Monster High Skullector Elvira Doll Explodes on eBay

News

By RC Staff

25 March 2023

Key Points:

• Monster High’s latest Skullector doll is Elvira, which released on January 13

• The dolls were only in stock for a few minutes before selling out for $65

• They now resell for $150+ easily, with a massive aftermarket to boot

Item

Art & Collectibles

185

Profit

This is the difference between the sale price and resell price. It does not take into account any costs associated with reselling. Things like shipping, storage fees, if applicable.

Monster High Skullector Elvira Doll

A limited edition Monster High Skullector doll of Elvira, a nationally syndicated horror hostess that has performed for over 40 years.

On January 13, the Monster High Skullector Elvira doll was unleashed on the world. It took just five minutes for stock to deplete. Now, the dolls are selling for three to four times what buyers paid. What’s the deal with these dolls? And why are Monster High collectors so eager to get their hands on them?

What is the Monster High Skullector Elvira doll?

While the dolls would first be officially revealed on January 9, fans had been speculating about them for some time. In a Reddit thread from June 2021, Monster High collectors were talking about a potential Skullector Elvira doll, and were generally very excited about the possibility.

There’s actually a fairly sizable community of fans around the Monster High IP. While the franchise went through a bit of a rough patch through through the 2010s, its recent reboot is proving extremely popular, and has commanded a significant adult following. While fans are eager to collect all kinds of Monster High dolls, the most desirable are the Skullector dolls.

Monster High Skullector Dolls

Dolls from the Monster High Skullector series are the highest quality and most detailed Monster High dolls produced. All of them center on horror icons, and include characters like Dracula, the Bride of Frankenstein, and Beetlejuice. The Monster High Skullector Elvira doll is the latest in the series.

The Elvira doll is notable because while Elvira is technically a horror character, she’s essentially the stage persona of actress Cassandra Peterson. Elvira has appeared in numerous television shows, movies and horror anthologies, typically acting as a macabre hostess.

Why is the Monster High Skullector Elvira doll special?

Even though Elvira isn’t the same type of horror character to be expected, she’s still a widely beloved figure among horror fans, the goth subculture, and overgrown teenagers.

Conveniently, the Monster High fandom is a melting pot of all three of these groups. When people were speculating about the possibility of a Skullector Elvira doll, fans even predicted that buyers would go crazy for one.

Of course, that’s exactly what happened when the Monster High Elvira doll was revealed on January 9. Their Instagram post showing off the doll racked up 200,000 likes in the first 24 hours, more than any other prior post.

In just a few days, the dolls would go up for sale on Friday (the thirteenth!) The Monster High Skullector Elvira dolls would only be in stock for a few minutes before selling out completely.

How much did the Skullector Elvira dolls cost?

Mattel sold the Elvira dolls through their website for $65. Customers were limited to two dolls per transaction. Like all Monster High Skullector dolls, the Elvira doll was only available online, through the Mattel Creations webstore.

Why did the Monster High Skullector Elvira dolls resell?

While reselling Monster High dolls on eBay is nothing new, the Skullector Elvira dolls seem to be a bit different. For one, the sell out time was extremely fast. Previous Skullector drops sell out fast, but usually over the course of a day. The Elvira drop was gone in minutes, suggesting something else was at play.

Monster High collectors seem to place the blame on resellers, and insist the drop was largely dominated by bots. To be fair, that seems pretty true. Since January, eBay has recorded more than a thousand sales of the Monster High Skullector Elvira dolls, most of which are at or above $150. This does seem like a case of resellers taking a significant chunk of stock

It’s also possible that the Elvira doll was underproduced compared to previous releases. The resell values of other Skullector dolls are substantially lower than the Elvira dolls, so Mattel may have anticipated them to not sell well, and limited production.

When the dolls were revealed on January 9 to massive praise, it’s not like they could magically pump out a few thousand more before the release. Well, actually, it’s Mattel, so they probably could, but didn’t. In any case, when the dolls did eventually go up for sale on January 13, they vanished almost instantly, and sizable percent went to resellers.

What you should take note of is that even though 1,000+ dolls were bought up by resellers, they still resold. At a pretty good margin too. $150 for $65 doll is not bad at all, especially if you were able to get two. Generally what we see with products that are saturated with resellers is a general decline in profits, as resellers compete with one another by lowering prices.

In the case of the Monster High Skullector Elvira dolls, it seems collectors couldn’t help themselves, and were eager to fork over cash to resellers to get their fix.

We recommend keeping your eyes on Monster High for future Skullector dolls. While they may not be the easiest buy out there, Monster High fans seem they are willing to pay up.