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Forty years ago this holiday season, shoppers were so desperate to get the hottest Christmas commodity that pandemonium erupted at toy stores across America.
People stood in line for hours hoping to nab a Cabbage Patch Kids doll, but demand drastically outweighed supply, causing mob scenes and violence. Police were called to quell customer outbursts, adults snatched dolls away from children, and a stampede of frantic customers trampled a pregnant woman in New Jersey.
Though they don’t cause the same frenzy today, collectors avidly seek the valuable dolls that can fetch thousands.
CULTURAL JUGGERNAUT
Cabbage Patch Kids are having a moment. They were inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame on November 10, 2023, and are the subject of the new documentary Billion Dollar Babies. The film explores the consumer madness surrounding them and the unlikely story of how their creator, Xavier Roberts, built his $2 billion empire.
Roberts initially conceptualized his Kids as “Little People Originals” in the late ’70s and sold them at arts and crafts shows. By 1981, these dolls, already looking like the iconic Cabbage Patch Kids, started getting media attention and were soon renamed.
First mass-produced by Coleco Industries and released to toy stores in 1983, the chubby-cheeked babies took the toy world by storm, creating an instant obsession among kids and becoming the most coveted toy in the ’80s.
The clever marketing tactic of including a birth certificate and adoption papers with each doll created a personal connection—children viewed them as more than toys and treated them like their babies. Each Kid also had Roberts’s signature on their backside, giving the sense that they were more valuable than the average doll.
Cabbage Patch mania continued throughout the ’80s, and millions of dolls were sold. They also spawned merchandise, TV specials, and parodies.
While their popularity as playthings has dwindled since their prime, the market for Cabbage Patch Kids as collectors’ items remains robust, and they regularly command values from hundreds to thousands of dollars.
DETERMINING VALUE
Values vary significantly depending on several factors, including the doll’s age, condition, rarity, and specific features. Most dolls are around $30, but Little People dolls and certain Kids have gained substantial value in the collecting market.
Like many other nostalgic toys, Coleco’s ’80s Cabbage Patch Kids are the most valuable and popular with collectors, especially those in pristine condition with their original adoption papers, birth certificates, and boxes. These can fetch high prices, selling for thousands in recent years, like this wedding couple from 1986 and a 1983 doll that was never removed from its box.
After Coleco went bankrupt in 1988, the dolls had short stints with different companies, including Hasbro, Mattel, and Toys “R” Us, but they never quite replicated their ’80s glory.
Cabbage Patch dolls with Roberts’s signature are also more valuable, as are foreign dolls, limited editions (like Iddy Buds from 1987), and dolls associated with exclusive collaborations or events. Collectors’ preferences also affect popularity and value.
The market fluctuates, but if you’re looking to find the most valuable Cabbage Patch Kids in the wild, here’s some to look for:
RARE HEAD MOLDS
Each mass-produced Cabbage Patch Kid has a number printed on the back of its head, indicating the mold design. Coleco made molds 1 through 49 (there’s no 7 or 13), including rare and desirable molds 2, 17, and 19.
Mold 2, also known as “Brat Face,” has a dimple on each cheek and a longer nose. It’s mostly seen on dolls produced in 1983 when Roberts’s original Little People creations were renamed and released as Cabbage Patch Kids. Dolls with this mold can be worth around $100 to $500. For example, this one sold in 2023 for $300.
Head mold 17 from 1987 is most often seen on Hasbro Kids. It features chubby cheeks and two tiny bottom teeth. Some dolls with this head mold can sell between $500 to $2,000+, especially if they have other desirable characteristics like popcorn hair, are wearing a hard-to-find outfit, or both.
Head mold 19 from 1988 has a wide grin showing five teeth and no dimples. Some dolls with this head mold can sell for up to $5,000.
FOREIGN DOLLS
Dolls manufactured in other countries are harder to find, especially in good condition, and collectors particularly covet ones from these factories: Jesmar, Spain; Tri-ang Pedigree, South Africa; and Tsukuda, Japan. These dolls were produced between 1984 and 1985 with head molds 1 through 4. Jesmar and Tri-ang created only Caucasian dolls, while Tsukuda made African American and Caucasian dolls. The back of a doll’s neck, body tag, or box will indicate if it’s foreign.
Jesmar’s Kids are generally taller than Coleco’s, and most have freckles. These dolls appeal to collectors for having different hair and facial combinations than Coleco Kids, like blonde poodle hair with brown eyes, different freckle patterns, and more clothing variety. Some Jesmar dolls sell between $500 and $3,000.
Tri-ang Pedigree dolls’ most distinguishing feature is their eyes, which often become cloudy because the eye paint never fully dried. Collectors value the unusual outfit combinations of these dolls. They have sold between $200 to $6,500, even with a damaged box.
Tsukuda dolls have uncommon hair and eye combinations, with butterfly patterns in the eye paint. They, too, have different clothing than Coleco dolls. Many Tsukuda Kids have sold for between $300 to $1,100, especially if wearing a unique outfit, like a kimono.
LITTLE PEOPLE
Ironically, the most collectible and valuable Cabbage Patch Dolls weren’t sold under their now-famous name. They are Roberts’s soft-sculpted Little People dolls that he handcrafted and signed in the late 1970s—the precursors that started the massive Cabbage Patch mania.
According to antiques appraiser Dr. Lori Verderame, by the early 1980s, the Original Little People dolls were already being treated as coveted collectibles and were widely traded. Some early dolls commanded values into the thousands by 1981 and still command high prices today. Certain individual dolls and twins can sell for thousands and, in rare cases, even tens of thousands.
SELLING TIPS
If you want to sell a Cabbage Patch doll, the manufacture year can be identified by Roberts’s signature, as various colors were used in different years. Since hundreds of thousands of different Cabbage Patch Kids have been made for decades, the official Cabbage Patch Kids website notes that individual values are impossible to monitor. For sellers to get the maximum value for a doll, it’s essential to have its original adoption papers, clothing, and packaging.
The Cabbage Patch Kids’ Collector’s Club also puts buyers and sellers in touch; annual membership is $35. But you can, of course, also sell dolls on eBay and other online platforms.
As the website also notes, the actual value of a Little Person or Cabbage Patch Kid is the re-adoption fee a collector is willing to pay for a specific doll.
Adina K. Francis has been a writer and editor in the antiques and collectibles field for more than 20 years. She has a bit of an obsession with the Victorians and thinks that dogs are one of life’s greatest gifts.
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