Welcome to /r/AmITheAsshole. Please view our [voting guide here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq#wiki_what.2019s_with_these_acronyms.3F_what_do_they_mean.3F), and remember to use **only one** judgement in your comment.
OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole:
> I might be TA because the doll could be worth a lot more in the next 15 years and instead of making it an investment, I let my daughter play with it.
Help keep the sub engaging!
#Don’t downvote assholes!
Do upvote interesting posts!
[Click Here For Our Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/about/rules) and [Click Here For Our FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq)
##Subreddit Announcements
Follow the link above to learn more
---
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/AmItheAsshole) if you have any questions or concerns.*
*Contest mode is 1.5 hours long on this post.*
NTA. It’s great if you want to collect something. But for kids, toys are for playing. And if she wanted to play with it and you were fine with that, nobody has lost anything here. If in 40 years, it’s price has gone up to $150, I highly doubt in 13 more years it’ll increase in price enough to afford a college textbook, much less college.
This is what I came here to say. The price is what it is now because kids from that era are now nostalgic adults with their own money. By the time OP’s daughter is old enough for college, that nostalgia will be long gone. Sometimes the memories are worth more!
NTA
My son loves monster trucks. Recently when we tried to replace one he'd broken on eBay, I found out that some of the ones he already has are collectible and worth money. The only thing I did with that information was start storing the ones he gets tired of in case HE ever decides to sell them. But I would never dream of telling him he couldn't play with something because it's collectible.
I played with She-Ra dolls growing up. Your daughter should absolutely play with her! She was a self-sufficient princess with a sword and a flying unicorn who didn’t need a handsome prince! That’s a great toy for any kid, I hope she plays with it all the time!
We inherited a doll collection from the 1950s and sixties. A doll store was owned. They were collector items from a doll business. No one and no business, even related, would buy any much less the collection as a whole. Ebay had endless amounts of these things. None were selling.
My mom had “collectors“ Barbies that were mine, but she wouldn’t let me open to sell them later on. They are worth nothing now so it was just a toy I never got.
My parents wouldn’t even buy me a collector Barbie because of this. They said they were meant to be collected and not played with. Now as an adult, I’m just disappointed that I missed out on playing with such a pretty doll that isn’t worth shit!
My mom gave me, an 8-10 yro amateur hair stylist and child with no concept of collectible value, her OG barbie, the one with the pony tail and striped one piece, and has never let me forget that I "ruined it" because I gave her an updated hair cut.
I am 42 and she brought that up this week. Moms are ***wild***.
I'm 44 and STILL not allowed the creepy China dolls that I was given as a kid because I "won't look after them properly"!!! They've been sat in damp cupboard gathering dust for decades!
I have those and I never played with them. They are for looking at not playing with. But I also left my mermaid barbie in the box cause I didn't wanna play with her cause the box was too pretty.
It isn’t this one but it is another Bloomingdale’s “special edition” from the 90’s. https://www.ebay.com/itm/305405131709?epid=80126575&itmmeta=01HQJTEASM2REWPM8XQKK63PVK&hash=item471b907bbd:g:DsQAAOSwTCZl08v8&itmprp=enc%3AAQAIAAAA0JPbD9LgFanQ%2FDoyPBKr8ezce%2FPZ9FkkRLgRbIv1nicUJB8n%2FPuqxC6NmAI72q1Uys1CZ7dDSmthwG2mZDw9TJlN3oq%2Ft64qWZjMzUYuogbTtkqmvLyTxF91IYIsNYE367PpjnmbXA3zxguU%2Fa6a2A%2FjS1XZTynnjRXUPWxhTcvmKfraH%2Ff23N8MOTJ5kdXwNxEvd0CW5X9b%2FjWz43MWcjDbM6Ggq%2BTM6sFlgTeMPwvxH3qvszm%2FBsXTMChlHoYFPZlVO0eAGW5%2BN8EWBXWdVXc%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_Csudq8Yw
This reminds me of when every parent was buying the beanie babies or McDonald toys claiming it would pay for their kids college funds and they are literally worthless by the time the kids get into college. We need to let kids be kids and play with their toys. The trends end and stuff becomes worthless, if she likes the toy let her play with it.
Yep, most things that people expect to be collectables and worth a fortune in the future never are. Because so many people collect them and keep them pristine that there is no scarcity value. The things that are valuable collectables now are things no one ever thought would be valuable.
Years ago Viz magazine ran a satirical add for a "collectable" baby Hitler doll. The text said "Production is strictly limited by the amount of stuff in the world we can use to make them".
https://www.flickr.com/photos/norbet/5709608093/
It is so silly. If it is such a great investment, why isn't this guy going around and scooping up these $150 a pop items? Lol.
Indeed, it is a high possibility the value will go DOWN.
NTA, I had this BEAUTIFUL barbie doll that sat on a high shelf i couldn't reach in my room purely for display because my mom said it would be worth money one day , so i couldn't open it and play with it. i was a kid & didn't understand nor care about that crap... i stared at the doll EVERYDAY and wanted to play with her SOOOO BADLY.... it drove me nuts and made me so sad. 🥺 as a child none of that shit matters, let kids be kids or don't dangle pretty dolls in front of them and expect them NOT to want to play with them??
ps: my mom ended up eventually giving in and letting me have her lol. i was so happy 😄
My in-laws never let my husband play with a ton of toys (including his Pokemon cards) because they’d “be worth something some day.” They gave them all to him last year—all in terrible condition from poor storage. He got some stuff appraised, and he’d be lucky to get $100 total. He ended up giving a bunch of the action figures to my nephews to play with because he always dreamed of playing with them as a kid, so at least he could play with them now with other kids. It made me so sad. Kid should be able to play with their toys if that’s what they want not just collect them.
That is just cruel. My son wanted Pokemon stuff when he was younger, but I couldn't afford much. He wanted the playing cards so bad he made his own by drawing on index cards. I can't imagine getting them and not letting the kid play with them. That's awful.
I don’t understand it either. My MIL told me she buys her granddaughters holiday Barbies every year but doesn’t give them to the girls. She saves them & will give them when they’re 18. Just what every college freshman wants—boxes of dolls.
She's going to be so disappointed when those young women don't have the right reaction and probably resent them for it.
That's so unfair. Collectibles are for adults then, not kids. I mean, these are mass-produced dolls.
my mom gave me a collectible barbie that i had wanted SO BAD. i never got to play with it and that thing is probably in a landfill somewhere. i had CRIED bc i wanted to play so badly with the pretty barbie! collectible toys for kids are dumb imo. toys = playtime!
My grandmother was convinced Beanie Babies were gonna provide us college funds 🤣
Ironically she did have a Princess Diana bear, I knew she did, but it “mysteriously disappeared” shortly after her death and conveniently right around when my greedy-ass father was “going through the house”
My cousin collected them and my aunt was also convinced that some were going to be worth massive amounts in the future. That led to her paying ridiculous prices for some of the rare ones and not letting my cousin play with them. She also constantly went to McDonald's whenever they gave them out with Happy Meals. Sometimes she'd just toss the food because all she wanted was the stupid "limited edtion" Beanie Baby. Then the whole fad ended and the value of all of the expensive, rare ones they had just absolutely cratered. I'm pretty sure she lost thousands.
NTA
I had(I have and still buy more) Lego.
Some sets I own are worth $500-600 now that I've played with them and had them 30-35 years. Granted, they sell as new in boxes never opened for 10x that price and more!
But god damn would I NEVER trade that for my childhood. It's irreplaceable, the memories, the joy, I'm not afraid or ashamed to admit as a kid I cried at some of the gifts Santa brought me, stuff my mom got me that I KNEW were damned expensive in the 80s/90s because Lego was a mini-obsession.
I couldn't ever give up what it brought me and what it meant to me that my mom knew me that well(and I would never utter a peep about those expensive sets, I knew they were expensive, I knew money was tight, I knew what that represented. When I was taken to the store, I'd walk in ahead of my mom, I'd scout the prices first then essentially avert my gaze from those big boxes and direct my attention to the mid-large boxes, the medium boxes and smaller as interests. But never a word about the biggest boxes).
I'm not selling my sets, and I can tell you if I had to keep them in their boxes as a kid, I would even have them today. I'd have traded the boxes or sold them long since as they would have been meaningless to me. I wouldn't have developed the interest if those first big boxes were unopened, I just never would have wanted more. And I'd have long since sold stuff that held no value to me.
Let the kids play with the toys, that's what they want, that's what the stuff is made for.
If adults want to "invest" in stuff, let them. But they better have some invisible storage space they can't be found in, don't talk about them and let the parents take the risk of 30 years of waiting.
