The Most Valuable Vintage Toys Of All Time
Do you remember Beanie Babies? Or the original run of Star Wars action figures? Many toys tend to lose their value as we damage them, or they get taken out of the box accidentally and therefore immediately depreciate.
But rare ones—those that remain boxed or otherwise in pristine condition—could be worth a small fortune. Here are the most valuable vintage toys of all time.
Simon Memory Game
The Simon Memory Game may bring back some fond memories for some—others, not so much. If you still have one of these memory order games kicking around, you could be looking at a cool $50 value.
Bop It!
Could you bop it, twist it, smack it back in the day? Released in the mid-90s, vintage Bop Its sell today for $100.
Matthuxtable, Wikimedia Commons
Lite Brite
Lite Brite was released in 1967. They allowed kids to put colored pegs into an illuminated board and make shapes and animals out of them. While most of these small pegs got lost over the years, if you have a full set, you could be looking at a sale price of around $100.
thomas ambridge, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Digimon Cards
While Digimon was always going to struggle to rival Pokémon, the card game still caught on like wildfire for those looking for something different. Rare packs of cards today can go for well over $100.
Easy-Bake Ovens
Easy-Bake Ovens inspired the baker in us all! One of the best-selling toys of the 1960s could today fetch you $150. Although, hopefully by now you've graduated to a full-size oven, it'll never beat the Easy-Bake.
Bradross63, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Nintendo Gameboy
Before there were hand-held cellphones, there were Gameboys. Nintendo Gameboys were the best thing since sliced bread in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Whiling away the hours on them after school was just the done thing. Some of the original Gameboy consoles can fetch about $250 on EBay.
Vintage Playmobil
Most of us can remember Playmobil from our childhoods—the articulating creations of a German manufacturer took the toy world by storm. Vintage sets, such as a Victorian Doll House or Knight's Castle from 1995 sold for $350 each online.
Super Soaker Water Guns
How many of you longed for one of the Super Soakers to drench your sibling or parents with? I'm sure we all did at some point. Well, now you can find one (or sell yours!) for between $100 and $500.
Unknown Author, Wikimedia Commons
Troll Dolls
Trolls were the cute little dolls with big eyes and wacky hair. First created in 1956 and hugely popular from the 1970s till the 1990s, Troll dolls can fetch between $200 and $400 today. I suppose it beats the dog using them as a chew toy.
Original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Action Figures
If you were a kid in the 1980s, chances are you remember attending the Ninja Turtle-themed birthday party of one of your friends. They were everywhere, and so were the action figurines—now, one in good condition will fetch about $500.
Vintage Colorforms
Colorforms were cool vinyl-cut, sticky-backed adhesives that you could stick to an adhesive surface to make pictures and shapes. Old-school colorforms have recently experienced a huge uptick in popularity, with some fetching between $400 and $700.
Original Lionel Train Sets
Lionel train sets were popular electronic toys in the early 20th century. Some of the original Lionel train sets are now worth hundreds, some even selling for as much as $700, particularly those released before the Second World War.
Zachary578, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
First Furbies
You remember those cute-but-very-annoying little toys that took the world by storm in the late 1990s. Furbies today, if in an unopened original box, can fetch as much $900.
Veronica Winters, Shutterstock
Lego Trains
Lego trains were one of Lego's greatest innovations—combining two passions of millions of people was a marketing masterstroke and today, each set of Lego trains goes for between $400 and $1,000.
Sean Lamb, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Collections Of Happy Meal Toys
McDonald's' menu hasn't changed that much, but the value of their Happy Meal toys has. Vintage collections of all of the Disney lineup, for example, are priced around $1,000. Or, you can buy individual toys for about $30.00. Now is a good time to offload a full set of your old Happy Meal toys, if you still have them.
Vintage Marble Sets
If you lost your marbles, you may be out of luck, as these sets can fetch upwards of $1,200.
Christian Schnettelker, Flickr
Garbage Pail Kids Collectible Cards
It may not sound like a particularly enticing toy, but Garbage Pail Kids cards were all the rage in the surrealist 1980s—I mean, who wouldn't want a card with a character named "Peg Leg Greg" on it? One, named after the "Adam Bomb" character, fetched $1,550 at auction. The average price is around $1,000, with bonus points if they're in their original packaging.
American Girls "Molly" Doll
For most of us, dolls are creepy. But, for collectors, they can be a gold mine. Produced in 1986 by the Pleasant Company, the "American Girl" doll line included Molly, Kirsten, Samantha, and Felicity. Each of them are now considered to be "out of print". Well, Molly recently fetched $3,000 at auction.
Mario Kart 64
Ah, Mario Kart 64—one of the best-selling video games of all-time. If you happen to be in possession of an original, sealed copy of it, you'll likely be able to sell it for $4,000. Unsealed copies can also go for a few hundred.
Raggedy Ann Doll
Raggedy Ann Dolls were a doll caricature based on the character created by Johnny Gruelle in 1915 and introduced to the public in the 1918 book series written by Gruelle. Today, Raggedy Ann dolls that began production in 1920 can fetch up to $4,500.
