Don't worry. I'll explain.
First, about the L.O.L. Surprise Dolls (Lil Outrageous Littles -- not laugh out loud). For parents who have kids who long for these little mysterious dolls with big eyes and sparkly outfits, we empathize. A big part of the collecting fun is the anticipation of which doll you get when you unpack them, plus all the fun related accessories that come with each doll. And you can buy (of course) all sorts of separate accessories and collectible cases for them.
To date, based on what I can find, there are multiple series of these dolls and well over 250 total different dolls in all (with many more on the way since they were some of the most popular toys in 2019). Our girls have about a dozen each. They've gotten them as gifts and they've spent their own allowance, each one starting at about $7 each. There are different categories of L.O.L. dolls that include common, fancy, rare and ultra rare.
Now, every generation has its pick of fun collectibles, created by businesses that can make bank if they hit the right kid craving nerve. And this L.O.L. doll craze has definitely been making bank. But what's fascinating to watch is the intense L.O.L. doll trading and negotiating that goes on after the unpacking.
Both our daughters, Beatrice and Bryce, have been developing their negotiation muscles with each other and with a core group of friends consumed by the L.O.L. doll craze. Serious negotations. Like Wall Street, executive boardroom, "you compromise and give me this for that because it's the best deal" negotiations. Especially when trading for rare and ultra rate L.O.L. dolls. And there's a special trading clause they call trade-backsies, used if and when someone gets buyer's remorse on a trade, she can ask for their L.O.L. doll back within a day of trading. It's serious business.
Which is why it made me think about losing my marbles. Not going literally crazy, no. Actual real-life marbles. Cat's eyes, red devils, aggies, allies, tigers swirlies, steelies, clearies and so many others. Trading marbles was big business when I was in 4th grade. But what started out as fairly innocent marble trading turned into a booming marble casino.
It started small at first. During foggy fall recesses, a couple of kids would set up marble pyramid stacks along the smooth grooves of playground dirt worn in the grass from repetitive running and playing. Then, other kids would shoot marbles from a specific distance to knock the marble pyramids down. If they did, they got all the marbles, but each time they missed, the pyramid stacker would collect the marbles and keep them.
Usually the pyramid stacks were topped with premium marbles -- clearies or steelies or other rare marbles -- which sweetened the pot of winning the stack. Our marble enterprise grew and soon there were fewer kids playing four-square, tetherball, dodge ball or nation ball (a faster and more complex version of dodge ball), and more kids bringing their marbles to school. It was mostly boys who played at first, but eventually there was a growing group of girls brining their marbles to school.
It flew under the yard duty teacher radar for awhile; we had lookouts to ensure we weren't attracting too much attention. However, human nature took over and the passion of grade school kids overtook some of us. More and more marble fights broke out when kids would lose their most precious ones. There were also some kids who tried to glue their marble stacks to prevent them from being knocked down, which didn't happen often because they were immediately banned from play. And through it all, there were no trade-backsies; when you lost your marbles, you lost your marbles.
Loose lips sink ships and eventually the yard duty teacher radar picked up on what we were doing. Even our primary teachers overheard the marble rabble-rousing during class, with kids having withdrawals because they couldn't wait until recess to gamble away. Plus, it was hard to miss the growing clump of kids kneeling on the ground shooting marbles over and over again, along with the cheering and the yelling. Eventually, our entire marble operation was shut down and marbles were banned from school. Not even my mom knew about it until she got the note from school.
So in a sense, we did all lose our marbles, so to speak. Compared to that, the L.O.L. Surprise Doll negotiating and trading seems pretty tame. In fact, it's valuable skill-building for our girls and their friends, learning to negotiate while keeping cool heads, for the most part. Thank goodness for trade-backsies.
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