Saying that you collect vintage baby dolls sort of gives you a wide range of vintage dolls to consider for your collection.  Unlike specialized areas of doll collecting, focusing on "baby dolls" leaves the door open for dolls made from just about any material ever used in doll making.


Generally, baby dolls have been made to look like, well, a baby!  They are molded in positions that make them look like helpless little ones who need to be held and snuggled by their "moms".  Baby dolls often have molded hair but some do have rooted hair, styled to look like a true baby would.  Other features are also commonly added to baby dolls to make them seem more life like.  There are baby dolls who do their best imitation of the high maintenance end of babies.  They cry until fed, crawl, make noises and even do the doll equivalent of messing their diapers.  Of course some of the modern advances in dolls were not seen in vintage dolls, but they were still considered just as lovable by their young owners.

Relatively recently, a new breed of collectible baby doll has come on the seen.  Reborn baby dolls take things to a whole new level both in "features" and in price.  Reborn babies, as they are sometimes called, are amazingly lifelike and are  individual works of art.  If you have not checked them out, it may be interesting to you even if your focus is entirely on vintage dolls.  They too will be vintage some day, and the realism displayed in them is often nothing short of breathtaking.

If you are going to check out eBay for vintage baby dolls for sale, you will find quite a range in prices, but nothing too outrageous most of the time.  As collectible dolls go, a search on vintage baby dolls will bring back relatively low prices.  Note that I said "relatively".  You could still spend a few hundred dollars on a vintage Thumbelina doll made by Ideal if it is in really great shape.  Vogue dolls and Madame Alexander baby dolls can also bring a handsome price.  Another thing to note here is that sellers on eBay are limited on the amount of space they have available for their titles.  Although Madame Alexander dolls are very collectible and quite popular on eBay, a search for just "baby dolls" might not bring up many of them.  When you are searching eBay, it is good to try both general and specific searches for what you are looking to buy.  Sometimes doing this can turn up a great deal that has slipped by everyone else just because of a title no one was searching.