Teddy Ruxpin
Released in 1985, Teddy Ruxpin revolutionized bedtime storytelling for children (and parents)! With an audio cassette tape in its back, Teddy recounted his adventures to many a sleepy child. Today? The lovable storytelling bear can be had for $5,000, if it's an original. If not, a mere $500.
Peanut Royal Blue Elephant Beanie Baby
While Beanie Babies have been a huge hit over the decades since Ty Inc launched them in 1986, the Peanut Royal Blue Elephant was actually a mistake in the manufacturing process. They turned out a darker shade than originally intended and thus only 2,000 were produced.
It's the most collectible Beanie Baby in existence, worth around $5,000. That's more than a Princess Diana-inspired Beanie Baby.
My Little Ponies
My Little Ponies were flying off the shelves in the early 1980s and today, those collections are worth bank—if you collected a vintage Little Pony, you could be looking at $6,000 for just one of them.
A First Edition Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was first published in 1998, and finding a first edition today would be quite the task. But if you were one of the people who got your hands on one, you could have a $6,500 book just sitting on the shelf.
Nintendo Gamecube
If you have an OG Gamecube that still functions, then your vintage early-2000s console could fetch as much as $7,000 online. Some may even be worth more.
First-Edition Barbie Doll
Did you know that Barbie Dolls weren't originally pink-clad blondes? The original Barbie doll from 1959 wore a striped dress with a sweeping hairstyle, black heels, and white sunglasses. Owning one of these pieces of Barbie history will cost you an astonishing $8,000.
GI Joe Action Figures
GI Joe may have been everyone's favorite toy if they ever dreamed of being a soldier. Released in 1964, the figurines have continued their extreme popularity, with individual figures running from $8,000 right up to $200,000 for a 1963 prototype version.
Boba Fett Action Figurine
Boba Fett is one of the most beloved Star Wars characters, with the bounty hunter fetching as much as $32,000 for an in-box, mint condition figurine. Boba Fettch my wallet.
Magic: The Gathering Trading Cards
Magic: The Gathering is a bonafide cult classic card game. Old collections have sold for tens of thousands of dollars, with the rarest of individual cards selling for as much as $87,000.
Luke Skywalker Action Figurine
If you happen to have an original, boxed Star Wars action figurine, you're in for some serious coin. One such figure from 1978 was offloaded by Japanese designer, Nigo, to Sotheby's for $25,000 in 2015. It's one of only 20 1978 Skywalker action figurines out there.
We've Found Out Where The Wild Things Are
Maurice Sendak's iconic children's book Where The Wild Things Are was a hugely popular picture book that was adapted into a short film in 1973, an opera in 1980, and a 2009 live-action movie. The original picture book? A signed first-edition copy sold for $25,000 online.
Optimus Prime Is Primely Priced
The original Transformers action figures were produced by Hasbro in 1984, with many being torn from their boxes in seconds. But if you were insightful enough as a child, or simply didn't care for your brand-new Optimus Prime Transformer, you could now be staring at $25,000. A *transformational* sum, you might say.
PEZ Dispensers
If you loved your PEZ dispenser back when they were all the rage, and you kept it around for posterity's sake, you'll be delighted to know that it may be worth something. The most valuable PEZ dispenser was the Astronaut B, created for the World Bank Fair in 2006—it sold for a shocking $32,000. Enough to pay for all the dentistry you'd need after chucking back PEZ candies like they were going out of fashion.
Rear-Loading Beach Bomb Hot Wheel
This rear-loading cargo-style van Hot Wheel that's almost VW-esque in its appearance—except for the hot pink coloring—was a prototype designed by Mattel that remained in the possession of a Mattel employee for years.
Unfortunately, the "Beach Bomb" proved to be too unstable to run as a regular product, but its rarity accounts for a staggering $40,000 price tag.
The OG Monopoly Board Game
Nowadays, there are so many different versions of Monopoly that it's difficult to keep track, but the original Monopoly Board Game, created in 1933 by Charles Darrow—those original boards were hand-drawn on oil cloth—may be worth some cash.
The original board owned by Darrow sold for $146,000 at Sotheby's in 2011. Even some of the first boards in circulation could be worth over $3,000.
Cabbage Patch Kids Dolls
If 18" dolls aren't your thing, then Cabbage Patch Kids Dolls might have been. The adorable little dolls were created in 1978 by Xavier Roberts and quickly amassed a cult following. Joe and Pat Prosey own the world's largest collection of Cabbage Patch dolls—over 5,000 of them in their custom-built Maryland museum. The price tag for all of them? $360,000.
Superman's Introductory Comic Book
Action Comics first introduced Superman to the world back in 1938. And it was this introductory comic book in pristine condition on EBay that sold for an astonishing $3.2 million. It was one of less than 50 in existence worldwide.
Pokémon Cards
Pokémon Cards were a huge part of most of our childhoods. Today, some of the ultra-rare ones can be found on EBay for upwards of a million dollars. Some are as high as $6,000,000.
The Atari Urban Legend
There was an old urban legend that the Atari video game company had buried hundreds of their video game cartridges in the New Mexico desert in 1983. It turned out to be completely true—almost 1,300 of them were recovered. Nowadays, rare Atari games go for a few hundred dollars on Ebay.
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