From digital pets to trading cards, here are
eleven childhood toys now worth a fortune! 11. Original Gameboy Released in Japan in 1989, the Game Boy was
designed by Nintendo engineer Gunpei Yokoi, who previously worked on the company’s Game
& Watch handheld LCD games. The handheld console cost $97, which is nothing
compared to modern consoles, and it sold 300,000 units in two weeks. That was a mere prelude to its later international
success. To this day, that grey brick remains in the
hearts of game players worldwide. Today, an original Gameboy can fetch $700. The interest in original Gameboys spiked the
same time interest in Pokemon Go spiked. Nintendo has often been associated with the
Pokemon video game, however Nintendo is getting the last laugh. Pokemon Go isn’t even owned by Nintendo
but by another company. 10. 1970s Star Wars Action Figures Since Star Wars is a current phenomenon, it’s
easy to forget that it all started in the 1970s and was huge even then. For several months after the film’s debut,
toy companies made limited Star Wars merchandise available. One company responded to the sudden demand
for toys by selling boxed vouchers in its "empty box" Christmas 1977 campaign. Television commercials told children and parents
that vouchers within a "Star Wars Early Bird Certificate Package" could be redeemed for
toys "between February 1st and June 1st" of 1978. In 2015, a collector auctioned off his memorabilia
through Sotheby. One of his Star Wars action figures sold for
$25,000, though the news report doesn’t say which figure it was. A Luke Skywalker figure with telescoping lightsaber
or Han Solo with his blaster could easily go for at least $1,000. However, Boba Fett, that mysterious bounty
hunter who only appeared as a supporting character, can sell for twice as much. The most valuable action figure isn’t who
you would expect, though. A vinyl cape Jawa can fetch $18,000 or more. This is due to only very few being made. 9. Beanie Babies Ty started selling Beanie Babies in 1993. Sales were doing all right but nothing phenomenal. However, a group of friends in Chicago began
trading them and the media caught wind of it. The New York Times reported on articles and
TV segments about parents trading a five dollar toy for thousands of dollars. One of the early traders, Peggy Gallagher
bought a box of the stuffed animals in Germany for $2,000 but they were $300,000 in the US. What really kicked the Beanie Baby mania in
high gear, however, was the rise of eBay. In the early ‘90s, ten percent of eBay’s
sales involved Beanie Babies. The craze turned Ty into the first billion-dollar
plush company. First generation Beanie Babies are worth the
most money but a Princess bear, created in honor of Princess Diana, sold in the UK for
$90,000! If you have a Beanie Baby, you should keep
one thing in mind: if the heart-shaped tag in the ear is removed, the toy loses its value
by 50 percent. 8. Garbage Pail Kids When Cabbage Patch Kids came onto the scene
in the 1980s, the TOPPS Company wanted to get a license to depict Cabbage Patch Kids
on trading cards. However, they weren’t able to obtain a license
cheaply and decided, instead, to make a parody and Garbage Pail Kids was born. The idea was to create something not as benign
as Cabbage Patch Kids and much more provocative. Some of these gross-looking cards sell at
a high price on eBay. One Adam Bomb card sold on the auction site
for $4,250! But it’s the international cards that are
rare, especially the early test cards. For collectors, the most sought after set
are the Japanese GPK cards, called the Bukimi Kun. Four single cards, with their wrapper, sold
for $1,592.89 on eBay in February 2012. Apparently, the key is to have the wrapper,
in excellent condition. Misprints and cards with mistakes are also
highly sought. 7. PEZ Dispensers Pez was originally invented in Austria in
1927, but the company's only factory and headquarters are located in Orange, Connecticut. The Haas family own the company and it really
is the family business: they’re descended from the PEZ candy inventor, Eduard Has III. He invented it in a peppermint flavor to encourage
his fellow Austrians to quit smoking. The campaign was actually very successful
and when it came to America, it was for the same purpose. However, it didn’t have the same effect
but the candy still remained popular. All the PEZ distributed worldwide comes from
the one factory in Orange. It produces 12 million tables every day and
uses up to 50,000 pounds of sugar to do it. The highest-selling PEZ dispenser is the Santa
Claus, created in 1955. The original 1955 dispenser is also the most
valuable because of its rarity. According to a list on eBay, other valuable
PEZ dispensers include the 1982 World’s Fair promotional dispenser, the locking cap
dispenser from the 1940s, and the PEZ gun from the 1960s and ‘70s. http://www.ebay.com/gds/Top-10-Most-Valuable-PEZ-Dispensers-/10000000204976547/g.html http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/06/smallbusiness/pez-dispenser/ 6. Hot Wheels Hot Wheels debuted in 1968 and people began
collecting them even then. Many of the designers of the toys also designed
cars, which lent the toys an authenticity not normally seen in toy cars. One designer, Larry Wood, worked at Ford before
coming to Mattel. Another designer named Jack Ryan was instrumental
in the development of Hawk and Sparrow missiles and was also behind the fantastic bearings
used in Hot Wheels cars. Another interesting bit of trivia: all of
