BARBIE COLLECTORS MAKE TOYS SERIOUS BUSINESS

SCOTT CITY -- Fortysomething women and younger may remember Barbie as the nearly foot-high, adult-looking doll every girl owned.

When they think about her now, they think investment and kick themselves for not keeping Barbie dressed and in her original box.

Barbie isn't a toy anymore. She's big business. She made headlines last year when the very first Barbie, produced in 1959, sold for $5,100 at an auction. The doll originally cost $3.

Now, women who played with Barbie dolls, and even women who were too old for dolls when Barbie came out, snatch them up at toy stores and keep them in boxes and glass cases.

Nobody seems to know the real reason American women have gone Barbie crazy, but every collector has a different story on how she became hooked.

For Cape Girardeau resident Becky Goehman, 50, it started when she found two Bubble Cut Barbies at an antique sale for $6 each. They had plastic hair that could be covered with three wigs in black, blonde and red.

The purchase turned Goehman's attention from her beloved Cabbage Patch Dolls to Barbie.

Goehman was a teen-ager when Barbie first came out -- more interested in boys than dolls. Later, her children played with Barbies, but Goehman never thought about keeping them clean and in the box.

"I would pick them up and put their clothes back on, but back then, I was thinking more about how we would have groceries than how to collect dolls," she said. "Now the kids are grown and gone, and I have time on my hands.

"Maybe we're trying to collect our childhood."

In addition to her 100 dolls -- most of them from the 1960s and 1970s -- Goehman has collected an extensive knowledge of Barbie history too. She said the very first Barbie in 1959 was too harsh for most kids. Her pointed eyebrows and sophisticated look wasn't attractive in dolls, parents thought.

It actually was the third Barbie that sold like hotcakes, right down to 1996. And, over the years, the famous doll has had an extensive collection of friends, boyfriends and relatives, including Ken, Skipper, Midge, Alan and others.

But it is Barbie who endured and became valuable. Although most collectors don't like to disclose the value of their dolls, Goehman is selling a 1993 Winter Princess doll for $500. A collector's guide said it is worth $695.

Magazines like "Barbie Bazaar" and collector's guides like "Miller's" let people know how much their dolls are worth.

Marlene Creech, a Scott City Barbie collector, said she and her husband, Omer, correspond with dealers all over the country to get dolls. The two are music instructors, and they said they consider the dolls good investments.

Creech said limited edition dolls and first edition dolls usually end up being valuable.

Creech, too, said she was too old for Barbie when the doll first came out. She didn't pay much attention to Barbie until she bought a 1992 Happy Holidays doll on a whim. When a music student's mother told her what the doll was worth, she started looking for more.

"We would look in the Barbie aisles and see this doll and that doll," Creech said. "Now I buy every new one that comes out. It's an expensive project."

The project resulted in the proud ownership of 280 collection pieces -- actual Barbies, Barbie Christmas ornaments, Barbie plates, a Barbie tea set and other items.

Sometimes Creech gets extras and sells them through classified advertising. She made several sales before Christmas, but things have slowed down now, Creech said.

The collector doesn't plan to sell anything but the extras unless there's an emergency. She would like to pass them on to a granddaughter instead.

"I don't think the Barbie craze will end, at least not in the foreseeable future," Creech said.

But will the craze end for her?

"I hope not," she said. "I think it keeps me young."