Newbie Here, Lots of Questions

Congratulations on Josefina! She was my first AG too and she is beautiful! Stopping at just one is not something alot of us can do! LOL It's a slippery slope, enjoy the ride! [img]smile.gif[/img]

There are a ton of threads on the board regarding Pre Mattel and Mattel differences. The search feature up at the top will pretty much help you find anything you are looking for.

The X on the doll comes from the benefit sale. You can find more threads on that if you search for "benefit sale" or "madison children's museum AG benefit" or something along those lines.

Curt's site that someone mentioned above,is a good reference too.

Welcome aboard! [img]smile.gif[/img]

welcome Linda,
American girl dolls are like Lay's potato chips.....bet you cant eat just one...the more you see the more you want....
Josefina is the collection I am working on this month...since all my children are grown and my little granddaughter is not interested I am going to invite my little eight year old neighboor to help me change the dolls clothes and set up a room setting for Josefina.
I have found Ebay really expensive and people are selling stuff for more money than you can buy in new from the company. There are some bargains but you should condsider yourself lucky if you find one....I was watching the auctions yesterday and Josefina's bed which was broken by the way, was selling for the almost new price....also a broken desk...selling for a ridiculous price...just be carefu. Things that say retired usually are not...
It is nice to see everyones pictures so take lots so we can see...

Welcome Linda. This hostboard is not the place to be unless you want to have more dolls. I had one AG a Molly for about 6 years. Molly was a Christmas present from a daughter. I had been sewing AG clothes for her daughter for about a year. I am from Molly's era. I was born in 1945. Then 2 years ago I bought a Felicity, excuse was to use her as another model for sewing the clothes. About 6 months later a member from this board bought one of my AG outfits (Cherry)from e-bay, she introduced me to the board. I now have all the Historicals, all the LE's and many of the AGT's. LOL We are the AG addicts here. You will enjoy looking at everyones albums. Like Mary said be careful of the doll furniture on e-bay. If you buy it directly from AG it is guaranteed. A good way to pick up some of the older AG items is to put an add in the newspaper. Josefina is one of my favorite dolls. She is my favorite to sew for and I've made the largest setting for her. Enjoy the board. You will make many friends here.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by LindaB from VA:
.........Finally, and most important--how do you stop at just ONE American Girl?????

---

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">.....HA!...Welcome Newbie!!! You have a lot of questions and believe you have come to the right place to get them all answered.

I will answer the one in quotation above...he-he-he......ahem...<font size="5"> YOU DON'T!!!!!!!!!!</font>...mwahahahahahaaaa...There is no such thing. Once you have one of these delicious and delightful morsels you will beg, borrow and EOYBA to get more! HA!

BTW, I am 51 years old and love my 19 soon to be 20 dollies to death! It is good to see another "seasoned" collector on the board! Yipeeee, all ages love AG! [img]graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

[img]graemlins/island.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/storm.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/island.gif[/img]

Welcome!!
ONE>>>>??????
Well...I did have ONE..then I visited here and these folks just fed my addiction!!!
I now have 3..
(or maybe they have me???)
Josefina is so pretty!
I got my first girl..my darling Molly from my dds when my dgds started getting them..so I;m an older doll lover,too.
I know you'll have fun here..and be prepared to spend you kids inheritance!

While watching the local news (well for the whole province of Lower Austria) - there was a story about a collector of dolls and teddy bears. This lady has 800 dolls and teddies and my mum turned to me and said: You still have a long way to go before reaching that [img]wink.gif[/img]

Hi and welcome!! You have lots of questions and as you can see, someone here will have good answers, so keep them coming.

That was very sweet of your dh to get you Josefina. I am not a collector of anything, and was never a big doll person, but I love my Addy that I got for Christmas, and she and my dd's Kit enjoy playing together.

Hi and welcome!
Here are some sites to help you learn about American Girls
American Girl FAQ

Meg's Guide to American Girl Collecting

The Complete Guide to American Girl Collecting

For me, as a collector since 1987, the different between pre-Mattel and Mattel is HUGE! The dolls were made in Germany and Hungary until the late 90's, I believe and are much nicer quality. The vinyl is softer and a more natural color and the eyes are a nicer type, the eyelashes are softer and the bodies more stuffed. The new dolls to me all look like they are anorexic and wearing too much makeup. The current Addy looks anoriexic and anemic. My 1993 Addy also has much fuller hair.

The quality of the accessories is also not as nice. Pleasant Company used real wood and authentic details to make their accessories and kept things around for a long time unless otherwise noted. Now it seems that everything is discontinued after a short time, plastic has replaced wood and accurate historic details are an after thought, not to mention the lack of stories to accompany the outfits. I feel that the educational aspect of the American Girls collection has been sacrificed.

I do not collect for the Today dolls so I can't comment on them.

As for the dolls with the "x" on their bum, they come from a seconds and returns benefit sale for the Madison Children's Museum held in Wisconsin each summer.

As for how you can have just one? Well... you can't! However, my Kirsten sometimes wishes she was an "only" again and I had more time to play with her the way I did when I was a little girl.

Welcome to the board and AG collecting!

p.s watch out for prsnlrd! She's a dealer to an Ag junkie!

Welcome to the board! [img]biggrin.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img] I agree, you can't stop after just one doll! I tried to stop after 10 ten but it didn't work.

Welcome to the board!!!

And, just wondering....WHY would anyone WANT to stop at just one American Girl???! [img]eek.gif[/img]

I have 12 dolls now--- only 788 dolls to go! [img]biggrin.gif[/img]