Baby Alive Dolls: How to Make Money Reselling Toys

Reselling 101

By RC Staff

21 May 2023

Every year, parents around the country wait until the last minute to pick up gifts for their children. What they end up buying varies, but there’s always one or two toys that stand head and shoulders over the rest. For a reseller, recognizing and stocking up on these products before the rush is critical. In 2020, the Baby Alive dolls would be the standout hit of the season, and created an opportunity for some to profit from reselling them.

What are Baby Alive dolls?

Baby Alive is a brand from Hasbro that creates highly detailed and functional baby dolls. The Baby Grows Up model is a doll that simulates the early stages of growth for a child. When first opening the box, the doll is swaddled in blankets with closed eyes.

Over time, the doll’s appearance changes, and it “grows up”, getting taller and its hair grows longer. With 75 different sounds and words, the doll will go from saying its first words to stringing together sentences. Eventually, it grows to a toddler, and can stand on its own.

There are three variants of the dolls: “Happy”, “Dreamy”, and “Sweet”. “Happy” dolls were the most popular during the 2020 season. Additionally, each variant could have either light or dark hair, as well as different colored eyes, although this didn’t seem to affect the resell value much.

Did Baby Alive dolls resell?

Yes, Baby Alive Baby Grows Up dolls would resell very well. Resellers could buy several dolls for retail at $50, and flip them for $100 or more. The dolls’ widespread popularity meant that they could sell them locally with ease, rather than relying on online marketplaces like eBay or Facebook Marketplace to make a sale.

While all of the Baby Grows Up dolls were a good flip, the “Happy” variants would resell for a higher price. The difference in price wasn’t crazy, usually around $20, but still significant. Additionally, “Happy” variants were very easy items to resell because they were so popular, so stock could be moved very quickly.

Baby Grows Up dolls would resell in 2020 for a few reasons. The main factor driving their popularity was social media. The dolls released several months before the holiday, giving YouTube channels and TikTokers plenty of time to review the dolls and make videos about them. Videos like this were posted just before the holidays, gaining millions of views and sparking the hype.

Once a product or toy gains viral popularity, it’s just a matter of time before it flies off shelves, especially in the run-up to a holiday. For the Baby Grows Up dolls, these would be sporadically restocked at various retailers between October and December, but without access to monitors or advanced notice, it was hard to compete with other buyers.

When empty shelves become a regular occurrence for a product, it’s essentially a self-fulfilling prophecy at that point. Any stock is quickly bought up, sometimes even by store employees because they recognize the value of the product. With so little time left until the holidays, there’s not much the manufacturer can do to alleviate the demand, so whatever stock remains is all that goes out.

How to find toys to resell

Every year before Christmas, we see a few particular toys become popular. As demand picks up, social media usually catches onto the trend, and videos or posts are made about which toys to buy. This creates a self-perpetuating cycle, and the toy will stay sold out and hard to find until after New Years.

For resellers, these kinds of toys represent opportunities to make big profits reselling. Recognizing good items to flip, and getting out ahead of them is critical for any successful resale business. Here are four tips for finding the best toys to resell.

Pay attention to content creators

For resellers, these kinds of toys represent opportunities to make big profits reselling. Recognizing good items to flip, and getting out ahead of them is critical for any successful resale business. Here are four tips for finding the best toys to resell.

Toys can be released and reviewed any time during the year, but around August and afterwards is when the marketing kicks into high gear. Manufacturers often send out free versions of toys to content creators for them to review around this time of year, and creators will rush to create a video if a toy is gaining in popularity.

Connect with other resellers

This is the best way to separate good flips from bricks. By joining a network of other resellers, you can gain real-time information about what items are selling, and what are not. While you can’t always take everything a content creator says at face value, confirmation from a fellow reseller that an item is reselling for a high price is ideal.

Joining a cook group is a great way to connect with other resellers. Telegram chats or Facebook groups can work as well, but you should always be looking to take conversations to the next level. Try to find people with similar interests to you, and be open to going outside your comfort zone. Experienced resellers know there’s plenty of money outside sneakers.

If you haven’t already, make sure you’re subscribed to our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest developments among resellers. Joining RC Elite is the best way to find new items to resell.

Utilize monitors and stock checkers

If you’re already a part of a reselling group, you likely have access to monitors. These helpful tools will watch retailers’ websites, and instantly send an alert when stock is loaded. This is an invaluable tool for a reseller, as it allows you to get a head start over other buyers.

Stock checkers like Brickseek allow you to query a store’s inventory on the fly. This can save you from having to make an in-store trip just to check stock, but they are not always perfect. Sometimes stock may not show properly through a stock checker, so you may miss out.

Don't count on last year's items

Just because a toy sold well last year does not guarantee it will resell again this year. In fact, it usually means quite the opposite. Remember, for an item to resell, there has to be a combination of demand and scarcity, or else consumers will not be sufficiently motivated to pay a higher price to a reseller.

When a product does extremely well, the manufacturer makes a note of it, and will increase production for the next year. This ensures they make the most profit possible, but also means that stock will be much easier to find. For a reseller, this kills your opportunity to control the market. Unless you are able to acquire stock for under retail price, you won’t be able to profit.

Many times, items that are good to resell are somewhat fringe. It’s usually an established manufacturer taking a risk on an experimental product, like these Baby Grows Up dolls. In these cases, the manufacturer is essentially testing the waters, and careful not to overproduce in case the product ends up unpopular.

Other times, we see the best items to resell come from small time companies, who put out a new product that becomes a breakout hit. These smaller manufacturers are simply incapable of matching the demand for their products, so resellers are able to profit from the restricted supply. Check out our article on the Nugget couch for an example of this phenomenon in action.

What do you think? Would you like to make money reselling toys? If you’re looking for ways to get started reselling, or you’re a pro just hunting for new items to buy and sell, we’ve got you covered. Check out our other articles for ways to start up and grow your reselling business.