5 old things that you still have at home and today are worth a small fortune

Do you remember what was fashionable among children 20-30 years ago? The youngest saved to buy a PS2 (with Final Fantasy X if possible), they exchanged Magic cards or interacted with their Tamagotchi or Furby.

If you have some of these objects stored in a corner of the house, go rescue them immediately– Chances are high that you have a small fortune without knowing it.

And it is that today the power of nostalgia has caused a boom in collecting from comics, video game, trading cards and toys.

Although it is true that heThe most expensive objects are usually very old (perhaps the best example is a copy of the first issue of Superman, from 1938, recently sold for 2.7 million euros), products from 2 decades ago are also highly sought after. Do not underestimate the little treasures that you can have gathering dust.

So get to work: take a look at the list belowWrite down what you still remember having at home, put on your gloves and search, search and rummage until you find collectibles that, if you really don’t want to, will find an owner on eBay or similar services.

1. Comics

It is not surprising that comics are on the rise in the world of collecting, especially if they are adventures about superheroes. The constant releases of Marvel and DC movies cause that every year there are new fans of this world, and some are willing to pay anything to have the most symbolic comics (usually numbers 1 or those where characters debut).

Maybe you think the only comics worth a small fortune They are those that belong to the golden age, that is, from the 1930s to the 1960s. Many famous heroes were born in those years, and hence its first issues are highly coveted.

However, there are anomalies. Some comics from 20-30 years ago that are worth their own. For example, in 1997 Spawn emerged, a dark hero created by Todd McFarlane, an artist who once revitalized Spider-Man and created great characters like Venom.

McFarlane decided to leave Marvel to get his long-awaited creative freedom, and that’s when Spawn was born. The first number was a success … but there was a consignment whose cover was not properly inked and was left in black and white. A copy of this comic in theory ruined It has been sold for about 1,300 euros.

That’s not all: the number 36 of The Amazing Spider-Man, which came out in 2001, today can be worth more than 300 euros. Spidey’s number 700, quite a lady figure, can easily reach 800 euros. The first number of The Walking Dead, which debuted in October 2003? It has been sold on eBay for almost 9,000 euros.

So rummage through your closet or storage room to find all those special comics from 2 or 3 decades ago. Maybe they are worth more than you think.

2. Video games and consoles

Many current collectors are gamers or have an interest in this world. As a result, the prices of classic games for Super nintendo, Mega Drive, GameBoy or the first PlayStation go up Like foam with the passage of time.

You just have to remember the crazy price escalation that occurred at the beginning of 2021: on April 3, the mythical Super Mario Bros. for the first Nintendo it became the most expensive game in history after a copy in perfect condition sold for more than 550,000 euros.

A few months later, in July, the first The Legend of Zelda, also for the classic NES, raised the bar again when one of its copies sold for more than 700,000 euros. During the following months, the record was constantly being beaten and surpassed until, in August, another copy of Mario sold for a whopping 1.7 million euros.

Again, it’s normal to think that collectors are only looking for retro games from the 70s or 80s. And again, this belief is dismantled when a little research is done and it is discovered that the prices of games from the early 2000s have also risen. Recently. And it is that the titles for GameCube, PS2 or Xbox have already gone retro. Time does not forgive!

In particular, you should be very attentive to games from 20 years ago that had very few copies distributed. At the time, they were a sales flop. But, over time, they have become highly sought after cult titles.

For example, a copy in good condition of the rare role-playing game Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness for GameCube it can be sold for 900 euros. Rule of Rose, a controversial horror game for PS2 That was already difficult to find at the time, today it can be worth 1,100 euros.

But that is not all. Starting in the early 2000s, video game companies made the special editions of their consoles. They tuned their devices to include motifs from popular sagas, or included games in special and limited packs.

These special editions today are also worth a small fortune. For example, the Green Halo edition of the original Xbox can sell for more than 4,000 euros. Or a GameCube Platinum that came with the Metroid Prime game could be perfectly worth 2,200 euros.

