I guess the key to collecting for me is to keep what I love. I don't collect to sell. The ones I hang onto I do so more out of sentiment than value. My paternal grandmother died Dec. 1997, and I inherited the Barbies she had at that point and I completed the set of Barbies. My daughter is a Christmas baby born 2 weeks after my Grandmother died. So for me, the holidays are even more meaningful and personal. I enjoy looking at them...the late 80's ones that have the big hair and big shoulder fashions we all used to wear are such fun. The bride dolls were hers also, and they are just so beautiful, that I can enjoy them. My maternal Grandmother has a great many dolls - and is now debilitated with a stroke and in a nursing home. I was asked to select the dolls I wanted to keep, and I only took home the ones I truly love. Several of the Madame Alexander babies, an Ideal walking doll from 1961 and right now I cannot remember her name (I have it in the book at home - I think her name is Toodle), 3 Shirley Temples and an Ideal from the late 30's that we bought together. I played with Toodle as a chld, as did my aunt who has passed away since. So these dolls mostly have sentimental value and will be loved more than 'collected'. And the Crissy's came from her, which also remind me of fashions growing up. The outfits are a hoot to see and enjoy! I am sorry your Holiday Barbies were devalued. I see auctions often where they go from $300 up to one set I saw that went for $1000. The collections and singles on ebay right now are undergoing active bidding with some singles up to about $70 right now, depending on the year and rarity. My collection includes a 1998 error box, where the pic on the back is different from the outfit on the front. But I will never sell! :-)

I have a lot of little collections. Silk roses - different shades of pink and ones that are real looking. I keep them in a crystal vase on a table in my living room. One day my brother David who rarely visits asked me who sent me the bouquet of roses. LOL I think the most expensive rose in the vase cost me $5.95 Royal Doulton figurines - I have a few, wish I had just a few more. I inherited a couple of them including the toby jugs. My Grandma had many Royal Doulton figurines. Royal Doulton Bunnykins pieces - pre 1970 Vintage Pyrex - my collection is huge - everything from old Flame Ware, vaccum coffee pots, bowls, dishes, mugs, salt and pepper shakers, custard cups, butter dishes, cracker and cookie barrels, cookware, tea pots, coffee urns with stands, platters, bread makers, roasters, measuring cups, rolling pin, turkey basters, nesting bowls, regrigerator boxes, casserole dishes, etched pieces. I am looking for old Pyrex baby bottles now - I only have one in my collection. I display a few pieces in my kitchen, I use a couple of Pyrex refrigerator boxes and small bowls to hold my jewelry on my dresser. LOL Anything that says Pyrex on the bottom I want it. I used to be able to buy pieces for under $1.00 at thrift stores, but not anymore. Many people have ruined old Pyrex by using it in the microwave. English Bone China - Tea cups and saucers, some I have bought myself, most I have been given or inherited. I have one box in my closet full of tea cups and saucers that my Aunt Joan gave me but have no place to display them. I use my tea cups and saucers. I have little bone china jam pots and egg coddlers, boiled egg cups. Crystal - I love anything crystal. I use my crystal cream and sugars with my tea cups and saucers. I inherited a big crystal basket that I love. Egg cups - I have a few that I treasure - one of them is a monkey wrapped around the part that holds the egg which is from the 1950's. Christmas decorations - old beads for the tree, cardboard houses for my mantle or Christmas items from the 1950's or before. 101 Dalmation Christmas pieces - my brother finds these for me. They are so cute and some of the pieces move or do something. Avon china dolls - I have them displayed on my dresser but am thinking of putting them away. I put the Irish doll in the living room for St. Patrick's Day. Buttons - I have old tins, mason jars, and boxes filled with buttons I have bought from estate sales, and yard sales. I love sorting through them. I don't know which ones would be worth money as some collectors do. Old board games and game pieces including dice. Old marbles -white with swirls. Old cross stitched or pieces and embroidered linens that strike my fancy and old cross stitch patterns. Woodens thread spools/ Pins/brooches - I have many that I wear - don't often leave the house without some kind of pin or brooch. My favourites are my Cladaigh brooches - don't know if I spelled that right. LOL I also often wear a little wooden mouse with blue jeweled and a suede tail my sister gave me when I was 4 years old. Matchbooks - I used to collect them - I have many from around the world, a couple from the Air France Concord. Many of from places I could only dream about visiting. Walkers/wobblers - I don't know the correct name for them. Toys from the 1950's or earlier. Hard plastic figures like Mickey Mouse or Hannah Barbera cartoon characters. They had little wheels under them - you would put the toy on a slanted surface and they would walk/wobble down to the bottom. I have about 7 of these I have collected over the years. Cookbooks - vintage, I love all community cookbooks put out by the Junior Leagues or churches because most of the recipes are tried and true. Hardcover books on the English Royal family. Old hardcover books that might strike me as interesting or because of the artwork. Minature doll furniture from the 1950's of 1960's. I am just starting to collect little 3" colourful gnomes or trolls. Royal Albert Poinsettia discontinued china. I have quite a few cups and saucers. I am always on the search for any sized plates, tea pot, tiered cookie plate. I don't buy anything on ebay so I hunt around at yard sales and antique stores for them. I want to collect enough pieces for a set of 4 place settings or at least breakfast or dessert settings. I collect so much - but don't want a lot of any one thing. LOL There is so much more that I haven't even mentioned. LOL Anne

