Please oh please tell me I am NOT the only one!

[danner]

Here in this house we have toys from grandpa's collection as well as my husband's. We feel that if we continue the tradition of buying quality toys they will take care of themselves. Toys get played with, and everything else here has a job to do, too. Except great grandpa's pocket watch. It doesn't keep time but it's pretty. I don't collect anything.

[NotLad]

About ten years ago, my grandfather's best friend's mother died. As they were cleaning out her house, they found that she had kept every toy and every box from his childhood.... in the 1930s and 1940s


When they took the collection to a collector, the collector had to sit down because he actually got lightheaded.

When everything sold, Larry had made more than $70,000.

My point is, don't open the boxes you have. It takes about 60 years for toys to really come in to value. Larry's situation was a little unique because they were WWII era metal toys. (WWII toys are in high demand because toys were either halted in production or scraped.)

You just have to give it time.



ETA: Another good story is my DH's BFF. His mom had a "Star Wars party" for her son in 1984 and bought action figures as party favors. She stuck them in the closet to keep her kids out of them and forgot them. She found them last year, mint packaging. I'll just let you imagine how much those are worth.

[marenmccoy]

I have to say that I'm not like that. I just don't have the collector mentality. I don't understand how a person gets any enjoyment out of stuff sitting in boxes.

Partially, this might come from the fact that my best friend's father is a collector/hoarder and there is literally no room in their house to live because every free space is crammed with unopened memorabilia.