All these prices have been obtained from Price Charting, page in charge of monitoring the latest prices of collecting games.

3. Trading cards

Magic: The Encounter, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!… the late 90s and early 2000s was the golden age of collectible card games. At that time, the young people who discovered this hobby did not have enough money to obtain all the cards, or the best of each spread or series.

However, these fans have grown up, they already have money and the nostalgia factor calls them: they want to find those letters that they could not obtain at the time.

So you better have kept many of your letters in good condition. Magic The Pokémon, because the figures that can be worth are succulent.

For example, 2 decades ago, the Black Lotus card from Magic (which adds 3 mana of any color, a very powerful ability within the rules of the game) was so rare that in the markets it could be worth 200-300 euros. 20 years later? If the condition of the letter is good, perhaps you have 20,000 euros saved and you hadn’t even realized it.

Leaving aside the timeless Pikachu, what is one of the most beloved classic Pokémon? Charizard. The fire dragon starred on the mythical cover of Pokémon Red, It was one of the first Pokémon that Ash managed to evolve in the anime, and precisely in one of the films he faced the Legendary Dog Entei.

As a result, today every object of merchandising Charizard-related may be worth more than you think, and that includes their collectible cards. His first edition letters, those of 1999, cost perfectly 20,000-30,000 euros, and their more modern menus also have attractive prices.

4. Electronic pets

The Furby at first they were an unprecedented success, to the point that for months it was impossible to get one of them. How could one not be attracted to an electronic toy with its own personality that, through artificial intelligence, was learning to communicate with you?

Now it is possible that you have the Furby abandoned in some corner of the house. If the batteries are still working, It is sure to give you some good scares when, due to some unexpected movement, he wakes up and speaks to you with his strange language.

Do not throw it away yet, even if it has scared you a lot and made you think there are thieves with a whistle voice at home! Furbys, especially early editions, are sold on eBay for 800-1,000 euros. The rarer your old electronic pet is, the more it can be worth.

Never had a Furby? Nothing happens, 2 decades ago there was the boom of electronic pets in general. The Furby were the culmination, but before there were 2 similar toys that were also a great success.

One of them was the Tamagotchi, that pixelated little egg that you had to take care of until its strange but endearing design pet hatched. How many mothers ended up inheriting the Tamagotchi because they couldn’t take them to school? How many emergency beeps sounded inside their bags to warn that the bug had pooped?

And before the Tamagotchi, there were the Digimon. These, although they were also from Bandai, had a more combative component: the owners of the digimon they could put them to fight each other.

Well, on eBay a Tamagotchi can be sold for 500-1,000 euros (as always, depends on the edition), while Digimon are sold at similar prices. Do you still keep any at home?

5. Barbie dolls

When the known universe ends, there will only be 2 things left: stardust and a massive amount of Barbie. This famous Mattel doll emerged in the late 50s, and until now it remains at the foot of the canyon, despite numerous controversies and parodies.

Like many other collectors’ items on this list, you might think that only the oldest Barbie are worth your time.

Without going any further, and as it points Money Inc, have a Barbie original (of which came out in 1959) means have almost 25,000 potential euros, as long as it is in good condition. And if it’s in poor condition, it can be sold for 7,000!

But precisely from the 2000s, Mattel launched a range of Barbie vintage or special edition that today can be worth much more than an original doll.

For example, About 17 years ago the Stefani Canturi Barbie went on sale (the one in the image above). Due to its few units, and the fact that all of it was designed by jewelry designer Stefano Canturi, it has caused that today it costs close to … 300,000 euros!

Since you might not have a rare Barbie like that, still rummage through your drawers for a late 90s / early 2000s doll. The Barbie Ferrari, precisely from the 2000s, sells for 200-300 euros on eBay (as explained Family Minded). And a Barbie dressed as an Athenian soldier, emerged in 2010, currently costs 400-500 euros.

This article was published in Business Insider Spain by Daniel Cáceres.