Try to think back to what you were doing during your childhood. If you can recall where any of your childhood items are, try to look for them, because their value could have potentially shot up right under your nose.
One popular toy that has been loved by millions is LEGO. They make hundreds of sets per year so they are a very easy thing to collect, as long as one has the space.
“I’ve been collecting LEGOs since I was five […]. My favorites are Star Wars and Marvel […]. It makes me happy and I also want to have value on these when I get older,” said junior Ethan C.
Since LEGO makes hundreds of sets per year, they can’t keep making the same ones forever. LEGO retires many of their sets every year after they are on shelves for a while. Once these sets are retired, their contents become harder to find and the value goes up. This is especially the case with exclusive minifigure parts if they only appeared in a set no longer in production. Some can sell upwards of $80!
“I do have a couple sets that have increased in value over time […] I have the Kylo Ren Shuttle […] The Kylo Ren minifigure came with a head piece that was his mask…” said Ethan.
This one minifigure on average sells for around twenty dollars, compared to some Spider-Man ones that sell for fifty cents according to a popular second hand LEGO website, BrickLink.
LEGO products aren’t the only childhood possessions that increased in value. Another example is video games, specifically Pokémon, which has a plethora of games that have raised in price over the years.
“I’ve either seen on Subreddits or Ebay, now granted a lot of these are unopened, lets say I have a game version of Crystal, [Pokémon Crystal Version] but I’ve seen that unopened going for like, a thousand dollars because it’s niché,” said social studies teacher Sean Prahalis.
Prices of beloved childhood relics don’t just increase because they’re rare, they increase because they’re sentimental to the people who used to play with them.
“The sentimental value, plus the popularity exacerbates the price […] I think the sentimental value is significantly more important to me […]. If I really wanted to amount 3k, I could figure out many other ways to get that value that are worth keeping these things that are relics to my childhood,” said Prahalis.
This nostalgia factor is a key element that drives up the prices. People who do sell their old games for so much do it because of how important they are to them and people who want to buy it will pay those prices to relive their childhood experiences. But when it comes to the discussion of sentimental value vs monetary value, some will always go with sentimental.
“I would have sentimental value. I think money can be made in a large variety of ways […]. Sentimental carries much more significance, I will never sell the Pokémon games and the [consoles] I can play them with, despite having easy access to them on emulators and I can probably make a good profit with them. Why? Because that is mine from being a kid and the sentimental value is worth more than the couple hundred that it’s worth,” said Prahalis
This nostalgia factor not only affects the value of games, but items like trading cards as well.
“I think that’s the biggest thing to drive something up. It has to be exclusive and it has to be valued. Take the Pokémon card Charizard. It is the most popular Pokémon card there is, and there are not that many of them which is why it has such immense value because there’s nostalgia with it and it’s rare,” said science teacher Andrew Walsh.
There are many items in people’s collections that they got when they were kids, because they knew it would have value. A prime example would be special prints of comics or trading cards that have been graded.
“I have a PSA 10 Bulbasaur from the base set […] I bought that thinking that it would be worth something eventually […]. I have the first issue of the Spider-Man that came out in the 90’s […] I have the original print […] I have the first issue of Peni Parker’s first appearance, I have the first appearance of Rocket Raccoon’s first appearance, I love getting first appearances like that. I have tons of them,” said Walsh.
These rare items people have amassed in their collections are things that they never want to part ways with, no matter how much money they could be worth. Even if an item wasn’t acquired during childhood, it’s still special to them.
“People who collect for resale are not like me. I like being able to look in my office and be like ‘There’s thirty thousand dollars worth of stuff in this room,’” said Walsh.
People’s childhood collections can hold some of the fondest memories of their childhood. If they have held on to these collections, chances are they will never want to part ways with them because of how much sentimental value they hold.
“I think stuff does not get less fun as you get older, you just get more busy and you lose the connection to it. But if you stick with all of the stuff you enjoyed as a kid, you enjoy it as an adult,’’ said Walsh. ◼️