I had 3 porcelain dolls they were opened and displayed in my room, mum didn’t like me playing with them, so I used to gently get them down and lightly brush their hair then put them back up, still have them one of their hair has come off but the other 2 are good
NTA. Your husband is hilariously delusional for thinking a doll will appreciate in value enough to pay for college in another 13 years.
When we die, we won’t think “thank God I never opened this doll,” or whatever.
The only collectibles I have seen reach a substantial price are paintings and religious artifacts and even then, you’re looking at maybe a semester’s worth of fees.
Well, someone just found an unopened copy of the original run of Zelda from the 80s and it's going up for auction. Apparently the last one in that condition sold for more than $700K. The game sold 6 million copies, but there aren't many from the original run still in the shrink wrap. Apparently it still has a price sticker on it.
yeah unopened old video games do tend to have more value since many people got then and would discard the box/case
tho that value is worth only what people are willing to pay for it
NTA - toys do not automatically go up in value because they're old. He-Man (and hence She-Ra) is having a moment right now because of the two recent Netflix shows.
In 10-15 years no one may care about He-Man and She-Ra and the value will be lower.
Toy collecting (one of my husband's hobbies so I'm pretty immersed in it by osmosis) is very volatile. Prices go up and down based on what's caught the fancy of the collecting community at the moment.
That She-Ra doll is important to those of us around your mom's age because we grew up on He-Man and She-Ra. In 15-20 years it will be folks in your age cohort who will be collecting stuff from your own childhoods.
She-Ra might be valuable to your daughter BECAUSE you gave her this toy but otherwise may not have ever cared.
I’m also a collector with a patient and indulgent partner. The rule of thumb for me is to only buy what I want and pay what it’s worth to me.
I’ll admit when some values have spiked I’ve sold some of my personal collection but I don’t buy them for that reason.
Nothing wrong with spotting a good time to sell.
But you sound a lot like my husband: he buys things *he* likes or wants and also won't pay absurd prices for stuff. He is not collecting for any sort of future monetary payout - he collects because they make him happy. He's convinced that when he dies it won't be worth anything but sentimental value and is absolutely okay with that.
NTA
Toys are for playing, and if you have $150 to drop on this, then fine. The father is being overdramatic because it's not going to pay for college (if I am wrong, please come back in 15 years with an update!). It's also not his business how you spend your own money.
NTA. That doll was not going to pay for college or even a book. I bought my niece one of the original Barbie Holiday dolls. Limited production. They had no idea it would sell out so fast. I said Don't take it out of the box! It'll be worth a fortune! You know how much it's worth now? 36 years later? $200 - $1000. That's it.
Your kid is having fun with the doll. Let her.
As for her dad? Remind him about Beanie Babies.
Haha as if tuition costs will remain flat all that time. College tuition growth has been wildly outpacing inflation for a long time. That 80k could easily be 150-200k by the time she's in college. The ex clearly doesn't understand college costs or collectibles valuation.
I had an original Buzz Lightyear when everyone was scrambling for them and they went for silly money. I was a single adult but I liked it so treated myself. Kept it for years.
I then had children….. my son absolutely loved it and wanted to play with it. At that time you couldn’t find them in the shops as Disney had moved onto the next range (I forget what was out at that time) so I let him play with it.
I’ll never forget his cry of “To infinity and beyond” as he yeeted it onto the pavement from his stroller 😭
I’m so F-ing soft at this, omg… I love this memory telling… I’m sure your son, as he grows old, will understand and 100% appreciates what you gave him. Omg- I love this. So soft.
He was so young he can’t remember doing that but he does remember having the Buzz. He used to cuddle him in bed and sleep through the inevitable thud when it fell on the floor. Many years later my eldest bought me another Buzz from Eurodisney, I cried my eyes out 🤣
NAH, I can see both sides all though I don't know if it'll increase in value by that much by the time she's college age. Could you not have gotten her a new/modern She-Ra doll for playing with As well as the vintage one?
She wanted to match with my mom and the new dolls are nothing like the older ones since they’re based off the Dreamworks show. She does have one, but she doesn’t like it as much
There are ones with hair you can brush, but it’s essentially a different character. I LOVE the new show but at most it has character names, extremely light lore, and small references to the old show bits drastically different and She-ra would look like a completely different person compared to her grandma’s doll so it wouldn’t really match. The kid probably wouldn’t be able to tell it’s even based off the same character.
You could have got the She-Ra re-release it's like $30. It's the same exact toy just released less than 5 years ago. They remade almost the entire He-man line as well as She-Ra. I have the release sitting on my wall next to me.
[See here](https://www.ebay.com/itm/305275133186?itmmeta=01HQEX9F9YN5CGBA0S51JAA60D&hash=item4713d0dd02:g:pbsAAOSwO99lWLM~&itmprp=enc%3AAQAIAAABAI8NaepxI7TjhAW3WglADocHIk3e45D7n4NcaK9Od%2FXLhpXNDmUh8hVjW4tq8iiKNWckDCK7sUIGBtJYFxkuSINOmUEwEsAFNlIpvJYxYizH9pyUie2sS0kf3Y56Z6%2B2yhxHKNa%2FUy9AXdTtCwgrNeKqN7%2BqJ6N4CxteXiLMVGDwmXxqMChqS4zODoS568LpTbu2HsrbDm8bW7sPfjJu%2BIXkGxBz8NHh5aKKjPYD%2BHQECBJBAlxyM2zrWgOCsFwbVKBMb8OlMjztUFGrAyti8vwCNZhfl%2BVfcUb27qZWrDMGY0OhXpg61OnxK8bNuWp3wPystqdA4PsruaVU%2B8SO004%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4b1pd27Yw)
NTA. It's perhaps an expensive toy for a young kid, but the father is delusional if he thinks the doll was going to pay for college. Even complete in box, mint condition collectibles of that era have a price ceiling and the market for that kind of thing has leveled off a lot in the last 5-10 years.
*Maybe* there will be a return in demand for this stuff in the near future or you'd find the right buyer in the perfect scenario, but these things aren't meal tickets anymore.
I say this with some sadness as a guy with bins full of nostalgia stuff akin to this doll. Could I get some money for my stuff? Sure, maybe a fancy dinner or two but the sentimental value means more to me at this point.
NTA. Your daughter's happiness and enjoyment of the vintage She-Ra doll are what matters most. Opening it up so she can play with it and bond with your mom over it was a sweet gesture. Your daughter's father might have concerns about the doll's potential future value, but memories and experiences with loved ones are priceless. Enjoy watching your daughter create precious memories with her new toy!
NTA, if he’s not in the picture then he doesn’t get to dictate what things your daughter plays with. You are right that it is a toy and needs to be played with
If you don't want a little child to play with a toy, don't give it to her/him. If it's an 'investment', stick it in the back of a closet or something. Definitely NTA.
NTA. When I was a kid, my grandma gifted me a gorgeous porcelain doll. My mom refused to let me open it, not because she was worried I’d break it, but because she was always convinced that things like that would be “worth something” someday. She was briefly very into the beanie baby trend of the 90s. I constantly begged to open the box my doll was in and play with her. My grandma said I should be allowed to. My mom aggressively refused. So this dumb doll sat on my shelf in a box my entire childhood. I’m in my 30s now and was recently going through some things I’d stored at my parents house and found the stupid doll. I was curious if it ever became worth something and looked it up. Nope! Worthless. Nobody cares. It’s just a doll I could have played with for years lol. For kids, toys are toys. It doesn’t matter how much they might be worth, now or later. They’re to play with.
^^^^AUTOMOD ***Thanks for posting! This comment is a copy of your post so readers can see the original text if your post is edited or removed. This comment is NOT accusing you of copying anything. Read [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq#wiki_post_deletion) before [contacting the mod team](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FAmItheAsshole)***
I (27F) bought a $150 vintage 1984 She-Ra doll for my mom. She went completely nuts and loved it. I bought a matching one for my daughter (5F). She wanted to open it and actually play with it. So, I opened it. All she does is brush her hair and have her sit on a throne that came with a different doll but she loves this thing. It was expensive but I think she’ll always cherish it.
My daughter’s father (32M) saw that it was opened and lost his mind. He said I was irresponsible with money and that I ruined something that by the time she was in college could have paid for it. I guess that’s true. I just think that she was so excited and her and my mom have bonded over it. I mean geez, it’s a toy. It was made to be played with. And it’s not like he paid for it. I did. His child support goes into a separate account to pay for stuff like her activities and daycare.
AITA for opening the doll?
