American Girl Benefit Sale 2021 Update

The American Girl Benefit Sale 2021 is coming up! The organizers of this popular event, which is going to be online for the second year in a row due to Covid, sent out this update today:

"We're eagerly preparing for the 2021 American Girl Benefit Sale. As a reminder, this year the sale is online. Pickup is in person—no shipping.

As we stated in previous updates, inventory is significantly limited this year. Doll prices and item limits are being announced BEFORE tickets go on sale this year to help you make the most informed decision about entering the ticket lottery.

*Updates to the Ticket Allocation Process* To ensure that tickets are distributed as fairly as possible, we're implementing a new system with TWO lotteries, one to offer winners a chance to buy a ticket and another (just like in years past) to assign shopping times to ticket holders.

Ticketing timeline and process

* August 25–26: Ticket purchasing lottery sign-up opens. A form will be sent out by email and posted to the AGBS website and Facebook page. Fill out the form (at no charge) to enter in the lottery to be able to buy one AGBS ticket. The entry form will open by 11 am (CST) on 8/25 and close at 11:59 pm on 8/26. The time of day you fill out the form WILL NOT affect your chances of receiving a ticket. Only ONE entry per person will be accepted.

* Aug 27–30: Tickets on sale to lottery winners. Every person who enters the ticket lottery will be notified by email on 8/27 if the lottery selected them to buy a ticket or not. Those eligible to buy a ticket will have until 8/30, 11:59 pm (CST) to follow the included link and pay for their ticket. A ticket costs $12 and you may only buy ONE ticket per email/household. All ticket sales are final and no refunds will be given. (Note: Only tickets sold to those individuals selected by the lottery as eligible purchasers will be honored. Anyone not selected in the lottery who uses the link to buy a ticket will have their order refunded minus a $4 per-ticket handling fee and may not be eligible for future sales. Let's keep this fair.)

* Sept 1: Shopping times assigned by lottery. Shopping times will be randomly assigned to all purchased tickets. Results will be sent by email to all ticket holders.

* Sept 1–8: Ticket transfer window. If you discover that you cannot use your benefit sale ticket, or if you purchased a ticket on behalf of someone else, you may reassign your ticket to another person using our MyAGBS website. This process will be similar to last year. Please note that it is against our policy for tickets to be resold for more than their original purchase price and that all trades are done at your own risk.

* Sep 13–Sep 24: Shopify site account verification window. Every email address associated with a ticket MUST have an online account verified with our Shopify website BEFORE the benefit sale. If your account is not verified you will NOT be able to shop during the benefit sale. All ticket holders will be sent instructions as to how to verify their account and must do so by 11:59 pm on 9/24.

* Saturday, Sep 25, American Girl Benefit Sale online shopping. Further info on shopping procedures will be provided in future updates.

* Saturdays & Sundays, October 9-24, in-person pickup at our new warehouse in Middleton, Wis. After the sale, every shopper will have the opportunity to select from available pickup times. You will also have the option to designate a proxy to pick up your order for you. Further info on pickup procedures will be provided in future updates.

*Doll & Accessory Limits and Doll Prices*

Purchase limits: a total of THREE dolls and TWO accessories per ticket holder.

Dolls include all 18" dolls, Create Your Own, Bitty Babies, and Bitty Baby gift boxes. Each ticket holder may only buy THREE dolls total. For example, you could get two Truly Me dolls and one Create-Your-Own doll for a total of three, OR you could get one Truly Me, one Create-Your-Own, and one Girl of the Year doll for a total of three, etc.

Accessories include furniture, pets, clothing, and other miscellaneous items and will be individually priced. Each ticket holder may only buy TWO accessories total.

Doll prices will be: * $60 for Truly Me dolls * $120 for Create-Your-Own dolls * $70 for Character Dolls (historical dolls, Girl of the Year dolls, contemporary characters) * $40 for Bitty Baby * $60 Bitty Baby Gift Set

As in previous benefit sales, we cannot guarantee the selection that will be available when you shop. Individual items will sell out throughout the day, sometimes very quickly.

A more extensive list of items and prices will be announced the Thursday before the sale. As with previous benefit sales we cannot confirm the presence of any specific item before the sale.

We are setting these limits so that every ticket holder can be sure of having the opportunity to buy up to the posted limits. Since the ability to purchase a ticket is not guaranteed and the limits are low this year, we advise against planning a trip to the sale that involves traveling a long distance.

*Bonus Book Buy*

As with last year, please know that items are NOT reserved in your cart until you check out. Items may sell out while you are still shopping and will disappear from your cart. You will want to shop as efficiently as possible.

As we know that this doesn't leave much opportunity for browsing our extensive collection of American Girl books, we will be offering a special Bonus Book Buy after the main sale has concluded. All ticketholders will be able to log back in again and shop for books. (Tip: American Girl books make for a great donation to your local Free Little Library, school, or community center.)

Exact times and log-in details for the Bonus Book Buy will be sent out to ticketholders before the sale.

Thank You!"

I am so excited for everyone who gets to shop from the sale and get their items picked up! My Benefit Sale experience was in 2017 (four years ago), and it was a time I'll never forget. Things have changed at the Benefit Sale since 2017, but the joy of getting dolls for cheap is still the same!