Cashing In On Your Attic: Are Your Old Toys Worth Thousands?

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Clearing out your old junk is an important part of any adult’s life, but before you throw anything away you should consider whether or not it’s worth any money.

Toys are a particularly lucrative market for those looking to cash in on their old possessions and make some money from the stuff they’ve been hoarding since their childhood.

As the craze for investing in Beanie Babies showed, some toys can be immensely popular but eventually lose their value as the market floods with less desirable products. To help guide you through the quagmire that is figuring out what toys are worth money and which ones aren’t, this article explores everything you need to consider when clearing out your old collections.

The Better The Condition, The More They Could Be Worth

Whilst this isn’t always true, as a general rule the better condition you kept your toys in, the more money they’re likely to be worth. The packaging alone is worth some of the value, so if you have toys that were kept in their old packaging, either as a storage solution or as a way of keeping them clean, then they could potentially be worth more money to you later.

Branded Products Are Often Collectable

Your toys might be cute and fun for kids to play with, but the value in most toys comes either from the brand they’re made by or their rarity, or in some cases both. Some brands, like Steiff bears, are collector’s items and incredibly valuable thanks to their quality, so if you find anything by this brand or any other valuable toy brand then it might be worth some serious money.

Limited Editions Could Be Worth More

Special or limited edition items, like specific versions of a toy produced for a certain event or to celebrate a specific person, are more likely to be valuable than ordinary versions, so if you have anything that’s labelled as ‘limited edition’ or ‘collector’s edition’, you should explore whether or not it’s worth any money.

Old Doesn’t Necessarily Mean More Valuable

Whilst some old toys made by certain brands or for specific events could be valuable, their age isn’t the biggest reason why they’re worth more money than other toys. It’s more the fact that collectors are keen to buy them that drives up their value, rather than just their age. So, an old doll from the 1970s might not be worth more than a large collection of Lego bricks from the 1990s. It’s all about what people are willing to buy, rather than what you want to sell them or the age of your toy.

See If You Can Find Others Online

Often the value in toys comes from the fact that they’re rare and not produced anymore, so if you think you might have something valuable then try to Google it’s name and see if it comes up for sale online, or if it gets mentioned in any lists of valuable toys. If you notice lots of versions of the same toy up for sale on online sites like eBay and Amazon, then it’s probably not very valuable. If you can only see a few listings, or none at all, then it could be worth money to someone who’s been trying to get their hands on it for a while to complete their collection.

Restoration May Help Particularly Damaged Toys

For toys that are made by a valuable brand, but were well-loved and rigorously played with, restoration could help make them look more presentable. If you’re restoring your toy to sell it on later then you need to take the price of the restoration into consideration when pricing the item later. Some items will simply be restored for fun. Whatever you choose to do, find a toy hospital that can fix up your old toys and restore them to their former glory.

If In Doubt, Get It Valued

If you’ve gone through all of these points and think you might have something valuable on your hands then have it valued. This will allow you to assess whether or not it’s worth selling your item to collectors or just putting it on eBay for someone who wants it for the nostalgia and memories.

The value of toys, like any investment asset, is dependant on a number of disparate factors, so it can sometimes be hard to know what to hang on to and what to get rid of. In general, try not to be too brutal or think too hard about the monetary value of your toys. While you might strike it lucky, hardly anyone actually makes a fortune from their old toys, and it’s more down to chance than skill if they do, so simply keep on having fun digging through your old childhood possessions with your eyes peeled.