I wrote to MCM to express my disappointment with the new limits this year, and it appears that this was due to the fact that they have receive less inventory. I am posting the message that I received from the sale coordinator, and this makes sense to me. Also, I wrote her back and asked a few more questions about the sale. I will let you all know what I learn.

Dear Gretchen,
I would like to start by giving you a little history of the sale. Actually Madison Children's Museum is responsible for the expenses it takes to run the event and maintain a facility to store product. We have about 550 volunteers with about half working year round to restore and repair various products we receive. Last year the volunteers worked over 32,000 hours to make the sale happen. American Girl is very generous in donating their returns and seconds but the actually receive half of the proceeds from the sale as well. About four years ago we were able to increase the doll limits because of our inventory. Prior to that the limit was always only one doll total! I am very sorry you are disappointed with the limits this year. We need to base the limits on the on hand inventory and we received fewer dolls this year from American Girl. We have no way of controlling what we receive. You can actually buy 4 of the 18 inch dolls. You are also welcome to come back later on Saturday or Sunday and re buy the limits. Last years limits were 2 historical dolls and a combination of 3 from AGT and Bitty. I am very sorry. We do need to ensure we have dolls for all the shoppers and we felt with the quantity of dolls we had this would be fair. We looked very closely at what sold last year and the time we ran out and our stock this year and that is how we came to these limits. Thank you for your thoughts. We do have many other products and some great deals on things that I hope you still find it a fun and worthwhile trip. Laura


Laura Richards
Event Coordinator
Madison Children's Museum
100 State Street
Madison, WI 53703
608.256.6445 ext. 14