Ever found out that something you’ve had for years is actually worth something?

[vipersnest1]

In the spirit (and because it annoys me if the OP
doesnt), I’ll go first….
Round about forty years ago I was on holiday with my parents and came across someone selling second hand books. I came across a Tarzan comic book (the full story) and bought it because the illustrations are beautiful. I’ve had it ever since and never have it much thought, until I came across it recently as I’m sorting my house ready to downsize.
It’s not worth a fortune (less than £100) but considering I paid about 50p for it I’m astonished!
How about you?

My son (now 23!) collected tamagotchis when he was in junior school. Found one last week and out of curiosity checked on eBay to find that model is worth £140! I think we paid £15 for it. That's for a used one, they go for even more in the packaging. I've now got him sorting his room out to find if there's any more. Lots of toys seem to increase in value but I was surprised that something mass produced in the 2000s was worth so much.

I had a Sinclair ZX-81 and threw it out! Ditto a Sony Walkman. I thought they were obsolete and therefore had no value. 🙄

I had one of those 50p's with a pagoda on the back. I'd saved it because it looked nice, and it was in a dish on a shelf on the dresser. Then I found out they were really rare, highly collectable and worth quite a bit.

One day I noticed it was gone and DH said he'd taken it as he'd needed change for car parking.

@canthavethatonethenI think your DH owes you!

My mum is clearing out her loft and am helping. She has four old typewriters which are all worth over £100 each.

I used to teach in a university and one of my students gave me a beautiful photo she'd taken, as a birthday present. She was a keen photographer and was entering competitions even back then. She's now a very successful photographer and her work sells for thousands, including pictures in the same group as mine.

@Idinahuiit would be interesting at the very least.
I totally forgot that I have an English Oak cupboard from my first school, supplied by EJ Arnold. If anyone has an idea of the value I’d be grateful.

I’m sitting (not literally) on a poem. But how can I get it valued when it’s the only copy, and if someone copies it, it ruins the value?

Big time!

When DS was about 3 or 4, a neighbour gave us a box of Duplo and a few bags of action figures that had belonged to his sons. We gave DS the Duplo but the action figures had lots of small pieces so we put them in the attic until he was a bit older. Roll on 10 years and during lockdown we were clearing the attic and came across the action figures which we discovered were 1980s Transformers in excellent condition, many with their original packaging. We've made well over £4k to date selling them and still have a few that we've never got round to selling.

DH is a bit of a collector and he bought 2 old books on boats that came as a job lot (auction) with a whole bunch of comics. They sat underneath our sideboard for a good 10 years before he decided to send them back to the auction house for sale. They made nearly £1,000.

But on the other hand- he has bought several first edition Rudyard Kiplings. Because Kipling is out of favour right now he is not paying terribly much for them.... less than what you would pay for a new re-print from Waterstones (we looked- yesterday).

I was clearing out my DPs house to sell. In the display cabinet were various bottles of alcohol, some unopened. My parents really didn't drink much so much of it had been given as gifts. I brought home a bottle of gin. It was a brand I'd never seen before. I looked it up on Google and various bottles came up for sale on a specialist website. I studied the label more closely and found it was from the 1970's and was selling at £130 - that was 9 years ago. It's in a storage tub in my garage still unopened. Not sure whether to drink it or try and sell it!

Years ago I bought an 'unofficial' version of a vinyl single online. I think I paid about £15 for it. I didn't even have a record player for it at the time.

The real version goes for thousands, super limited edition. It's obvious this one isn't the original as it's a different colour, but the last time I checked one had sold on eBay for over £400.

I had actually bought two at the time and traded one for some bootleg CDs. Wish I'd held onto it!

I went to an auction about 25 years ago and bought a wooden box of stuff for £25, just to see what was in it. There were a couple of ornaments, a few pewter mugs, and some odds and ends. I put them in a cupboard and forgot about most of them. When I was moving house I went through them and realised there was an album from 1966 commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising in Ireland which is a collectible. There was a cup and saucer from 1976 commemorating 200 years of American independence which are also collectible. The best was an old Rolex ashtray. I managed to track down a similar one which went for over £1,500 on a specialist site.

I have some vinyl that was never deemed anything special at the time (10 years ago) but now worth £200 - £300.

never parting with it mind you

Someone I know had a type of musical instrument. Looked it up and appararently was worth a few bob. Put it online and someone paid thousands for it.

When I was a sixth former (1990ish) I was mooching in a second hand book shop and found a first edition Lion, Witch & Wardrobe for £3. I reckoned it was cheaper than a new hardback, bought it and forgot about it. It remained on my childhood bookshelves even after I left home.

15 years later I saw an article on the Times about investing in children's books, which mentioned L, W & W. I asked my parents if they could find it. They did and took it to a nearby auction house that specialised in books. Yes, it was a first edition. Yes, it sold for several hundred pounds, well above top estimate.

In an unexpected postscript, I have just found a first edition Ballet Shoes. My parents took it to the same auction house. The auctioneer remembered them and the book - from nearly 20 years ago. He told them I have an excellent eye for books. <Preens self>

My Mum has a pottery bowl which she was given years ago and didn’t really like, so kept it in the conservatory with clothes pegs in.

Back in the mid 90s the Antiques Roadshow were here, so my dad took it for a laugh.

Henry Sandon got quite excited about it as it was by David Leach and back then was worth about £500. He couldn’t believe mother kept pegs in it as he thought it was a lovely bowl.

mother does too now, as it’s worth a lot more than £500.

My parents' vinyl copy of Revolver by The Beatles turned out to be a first pressing or something and sold for about £400. If they'd known that decades ago, they probably wouldn't have let us kids chuck it on and off the turntable of a record player with a crappy needle when we used to play their old vinyls in the 80s, because I assume it would have been worth a lot more in better condition.

I also sold a set of six magazines devoted to a particular cult film series for £100. I'd just bought them new for £2 each month when they came out in 1994 and by the time I sold them about ten or twelve years later they were weirdly in demand.

You should have given those back to the neighbour or at least split the money - they were given to you for your son to play with not to sell. Taking advantage of someone that did a nice thing. Different if they were worth charity shop money but unknowingly your neighbour gave you something valuable and morally if you did not share that is in bad taste.