Do you ever come across old toys at garage sales? Do these toys hold any value? How can you know if the toys you find are worth anything? The simple truth is, many people find extremely valuable toys at garage sales without even knowing it. Moreover, many people also get rid of extremely valuable toys at their garage sales without knowing it. Throughout this blog, we will mention ways to find out if your toys are worth anything. Along with this, we will also mention some toys you may come across at garage sales and the value of these toys. Stick around to see the incredible worth of garage sale toys.
People usually get rid of these old toys and sell them for only a few bucks at their garage sales. In reality, they can be worth so much more. Yes, sometimes the toys sold at garage sales hold less value than when first released. Other times, however, these toys can be antiques or collectibles worth a lot of money. If you buy toys from garage sales, you may actually find that you are sitting on a gold mine of vintage toys. Follow along through this blog with us and learn more about the worth of your garage sale toys.
How to Find the Value of Garage Sale Toys
In order to find the worth of garage sale toys, you will need to go through a series of factors. To find the true value of your toys, you will want to do research on the toy. Through the research, you will want to look at the condition of the toy, when the toy released, the packaging of the toy, any tags still on it, and its rarity. Follow along to get a look into how to best find out if your toys from garage sales are worth anything.
Research
When doing research for the toys you get from garage sales, you will want to go online and look for similar toys. This helps you get an idea for how much other people may be selling the same or similar items for. The research here is key for knowing if the exact toy you purchased is worth anything. This research also comes into importance when looking at the other factors. The condition of the toy, release date, packaging, tags, and rarity can be found out through this research.
There may be listings of your toy online of a newer model. There may be listings of your toy with packaging and without packaging. Also, there may be listings of your toy online with wear and tear. You will find through this research a lot of information about your toy. This will help you get a good idea on how much your toy is worth.
There are many places you can look to find out if your toys hold value. Online cites such as eBay and our price list guide prove to be very helpful in this area. With these cites, you have the ability to see similar listings and can then decipher how much value your toys hold. Follow along to see more in depth these things to look for when finding out if your garage sale toys are worth anything.
Condition
When looking at the worth of garage sale toys, it is important to note that the condition of your toy significantly changes the value. Toys with nicks, dents, chipped paint, and any other signs of wear can bring the value of the item down. This is why grading services such as the CGA (Collectible Grading Authority), and the CAS (Collector’s Archive Services) exist. Grading services such as these, look at the item with detail to see exactly the type of condition that the toy is in. These companies standardized the metrics for mint toys. Mint condition means that the item still stands in its original packaging and has never been opened.
Although these grading services can provide help and good insight on the condition, sending your toy to these companies should take some extra thought. It is important to do other research on the value of your garage sale toys before thinking of sending them off to these grading services. These services continue to go through a series of changes and challenges. With factors such as shipping costs, damage possibilities, and wait of return, the decision to send your toys to these services may take some extra thought. Another thing when researching similar listings, is to look at the difference in pricing. A lot of this may be due to the condition. It may be helpful to see different reasons people list the product lower or higher.
Even with products still in the original packaging, sun light and heat can affect plastic packaging. Products on shelves can also gain damage from dust and humidity. The paint can chip or even loose color from these things. It is important to factor all these possibilities in when looking at value.
Age and Release Date
The release date also holds a factor in the worth of garage sale toys. The older the toy does not necessarily mean the higher the value. However, often newer toys do not use the same technology or materials that were used in older models of toys. Some companies even switch materials for their toys. As the companies come out with new models and follow the trends of other companies at the time, two different models of the same toy may be made with different materials. Older toys may be made with metal while newer toys may be made with plastic. This can add to the value by knowing how old the toy is and can be helpful when looking at toys at garage sales.
When looking at the age and release date of the garage sale toy, you may find the manufacturing label to be helpful. Manufacturing labels typically include information for safety and usage instructions. However, they also include the name and address of the manufacturer or distributer. This is helpful to know for research purposes. Along with these, they may include the date and location of production which reveals how long ago the specific item released. Not always, but normally, older toys hold a higher value. Since toys go through wear and tear easily throughout the years, older toys found in pristine or mint condition can be worth a lot of money.
