Let’s face it – dolls can get a bad rap. They can be creepy and some of them are so far from anatomically correct that they make Dolly Parton appear normal.

The seven dolls recently donated to the Mattapoisett Friends Meeting House, are not those kinds of dolls. And they’ve proven to be worth more than your average Barbie and Ken.

Mattapoisett resident Liz Dicarlo and her wife Beverly Baccelli decided to give away the vintage dolls after hearing about the friends’ efforts to renovate their building.

“We wanted to make sure they got the support they needed from the community. We went through our home and found all kinds of things that we’ve been saving for a long time and gave it to them,” said DiCarlo.

In their search, DiCarlo found a box of old dolls she’d been given as a child.

“I just figured I’d give it to them, and they could figure out what to do with them,” she said.

Although the congregation was having its annual yard sale, meeting house member Brad Hathaway thought the dolls might be worth something.

He gave them to his daughter, Jane Hathaway, a collector of china head dolls, who did some research.

“I know doll collectors go crazy on Ebay,” said Jane, a Marion resident. “I thought they had a good chance.”

Of the seven figures, six were Betsy McCall dolls, made in the late 1950s to early 1960s. The other doll was an American Character doll.

Jane and her dad listed the starting bid at $9.99 for each doll.

“Within, I would say, less than 10 minutes I started getting inundated with emails,” said Jane.

As emails from doll enthusiasts streamed in, the Hathaways learned that three of the Betsy McCall dolls were wearing rare outfits. Collectors began asking for more photos of the dolls, including the odd request to take photos of the doll’s nether regions.

“I guess there’s a seam there that can split open. They wanted to make sure these dolls crotches were good,” Jane said.

The Hathaways put the dolls up for bid on Thursday, Oct. 10 with the auctions ending the following Wednesday. As the days went on, more people signed up to monitor the bids. The “die hard” collectors emailing Jane told her there had not been such an exciting listing on Ebay for a while.

“The big guns came out for your dolls,” one woman wrote.

The Hathaways told DiCarlo about the dolls value and offered to return them to her, but she declined.

“I have a bumper sticker that says ‘War is not the answer.’ That is a quote from the friends. I’ve had it on every car that I’ve owned for the past 25 years. I just really respect what the friends do,” said DiCarlo.

The bidding escalated as the auctions drew to a close, from $325 to $800 and higher.

“The prices continued to go up,” said Jane. “I was shaking.”

The Hathaways originally thought they would be doing well to get $300 for the dolls. But when it was all said and done, the whole lot sold for $2,250, including one doll that went for $1,126.

“I can totally relate to the passion of doll collecting, but it brought awareness to a whole new category that I didn’t even know was out there,” said Jane. “They’re not even antique. They’re vintage dolls.”

According to several collectors, the rarity of the dolls and their outfits drove the prices higher than their actual value.

“People wanted it so bad, they put on the ‘crazy price,’” said Jane.

The other doll, an American Character doll, received no bids, but the Hathaways aren’t complaining. The proceeds from the Betsy McCalls made more than the meeting house’s two yard sales this fall.

Build in 1827, the meeting house interior has cracking plaster, a moldy smell in the basement, and other issues.

"It’s an old building, and there is no small project. There are just small looking projects," said member Alan Harris. "We’re still in the process of finding out how much that will cost in order to maintain it as a useful building and its historic qualities."

DiCarlo hopes people will be inspired when they hear the story and will be motivated to go through their attics.

“Think about the number of people who probably have one piece that they could give to the friends that might be valuable,” she said. “It would be really cool if people could do that.”