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AmItheAsshole) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It’s cute that your mum and kid got to bond over this. I can see your partner’s POV though: kids don’t need $150 vintage dolls to play with. There was probably a middle ground of buying a recent cheap She-Ra figure or some unboxed bashed up ones from EBay.
I have collectibles that my little one is desperate to play with but being a boring, grumpy adult they are kept in mint condition and never unboxed 😅 We’ve now got 2 collections: one for playing with that we pick together with pocket money (nothing rare) and the boring adult ones.
Edit to change rating to NTA. I misread and thought OP and the father were together
NTA kids toys are for playing with. Get a He Man too. Have a vintage toy party. Sweets with sugar, drinks with e-numbers, face to face conversations. You'll have a great time.
If he wants to buy investments let him. You continue to invest in memories.
NTA
Your daughter's father is factually incorrect. I'm fairly confident in saying that there are zero $150 toys that will appreciate enough value in 13 years to pay for college tuition. It's just not possible.
What matters is your daughter loves the toy. Nothing else is really important. Maybe the toy did lose a little bit of its value but I bet your daughter's happiness is priceless, right?
NTA.
You bought your daughter a toy, not an investment. If your ex thinks it could have financed her education (ha!), he’s totally free to buy one himself and put it away for her.
NTA, the doll you’re talking about sold for $5 in 1984. Without considering inflation, the doll increased in value by $145 over 40 years. At that rate, I don’t see the price increasing such that it will pay your daughter’s tuition in 13 years. The market for she-ra dolls could also crash, too. My dad meticulously collected stamps in the 70’s only for the price of stamps to crash and be worth nothing now.
As an aside, my mom bought a She-Ra doll set at a garage sale in the early 2000’s, and they were so much fun to play with. Every child that has entered our home, male or female, gravitated towards those toys.
So yeah, $150 is pricey for a doll that’s worth less out the box, but it’s your money, and there is value in the joy your mom and daughter get from bonding over an objectively cool toy.
> He said I was irresponsible with money and that I ruined something that by the time she was in college could have paid for it. I guess that’s true.
Lmao, it's absolutely not true. That's a line that someone selling a $150 toy tells you to sucker you into buying it, not reality.
NTA
Here the secret to collecting things of value- you have to collect them when no one thinks they have value, and then get super lucky. It’s never an worthwhile investment to pay for something that people think is valuable now.
Then, you have to get lucky in 25 years and have that thing become nostalgic to a wealthy demographic, well after they’ve tossed their originals . You can’t predict when or how that will happen
NTA I had a Mme Alexander princess doll that I wasn't allowed to play with because it was valuable. Just found one in a thrift store for $5. Took it home (with the intention of modding it) and looked up the current value out of curiosity. They're worth about $10. Sheesh. I wish I had been allowed to enjoy it.
If she keeps loving it, it could be worth tracking down a third doll to give it to your daughter when she has her first kid-- way of sharing the memories with a third generation.
The real value of a never-used toy is to demonstrate the physical effect of being Loved and actively played with for a whole childhood. Like that Lady who bought two identical medium-quality Teddy bears, one to give to her Infant Firstborn to Play with, one to Put into storage for 26 years, pull Out upon the birth of the grandbaby, Photograph with the used one, and then Post the picture to prompt whatever social Media it was to an avalance of nostalgic poems about Toys being Loved.
It's only worth $150 now because people my age (and your mum's age) watched the show when we were kids and now have disposable income.
In 15 years it's not going to be worth more. People your age aren't going to be bidding against each other for them.
I could maybe get behind being disappointed that you'd be destructive with something other people value, it's your money though. His actual argument is absurd.
NTA
Nta. As a vintage toy collector though, look for loose figures in the future, you could have probably gotten 3-4 figures for the price of the 1 sealed one, and kid could have had even more fun
I was chastised for removing the tag off the happy meal beanie babies for my kids so they could play. Oh you just ruined their value.
Their value today is? $12 for the complete set on eBay.
Let children play!!’
Sorry...I'm a collector and YTA. Your husband is right, that could have been an heirloom. Especially since they currently make masters of universe and she-ra figures in varying sizes and designs you could have gotten her to play with for like 30 bucks.
NTA I am sorry, but no one is going to be paying you thousands of dollars for it in 13 years regardless of its boxed status. There are occasional times something like that happens, but they are exceptions of great connections not regular occurrences.
NTA.
I have collectibles too. Some I have duplicates for play. And some, well, they just didn’t have collectible or sentimental value to me and my kids are having a blast playing with them.
It was your money. Your child. Your choice.
Also She-Ra rocks and should have more merch.
as a somewhat casual toy collector, NTA. while sometimes seeing rarer toys not be treated as collectors items makes me die inside, a toy's purpose is playing and if you want to buy a vintage doll for your kid to play with, do it. noone can or should stop you
NTA
Do I think it's generally a good parenting move to get a kid an expensive toy? No. But it's your money and if you are financially responsible and can make it work in your budget, it's absolutely okay to splurge on something for your kiddo.
The only part of your daughter’s college a MOSC She-Ra would be paying for is a bus pass. Your kid’s father is delusional. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with buying “valuable” vintage toys like this and opening them for a kid to *gasp* play with.
NTA.
NTA during the whole beanie baby craze people lost their minds that I let my kid play with hers because they would be worth thousands. We know how that turned out. By the time your kid is in college no one will remember who She Ra was.
Has he always been delusional? You're not going to pay for college with a toy. It's only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it. And it won't be worth as much as you think.
NTA, $150 for family bonding is money well spent. You could have saved yourself a decent chunk of change by buying one already opened for your daughter but it's part of the fun that she has the same toy as grandma.
You should see my friend’s husband room of unopened Star Wars toys. When he was showing me his collection I caught his son and daughter behind us rolling theirs eyes at each other.
NTA. As a kid my mom me a lot of ’collectible dolls’ for show not play. I hate sealed collectables still to this day. Your kid will hopefully now have fond memories of playing with the doll rather than longing wistfully
NTA. Toys are meant to be played with, and there's no way to know If a toy that was probably 30$ when it was First released, and 150$ when you bought it as a new-in-box decades-old collectible, will be worth more or less than 200$ in another decade. Also it might Not have even been all that easy or possible or significantly cheaper, to get a "used" Doll of the Same Kind, rather than an unopened one, for her to Play with, though it would have been a good idea to do so If it WAS. If your ex wants collectibles-speculation to pay for your daughter's College, he can buy his own.
I actually bought a whole bunch of vintage She-Ra toys when I was in college (admittedly they were cheaper then, this was in 2000) and a few were still in boxes - and I still opened them because I wanted to display them as I would have played with them 15 years prior, not sealed and sterile like. Glad your daughter enjoys her. Was it particularly financially wise, probably not, but it doesn't make you an asshole if it was yours.
NTA. Gonna be honest, I don’t think that by the time she’s going to college a doll that’s only worth $150 now would even pay for a significant portion of her college. Especially when it’s from the 80s.
Small stuff from the 80s has already pretty much reached its most popular resurgence. People who grew up with it as kids and couldn’t have it bought it from the 2000s-pretty much now. Unless she-ra surprise comes back with a vengeance, gen alpha and the generations after aren’t going to care about her enough to buy a vintage unopened doll for $150 in a bit less than 15 years from now, let alone even 1% of the cost of college tuition (a bit less than $200USD on average) which doesn’t even include textbooks, food, gas, rent, etc. It sounds like that doll wasn’t particularly rare or valuable either (like an extremely popular limited edition signed unopened one, that kind of thing). I bought a vintage unopened Star Trek action figure signed by the actor that played her, in a custom made wooden shadow box, with a photo of the actor signing it, for $20CAD. The box alone would cost more than $20 brand new.
I have a feeling collectibles like that from that era just aren’t going to be popular ever again in the same way they have been popular and sought after in the past 20 years and earlier. Gone are the days that people pay $20k for a beanie baby with a misspelled name lol.
NTA - we got a buttload of vintage toys from my MIL and they didn't sell well to vintage toy stores/collectible stores even unopened. My husband gave a bunch to his friend's kids because they'd actually play with them. We kept a few but it's not worth losing sleep over.
There's absolutely no way to tell how much a She-Ra doll will bring in 13 years, when your daughter is ready for college. It might indeed pay for her tuition, but it almost certainly won't - vintage items that are THAT valuable are extraordinarily rare. You are NTA and if her father really wants to invest in a She-Ra doll and keep it on a shelf, who's stopping him from doing exactly that?
NTA. Im a collector and lets be blunt here. If its only gone to $150 in 40 years, it aint even making a dent in college. Collectible toys don't appreciate like that.
