Six Little Steppers Paper Dolls

Find a lot of free printable paper dolls for you and your kids on this page. Children and some adults love to cut out paper dolls and clothes. My wife can remember as a little girl putting on multiple outfits on her paper dolls and enjoying the pretend games and stories she made up. She could spend hours playing with them. These dolls are cheap to buy or you can get free ones online. Check out the links below to find them.

The vintage ones are not easy to find because these dolls don't keep very well. The collector is fortunate to find any in good condition and can expect to pay a lot for them. So be careful when cleaning out your attic because you might find treasures there. Read the story below on how someone found some and sold them for a good price. I would be afraid to keep any myself because of the fragile nature of these antiques. I could spend a lot of money on them and they get ruined in a fire or flood.

A Tall Tale (story below)

Photo used under Creative Commons from Megan Raley

You have probably heard of finding some rare object in your attic and discovering that it is worth a bunch of money. This story is no exception even though the money wasn't a large amount. It all began a few years ago when I decided that our attic was getting too full of junk and needed to be cleaned out. Deciding to do a little each day so that the job would not be to hard, I pulled down on the rope that brought down the attic stairs. My plan was to spend only one hour a day working at this dreaded project. I had tackled many other huge projects in this way and it is surprising how fast and easy it is to get the job done using this method.

The attic was hot so I chose a day in the fall to start. At the top of the stairs was the first box, which I carried downstairs so I could examine the junk in better lighting and comfort. The stuff in it was carefully sorted and most added to a pile to give to the local Salvation Army thrift shop. By the end of the hour I had sorted 3 boxes. It was a good start. The attic was so packed that one could not go far from the top of the stairs and now a dent had been made.

In the following days I continued to carry down boxes and sorting them out. Most of the junk was given away and a tiny fraction was in a pile to go back in the attic once everything was done. A month later I had finally come to the last boxes and was delighted in all the space that was available now. The stuff I was keeping was stacked neatly in one corner and there was lots of room for anything that might come up. I was even thinking that a guest room might work up there.

Continued below...

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Finding a dusty box in one corner I carried it down and opened it up. None of the stuff inside was familiar. This must have been up there before we bought the house. It seemed mostly filled with papers. Pulling out a tall thin paperback type of a book I realized that it was something for kids. It was a book of vintage paper dolls! The book looked like it had never been used as the dolls and clothes were uncut. It also advertised that they were hand-painted and everything looked in mint condition.

This was something that could be worth some money so I put it down on the table to investigate later. After sorting the rest of the box that was mostly filled with old children's' school work I again focused on the dolls. I had a friend who ran an antique shop so decided to take it with me as I planned to do some shopping later that day.

Arriving at the antique shop I found my friend and showed her the treasure that I had found. She was thrilled and told me that vintage hand painted uncut paper dolls was what many collectors wanted. I decided to sell them on commission at her store so filled out the paper work as she carefully placed the set in her glass cabinet that was protected by a lock. Just serious buyers would be allowed to examine it to keep them in new condition.

A month or so later she called me and told me that she has sold my little treasure for $500.00. I was delighted. It was a small treasure but it was exciting that I had found one. It added to the enjoyment of having a clean attic. So remember when you are cleaning out your attic to watch for lost treasure. It may not be an antique worth a million dollars but even a small treasure adds a thrill to the mundane job of cleaning.

Susan Dietel
Web Programmer
Email: susansdesign@yahoo.com