Loss

[sailorangel59]

This potential disaster (see Cats could've caused fire) has got me thinking. Say you lost your whole collection of AG in a fire/flood/natural disaster. You were insured and there was enough to replace your complete collection, would you really do it?

I don't think I can, I really don't. I've grown emotionally attached to my girls. It would be hard to replace Lindsey who I spent ages trying to get on ebay and she was worth every penny, or Jess, who available I've already grown attached to my current. And mostly my Samantha, my first doll, I saved up for when I was eight. There is to much sentimental value now that I don't feel I could replace them. It is like replacing pets or children, you don't forget you had them. But that is just me.

[Dancing_Queen]

I would be devastated if I lost my Molly. I dont think I could replace my entire colectyion either. I would maybe get a new doll, but it would never be the same.

[AGTeacher]

Actually I have been thinking about this. I NEED to insure all my collections at one point. I got too many things that are going to be used in the future for donations to museums and societies. So I would say, YEs! Eventhough I will miss the treasured items, recreating the treasure will be new memories for me and new attachments. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[KimberBee]

I feel the same way. Not so much about clothes and accessories, but definatly with dolls. If that happened to me I would probably replace Kirsten and Rae with new Mattel dolls, but I doubt I would bother replacing my other dolls, as cruel as that sounds. I don't even know if I would be able to bond with the new dolls. I've had Kirsten sooo long and even Rae who is very new would be hard to readjust to with a new doll.

[Kenshinchan]

I think I'd get a new Kirsten (though I'd probably have to get her on eBay, or else rewig a Mattel Kirsten; I like her old ashy-blonde color). After all, if I didn't have any AGs, how could I hang out on this lovely messageboard? [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

[thepidget]

I think I would buy some new dolls, but I don't think it would ever be the "same." I'm also very deeply attached to Molly, since I fell in love with her stories as a child, and getting another Molly would probably feel kind of off. [img]frown.gif[/img] But who knows... I wouldn't like living an AG-less life, though!

[PrincessRuthie]

I've often thought of this, and in fact, I was just thinking of this the other day. My answer is no, I wouldn't replace my collection. The dolls I have mean so much to me that I just couldn't. There is no other Molly, Kit, Lindsey, etc for me than the ones I have. If this ever happened to me/my house, I would possibly find a special Molly on eBay (similar to mine) and adopt her...but I might not. Molly's too special to replace. I might just get one new dolly (that'd I'd never had before) and collect a few things for her, but I could never replace my collection. Now, as I was thinking the other day, if I had time during a fire, I'd open the window, throw my first four dolls-Molly, Kit, Lindsey, TD Ruthie-out of the window and then jump out myself.

[jerseycow6]

New dolls just wouldn't be the same. I'd still want to collect the dolls, especially in order to pass down such wonderful, quality toys and educational products down to my own children someday, but all the memories I have of how I got them and stuff would be upstaged by the somewhat bitter fact that I had lost the others. Right now, my dolls aren't insured, and my family was somewhat aghast when I tried to explain to them how much dolls like my only-displayed-for-a-short-time, never-been-out-of-her-original-outfit, currently-residing-in-her-original-box Lindsey can be worth. Plus, I love Samantha all the more for her now straight hair and loss of elastic in her old stockings that reminds me how special she was to me when I got her and for the past fourteen years.

As for my other dolls, I don't know if I could ever replace my mom's old Shirley Temple doll, her Sally Starr, her huge lifelike baby doll, our Ginnys, and dolls like the one dressed to match my Baba (grandmother) from her wedding about seventy years ago. I already had to sell her adorable 50s-style doll carriage and toy ironing board during the four days I was able to secure so I could go through my belongings from my old house. My mom used to tell me stories about sitting on the front stoop of her house hand-sewing dresses for Ginny and her other dolls, and I have those and the more successful of my own attempts at dresses for Samantha from over the years. This actually has been worrying me for some time because my uncle has all of my mom's old dolls and their clothes (except for the Ginnys) at his house right now (stored in his damp, musty basement) and I'm not certain he'll be honorable enough to be honest and return them to me when our current issues are resolved. As with many of my things that he has, I have no proof he ever had them, or even that they ever existed (well, except for my mom's PSU class ring, which I would have loved to have had at my own farce of a graduation ceremony), and the games he has tried to play in the past year and a half don't leave me much hope for their return, though I should consider myself lucky that he threw me a bone and returned my AGs last summer when I asked that he hand over much more of the stuff he has.

I've often thought of this topic since I saw a photo in the AG online scrapbook of some little girls whose dolls were lost after hurricane Katrina. AG was wonderfully generous to replace lost dolls for many girls affected by the storms, and I'm sure the girls were overjoyed to have some playthings back after they had lost so much, but I wonder how they viewed them as compared to their old dolls. In their case, I think the new dolls may always be reminders of that experience and even of how people can unite across thousands of miles in the face of hardship.

In a way, though, replacing a doll is like trying to replace a good friend or a beloved pet.

[TaffyCheerful]

It would be tough, very, very, very tough to replace my collection as a good number of the dolls would actually require two dolls -- one for the head and a donor for the body... Sheesh, I don't even want to think about it.

Taffy

[Skywalking]

Well, I know right now that I could never replace the Addy or Kirsten dolls that I had a long time as a child. I've considered ordering new ones before just because I had them once but it doesn't feel the same.

I know that with Lissie it would be that way. What I would probably do is get a whole new doll, that way she wouldn't have to "compete"