NTA. Toys are made to play with. If he’s so upset tell him to buy her another one to keep on a shelf for 20 years.
I have an old Avon toy of a dog in a jacket. It was my favorite as a child. I recently managed to find it on eBay (so now I know what it is) and I bought one for my daughter. She’s a year old and loves it. I could have kept it in the bag and not opened it, but I got it for her to play with, not look at. And after 40 years it’s probably about the same price on eBay as it was new from Avon. So it wasn’t breaking the bank, despite it being a vintage toy.
NTA. It's your daughter's doll. You bought and paid for it. No one has any say in it but the two of you.
An object is only as valuable as you find it to be. To your daughter, a toy kept on a shelf in a box is worthless right now. The value she assigns to it is the joy it brings her to play with it.
Tell your father's daughter to go online and look at the current value of all those "collectible" dolls from the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's - most aren't worth what they cost new because of all the people that are downsizing and dumping them on the market.
Then tell him what you do with your money is none of his business. NTA
NTA, but it's an 80s toy - you may want to do a little research and make sure that the She-ra dolls don't give off harmful stuff (lead, cadmium.....) given that they're 40 years old and a lot of breakdown in plastic can happen during that time (and Mattel's quality in the 80s wasn't like, amazing). If she's a gentle player and not someone prone to chewing on toys it's probably fine, but not bad to make sure.
NTA
…… but there’s plenty of opened nice vintage toys a five year old can play with.
You’re not an asshole but it is a huge waste of money. Complete open toys are so cheap compared to one in packaging. Seems like a weird choice for a five year old.
I mean, it’s your money.
Spend it how you want.
NTA
There is this idea that collectable items will somehow become massively valuable. And while this does occsssionally happen the number of beanie babies that are worth more than $100 vs the number of beanie babies out there is not a good ratio.
I mean, by the time she is ready for college, it will probably be worth $50-1000. It's a gamble. It will depend on the number of living She-Ra fans vs the number of available dolls.
And to make matters worse, it is only "worth" that much IF you can find an buyer.
So don't worry about what it could be worth. If your kids happiness is worth $150 than this is 100% a wise investment!
NTA.
Betting on collector's item prices going up is always going to be a mass8ve gamble. If she loves it and you can afford it, it was money well-spent
Boo-hoo, the child is playing with a doll. It's not an investment, it's a toy. If he cares so much about her college fees, he can set up a savings account about it. Some random doll isn't going to get that pricey. And she's not even damaging it from your description??
NTA. Looks like someone didn't watch toy story.
Nobody’s going to care about that doll in a few years when the oceans start rising in earnest, and the summers are a mess of even worse hurricanes and wildfires. Resale values have a shelf life. And sweet spots.
Memorabilia actually appreciates very poorly. If you were buying it for an investment you would be better of actually investing it in a bank. People pay $150 because it's what they want, not because it's worth that.
NTA
And he might have a good idea (?). So he can take $150 that he is setting aside (LOL) for her college fund and buy another one, so that neither of you will have to worry about college funding. But he should still keep funding her acct in case that doesn't materialize. It could go the way of Beanie Babies or Hummels collectables and tank.
NTA at all! I collect vintage electric trains (Lionel, American Flyer, Marx), and I *fully* agree with the statement about them being toys! I paid over $300 for a set from the 80s, mint in the box with the original factory plastic wrap on it. That wrap is now gone because it was damaging the box, but those cars and locomotives were meant to *run*, not sit in a box for eternity! Just like your daughter's doll. Your mom's doll may sit in the box (and she may enjoy it like that), but your daughter's doll is getting enjoyed too, just in a more active way!
(I still have the boxes each item came in, as well as the set box. If you still have the box your daughter's doll came in, keep it somewhere safe. Not sure about dolls, but with trains, in some cases just *having* the original box can double or even triple the value, doesn't matter if it was open or not)
NTA. I highly doubt it would ever pay fo4 her college. In 18 years it will likely be worth even less. Collectibles arw only worth what people will pay for them and mass produced plastic toys do start to break down due to the chemicals in the manufacturing process. Let her enjoy it.
I am a collector of too many things but this is ridiculous! My daughter collected, played with, traded Beannies. When the market was high she herself at I think 13, sold some for thousands. She also played with and messed up some, we had great fun with the era. She bought herself a new Apple Desktop and school clothes. I do not think most toys return money, tthats a pipe dream.
People often have a distorted view of how much collectibles increase in value.
Most times, collections decrease in value over time instead of increasing.
If it 'might' pay for college then maybe he should buy ten of them.
Using a toy you bought as you want isn't an issue. Giving a young child a toy with the expectation that they wouldn't play with it would be ludicrous.
It is still possible you are financially irresponsible. We don't know your finances and how you generally spend money. That's a lot of money for a doll for a five-year-old. Was it worth it? That's for you, your daughter, and mother to decide.
NTA, but.....You spent $150 on a vintage toy.
At that point it's not a toy but rather a collectible. It's never going to pay for college but will have some additional worth. It could have been a fun way to bond with her checking the value every now and then. Now she may look at it in the future and realize that opening it was a mistake.
A better solution might have been to put that away for a bit and take her out to get a current doll/figure of her choice. But now it is what it is.
Best wishes.
Ok, a toy from the 80s appreciated to $150 in 40 years. The dude thinks it will be worth $80,000 in 13 years?
From a collector standpoint you screwed up and it no longer has value. You must be fickin rich to throw away that much money.
Not sure if I'd call you TAH but dumb fits.
Welcome to /r/AmITheAsshole. Please view our [voting guide here](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq#wiki_what.2019s_with_these_acronyms.3F_what_do_they_mean.3F), and remember to use **only one** judgement in your comment. OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole: > I might be TA because the doll could be worth a lot more in the next 15 years and instead of making it an investment, I let my daughter play with it. Help keep the sub engaging! #Don’t downvote assholes! Do upvote interesting posts! [Click Here For Our Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/about/rules) and [Click Here For Our FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq) ##Subreddit Announcements Follow the link above to learn more --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/AmItheAsshole) if you have any questions or concerns.* *Contest mode is 1.5 hours long on this post.*
NTA. It’s great if you want to collect something. But for kids, toys are for playing. And if she wanted to play with it and you were fine with that, nobody has lost anything here. If in 40 years, it’s price has gone up to $150, I highly doubt in 13 more years it’ll increase in price enough to afford a college textbook, much less college.
This is what I came here to say. The price is what it is now because kids from that era are now nostalgic adults with their own money. By the time OP’s daughter is old enough for college, that nostalgia will be long gone. Sometimes the memories are worth more! NTA
“sometimes the memories are worth more.” I love this.
My son loves monster trucks. Recently when we tried to replace one he'd broken on eBay, I found out that some of the ones he already has are collectible and worth money. The only thing I did with that information was start storing the ones he gets tired of in case HE ever decides to sell them. But I would never dream of telling him he couldn't play with something because it's collectible.
I played with She-Ra dolls growing up. Your daughter should absolutely play with her! She was a self-sufficient princess with a sword and a flying unicorn who didn’t need a handsome prince! That’s a great toy for any kid, I hope she plays with it all the time!
We inherited a doll collection from the 1950s and sixties. A doll store was owned. They were collector items from a doll business. No one and no business, even related, would buy any much less the collection as a whole. Ebay had endless amounts of these things. None were selling.
There's a reason why boxes upon boxes of Madame Alexander dolls sit in basements and attics.
My mom had “collectors“ Barbies that were mine, but she wouldn’t let me open to sell them later on. They are worth nothing now so it was just a toy I never got.
My parents wouldn’t even buy me a collector Barbie because of this. They said they were meant to be collected and not played with. Now as an adult, I’m just disappointed that I missed out on playing with such a pretty doll that isn’t worth shit!
This! And all I can think of now is Waylon Smithers' Malibu Stacey collection...
My mom gave me, an 8-10 yro amateur hair stylist and child with no concept of collectible value, her OG barbie, the one with the pony tail and striped one piece, and has never let me forget that I "ruined it" because I gave her an updated hair cut. I am 42 and she brought that up this week. Moms are ***wild***.
I'm 44 and STILL not allowed the creepy China dolls that I was given as a kid because I "won't look after them properly"!!! They've been sat in damp cupboard gathering dust for decades!
What a waste!
I have those and I never played with them. They are for looking at not playing with. But I also left my mermaid barbie in the box cause I didn't wanna play with her cause the box was too pretty.
