If you've got some of your old childhood toys lying around up in your attic or tucked away in your cupboards, now might be the time to dig them out and dust them off and see if they could make you some money. Some of your nostalgic toys could now be sought after items by collectors and may be worth thousands of pounds.
Cath Kidston have gathered together some of the under-the-radar classic toys, that could make you some money if you want to part with them, the Chronicle Live reports. "We’re loving nostalgia right now, and that’s translating to a huge demand for vintage children’s toys," a spokesperson for the retail company commented: "Adults are making up a bigger share of the toy-buying market and people are searching for classic playthings from their own childhood".
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"If you have boxes of toys gathering dust in your attic, why not take a trip down memory lane and bring them out? If you have any of the above, you could be in for a lucrative payday if you can part with them. And be sure to keep your own children’s toys in storage once they grow out of them – their action figures, game consoles, and boys’ backpacks could be worth something one day too."
Here are the list of the valuable items and how much they could potentially be worth, so if you think you might have any of them hiding away and you can bare to part with them, you might be sitting on a goldmine:
Limited edition Beanie Babies
If you grew up during the 1990s, you will remember the rise of the Beanie Babies. They were the latest craze during the decade and everyone and anyone had some form of the cute stuffed toy.
It became a collectors item, with many people keen to get their hands on all the different types of stuffed toy buddies you could collect from teddy bears to rabbits and dogs - there was plenty to choose from. But while the rumour that they would become valuable in years to come turned out to be a bit of a myth, there are some specific versions of the soft toys that could net you some money - that's if you kept them!
One of those being the original Peanut the Elephant - which is one of the most valuable Beanie Babies around because of its very limited production run. There were only 2,000 of the royal blue Peanut produced and now an original Peanut could get you close to £4,000.
It wasn't made clear why so little of the Elephant stuffed toy were made, some claim it was a production error and that the royal blue colour was an error whilst others believe the creator of Beanie Babies, Ty Walker, wasn’t happy with the initial sales.
Unique Lego sets
Lego was a popular toy for many growing up but is also just a popular with kids today. The company has plenty of sets to choose from with Disney selections, Harry Potter or Star Wars builds. According to the manufacturer itself, the number of adults buying Lego sets has increased fourfold in less than a decade, showing it's still a popular favourite with older members of households too.
But if you're looking to get some decent money for your sets, you will need to own specific ones. If you have the Lego Airport Shuttle tucked away in your home, you may want to try and find it as the set reportedly has a unique place in history and could fetch you around £2,000. It not only had a limited run but it was said that Lego outsourced the production of the monorail tracks to a company that folded, so the tooling pieces were lost forever.
The original Star Wars action figures are known to be worth big money but did you know the same applies to Star Wars Lego sets? A used Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon bundle is worth around £1,184.99 – around treble the original value. Meanwhile the Imperial Star Destroyer, could be worth around £1,830 - that's if you want to part with them as these pieces are invaluable to fans of the franchise.
Barbie Dolls
Many of may have owned or had a sibling with a Barbie Doll or even a collection and as you may already expect that the original, very first Barbie doll from 1959 is worth quite a lot of money to collectors. But there are also plenty of other versions of the iconic doll made throughout the years that could be worth a bob or two that you might well already have in your collection.
According to Cath Kidston, the three most valuable Barbies you can have, all have real jewels sewn into their outfits. They were also either extremely limited or one-of-a-kind - so they were not as common to own. However, Barbie Millennium Princess which was designed to celebrate the turn of the millennium in the year 2000, is currently set at a price of around £1,988.
If you have a Calvin Klein Barbie hidden away in your home and it has been kept in good condition, it could be worth around £1,124 and if you have some vintage Barbies stored away, they could be worth even more. For example, Vintage Parisienne Barbie, from the very first catalogue of Barbies in 1959, could be worth £2,305.
