Jan Foulke's husband, photographer Howard Foulke. At the rear of the book, you will find a bibliography chock-full of guides and encyclopedias that will steer you deeper into the amazing realm of doll collecting.

As if that were not enough, the index at the rear of Jan Foulke's Guide to Dolls: A Definitive Identification and Price Guide offers readers the choices of searching for a doll by its actual name, manufacturer's name, medium (i.e., type of material). And, there is one more hidden treasure in the book: a mold number index. I personally can attest to purchasing an antique doll at a price far lower than its value because I had referred to Foulke's mold number index as part of my additional research for the doll's authenticity.

Denise Van Patten, a doll collector and author, has a wealth of firsthand knowledge about toy fairs, estate sales, and on-line and live auctions. She often cites printed resources in her articles published on About.com.

Another tip for acquainting yourself with the world of dolls and doll collecting is to join the mailing list of doll auction houses. However, I must emphasize that you read books and articles about auctions in general so that you understand their history, services and fees. Theriault's, the pre-eminent doll auction house, features fine-quality antique dolls as well as antique-doll clothing and accessories in its auctions. For no cost, you can sign up on the Theriault's website for alerts about on-site doll auctions, and if you request to be added to the company's mailing list, you will receive delightful pamphlets and postcards announcing upcoming live auctions. As for the Theriault's catalogs, they are not free. All reputable auction houses have catalog subscriptions. After you have done your homework and have saved money for your new hobby, you will find these catalogs well-worth your investment.

In addition, check out Proxybid.com (which covers many kinds of auctions, including those containing antique and/or vintage dolls) to register, and soon you will be able to watch live doll auctions from your computer screen. Watching on-line auctions is completely free! However, if you want to bid, you will be given a virtual paddle and will be bound to a contract should you bid on a doll or dolls. I have watched in some auctions and bid in others, and each event has been a virtual thrill (pun intended). For those of us who do not have the disposable income, or schedule, to hop on an airplane to attend a live doll auction across the country or in another country, Internet bidding is such as fantastic medium. Unless the audio component is disabled, Internet bidders and watchers can hear the auctioneers' rapid-fire introductions to what may be your prized possessions if you have the fastest fingers like contestants on the syndicated TV show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" And here is another insider's tip on Internet bidding: You can sign up (on Proxybid.com) for e-mail alerts for those doll auctions that interest you.

For you adult collectors: Before you borrow money from your 401(k), 403(b) or rainy-day fund, look in your closet, attic, garage, even if that means you might need to return to your childhood home to rescue your treasures from an uncertain fate.

Whether none of your dolls have survived, or you have just inherited one doll or an array of them yet have not a clue as to their value, you need to begin your research today.

Read as much as you can about doll collecting (from books to on-line articles). Schedule an appointment with a reputable doll dealer or doll surgeon (or both) and bring a notepad, laptop or PDA so that you can take notes. Attend live doll auctions or watch them on-line, remembering that you need to register in advance for both and might need to book a hotel for a live doll auction depending on the location's distance from your residence.

Collecting dolls can turn into a healthy obsession, with each acquisition bringing you closer to a fountain of youth. All dolls are works of art, but the earliest collectible dolls also were created so that young girls could play with them. Then, as now, many dolls captured the society's fashions; that trend did not begin with the ubiquitous Barbie doll. Although a never-opened, mint-condition (NRFB, or "never removed from box") complete outfit for a No. 1 or No. 2 vintage Ponytail Barbie can be priced from several hundreds to several thousands of dollars, a trousseau of antique clothing accompanying a rare and therefore highly prized antique French doll would be realized at far more astronomical prices.

In the world of vintage dolls, expert collectors are not the only ones with radar for seeking and identifying vintage Ponytail Barbies and vintage Bubblecut Barbies. In time, you also will learn how to differentiate between the vintage and modern versions of any of these (and other) dolls. When you spot a Barbie doll in a bin at a flea market and see that the year 1966 is stamped on its backside, you will know to how to figure out whether the doll was manufactured in, say, 1993.

A love of and appreciation for dolls -- whether antique, vintage or modern -- will carry you, the novice collector, on an unending adventure through world history, politics and fashions, not to mention Doll Anatomy 101. Doll guides handy, you will inspect bodies: Unpainted bisque, painted bisque, cloth, wood, tin, china, composition, papier-mache, hard plastic or vinyl?  Ball-jointed, wired, stringed or Twist 'N Turn?  Stitched, intaglio glass or plastic eyes? Mohair wigs, saran hair or human hair?

Novices who persevere become connoisseurs. Perhaps one day, your own collection will multiply to the extent of being able to fill a tiny doll museum. Or maybe you have descendants who will be fortunate to inherit your costumed works of art. Whether your motivation for doll collecting is fueled by nostalgia, finance or pure aesthetics, the hobby of doll collecting has a bottomless reservoir of internal rewards.