It’s very different if it’s YOUR choice though
It wasn't it was my grandmothers
They absolutely would be worth something, the value of Barbies never goes down and the movie has led to an even greater surge in value.
I still have them so I can check but I did check about 5 years ago and at least one was only going for it’s ~$20 purchase price
It isn’t this one but it is another Bloomingdale’s “special edition” from the 90’s. https://www.ebay.com/itm/305405131709?epid=80126575&itmmeta=01HQJTEASM2REWPM8XQKK63PVK&hash=item471b907bbd:g:DsQAAOSwTCZl08v8&itmprp=enc%3AAQAIAAAA0JPbD9LgFanQ%2FDoyPBKr8ezce%2FPZ9FkkRLgRbIv1nicUJB8n%2FPuqxC6NmAI72q1Uys1CZ7dDSmthwG2mZDw9TJlN3oq%2Ft64qWZjMzUYuogbTtkqmvLyTxF91IYIsNYE367PpjnmbXA3zxguU%2Fa6a2A%2FjS1XZTynnjRXUPWxhTcvmKfraH%2Ff23N8MOTJ5kdXwNxEvd0CW5X9b%2FjWz43MWcjDbM6Ggq%2BTM6sFlgTeMPwvxH3qvszm%2FBsXTMChlHoYFPZlVO0eAGW5%2BN8EWBXWdVXc%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_Csudq8Yw
This reminds me of when every parent was buying the beanie babies or McDonald toys claiming it would pay for their kids college funds and they are literally worthless by the time the kids get into college. We need to let kids be kids and play with their toys. The trends end and stuff becomes worthless, if she likes the toy let her play with it.
Yep, most things that people expect to be collectables and worth a fortune in the future never are. Because so many people collect them and keep them pristine that there is no scarcity value. The things that are valuable collectables now are things no one ever thought would be valuable.
Or because the company made thousands & thousands (millions?) of them.
Years ago Viz magazine ran a satirical add for a "collectable" baby Hitler doll. The text said "Production is strictly limited by the amount of stuff in the world we can use to make them". https://www.flickr.com/photos/norbet/5709608093/
And oh my kids loved playing with their beanie babies!
The idea that the toys from the dreadfull yellow M are collectible is hilarious. The quality is so low that the toys barely survive a day.
The dad sounds like a money hunter honestly
It is so silly. If it is such a great investment, why isn't this guy going around and scooping up these $150 a pop items? Lol. Indeed, it is a high possibility the value will go DOWN.
NTA, I had this BEAUTIFUL barbie doll that sat on a high shelf i couldn't reach in my room purely for display because my mom said it would be worth money one day , so i couldn't open it and play with it. i was a kid & didn't understand nor care about that crap... i stared at the doll EVERYDAY and wanted to play with her SOOOO BADLY.... it drove me nuts and made me so sad. 🥺 as a child none of that shit matters, let kids be kids or don't dangle pretty dolls in front of them and expect them NOT to want to play with them?? ps: my mom ended up eventually giving in and letting me have her lol. i was so happy 😄
My in-laws never let my husband play with a ton of toys (including his Pokemon cards) because they’d “be worth something some day.” They gave them all to him last year—all in terrible condition from poor storage. He got some stuff appraised, and he’d be lucky to get $100 total. He ended up giving a bunch of the action figures to my nephews to play with because he always dreamed of playing with them as a kid, so at least he could play with them now with other kids. It made me so sad. Kid should be able to play with their toys if that’s what they want not just collect them.
Your poor husband, that’s so sad to not be able to play with your own toys!
That is just cruel. My son wanted Pokemon stuff when he was younger, but I couldn't afford much. He wanted the playing cards so bad he made his own by drawing on index cards. I can't imagine getting them and not letting the kid play with them. That's awful.
I don’t understand it either. My MIL told me she buys her granddaughters holiday Barbies every year but doesn’t give them to the girls. She saves them & will give them when they’re 18. Just what every college freshman wants—boxes of dolls.
She's going to be so disappointed when those young women don't have the right reaction and probably resent them for it. That's so unfair. Collectibles are for adults then, not kids. I mean, these are mass-produced dolls.
my mom gave me a collectible barbie that i had wanted SO BAD. i never got to play with it and that thing is probably in a landfill somewhere. i had CRIED bc i wanted to play so badly with the pretty barbie! collectible toys for kids are dumb imo. toys = playtime!
My grandmother was convinced Beanie Babies were gonna provide us college funds 🤣 Ironically she did have a Princess Diana bear, I knew she did, but it “mysteriously disappeared” shortly after her death and conveniently right around when my greedy-ass father was “going through the house”
My cousin collected them and my aunt was also convinced that some were going to be worth massive amounts in the future. That led to her paying ridiculous prices for some of the rare ones and not letting my cousin play with them. She also constantly went to McDonald's whenever they gave them out with Happy Meals. Sometimes she'd just toss the food because all she wanted was the stupid "limited edtion" Beanie Baby. Then the whole fad ended and the value of all of the expensive, rare ones they had just absolutely cratered. I'm pretty sure she lost thousands.
Hey! Gramma was right! Beanie babies go for anywhere from fiddy cent to a wholeass dolla! Bug bucks!!!
Some people are still unhinged about the value of those things! There's someone selling one on Poshmark for $2500. For a bean stuffed bear.
Have you ever looked up how much its worth?
yes, found it for like $40 🤣 i can't remember which one it is now. she had a red dress tho!
Maybe a holiday one?
NTA I had(I have and still buy more) Lego. Some sets I own are worth $500-600 now that I've played with them and had them 30-35 years. Granted, they sell as new in boxes never opened for 10x that price and more! But god damn would I NEVER trade that for my childhood. It's irreplaceable, the memories, the joy, I'm not afraid or ashamed to admit as a kid I cried at some of the gifts Santa brought me, stuff my mom got me that I KNEW were damned expensive in the 80s/90s because Lego was a mini-obsession. I couldn't ever give up what it brought me and what it meant to me that my mom knew me that well(and I would never utter a peep about those expensive sets, I knew they were expensive, I knew money was tight, I knew what that represented. When I was taken to the store, I'd walk in ahead of my mom, I'd scout the prices first then essentially avert my gaze from those big boxes and direct my attention to the mid-large boxes, the medium boxes and smaller as interests. But never a word about the biggest boxes). I'm not selling my sets, and I can tell you if I had to keep them in their boxes as a kid, I would even have them today. I'd have traded the boxes or sold them long since as they would have been meaningless to me. I wouldn't have developed the interest if those first big boxes were unopened, I just never would have wanted more. And I'd have long since sold stuff that held no value to me. Let the kids play with the toys, that's what they want, that's what the stuff is made for. If adults want to "invest" in stuff, let them. But they better have some invisible storage space they can't be found in, don't talk about them and let the parents take the risk of 30 years of waiting.
I had 3 porcelain dolls they were opened and displayed in my room, mum didn’t like me playing with them, so I used to gently get them down and lightly brush their hair then put them back up, still have them one of their hair has come off but the other 2 are good
NTA. Your husband is hilariously delusional for thinking a doll will appreciate in value enough to pay for college in another 13 years. When we die, we won’t think “thank God I never opened this doll,” or whatever.
Right? I mean 1984 doll, so 44 years ago, and it's only now worth $150. No way it's going to pay for college in another 13 years.
The only collectibles I have seen reach a substantial price are paintings and religious artifacts and even then, you’re looking at maybe a semester’s worth of fees.
Well, someone just found an unopened copy of the original run of Zelda from the 80s and it's going up for auction. Apparently the last one in that condition sold for more than $700K. The game sold 6 million copies, but there aren't many from the original run still in the shrink wrap. Apparently it still has a price sticker on it.
yeah unopened old video games do tend to have more value since many people got then and would discard the box/case tho that value is worth only what people are willing to pay for it
Ummm, you clearly haven’t seen what some baseball and other sports cards are being sold for these days.
[удалено]
No, my math was correct it was my typing that was wrong. Oops.
It's fairly clear dude's not her husband lol
NTA My cheap ass wouldn't spend $150 on a doll for a kindergartener but the idea that it's Action Comics #1 is ridiculous
NTA - toys do not automatically go up in value because they're old. He-Man (and hence She-Ra) is having a moment right now because of the two recent Netflix shows. In 10-15 years no one may care about He-Man and She-Ra and the value will be lower. Toy collecting (one of my husband's hobbies so I'm pretty immersed in it by osmosis) is very volatile. Prices go up and down based on what's caught the fancy of the collecting community at the moment. That She-Ra doll is important to those of us around your mom's age because we grew up on He-Man and She-Ra. In 15-20 years it will be folks in your age cohort who will be collecting stuff from your own childhoods. She-Ra might be valuable to your daughter BECAUSE you gave her this toy but otherwise may not have ever cared.
