Power Wheels Barbie Cadillac Escalade $400.
If you want to see Silkstone Dolls, use this link:
If you want to see more fashion dolls for adults, click on:
The other big change is that there are going to be three membership levels - pink, gold and platinum. Read very carefully as rewards have requirements such as spending $80 or $100 before you can use one.
At the highest level, you would have to spend $400 over four quarters to get your full $120 benefit. Plus you would get free shipping all year. It could be worth the $34.xx and maybe not.
You can still do the $19.95 membership fee and get the usual rewards although now you have to spend $80 per order to get $20 off. That kind of sucks.
If you don't buy either the gold or the platinum status, you can have a Pink Status membership for free but no access to the forum.
I may just stop buying Silkstone dolls now.
Everything changes and Mattel is in business to make money, of course. I wish them and this website the best of luck. I am very interested in hearing what my fashion doll collector friends think.
What do you all think about these changes to the website and the membership?
Hi! I was a member this past year (for the first time) and got the "free" chair. I ordered the blue suit doll. I sold every thing on ebay except the shoes--because they look great on Poppy Parker. I didn't buy anything else, even for my children. But, I tried it once. The WClub is much better! There are actually cool things coming out and things to buy. But, good luck Barbie! Don
ReplyDeleteGood luck is right!
DeleteTerri
Terri I am so glad you posted these in depth fine print details. I had seen a link on Facebook and browsed the site, but didn't really have time to do more than gloss over it and see that signing up for the site was on the 24th. Makes you stop in your tracks a little bit when you see you cannot use your reward unless you spend $80 or more. I am thinking on giving them a chance and signing up for the platinum site since I do collect the faraway forest series.
ReplyDeleteBUT, like you, I really wish they had kept the playline toys seperate from the collector dolls. I had heard on the forums one of the collectors who had asked the reps on the phone about this and this was to reach those customers who did not have 'access' to Barbie in their areas or make it easier to shop, so I guess on the one hand that makes sense but on the other, it cheeses up their collector products too. Many people do not know the difference between a $10 fashionista and a $100 Silkstone, from my experience. I do know the site is easier to navigate, which is a plus. Hopefully Mattel is getting with the program.
I, too, like the new look and design of the website. I was excited about the new membership opportunities and thought "woohoo, $120 bucks worth of rewards" until you read the small print where it says you have to spend $100 to get the $30 off. F*ck that. No way. This is actually worse than before because before you did not have a minimum, now you do. I do like some pop culture dolls but they never add up to 80 or 100 and I am not wiling to be manipulated into buying more so I can use their lousy $30 coupon.
ReplyDeleteThe only good thing is the free shipping for the Platinum option, but the minimum dollar spent requirement does not make it worth it unless you are a hardcore fan who buys a lot. And you know how they arrive at the $100 minimum, right? They take the doll's price (e.g. $100), deduct shipping from it ($15.95), which brings it under $100, so you cannot apply the coupon. So you either add more or don't use the coupon. That is how they did it all last year too.
And their Silkstones are low quality and suck anyway so it is definitely not worth it.
The biggest put off is, as you said, that they have lumped collector dolls together in with cheap playline dolls and accessories and clothing. I thought the collector side of this was the whole point and it was clear that the collector dolls are not playline. Now the lines are blurred which, ironically enough, is en par with their recent decline in quality for their collector series. So in a way there is a sincere logic to lumping their low quality Silkstones/collector dolls together in with their playline junk. I won't be joining at all.
Now you have convinced me not to join at all. You have to be dumb to think they're offering something better. It's a shame but a transparent one.
DeleteTerri
Poppy: can you email me, please?
DeleteThanks.
While the website is usable and I can find things, what is so special now? What is enticing me to actually buy or join as a member? What makes it appealing as a collector? These are the things I asked myself as I perused the site and I just find myself turned off. Why lump in collector dolls with play dolls? (Although, technically it seemed like the old site was doing that anyway with what they were churning out.) What genius thought this up?
ReplyDeleteThe old Silkstone dolls were special. I would literally throw my money at Mattel if they would make good quality dolls with great clothes like they used to. Now my wallets is closed. I am not going to sign up for the club this year. I am looking elsewhere to spend my money. Sorry, I am just so very disappointed in this club.
I asked myself the same questions. And, I have come to the same conclusion.
DeleteThanks for your comments.
Terri
I barely used all of my coupons last year and even then it was because some friends and I combined an order. Curious to know if they will "sell" out of their memberships this year. I just may wait until something comes up that I really want and then join.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments.