Packaging
The packaging of the toy, if any, also plays a huge part in knowing the worth of garage sale toys. Having the toy in mint condition or close to it will place the toys at a higher value. This includes the toy in its original packaging with any instructions included. It also needs to show no wear or tear and the toy itself still intact. The minute a toy is purchased, it begins to go down in value. However, the value may go back up over the years and, if the toy remains untouched, it can be worth so much more than you may think.
Some toys come in bubble packaging. These toys often show signs of wear throughout the years when remaining in their packaging due to the sunlight or heat. Often the plastic on the packaging begins to turn yellow over time. These toys with the bubble packaging are typically attached to a cardboard back. The cardboard backs can show wear easily, too. Water damage, chipping, fading color, and bending of the cardboard can all cause the toy to lose value. Toys in boxes also show wear due to these factors. When the toy gets opened, sometimes this causes the tape to peel color and paint off the cardboard or toy itself. This also plays a factor into how much the toy is worth.
Tags
Another thing to look out for on the toys you find at garage sales is any tags still on the item. This goes along with looking at the packaging of the toy and its condition. When the toy still has packaging tags or price tags, these can even add to the value. Most of the time, taking these things off the toy only harm the value. With stuffed animals, any packaging tags stating the name and manufacturer can tear the fabric of the toy with removal. Price tags also harm the value if they stick to the side of a box and are torn off. This can remove some of the paint or cardboard. It can also leave a sticky residue on the box which harms the condition of the toy.
Rarity
More than the mass produced toys, those made in smaller quantities often hold a higher value. Along with this, toys with manufacturing errors also hold higher values. Sometimes toys release with manufacturing errors and look slightly different than the mass produced same product. These hold a higher value since there may be only a few of these toys ever made. Manufacturing errors occur anywhere throughout the toy from the actual appearance on the toy to the wording on the tag. When you buy a toy at a garage sale and find out the rarity of it, you might have something valuable in your hands.
Toys that released only for a short time may also hold high value due to their rarity. One of these, the toys that flopped commercially, are sometimes worth more. These companies often stop production due to the toys not selling at first which leads to only a small supply of these toys. As time passes, these toys become harder and harder to find which increases the value of any still remaining.
Although rarity most of the time increases the value of the toy, there are some instances where the rarity doesn’t matter as much. Demand for the toy in the second-hand market plays a huge factor. If toy buyers don’t know about the product or have any interest in it, the value of the toy might only be a bit above the original retail price. Some of these small toy lines only released regionally or to small stores which plays a part in value as well. When these toy lines only release to these areas, many people in the world don’t know they even exist. This causes the demand to go down and the value of the toy to only increase slightly- if at all.
Toys You May Find
Although you won’t know what someone sells at their garage sales until you walk up, there are some toys that you can look out for. Barbies, Beanie Babies, various action figures and dolls, Hot Wheels, and Transformers name just a few. These toys have been well known for years and also hold high values within the collections. When looking at garage sales, collections of toys hold high values often as well. It can be rare to find toys on their own that hold value. Therefore, finding a collection of toys in good condition might be worth more money than you think.
At garage sales, many people just look to get rid of any old toys they have lying around and don’t realize if they have something worth anything. You will probably find a lot of toys that aren’t worth much at all at garage sales. However, underneath the piles of worn out typical toys, you may find toys of high worth hidden within.
Since many people get rid of all kinds of toys they no longer want, it is possible to find toys in great condition that are now worth tens and even thousands of dollars. It is important to look at the condition, age, packaging, and rarity when seeing if your toys hold value. The research of all these things will leave you with the best results of knowing the worth of garage sale toys.
Do You Have Old And Used Toys?
If you have a collection of old and used toys, you can turn those toys into cash. There is no reason to let those old toys collect dust. Contact us today to sell your vintage garage sale toy collection.
Made in Collaboration with:
Chris Ingledue
Contact: email
Bio: I am the founder and owner of Wheeljack’s Lab Pop Culture and Toy Shop. My vision has always been to reunite customers with their favorite childhood toys and pop culture, triggering fond memories, and reigniting their imaginations. Every day, I work in the “lab” where it’s Christmas 365 days a year. I scour the internet, like when we had the Sears Catalog of yesteryear, for the next great treasure. Then, I await the arrival of the postman as if he were Santa Claus himself and helping collectors worldwide with their versions of Christmas. Every day as a vintage toy buyer is an absolute joy!