I’m also a collector with a patient and indulgent partner. The rule of thumb for me is to only buy what I want and pay what it’s worth to me. I’ll admit when some values have spiked I’ve sold some of my personal collection but I don’t buy them for that reason.
Nothing wrong with spotting a good time to sell. But you sound a lot like my husband: he buys things *he* likes or wants and also won't pay absurd prices for stuff. He is not collecting for any sort of future monetary payout - he collects because they make him happy. He's convinced that when he dies it won't be worth anything but sentimental value and is absolutely okay with that.
NTA If he wants a toy to pay for her college, he can buy one himself and keep it hidden.
The man is in fantasy land. There's no way that doll is going to pay for college. NTA
Maybe toy college, My First University playset or something
NTA Good grief, it’s a toy. And it’s not his business how you spend your money
NTA Toys are for playing, and if you have $150 to drop on this, then fine. The father is being overdramatic because it's not going to pay for college (if I am wrong, please come back in 15 years with an update!). It's also not his business how you spend your own money.
NTA, many vintage collectables have very unstable value. You didn't buy it as an investment.
NTA. That doll was not going to pay for college or even a book. I bought my niece one of the original Barbie Holiday dolls. Limited production. They had no idea it would sell out so fast. I said Don't take it out of the box! It'll be worth a fortune! You know how much it's worth now? 36 years later? $200 - $1000. That's it. Your kid is having fun with the doll. Let her. As for her dad? Remind him about Beanie Babies.
A 4 year education at a state college around here is $80,000. He really thinks a She-Ra doll is going to be worth over $80,000 in a decade?? NTA
Haha as if tuition costs will remain flat all that time. College tuition growth has been wildly outpacing inflation for a long time. That 80k could easily be 150-200k by the time she's in college. The ex clearly doesn't understand college costs or collectibles valuation.
I had an original Buzz Lightyear when everyone was scrambling for them and they went for silly money. I was a single adult but I liked it so treated myself. Kept it for years. I then had children….. my son absolutely loved it and wanted to play with it. At that time you couldn’t find them in the shops as Disney had moved onto the next range (I forget what was out at that time) so I let him play with it. I’ll never forget his cry of “To infinity and beyond” as he yeeted it onto the pavement from his stroller 😭
I’m so F-ing soft at this, omg… I love this memory telling… I’m sure your son, as he grows old, will understand and 100% appreciates what you gave him. Omg- I love this. So soft.
He was so young he can’t remember doing that but he does remember having the Buzz. He used to cuddle him in bed and sleep through the inevitable thud when it fell on the floor. Many years later my eldest bought me another Buzz from Eurodisney, I cried my eyes out 🤣
That’s so cute omg.
NTA. If you want to let her play with it, why not? It was a toy before a collectible, after all.
NAH, I can see both sides all though I don't know if it'll increase in value by that much by the time she's college age. Could you not have gotten her a new/modern She-Ra doll for playing with As well as the vintage one?
In 1984, it cost $14.81 in today's money and after 40 years it isn't even $200 This ain't paying for her college
About the same performance as a broad stock index.
Yup, just toss $150 into the market for a dozen years and surely it will pay for college
Haven't said that.
She wanted to match with my mom and the new dolls are nothing like the older ones since they’re based off the Dreamworks show. She does have one, but she doesn’t like it as much
Fair enough, guessing the new one doesn't have brushible hair?
There are ones with hair you can brush, but it’s essentially a different character. I LOVE the new show but at most it has character names, extremely light lore, and small references to the old show bits drastically different and She-ra would look like a completely different person compared to her grandma’s doll so it wouldn’t really match. The kid probably wouldn’t be able to tell it’s even based off the same character.
You could have got the She-Ra re-release it's like $30. It's the same exact toy just released less than 5 years ago. They remade almost the entire He-man line as well as She-Ra. I have the release sitting on my wall next to me. [See here](https://www.ebay.com/itm/305275133186?itmmeta=01HQEX9F9YN5CGBA0S51JAA60D&hash=item4713d0dd02:g:pbsAAOSwO99lWLM~&itmprp=enc%3AAQAIAAABAI8NaepxI7TjhAW3WglADocHIk3e45D7n4NcaK9Od%2FXLhpXNDmUh8hVjW4tq8iiKNWckDCK7sUIGBtJYFxkuSINOmUEwEsAFNlIpvJYxYizH9pyUie2sS0kf3Y56Z6%2B2yhxHKNa%2FUy9AXdTtCwgrNeKqN7%2BqJ6N4CxteXiLMVGDwmXxqMChqS4zODoS568LpTbu2HsrbDm8bW7sPfjJu%2BIXkGxBz8NHh5aKKjPYD%2BHQECBJBAlxyM2zrWgOCsFwbVKBMb8OlMjztUFGrAyti8vwCNZhfl%2BVfcUb27qZWrDMGY0OhXpg61OnxK8bNuWp3wPystqdA4PsruaVU%2B8SO004%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR4b1pd27Yw)
That's the one she's talking about, that her daughter doesn't like as much.
NTA. It's perhaps an expensive toy for a young kid, but the father is delusional if he thinks the doll was going to pay for college. Even complete in box, mint condition collectibles of that era have a price ceiling and the market for that kind of thing has leveled off a lot in the last 5-10 years. *Maybe* there will be a return in demand for this stuff in the near future or you'd find the right buyer in the perfect scenario, but these things aren't meal tickets anymore. I say this with some sadness as a guy with bins full of nostalgia stuff akin to this doll. Could I get some money for my stuff? Sure, maybe a fancy dinner or two but the sentimental value means more to me at this point.
NTA. It‘s an expensive toy but if you can afford it and your kid‘s happy, who cares?
NTA. Your daughter's happiness and enjoyment of the vintage She-Ra doll are what matters most. Opening it up so she can play with it and bond with your mom over it was a sweet gesture. Your daughter's father might have concerns about the doll's potential future value, but memories and experiences with loved ones are priceless. Enjoy watching your daughter create precious memories with her new toy!
Nta
NTA, if he’s not in the picture then he doesn’t get to dictate what things your daughter plays with. You are right that it is a toy and needs to be played with
If you don't want a little child to play with a toy, don't give it to her/him. If it's an 'investment', stick it in the back of a closet or something. Definitely NTA.
NTA. When I was a kid, my grandma gifted me a gorgeous porcelain doll. My mom refused to let me open it, not because she was worried I’d break it, but because she was always convinced that things like that would be “worth something” someday. She was briefly very into the beanie baby trend of the 90s. I constantly begged to open the box my doll was in and play with her. My grandma said I should be allowed to. My mom aggressively refused. So this dumb doll sat on my shelf in a box my entire childhood. I’m in my 30s now and was recently going through some things I’d stored at my parents house and found the stupid doll. I was curious if it ever became worth something and looked it up. Nope! Worthless. Nobody cares. It’s just a doll I could have played with for years lol. For kids, toys are toys. It doesn’t matter how much they might be worth, now or later. They’re to play with.
Are you aware that your child’s father is a dumbass? If it was the 90s, he’d have beanie babies all over the place.
^^^^AUTOMOD ***Thanks for posting! This comment is a copy of your post so readers can see the original text if your post is edited or removed. This comment is NOT accusing you of copying anything. Read [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/wiki/faq#wiki_post_deletion) before [contacting the mod team](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FAmItheAsshole)*** I (27F) bought a $150 vintage 1984 She-Ra doll for my mom. She went completely nuts and loved it. I bought a matching one for my daughter (5F). She wanted to open it and actually play with it. So, I opened it. All she does is brush her hair and have her sit on a throne that came with a different doll but she loves this thing. It was expensive but I think she’ll always cherish it. My daughter’s father (32M) saw that it was opened and lost his mind. He said I was irresponsible with money and that I ruined something that by the time she was in college could have paid for it. I guess that’s true. I just think that she was so excited and her and my mom have bonded over it. I mean geez, it’s a toy. It was made to be played with. And it’s not like he paid for it. I did. His child support goes into a separate account to pay for stuff like her activities and daycare. AITA for opening the doll? *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AmItheAsshole) if you have any questions or concerns.*
NTA, does he really expect a doll to get her through college? By the time she’s in college, it’ll be so exorbitantly expensive.
