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EcommerceBytes-Update, Number 30 - January 20, 2001 - ISSN 1528-6703
Collector's Corner
1) Collecting Madame Alexander Dolls
By Diana Lucas
The Alexander Doll Company in New York has been making and selling dolls since the late 1920s and is still making dolls today. Alexander dolls offer the collector a wide variety of doll sizes and styles in many different materials. They began with cloth dolls in the 1923, then made composition, hard plastic, vinyl, rigid plastic and porcelain dolls.
The Alexander Doll Company produced everything from sweet child-like dolls such as Wendy (8"), Lissy (12") and Little Shaver (7" to 22"); to full-figured, lady dolls, such as Cissy (21") and Elise (16 1/2 to 17"); to play dolls for children such as Puddin (14" to 21"), Pussycat (14" to 24") and Victoria (14" to 20"). (You can see some photos here: http://www.auctionbytes.com/images/alexanderdolls.JPG.)
Due to the sheer number of dolls made, most collectors narrow their collection to certain years or doll types, such as Lissy or Elise. Beginners should research the Alexander category and get a feel for the types of dolls available and see which ones they like the best before buying.
Almost all Madame Alexander dolls are marked on the back of the head with ALEX or ALEXANDER, so, when bargain hunting, you should be sure to check for the mark. Look closely, because this mark wears off easily on the vintage dolls. There are exceptions, of course, but learning how to tell whether an unmarked doll is an Alexander will only come with regular handling and exposure to the dolls.
Well-known for their high-quality and detailed clothing, Alexander dolls lose most of their value if the original clothes are not present or have been replaced. Condition is also extremely important and is second only to rarity. Several of the most popular dolls, such as Cissy, Lissy, and Elise, have avid collectors who buy nude dolls and then outfit them in style using vintage patterns.
Alexander-made clothing is marked with a cloth tag stating the name of the doll or simply Madame Alexander. This tag is usually on the outside of the garment in the back or sewn inside the seam of a skirt or blouse. And not every pieces of a multiple-piece outfit will be tagged. If the tag was cut off, which often happened, you can look for clues: some of the earliest clothes had buttons, but a quickly identifiable feature on their clothing is square metal snaps.
One thing to keep in mind when bidding on a nude doll is the price of vintage (pre-1970s) tagged Alexander clothing. They can be extremely expensive - into the hundreds, even thousands of dollars - because vintage Alexander clothing in great condition is very difficult to find. If you don't have to have vintage clothing, then those lovely vintage dolls generally fix up and display beautifully with the addition of a suitable outfit.
There are many reference books to help the collector. I personally recommend "The Collector's Encyclopedia of Madame Alexander Dolls 1965-1990" by Patricia Smith and "Madame Alexander Collectors Dolls Price Guide #25" by Linda Crowsey. There are over two dozen books on Alexander dolls, many of them out of print, but they are well worth finding and owning.
Editor's Note: try http://www.bibliofind.com to find the books mentioned.
2) Pulp Magazines - A Thrilling, Fantastic, Amazing Story: The Unknown Worlds of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Pulps And Why YOU Should Collect 'Em!! - Part 1
By John Kirsner
So, what is the Stamps Editor doing writing an article about "pulps"? Ever since I was a little kid, I've been fascinated by the pulps, just as I was fascinated by old comics from the "Golden Age" and old stamps. As an 8 year-old kid, what amazed me about the pulps were those covers! Scantily clad women on the covers of Planet or Jungle, distant stars on the cover of Fantasy and Science Fiction,...the list goes on.
The pulp titles - Astounding, Amazing, Unknown, Weird Tales, Fantastic - became legendary to me, just in the same way that Detective, Flash, Sensation and Marvel Mystery were legendary from a comic perspective. Yet, while I was able to track down old comics, where were the pulp magazines? They seemed nowhere to be found. As an adult, I have had some opportunities to begin to track pulps down, and in fact, eBay provides a small but thriving marketplace for the pulps.
Here's some background on pulp. The pulp category is huge. The fantasy and sci-fi pulps from the 1930s and 1940s are what really caught my imagination as a kid. Yet, this genre is just the tip of the iceberg of the pulp world. Other pulp genres include western, mystery, war, adventure, jungle themes, sports, and short stories. Each separate genre includes fabulous cover art and great stories! For example, a comic audience should not be surprised to see Schomburg, Kinstler, and other golden age classic comic book cover artists working on the pulp covers of these other genres. Great authors (outside the sci-fi/fantasy/horror genres) include the likes of Zane Grey and Edgar Rice Burroughs.
A small but loyal pulp collector base exists. I went to my first-ever pulp convention this year, in Dayton, Ohio. This convention, "Pulp-con," is one of the granddaddies of all of the pulp conventions. Yet the entire convention could fit within about 1/8 of large regional comic convention such as the Motor City Con.
So, why should a sci-fi and fantasy pulp renaissance take place? Why are these magazines worth collecting? Several reasons:
- Famous authors.
- Fabulous stories that have been reprinted dozens of times.
- Cover art that easily rivals and often exceeds the most classic cover art of golden age comics.
- Highly underrated interior art.
- Scarcity. Llike golden age comics, these items are 50-80 year old paper products that nobody ever thought were worthy or deserving of saving. Mostly, these magazines were read once or twice and tossed out in the trash. The paper drives of WWII claimed many of the rest. For those that survived, many were left out in a well-lighted place and gradually decomposed through the twin-action of sunlight and the very woody pulp paper that they were printed on. Insects, rodents and the elements claimed much of what remained. It seems fairly clear that no more than a few dozen fairly high grade examples remain of any given early issue, particularly from prior to WWII, and often, like rare comics, only a handful of high grade examples remain.
Why should comic book collectors care? The two areas of collecting have striking similarities. What "sells" a collector on a classic golden age comic? Well, the first appearance of a character; early work of a famous artist; and, of course, a fabulous cover. Increasingly, in fact, a great cover is the dominant factor that sells a book, as first appearances and early work generally result in such high prices as to make the comic unaffordable except to a privileged few. Pulps work in the same way: classic covers drive purchases, as well as key authors and characters. A bonus with pulps is that at this time, prices are such that first appearances and early works of key authors are still eminently obtainable.
Moreover, some of the classic pulps have golden age comic book equivalents, such as Planet Stories/Planet Comics; Jungle Stories/Jungle Comics; and The Shadow. In fact, golden age comic covers "swiped" pulp cover art, and vice versa! These create natural, complementary collecting goals.
Finally, I don't think that I'm the only comic book collector that has read a sci-fi or fantasy book! How cool is it to be able to expand your collecting to such a closely related area? Even better, the prices for classic pulps are so inexpensive compared to golden age (and even classic silver age) comic books that a comic book collector really can feel like a kid with his nice aunt or uncle in a candy store when collecting pulps!
And in the next issue, I'll guide you through one of my recent purchases.
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