This week, the highly anticipated Barbie Movie hits theaters, promising a pink-splattered fantasy adventure centered around the beloved titular doll, played by Margot Robbie. This is the first live-action Barbie feature film, following several animated shows, highlighting the enduring appeal and popularity of the Mattel product, which spans decades.
Since hitting shelves in 1959 as an invention of Ruth Handler, the doll and its many iterations have not only lodged themselves in toy boxes and popular consciousness, but also in a thriving collectibles market, where it continues to retain its value.
According a recent study collect data from BarbieDB, a vintage Barbie in mint condition could fetch over $25,000 today. Meanwhile, commemorative or limited edition series, such as the Lorraine Schwartz or Karl Lagerfeld dolls, can command thousands on the resale market, per Invaluable. It’s eye-watering sums that elevate Barbie from a mere toy to a coveted artefact, reflecting as it does ever-changing aesthetics and social mores.
Below, we’ve rounded up seven of the most expensive Barbies ever sold.
7. Marie Antoinette Barbie (2003)
Sold for: $1,250
Barbie Marie Antoinette. Courtesy of Mattel.
Produced as part of Mattel’s Women of Royalty series, the Barbie Marie Antoinette was based on Elisabeth Vigée-LebrunIt is 1783 portrait of the French monarch, and comes dressed in an extravagant blue dress. More eye-catching, the doll also wears a diamond necklace, inspired by the same luxurious trinkets that sparked the scandal Case of the Diamond Necklace in 1784. The doll made history when it fetched $1,250 at an eBay auction circa 2016, but current asking prices on the same platform range between $1,500 For $3,500.
6. #2 Brunette Barbie in a Ponytail (1959)
Sold for: $6,710
A brunette version of the original Barbie doll. Photo: Hector Mata/AFP via Getty Images.
Seven versions of the Barbie doll were produced in 1959, all of them largely resembling except for minute variations. Barbie #2, while wearing the same black eyeliner and graphic swimsuit as her predecessor, differed in the design of her legs, which were not constructed with copper tubing like Barbie’s were. #1.
These vintage Barbies are naturally the most sought-after dolls; in collector parlance, the lower the edition number, the higher the price. In 2013, this historic toy, complete with all its accessories and still in its box, fetched $6,710 on eBay, one of the highest prices ever paid for Barbie #2.
5. Lorraine Schwartz Barbie (2010)
Sold for: $7,500
Barbie Lorraine Schwartz. Courtesy of Mattel.
Yes, $7,500 is a huge sum to pay for a doll, but one that got a bargain (and it did at an auction that also benefited the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation). As part of a collaboration between Mattel and the Council of Fashion Designers of America, the Barbie was designed by the American designer, who gave the doll a chic makeover with a little black dress and earrings encrusted with diamonds, a belt, bracelets and a huge letter “B” – which totaled $25,000 in real dollars. Only 12 of these Barbies were made, which explains its value despite its recent vintage.
4. Gala Abend Barbie (1965)
Sold for: $9,148
The Abend Barbie Gala seen at Christie’s South Kensington in 2006. Photo: Chris Jackson/Getty Images.
In 2006, Christie’s organized the sale of a private collection of some 400 Barbie dolls, including this rare model realized a price 12 times higher than its high estimate. Exclusive to the Japanese and European market, the Gala Abend doll is dressed in a lush gala dress with intricate detailing, her hands holding a purse and a small dance program. And in the rarest of feats, the doll also had bendable legs, the kind of flexibility your everyday Barbie doll doesn’t have.
3. Barbie #1 (1959)
Sold for: $27,450
The original Barbie, photographed on December 1, 1992 in New York. Photo: Yvonne Hemsey/Getty Images.
The original Barbie doll sold for $3 in 1959. Today, she’s dubbed a collectible doll.Holy Grailbeing hard to find and even harder to find in good condition. When it does, the doll can attract eye-popping prices, as it did at a 2006 auction at Sandi Holder’s Doll Attic in California. The $27,450 paid for an unboxed Barbie No. 1 set a (since broken) Guinness World Record for the highest price paid for a Barbie doll at auction – and more, has allowed its senders, a retired coupleto put money aside for a motorhome.
2. De Beers 40th Anniversary Barbie (1999)
Sold for: $85,000
De Beers 40th Anniversary Barbie. Photo: Gilles BASSIGNAC/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images.
For Barbie’s 40th anniversary, Mattel commissioned De Beers jewelers to design a doll, resulting in one of the most expensive toys on the market. De Beers dressed the special edition Barbie in a Princess Leia bikini with a delicate belt studded with 160 diamonds. This ultra-rare model never hit retail shelves, but went straight to auction. Unlike Barbie #1, however, it didn’t take five decades to become one of Mattel’s most treasured offerings.
1. Stefano Canturi Barbie (2010)
Sold for: $302,500
Stefano Canturi posing with the world’s most expensive Barbie doll in Sydney, Australia in 2010. Photo: Robert Gray/Getty Images.
The Barbie overseen by the Australian jewelry designer is worth more than its price: only one Barbie Stefano Canturi has been made, wearing a bespoke choker crafted with white diamonds and a striking pink diamond. The colorful one-carat jewel was a rare find from Australia’s Argyle mine and was itself worth $300,000, turning the toy into an investment piece. The doll went under the hammer at Christie’s in 2010whose profits will go directly to the Foundation for Breast Cancer Research, according to Canturi’s wishes.
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