By Melissa Meehan in Melbourne

It’s unlikely more than 150 collectable Barbie dolls stolen from their dream house will be sold on the black market as the close-knit collectors community keep an eye out for dodgy dealers. 

The dolls, as well as Elvis memorabilia and a Jack Daniels esky, were stolen from a home in the country Victorian town of Tatura, near Shepparton in early December.

Still in their original packaging, it took their owner 12 years to collect the rare dolls released between 1970 and 2017.

They are estimated to be worth more than $15,000.

It’s believed the thieves could attempt to sell the vintage dolls online, and police have asked the public to keep an eye out for them.

Fady Abdel, owner of Superstar Dolls Sydney, who specialises in vintage, designer and collectable dolls, said there had been an increase in the amount of scammers since the Barbie movie was released in 2023.

He said scammers would often inaccurately advertise rare or vintage dolls when in fact they were fakes.

But he says it is unlikely the stolen dolls would be sold on the black market or to other collectors.

“That’s simply because the collector community is a small one that is tightly knit,” he told AAP on Monday.

“It would be fairly difficult to sell-off stolen dolls as these would be quickly flagged by a community member.”

He said he hoped the stolen dolls would be recovered, and it may just be a case of waiting for them to be listed within the collector communities.

Acting Detective Senior Constable Lance Wiltshire said police didn’t believe stealing the dolls was a targeted crime, instead labelling it as an “opportunistic theft”.

“That said, the dolls are fairly unique and it will be terribly hard or reasonably impossible for the owner to replace them,” he told ABC Radio on Monday.

“It is pretty devastating for the victim, it’s obviously priceless for them.”