How Much Money Can You Make From Your Favourite Childhood Toys?

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Getting a new toy for Christmas or your birthday when you were a child was the best feeling in the world – but what are our childhood toys valued at now?

UK-based Games Room retailer Liberty Games has analysed the cost of our favourite vintage toys and found out what they would be worth in 2019, in order to find out what your return on investment would be if you were to sell one of these today.

How much could you be cashing in with your childhood favourites?

It is thought that a staggering 92% of Brits have unused items stashed away in their homes, with toys (such as dolls, teddies and board games) being the most held onto items. But how much money could your favourite childhood toys make you if you sold them today?

Research conducted by leading games room retailers, Liberty Games, reveals that ‘Hot Wheels’ are the toys with the biggest ROI – with the racer cars having increased 85,253% since their release in 1968. You could make a staggering £405.47 on retailers such as Ebay in 2019, despite Hot Wheels toys costing only 48p when they were first released.

Top ten childhood toys with the greatest return on investment:

Name of toy

Year of release

Value at purchase (£)

Value at last sale (£)

Price increase (£)

Price increase (%)

Hot Wheels

1968

£0.48

£405.47

£405.00

85253%

Monopoly

1933

£1.61

£929.00

£927.40

57590%

Barbie

1959

£2.42

£869.79

£867.39

35909%

Pez

1927

£1.44

£405.47

£404.04

28033%

Cabbage Patch Kids

1978

£20.13

£2,432.00

£2,411.96

11982%

Transformers action figures

1980

£16.10

£1,620.00

£1,603.97

9960%

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

1980

£4.83

£399.99

£395.18

8180%

Rainbow Brite Dolls

1980

£5.64

£385.18

£379.57

6734%

Polly Pockets

1980

£12.08

£800.00

£787.98

6524%

Strawberry Shortcake Dolls

1979

£16.10

£1,054.21

£1,038.18

6447%

Taking the crown for the highest value childhood toy is Cabbage Patch Kids dolls, which were last sold for £2,432 a doll – an impressive 11,982% increase from the original price of around £20 a doll.

The Cabbage Patch Kids were a global success, having sold over 95 million dolls worldwide by 1999.

The success of the Cabbage Patch Kids is not only reflected in the huge sales figures but also in the frequency of the dolls in the media through the 1980s and 1990s – in 1992 the dolls even became the first official mascot of the US Olympic Team!

Other popular toys that might be hiding in your attic and worth a few pennies, are old Monopoly boards, Barbies dolls and Pez dispensers – all now selling for several hundred pounds more than their original price.

Toys such as Strawberry Shortcake dolls, and Transformer action figures, could get you up to over £1,000 in profit, with Strawberry Shortcake dolls selling for as much £1,045 and Transformers figures as much as £1,620 each.

The Strawberry Shortcake dolls were released in 1979, had food-themed names and were scented to match their name. Costing only £16.10 at the time of release, the dolls have increased around £1,038.18 – a 6447% increase.

Stuart Kerr Technical Director at Liberty Games, comments:

“Many of these toys would have been bought by people as ordinary, relatively cheap gifts for their children, unaware of their potential return on investments 20 or 30 years later.

Many of the toys that have high ROIs are still being sold today, with original Barbie dolls, Monopoly boards and Teenage Mutant Ninja dolls are worth up to thousands of pounds to collectors.

If you’ve ever had one of these popular childhood toys it might be time to get in the attic and dig them out – you could make a substantial profit.”