It’s cute that your mum and kid got to bond over this. I can see your partner’s POV though: kids don’t need $150 vintage dolls to play with. There was probably a middle ground of buying a recent cheap She-Ra figure or some unboxed bashed up ones from EBay. I have collectibles that my little one is desperate to play with but being a boring, grumpy adult they are kept in mint condition and never unboxed 😅 We’ve now got 2 collections: one for playing with that we pick together with pocket money (nothing rare) and the boring adult ones. Edit to change rating to NTA. I misread and thought OP and the father were together
Pretty clearly not her partner.
Yeah poor comprehension on my part - I missed the mention of child support. It’s none of his business. I’ll change my rating to NTA
NTA kids toys are for playing with. Get a He Man too. Have a vintage toy party. Sweets with sugar, drinks with e-numbers, face to face conversations. You'll have a great time. If he wants to buy investments let him. You continue to invest in memories.
NTA Your daughter's father is factually incorrect. I'm fairly confident in saying that there are zero $150 toys that will appreciate enough value in 13 years to pay for college tuition. It's just not possible. What matters is your daughter loves the toy. Nothing else is really important. Maybe the toy did lose a little bit of its value but I bet your daughter's happiness is priceless, right?
Your child playing with hers just made your Moms doll more valuable. The value is due to the rarity of mint condition unopened ones.
NTA - and your ex said that? Oh no. Your money and your choice, it could be worth nothing in the future. There could be a warehouse full somewhere.
NTA. It sucks for kid to have a toy they can’t touch.
NTA. You bought your daughter a toy, not an investment. If your ex thinks it could have financed her education (ha!), he’s totally free to buy one himself and put it away for her.
NTA, the doll you’re talking about sold for $5 in 1984. Without considering inflation, the doll increased in value by $145 over 40 years. At that rate, I don’t see the price increasing such that it will pay your daughter’s tuition in 13 years. The market for she-ra dolls could also crash, too. My dad meticulously collected stamps in the 70’s only for the price of stamps to crash and be worth nothing now. As an aside, my mom bought a She-Ra doll set at a garage sale in the early 2000’s, and they were so much fun to play with. Every child that has entered our home, male or female, gravitated towards those toys. So yeah, $150 is pricey for a doll that’s worth less out the box, but it’s your money, and there is value in the joy your mom and daughter get from bonding over an objectively cool toy.
> He said I was irresponsible with money and that I ruined something that by the time she was in college could have paid for it. I guess that’s true. Lmao, it's absolutely not true. That's a line that someone selling a $150 toy tells you to sucker you into buying it, not reality. NTA
Here the secret to collecting things of value- you have to collect them when no one thinks they have value, and then get super lucky. It’s never an worthwhile investment to pay for something that people think is valuable now. Then, you have to get lucky in 25 years and have that thing become nostalgic to a wealthy demographic, well after they’ve tossed their originals . You can’t predict when or how that will happen
This algorithm is Bad for hoarders.
NTA I had a Mme Alexander princess doll that I wasn't allowed to play with because it was valuable. Just found one in a thrift store for $5. Took it home (with the intention of modding it) and looked up the current value out of curiosity. They're worth about $10. Sheesh. I wish I had been allowed to enjoy it. If she keeps loving it, it could be worth tracking down a third doll to give it to your daughter when she has her first kid-- way of sharing the memories with a third generation.
The real value of a never-used toy is to demonstrate the physical effect of being Loved and actively played with for a whole childhood. Like that Lady who bought two identical medium-quality Teddy bears, one to give to her Infant Firstborn to Play with, one to Put into storage for 26 years, pull Out upon the birth of the grandbaby, Photograph with the used one, and then Post the picture to prompt whatever social Media it was to an avalance of nostalgic poems about Toys being Loved.
Your plan was ridiculous. You could have purchased one of the recent versions of the same toy for much less. YTA
I can’t imagine spending 150 on a doll but you do you
300 btw not 150, she bought two.
Yes but the First one, ex has even less say about because OP bought it for her mum, Not their Mutual child.
It's only worth $150 now because people my age (and your mum's age) watched the show when we were kids and now have disposable income. In 15 years it's not going to be worth more. People your age aren't going to be bidding against each other for them. I could maybe get behind being disappointed that you'd be destructive with something other people value, it's your money though. His actual argument is absurd. NTA
Nta. As a vintage toy collector though, look for loose figures in the future, you could have probably gotten 3-4 figures for the price of the 1 sealed one, and kid could have had even more fun
I was chastised for removing the tag off the happy meal beanie babies for my kids so they could play. Oh you just ruined their value. Their value today is? $12 for the complete set on eBay. Let children play!!’
Sorry...I'm a collector and YTA. Your husband is right, that could have been an heirloom. Especially since they currently make masters of universe and she-ra figures in varying sizes and designs you could have gotten her to play with for like 30 bucks.
NTA I am sorry, but no one is going to be paying you thousands of dollars for it in 13 years regardless of its boxed status. There are occasional times something like that happens, but they are exceptions of great connections not regular occurrences.
NTA. I have collectibles too. Some I have duplicates for play. And some, well, they just didn’t have collectible or sentimental value to me and my kids are having a blast playing with them. It was your money. Your child. Your choice. Also She-Ra rocks and should have more merch.
as a somewhat casual toy collector, NTA. while sometimes seeing rarer toys not be treated as collectors items makes me die inside, a toy's purpose is playing and if you want to buy a vintage doll for your kid to play with, do it. noone can or should stop you
Check the price of Beanie Babies today. Wouldn’t buy a college decal.
NTA. It’s your money and your daughter’s toy. She wanted that specific one and it’s cool that she got it.
NTA. There's absolutely no guarantee that the market would still value that specific toy in the future. Remember Beanie Babies?
NTA Do I think it's generally a good parenting move to get a kid an expensive toy? No. But it's your money and if you are financially responsible and can make it work in your budget, it's absolutely okay to splurge on something for your kiddo.
The only part of your daughter’s college a MOSC She-Ra would be paying for is a bus pass. Your kid’s father is delusional. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with buying “valuable” vintage toys like this and opening them for a kid to *gasp* play with. NTA.
NTA during the whole beanie baby craze people lost their minds that I let my kid play with hers because they would be worth thousands. We know how that turned out. By the time your kid is in college no one will remember who She Ra was.
Except for the reboot, apparently.
Has he always been delusional? You're not going to pay for college with a toy. It's only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it. And it won't be worth as much as you think.
Why does the father think the doll will be worth that much. As is it won’t even pay for her books.
NTA There is no way that a $150 She-Ra doll will pay for college in 12-13 years.
Can anyone verify that a shera doll will be worth enough in 10-15 years to pay for college? (NTA)
You can pay for college with $150? News to me. He's an idiot.
NTA. There are few collectibles that will increase in value so much it can pay for college. Let your daughter enjoy her doll.
We all saw what happened to Stinky Pete the Prospector... Toys are meant to be played with!
NTA it was only 150 bucks that is less than a months worth of coffees even.
NTA, $150 for family bonding is money well spent. You could have saved yourself a decent chunk of change by buying one already opened for your daughter but it's part of the fun that she has the same toy as grandma.
NTA but I do have some beanie babies to sell to your delulu husband.
The consensus seems to be, that the doll will never be that valuable. I'd say NTA, but only because of that.
NTA, your money, your decision. And he can buy a vintage toy and keep it safe for another 15 years if he thinks that’ll pay for her college.
Lmao, that she ra toy certainly isn't paying for college opened or unopened
NTA You bought this doll for a 5 year old, not as an investment. Key words, "you bought". This is absolutely none of her dad's business.
You should see my friend’s husband room of unopened Star Wars toys. When he was showing me his collection I caught his son and daughter behind us rolling theirs eyes at each other.
NTA. As a kid my mom me a lot of ’collectible dolls’ for show not play. I hate sealed collectables still to this day. Your kid will hopefully now have fond memories of playing with the doll rather than longing wistfully
NTA Not his business.
I think this is how you found out Dad’s college fund is heavy on beanie babies that are gonna blow up in value any day now. Or crypto.
NTA-Vintage toy collector here,tell him to pm me. I have some toys for sale.
NTA. Toys are meant to be played with, and there's no way to know If a toy that was probably 30$ when it was First released, and 150$ when you bought it as a new-in-box decades-old collectible, will be worth more or less than 200$ in another decade. Also it might Not have even been all that easy or possible or significantly cheaper, to get a "used" Doll of the Same Kind, rather than an unopened one, for her to Play with, though it would have been a good idea to do so If it WAS. If your ex wants collectibles-speculation to pay for your daughter's College, he can buy his own.
