Vintage Household items that People Are Paying Thousands For

With the stratospheric rise of online shopping coupled with nearly unfettered access to just about anything you can imagine at prices that are often a matter of negotiation, people are indulging in nostalgia more than ever.

They are the original handheld video game system. Well, actually there were others, like Red Light Football, but those were absolutely terrible. The original Game Boy is as nostalgic as it is cool, and you’re going to want to climb into the back of your car and pretend you’re a kid on a road trip again, or hide beneath your blankets with a flashlight and rock Metroid all night!

Let’s face it, they don’t make ‘em like these anymore. Antique cookie jars are as fun to look at and to have around as they are to raid. They are solid, heavy, and make a lovely resonant sound when you open them.

Nothing says class like a vintage, antique perfume bottle. You can still buy fine perfume in a nice bottle, but there’s something about the craftsmanship and the styling of these older models.

You don’t get the look and feel of a movie case like the old foam padded VHS tapes, especially the ones with Disney films on them. Just having a few of these around for decoration is great. But if you can get your old VCR running, you’ll enjoy all the weird sensations of running a film strip in front of a projector light.

Remember those weird candies that your grandma always had in a tin on her coffee table, especially around the holidays? Well, that’s kind of what old and vintage Christmas ornaments look like all mixed up in a big box together.

My favorite old school lunch box had an image from the Empire Strikes Back of snow troopers mounting a large laser gun in an ice cave. It was a rare and wonderful oddball, as were all the best old metal kid’s lunch boxes from the 1970s and 80s.

Believe it or not, Pokemon has been around for at least 30 years, and that’s just in the United States. Today, some of those old Pokemon cards are worth a bundle!

The most recent pop culture reference to these old gems is probably virtual home decor in the popular Fallout games series. But these old tin signs just ooze charm. They are a throwback to a time when most advertising was still done by shop owners and ma and pop management teams.

The original iPad 1 looks something like the old, but venerable Mac Plus. It seems strangely old. But back in the day, you could do a surprising amount of things with a button and a wheel.

They were just like old vinyl records but smaller, shinier, and doomed to obsolescence much sooner. But in the early 90s when these things were new, there was nothing more alluring than a shelf full of whatever catches your fancy rendered in ones and zeros.

Not many people remember the Boy Scouts, not directly at least. But those who do have a special, burning passion for these classic, coveted patches. Earning these was literally a badge of honor, and not easy for a kid to earn.

If you’ve ever taken a close look at a foreign coin, you’ll have noticed the appeal of the other inherent in them. With old coins, it’s the same appeal but with the allure of time added into the mix. All very old coins are interesting to see and think about. But some of them are extremely valuable as well.

In bygone times when people lived off the land and knew the signs of the weather intimately, the position of a weather vane could be extremely useful. Today, they’re still useful, especially if you’re hunting, golfing, or sailing by dead reckoning.

Pyrex food containers are the great grand daddy of Tupper ware. They are microwave safe and do a bang up job keeping your food fresh. Better still, they have striking retro designs and are heavily sought after by collectors – and by kitchen captains who know what’s good.

It’s cheap, it’s gaudy, and it looks great- too great. In fact, most costume jewelry could pass for real jewelry if it wasn’t so over the top… but it is. People know it’s not real, but it’s getting harder to find the stuff that people love the most- the fancy stuff.

It’s sad that these are not being made anymore- at least not by anyone who will sell them to you for a reasonable price. But that’s why people are willing to pay out the snoot for a good old Tiffany lamp in good condition. Let’s face it, these things are downright beautiful.

It’s delicate, beautiful, and the designs are works of art. But don’t let their daintiness fool you, real China dishware is a joy to use, and it will last a veritable eternity if taken proper care of. In fact, that was their purpose, to be passed from generation to generation remaining in tip top condition for many decades.

In a more honest world, these things are as good as cash. The U.S. Postal Service has had a long tradition of commemorating historical events, people, and places on the face of stamps.

There’s nothing quite as wholesome as an old-timey wooden rocking chair standing in the middle of a large, creaky, wooden floor. Surviving antiques show their age as well as their solid construction.

Today, speaker and battery technology is so advanced that a single speaker the size of your hand can crank out the volumes that these could do with ten pounds of batteries and twice as much hardware.

Anyone with a sense of mystery and an attraction to things gone by will appreciate the beauty and utility of an antique trunk. The cheapest known examples cost at least $500 to $700 on the open market.

These things used to exude executive power back in the days when the industrial revolution was just getting fired up. There’s something special about the sound of the keys and the sharp clang of the return that just makes these things sing.

Maybe it’s the pandemic or maybe it’s something to do with bygone youth- but people are buying up old yearbooks like gangbusters.

Vintage comic books have always been highly sought after by collectors and the nostalgic. However, in today’s world, people rightly wonder if such things will ever be put into print again.

When I was a kid we would have epic battles between the forces of GI Joe and those of Star Wars. Sadly, many of our action figures did not, in fact, survive these battles, and many a tiny plastic body part are likely buried beneath multiple layers of soil and crab grass in the back yard of the old family home.

Adorning the high shelves over doorways of little girl’s bedrooms across the country, these little works of art have stood proud.

Back in the early 90s, kids would do just about anything to lay hands on a pair of Air Jordans. Today, that passion still lives in the hearts of those who remember- and who survive.

Do you remember the days when, if your video game was malfunctioning, you would rip it out of the machine, blow on the contacts, and slam it back in with the authority of a ferocious biker kicking his kickstand up? Those days may be gone, but the artifacts can still be found.

There something about the flick of a flip phone that feels smooth. More importantly, the end of the flip phone era was the end of being able to hang up on someone with authority. If you would like to hang up on someone and still feel good about yourself, you might be a flip phone collector in the making.

Old guitars, the ones that were made with rock and roll love, are still running strong. In fact, collectors believe the old electric guitars have the best sound. Of course, they might be suffering from hearing loss- but they are willing to pay good money for them.

Back in the day, you wanted them, you needed them… and when you got them home, you hated them, and you destroyed them. But now, with nostalgia figuring into the equation, people are paying out the wazoo for the original denizens of the Happy Meal box.

Remember these old clocks that were so cool that one just had to be in the opening sequence of every film made in the mid-80s? There’s a good reason for that. They were mechanically interesting.

Got an old t-shirt of your favorite rock band on it? You might be sitting in a gold mine as collectors are hungry like the wolf for these throwbacks to a more sincere time in pop culture history.