- Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" hits cinemas next week and has garnered widespread public attention.
- Experts suggest the popularity of the film could boost Mattel's stock and product prices.
- Insider spoke to three Barbie collectors who seem unfazed by the potential rise in the dolls' worth.
Jian Yang, a 44-year-old living in Singapore, has the world's second-largest Barbie collection with over 12,000 dolls. His collection is worth an estimated nearly $400,000.
But Yang doesn't want to make a profit from his dolls. As a collector doing it for love, he told Insider those looking to make money should invest in other things.
"Put your money in bonds, be an adult, have a real savings plan, invest, so that whatever's left you can do stupid shit like this and never have to justify it to anyone," he said.
However, Yang, and collectors like him, could have a lot to financially gain when Greta Gerwig's blockbuster "Barbie" hits theaters on July 21. The bubblegum fever dream has created a unique moment where pop culture, product, and brand value intersect.
Google searches for Barbie hit a five-year peak on April 5 after the movie's second teaser was released. Interest in Barbie is mounting and experts believe this could have a direct impact on the value of the toys themselves.
Why Gerwig's movie could impact Mattel stocks and product value
The Warner Bros movie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, is the first of a slate of films Mattel has planned to build out its Mattel Cinematic Universe of movies about its range of toys.
This is part of the company's drive to make the IP of their products "more tangibly valuable," thus increasing stock prices, MarketBeat reported.
Antique expert Dr. Lori told Insider she estimates a 25% rise in the doll's value in the build-up to the film's release and immediately afterward. Over the last month, Mattel's stock value has been seeing an overall rise, with dolls being their main money-maker.
It's a trend Austin Hankwitz, cohost of the "Rich Habits" podcast, told Insider this trend was social-arbitrage investing – when a brand's value is affected by its pop culture and social relevance.
He noticed this trend with films like "Air, about the making of the Air Jordan shoe. Nike stock moved from $115 per share to $130 after its release on April 5.
Given that Barbie made up just over 20% of Mattel's gross billings in their Q1 report, Hankwitz believes that the film will have a "material impact" on their future earnings reports. Its next is due out at the end of July just after the film's release.
Hankwitz observed that searches for "Barbie doll" had reached their highest peak since the data began in 2004, which he said he hoped would send the share price from $20 to between $25 and $30 by Q3. Collaborations with AirBnB, SuperGa, and Gap could also prove profitable but Hankwitz said Mattel was "the purest play" as so many other factors could affect the value of these collaborative brands.
"People should not just be consumers but owners of the things that they consume," Hankwitz said, whether it's investing in stocks or collectibles. He added: "If you're excited to see the movie, why don't you also have some skin in the game?"
Devoted Barbie fans couldn't care less about market value
Barbie collectors could have a lot to gain from the movie and the publicity it brings to Barbie and lesser-known Mattel dolls. However, these doll-obsessives rarely consider the financial worth of their sizable collections.
Yang, the Singaporean collector, built his collection over several decades.
For him, each Barbie in his collection captures a specific cultural moment, like the Tommy Hilfiger - Gigi Hadid collaboration, or the 1996 Calvin Klein doll he remembers from his teens.
His biggest purchase was a Swarovski special edition Barbie that he paid 3,600 Singaporean dollars, about $2,840, for in a blind auction when he was 21.
He said: "It wasn't something I liked, it was something that greed said I had to have because it's one of a kind – it's available to me so I will buy it."
A 25-year-old collector from Philadelphia, who goes by Juno on TikTok, owns 111 dolls despite having only started collecting in 2020 after he saw more diversity in the dolls being sold.
Arjen, a 36-year-old collector from the Netherlands who owns 800 dolls and has a collection worth 25,000 to 30,000 euros, uses Vinted to find sellers abroad.
Some of Arjen's most valuable are "play-line" dolls which have become rare. He bought his dream glow Teresa doll for €250 on eBay from a woman in Poland years after its 2006 release. These dolls now sell for upwards of €500.
Juno, Yang and Arjen do not consider their collections a financial investment.
"There are too many elements to the concept of value, and it's rarely just about finance," Yang told Insider.
Arjen told Insider that, when he shows people his collection, they "always go into this room and think about one thing: money and 'Oh my god you're sitting on a gold mine.'"
But Arjen said that was the opposite of how he viewed his collections. "I see 90s nostalgia, I see all of those commercials I saw on TV, I see myself playing as a kid," he added.
Collectors don't want to part with their dolls for anything
The value of the dolls is rarely, if ever, what these collectors consider a factor in selling. Things like storage have a bigger impact on deciding how many to have. Even Juno is considering slowing his collecting to avoid creating "a doll house."
Even if these Barbie collectors were looking to make a quick buck in Gerwig's box office weekend, selling Barbies isn't easy.
As Yang said, not only is there the "heartache and pain of parting with the thing" but it involves photographing, uploading descriptions, packing, and posting the doll for what he sees as very little reward.
For those interested in dolls as an investment, celebrity dolls can be fairly profitable, especially memorabilia for celebrities who are no longer alive.
Yang said: "If you're in the world of investing that is unfortunately what happens. An artist dies and suddenly the work becomes more valuable because now mortality tells you that this artist will never create again."
The doll of Queen Elizabeth that marked her 70th Jubilee skyrocketed after her death in September from $75 to $2,400. An in-box Tina Turner doll is currently being offered on eBay for over £8,000, compared to the £55 Mattel charge on its website where it is now sold out.
While Barbies are valuable, Yang said many factors can make this unpredictable with risky rewards for those unfamiliar with Barbie's history. Arjen sees his dolls as long-term investments which will age "like fine wine."
Despite this, he isn't planning on selling anytime soon "I need to start thinking about letting go of some dolls, but for me that's a really hard process to do," he told Insider, "It's never about the value. That isn't the way I experience my collection."
Yang also has no plans to sell, instead, he enjoys the prospect of being able to pass his love of Barbie on to the next generation "If there's an extra doll that I don't want anymore I've got enough friends' children that come to my house that I can give it to them," he said.
Juno is looking forward to growing his collection in the wake of the movie. He told Insider he's looking for dolls that interest him, rather than trying to "get all of them or the most valuable ones."
Barbie will have a lasting impact no matter the current hype
So while investors like Hankwitz might see Gerwig's magnum opus as a means to generate wealth, for these investors it is about so much more.
Ultimately, Arjen hopes that the film will reduce stigma for collectors such as himself, saying: "It makes me feel safe and happy. Who doesn't want to feel the joy you had as a kid?"
Reflecting on our conversation, Yang ended: "When you look back at this conversation you realise that there's too many elements to the concept of value, and it's rarely just about financial value. As long as I've never seen this as an investment, I will not be disappointed. When your stock prices drop you cry, when your doll price falls you think well she's still in the cupboard."