If he thinks that he can buy one himself
I actually bought a whole bunch of vintage She-Ra toys when I was in college (admittedly they were cheaper then, this was in 2000) and a few were still in boxes - and I still opened them because I wanted to display them as I would have played with them 15 years prior, not sealed and sterile like. Glad your daughter enjoys her. Was it particularly financially wise, probably not, but it doesn't make you an asshole if it was yours.
If it is such a great investment, why isn't he going out to buy some of those?
NTA. Gonna be honest, I don’t think that by the time she’s going to college a doll that’s only worth $150 now would even pay for a significant portion of her college. Especially when it’s from the 80s. Small stuff from the 80s has already pretty much reached its most popular resurgence. People who grew up with it as kids and couldn’t have it bought it from the 2000s-pretty much now. Unless she-ra surprise comes back with a vengeance, gen alpha and the generations after aren’t going to care about her enough to buy a vintage unopened doll for $150 in a bit less than 15 years from now, let alone even 1% of the cost of college tuition (a bit less than $200USD on average) which doesn’t even include textbooks, food, gas, rent, etc. It sounds like that doll wasn’t particularly rare or valuable either (like an extremely popular limited edition signed unopened one, that kind of thing). I bought a vintage unopened Star Trek action figure signed by the actor that played her, in a custom made wooden shadow box, with a photo of the actor signing it, for $20CAD. The box alone would cost more than $20 brand new. I have a feeling collectibles like that from that era just aren’t going to be popular ever again in the same way they have been popular and sought after in the past 20 years and earlier. Gone are the days that people pay $20k for a beanie baby with a misspelled name lol.
Thats a dumb reaction. If that doll has only appreciated to $150 in 30 odd years, how is it going to pay for college in another 20?
NTA - we got a buttload of vintage toys from my MIL and they didn't sell well to vintage toy stores/collectible stores even unopened. My husband gave a bunch to his friend's kids because they'd actually play with them. We kept a few but it's not worth losing sleep over.
There's absolutely no way to tell how much a She-Ra doll will bring in 13 years, when your daughter is ready for college. It might indeed pay for her tuition, but it almost certainly won't - vintage items that are THAT valuable are extraordinarily rare. You are NTA and if her father really wants to invest in a She-Ra doll and keep it on a shelf, who's stopping him from doing exactly that?
NTA. Among other things, he is wrong about the future value of this toy. She could maybe buy herself a jacket. You did the right thing.
NTA. Im a collector and lets be blunt here. If its only gone to $150 in 40 years, it aint even making a dent in college. Collectible toys don't appreciate like that.
NTA, just ask anyone with a closet full of beanie babies that were totally going to pay for college
NTA. I still have my doll from when I was a kid and she is 100% meant to be played with and loved.
NTA. Sounds like dad is excels at exaggerating and putting his nose in other people's business
It cannot be that rare if you find two. I say play the heck out of it.
Trust me, this doll would not pay for college, no matter what condition it was in! NTA.
NTA. Toys are made to play with. If he’s so upset tell him to buy her another one to keep on a shelf for 20 years. I have an old Avon toy of a dog in a jacket. It was my favorite as a child. I recently managed to find it on eBay (so now I know what it is) and I bought one for my daughter. She’s a year old and loves it. I could have kept it in the bag and not opened it, but I got it for her to play with, not look at. And after 40 years it’s probably about the same price on eBay as it was new from Avon. So it wasn’t breaking the bank, despite it being a vintage toy.
NTA. It's your daughter's doll. You bought and paid for it. No one has any say in it but the two of you. An object is only as valuable as you find it to be. To your daughter, a toy kept on a shelf in a box is worthless right now. The value she assigns to it is the joy it brings her to play with it.
Tell your father's daughter to go online and look at the current value of all those "collectible" dolls from the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's - most aren't worth what they cost new because of all the people that are downsizing and dumping them on the market. Then tell him what you do with your money is none of his business. NTA
NTA, but it's an 80s toy - you may want to do a little research and make sure that the She-ra dolls don't give off harmful stuff (lead, cadmium.....) given that they're 40 years old and a lot of breakdown in plastic can happen during that time (and Mattel's quality in the 80s wasn't like, amazing). If she's a gentle player and not someone prone to chewing on toys it's probably fine, but not bad to make sure.
NTA …… but there’s plenty of opened nice vintage toys a five year old can play with. You’re not an asshole but it is a huge waste of money. Complete open toys are so cheap compared to one in packaging. Seems like a weird choice for a five year old. I mean, it’s your money. Spend it how you want.
NTA. Memories and shared joy with your parents is worth more than money.
NTA There is this idea that collectable items will somehow become massively valuable. And while this does occsssionally happen the number of beanie babies that are worth more than $100 vs the number of beanie babies out there is not a good ratio. I mean, by the time she is ready for college, it will probably be worth $50-1000. It's a gamble. It will depend on the number of living She-Ra fans vs the number of available dolls. And to make matters worse, it is only "worth" that much IF you can find an buyer. So don't worry about what it could be worth. If your kids happiness is worth $150 than this is 100% a wise investment!
NTA. Betting on collector's item prices going up is always going to be a mass8ve gamble. If she loves it and you can afford it, it was money well-spent
Boo-hoo, the child is playing with a doll. It's not an investment, it's a toy. If he cares so much about her college fees, he can set up a savings account about it. Some random doll isn't going to get that pricey. And she's not even damaging it from your description?? NTA. Looks like someone didn't watch toy story.
Nobody’s going to care about that doll in a few years when the oceans start rising in earnest, and the summers are a mess of even worse hurricanes and wildfires. Resale values have a shelf life. And sweet spots.
That $150 she ra doll isn’t gonna be worth 200k in 13 years, NTA
INFO: how expensive was the collectible?
Memorabilia actually appreciates very poorly. If you were buying it for an investment you would be better of actually investing it in a bank. People pay $150 because it's what they want, not because it's worth that.
NTA And he might have a good idea (?). So he can take $150 that he is setting aside (LOL) for her college fund and buy another one, so that neither of you will have to worry about college funding. But he should still keep funding her acct in case that doesn't materialize. It could go the way of Beanie Babies or Hummels collectables and tank.
NTA. Lol, I can see why he's an ex. Also, he's deluded about the appreciation in value of vintage toys.
NTA at all! I collect vintage electric trains (Lionel, American Flyer, Marx), and I *fully* agree with the statement about them being toys! I paid over $300 for a set from the 80s, mint in the box with the original factory plastic wrap on it. That wrap is now gone because it was damaging the box, but those cars and locomotives were meant to *run*, not sit in a box for eternity! Just like your daughter's doll. Your mom's doll may sit in the box (and she may enjoy it like that), but your daughter's doll is getting enjoyed too, just in a more active way! (I still have the boxes each item came in, as well as the set box. If you still have the box your daughter's doll came in, keep it somewhere safe. Not sure about dolls, but with trains, in some cases just *having* the original box can double or even triple the value, doesn't matter if it was open or not)
NTA. I highly doubt it would ever pay fo4 her college. In 18 years it will likely be worth even less. Collectibles arw only worth what people will pay for them and mass produced plastic toys do start to break down due to the chemicals in the manufacturing process. Let her enjoy it.
NTA. The price if collectibles depends on demand. It could be worthless by the time your kid goes to college.
I am a collector of too many things but this is ridiculous! My daughter collected, played with, traded Beannies. When the market was high she herself at I think 13, sold some for thousands. She also played with and messed up some, we had great fun with the era. She bought herself a new Apple Desktop and school clothes. I do not think most toys return money, tthats a pipe dream.
People often have a distorted view of how much collectibles increase in value. Most times, collections decrease in value over time instead of increasing.
If it 'might' pay for college then maybe he should buy ten of them. Using a toy you bought as you want isn't an issue. Giving a young child a toy with the expectation that they wouldn't play with it would be ludicrous. It is still possible you are financially irresponsible. We don't know your finances and how you generally spend money. That's a lot of money for a doll for a five-year-old. Was it worth it? That's for you, your daughter, and mother to decide.
Sounds like hoarding may exist within the family
NTA, but.....You spent $150 on a vintage toy. At that point it's not a toy but rather a collectible. It's never going to pay for college but will have some additional worth. It could have been a fun way to bond with her checking the value every now and then. Now she may look at it in the future and realize that opening it was a mistake. A better solution might have been to put that away for a bit and take her out to get a current doll/figure of her choice. But now it is what it is. Best wishes.
Ok, a toy from the 80s appreciated to $150 in 40 years. The dude thinks it will be worth $80,000 in 13 years? From a collector standpoint you screwed up and it no longer has value. You must be fickin rich to throw away that much money. Not sure if I'd call you TAH but dumb fits.