The sale began in 1987 and is staffed by volunteers. Over the course of the year, volunteers originally repaired, sort, and clean items. Stock at the sale was mostly comprised of returned stock and seconds (items with minor flaws) in past years. This means that any number of items were once found and purchased, ranging from recently retired items to older items and hard to find items. Since American Girl has a somewhat liberal return policy allowing items to be returned to them any time, people can and often do return older items to the company. Nearly any item returned used to be sent to the sale instead of resold to customers.