"Leaving your family with a mess you have created is very thoughtless and unfair." I'm in this club, too, and based on what my family and I had to deal with after my parents died, I'm not doing this to my kids, either. Plus I just don't want to live like that, surrounded by stuff I no longer want or use. For us it was complicated by the fact that my parents lived on the opposite coast. They were more packrats than hoarders, with a nice apartment and some very nice things, most of which they never used any more. But 40 years worth of stuff in closets and drawers and cupboards adds up. It was a long and complicated affair to make arrangements to travel to clean out their place. Further complicated by the fact that it was a rental, so the landlord was breathing down our necks and not at all understanding of the time and distance constraints. And it was over the holidays and we had been away sorting out their stuff (ie hauling it away by the truckload) from their vacation home. Far far away. My husband and I are incredibly lucky we're self-employed, because we could make our own schedules (up to a point); any employer would have fired us that year. But we lost out on work/$$ and had to impose on my elderly inlaws to look after our own things while we were away so long. We took as much of the good stuff as we could in a trailer. But most of it wasn't to our taste or there wasn't room for it. Thank goodness for a Goodwill just a block away, and three willing kids (ours) to help haul stuff over there. Really, with a "garbage room" on each floor of the building, and the Goodwill on the way to the subway station not to mention a maid who would have been happy for the shoes and purses etc., my parents could have been disposing of a bag of stuff a week on the way to work for years and not been in this situation. A friend told me that before her father died in his 90s, he started giving things away. So that by the time he died, he was down to a bed, table, chair, one plate, one bowl, one fork, etc., some favorite books, the television, and so on. He transferred the deed to land he owned to his daughter. All very Thoreauvian, and very selfless. She said it took her less than a week to deal with his house and estate. Sigh... All a huge reminder for me of what NOT to do, including not waiting until the very last minute, and a good lesson for my kids, too. And though I've always been a steady declutterer (though I like my pretty things, too), I became even steadier after returning from that first trip. For what it's worth, I've never bothered with garage sales. Anything in decent shape goes to Goodwill, which is faster, easier, and benefits others...

Okay, you guys have convinced me! All the arguments you're using are the ones I would use with someone else, but wasn't using on myself. It's important to get exactly what you want once in awhile. It's important to fit in with your peer group. She's only young once. Wildchild, you're right that it doesn't matter why she wants it, just that she does. And Maddie_in_Ky, Sue_VA, and Paula_PA - you spoke to me, and I'd already thought of how I'd feel if she'd really sad that she didn't get the doll. It's one thing if we couldn't afford it, but that's not the case. So I'm getting a My American Girl doll with shoulder-length brown hair, brown eyes, medium skin tone, and pierced ears. Just like Chloe - and that's what she wants. Ruthieg_tx and Nikki_nj, thanks for the tip about searching eBay and Target for clothes. I found a soccer uniform (complete with shin guards, soccer socks, shoes and ball) on eBay. It's the same colors as her soccer uniform, and I think she'll like that. So thanks for all the help in figuring this out! And I love that there's a hospital if she cuts the hair off.:)