DeleteTerri
I don't understand what's going on with them. I remember the collectible Barbie website from 2001 - it was really something.It was called BarbieCollectibles those time. They had full archives of every adult collectible doll produced and vintage dolls as well ( including fashions). Forum was informative and full of life. Dolls were brilliant. First silkstones were amazing.Then the website changed its name to Barbie Collector but the archive was still on.Year ago I checked it and couldn't find the archive... Where is the doll archive now? Where is the list of the old silkstones? Where are old Mackies? Is it a shop only now? I feel lost. I haven't joined for a few years because they did not ship to Europe and they made me to bother my friends from USA to ask them for being my "shipping buddies" just because I wanted to get my member card and some free booklets. So I quit for some time. I am still don't know if it is worth returning. They still don't ship to Europe and still require an US shipping buddy.And they seem to be close to ruin the exclusivity of collector dolls.
ReplyDeleteI have a strong impression that they are focused on playline now. And they want us to collect playline dolls too as some of us collectors collect old playline dolls.I hope the archive will be returned anyway.
The archive must be in there somewhere. I have often seen it when searching for a particular Silkie on Google.
DeleteT
I'm very upset with the new website. I think it's hard to traverse. Makes me have a headache. I'm an adult collector and don't like that all the kiddie stuff is mixed in with the collector dolls. I feel they've dumbed it down, like I'm looking at Walmart or Target online shopping (not that I'm knocking those stores but I guess I'd always thought "Barbie Collector" was more refined somehow; more specific; as if they took us adult collectors seriously; when, now, we don't seem to count anymore and they're only going for the youth market as mentioned by Steve C. here).
DeleteTo me, every time they change the site, it just keeps getting worse and worse. I've been vocal about it with them to no avail. I've tried to give feedback as a long-time customer.
I too despair of losing that substantive archive they had, oh, some dozen years ago; it was a treasure and spurred my desire to collect after so many years without my Barbies from childhood. I could go back to that archive, see what I really wanted to yet find, catch up to what I'd missed over the years when I didn't even know there was a Barbie collector site, then look for that doll on eBay or, say, Amazon's secondhand marketplace (when the doll had long since been unavailable to buy from Mattel/Barbie Collector). Over the years, that earlier archive at Barbie Collector got more and more diminished each time they tried to overhaul the site. I could no longer rely on them for historical info, so had to go buy some books, which annoyed me because they'd indeed had at one time such a complete history/photos, I guess until 'somebody' had to justify their new job at Mattel/Barbie (or something!) and change up the website, AGAIN. I never know why there's such a push to reinvent the wheel, when the wheel was rolling just fine.
I also am no fan of the new jointed silkstones. I'm not interested in posing them (like when we were little girls, playing and pretending) and I think the jointed hands/arms/legs detract from the beauty of the collector dolls. My humble opinion.
I have also pleaded with Barbie/Mattel to do more vintage repros, both dolls and outfits, but they're doing hardly any now.
So, I'm probably going to step away from Barbie/Mattel and quit collecting any more Barbie dolls. This has made me assess/reassess and decide my personal collection of dolls is complete because, frankly, that new website/membership is not worth the aggravation. "Everything" about it now seems too complicated; unnecessarily complicated and more time-consuming than I want to deal with (although I realize I'm probably also one of those people who doesn't deal well with CHANGE). But, bottom line, they've lost a customer although I realize there's fierce competition out there in the toy market and they need to do what they need to do to survive in it.
Thanks for allowing me to vent around fellow Barbie devotees.
Thank you, Vicki, for taking the time to post. I agree with everything you've said except I am a fan of the articulated dolls. I wasn't going to but impusively I signed up for the lowest level of membership. It was probably a waste of money but I've wasted much more. If they don't go back to one type of membership, I'll quit altogether.
DeleteObviously, going for the youth market (19-49)....... one would assume from the site that the Silkies would be a playline doll, which it isn't. I miss the Barbie collectibles and the old Mackies and Silkies. Great clothes, details, and accessories. Oh, well- W Club here I come!!!
ReplyDeleteMy big thing is the FORUM, for that I would gladly pay Gold or Platinum fees. I do so hope I will be able to continue to communicate with my friends. It was the whole reason for joining BC in 2015. Since I do buy playline and rebody them, having access to those is no big deal to me. I BELIEVE mattel must think it is efficient to have only one site to take care of, but I could be wrong. I cannot say I won't buy any more collector dolls. I have become picky but that is what collecting is. SILKIES from what I could see where under Signature or Collector unless my "walk" through the site was wrong. I LOVE BARBIE. I cannot live without her even if the dolls I have now are all I have. I build for her and always end up coming back to her, Ken, Chelsea, Skipper and Stacy. W Club maybe. Dear Dear friends on BC REDRESS YOUR SILKIES I so hope we can still be on FORUM. Guess I will have to wait til 7/24. I will go 1 more year.
ReplyDeleteI might renew only because of the forum. So I will opt for the Gold membership. I don't have any Barbie dolls in my collection anymore, but I still like Barbie dolls, and have been part of the BFC since 2007. -- Julia (wholeeah)
ReplyDelete