Retirement

Retirement is when a doll, outfit, book, or accessory becomes no longer available for purchase direct from American Girl.

Historical Character Retirements
Originally, very few things were retired from Historical Collections. To maintain consistency with the characters through time, almost nothing was retired by Pleasant Company. While several things were remodeled or retooled, they were not completely removed from being purchased. The major exception during these years was the Limited Edition Historical Outfits, which, by their nature, were only intended to be offered in small quantities for a limited time.

Keeping each historical character's items consistent--thus to show how things changed through time--was kept until Mattel purchased American Girl. While things maintained this pattern for the initial years, items began to retire more often and with less of a pattern among the Historicals. The retirements are currently heavily skewed towards Addy, Kirsten and Josefina, though Felicity was victim to them in the past. Addy, for example, has had every single item in her school collection retired.

When Kaya was released in 2002, Felicity was removed from paper catalogs. She was only sold online through the website, and her collection was massively retired. She was not included in story expansions or collections as well. Several items (but not all of them) were rereleased when the movie and Elizabeth Cole were released and Felicity's collection was revamped. It is yet to be seen if Addy, Kirsten or Josefina will likewise regain any of their lost collection size if they receive movies and best friend dolls.

The official position of American Girl is that low-selling Historical items are removed to allow newer items to be released for purchase. However, it may be a case of chicken-and-egg in that many low-selling items are not shown in catalogs or advertised as heavily as other items and so do not sell as well. Several collectors feel that the newer items that come out after older things are retired are of a poorer quality than what was previously offered by Pleasant Company.

Historical Character Archiving
On October 6, 2008, it was leaked by American Girl Customer Service that Samantha Parkington and her entire collection, including Nellie O'Malley and her own collection, would be archived -- they are being put away for an unknown number of years, and American Girl's press releases were vague as to whether they will even be rereleased.

The official announcement was made on Oct 13, 2008, and soon after, a website was launched to share memories of Samantha. Catalogues and the website stated that the 2008 Holiday Season would be the last holiday season to get Samantha and Nellie. Nellie dolls sold out completely on December 5th, 2008; Samantha dolls remained on constant backorder until selling out on Feb 3, 2009. All item purchases were limited to three maximum of each item (to prevent hoarding for reselling). Books about Samantha and Nellie, as well as their mini dolls, remain available. Samantha and her collection officially archived on May 31 with the release of Rebecca Rubin. They are classified with the Girls of the Year on the American Girl Archive. 

Just as it is unknown at this time if Samantha and Nellie will ever be rereleased, it is also unknown if other Historical characters will be archived. Presumably, archival is to allow American Girl to release characters from other time periods that have yet to be covered.

American Girl of Today/Just Like You Retirements
American Girl of Today/Just Like You dolls have always had periodical retirements of clothing and accessories so as to be able to update styles to reflect modern fashion. Holiday outfits are quite often retired in early Spring after release. Furniture tends to last about a two to three year cycle.

Matching girl's clothing is retired about the same time the doll's outfits are, and allowed to sell out.

Girls of the Year Retirements
Due to the nature of the Girl of the Year line in that they are limited edition collections, the dolls are retired in a set schedule. Each doll and several items are released at the start of the year. A few more items are released in the summer. However, all items available are retired at the end of the year regardless of remaining stock. Some items run out before December 31; in December, items can be considered retired after they become sold out. The only item that is left available after the girl's year has ended is the book (or books in the case of Nicki and all Girls of the Year released after her).

Originally, after the launch of the next doll, remaining stock would be sold at discount. Now, everything is fully retired and remaining stock is sent to the Madison Children's Museum Sale.

Bitty Baby/Bitty Twins Retirements
Like the Just Like You line, Bitty Baby and Bitty Twins have items retired on a cyclical basis.

With the revamp of the Bitty Twins line in 2006, all the outfits that suggested a younger age to the twins were retired.

Other Retirements
Several lines have been retired by American Girl, most often due to poor sales:


 * Miss AG Bear
 * Girls of Many Lands
 * Hopscotch Hill
 * American Girl Minis

Angelina Ballerina was not retired; rather, the reason that American Girl no longer sells these products is because the line was purchased by another company.

Book Retirements
Books have been retired on a infrequent basis. It generally depends on the line.


 * Original Fiction Novels are no longer sold through American Girl.
 * The History Mysteries are a discontinued line.
 * While the Girls of the Year are all retired at the end of the year, their books remain available.
 * As all of the Girls of Many Lands were retired, so were their books.

Other books are retired in cycles as purchases and/or stock become low, or relevance is diminished. While the Historical Characters have had some books retired, none of their Central Series have ever been retired completely (hardback editions have been retired).

Purchasing Retired Items
Although items cannot be purchased by American Girl directly after retirement, there are other ways to obtain retired items. Many will have a higher cost than what was originally offered due to either rarity or fragility, but many can be found at a cheaper cost.


 * The most prolific method is eBay or similar auction sites; retired items can be searched for and purchased from sellers. This is hit and miss--some items show up very frequently, while others show up rarely. Sometimes, items are sold incomplete, missing various things such as hats or smaller accessories (for example, The windmill that comes with Felicity's Town Fair Outfit is known to break very easily.
 * If a collector is a member of any number of online communities, they can find other collectors selling items through private direct sales.
 * The Madison Children's Museum Sale generally has several retired items available that were returned to American Girl. This may change with CISPA.
 * Some collectors who are skilled in craftwork or sewing make replications of items and outfits, either for personal use or to sell to other collectors. It can be very hard to do this with clothing, as prints cannot be exactly matched each time.
 * Some wholesale doll clothing companies have made replications; the quality and accuracy of these items varies.
 * The historical clothing patterns which were released for Felicity, Josefina, Kirsten, Addy, Samantha, and Molly are available to be downloaded in .pdf form from AG Playthings here; these can be used to make simulations of retired items or different items in the same style of the originals.
 * Books can be found on secondary markets such as used books stores, Amazon, private sales, or eBay.