Hot Wheels’ original 16 designs were based on actual, customized cars. Today, there are more Hot Wheels cars than
actual cars. With a history like this, it’s not surprising
that some of these tiny cars fetch a pretty price when sold at auction. The 1971 Purple Olds 442 is rare and values
anywhere between $1,400 and 2,000 dollars. The 1968 White Enamel Camaro is, according
to legend, the first Hot Wheels ever produced and is worth $2,500. However, nothing beats a Hot Wheels that appeared
on an episode of History Channel’s Pawn Stars. A pink Volkswagen 1969 Rear Load Beach Bomb
was brought into the Las Vegas pawn shop to be valued. It was quickly discovered that it was not
really a toy but a prototype. Only two of these had ever been made. The value? A mind-numbing $100,000, which, by the way,
is more than a Porsche 911 Carrera S. 5. Fisher Price’s Pushcart Pete Your first toy probably came from Fisher Price. Blocks, xylophones, and toy phones are only
examples of some of the toys this company placed in our childhood toy chests. Helen Schelle, Irving Price, and Hermann Fisher
established the Fisher Price company in 1930. The founders combined two of their three last
names to create the iconic company name. Originally, the toys were made of steel and
pine. With a history like theirs, it’s not surprising
if their vintage toys sell at a high price. One example is Pushcart Pete. This toy debuted in 1936 and sold for fifty
cents. In auctions, it’s listed as “ultra rare”. In December 2009, a Pushcart Pete was sold
for $8,000 while in 2007, another sold for $12,500. The toy is all wood and the head bobs up and
down as its pushed. 4. American Girl Dolls First introduced in 1986 by The Pleasant Company,
these dolls have become immensely popular over the years and have a high collectible
value. The original three girls were Samantha, Kirsten,
and Molly and stood eighteen inches tall. Like the dolls today, they each had elaborate
backstories told in detailed books. The American Girl Collection was originally
exclusively available only through mail-order catalogs. Over the next several years, five more historical
dolls and their stories were added for a total of eight dolls, whose lives spanned periods
in U.S. history from 1764 to 1944. In 1997, the dolls were made available for
order on the Internet and the following year, Mattel acquired The Pleasant Company. Since then, the popularity of the dolls has
grown. The five most expensive American Girl Dolls
include the original three and Felicity and Kanani. Felicity was retired in 2011 but her model
was also made before Pleasant Company was acquired in 1997. Kanani was a limited edition in 2011 and therefore
pretty rare. Kanani can sell for $2,500 while the other
four sell between one to thirty-five thousand dollars. 3. Vintage Atari Cartridges Founded in 1972, Atari is famous for bringing
us Pong, which was actually only meant as a test game. Pong originally sold for $1,095 and was sold
through distributers. However, Atari grew tired of the exclusive
deals with distributers and they created their own competitor, Kee Games, which sold “knock-offs”
but with unique enhancements. It was in 1974 that Kee Games introduced Tank,
the first coin-op game to contain ROM based code in the graphics. Tank became the basis for Atari Combat. Without Atari, we wouldn’t have the video
game craze of today and it’s a nostalgic hallmark for many people. It’s not surprising, then, that vintage
Atari cartridges are considered very valuable. A copy of Gamma Attack can go for between
$20,000 and $50,000. Birthday Mania comes in just under that at
$35,000. Both of these games are played on the Atari
2600, which is considered the grandfather of home video game systems. 2. Original Transformers Action Figures In 1984, Hasbro launched the Transformers
on an unsuspecting public. The idea was simple: miniature cars, planes,
and other familiar objects which can turn into action figures. Despite the simplicity, or maybe because of
it, Transformers is a franchise that exists thirty years later and spawned several full-length
movies by Michael Bay. What’s even more interesting is that Hasbro
owes the success in part to Ronald Reagan. Before 1984, regulation prevented the promotion
of any product within the body of a television show. Ronald Reagan deregulated children’s television
as part of a wider bid to boost the American economy. Hasbro then invented a toy around which a
television show could revolve. The rest, as the cliché goes, is history. Today, a vintage Transformers toy still in
its package can sell from a few hundred dollars to $2,500. 1. Tamagotchi If you grew up in the 1990’s, then you probably
remember the Tamagotchi. Did any of you guys have one? The little video game that could hang from
a keychain? Many kids got bored with the game and forgot
to feed their “pets”, leading to their digital death. First introduced in 1996 by Bandai, it sold
more than 40 million units worldwide and 12 million units in the United States and Canada. The game spurred the virtual pet phenomenon
of the 90s and created a brand new toy category. Aki Maita, a Bandai employee who wanted a
pet that worked with her busy lifestyle and small apartment, created the game. Today, a Tamagotchi still in its packaging
can sell for close to $2,000. Most, though, average about three hundred
dollars. That’s amazing since most Tamagotchis originally
sold for less than twenty bucks. Thanks for watching! If you have any of these toys, be sure to
hold on to them! Remember subscribe and give this video a thumbs
up if you enjoyed it! See you next time! Bye!
