Random Discovery Of The Day: You Could Be Sitting On A Beanie Baby Goldmine

You there. Stop what you’re doing this instant and call your mother. Or father. Or whichever wolf/nunnery was responsible for raising you. We have IMMENSE NEWS.

Remember those Beanie Babies you bulk-bought because you were convinced that they’d one day pay for your personal jet ski? Remember the dismay you felt over the years as you watched this promised price increase categorically not happen?

Well, fear not, we’ve been doing some snooping on eBay, and those Beanie Babies you’ve been hoarding? They’re being bid for on eBay for thousands of pounds.

Some Beanie Babies, at least. The biggest seller by some margin is the first edition Princess Diana toy, like the one above. It has a starting bid of an eye-watering $499,999.99 USD (about £305,900) on eBay. Also valuable are Beanie Babies with factory defects or misspellings, because collectors consider these rare:

If your toys still have all their tags and definitely aren’t reproductions (you can verify the authenticity by checking if the Beanie’s name on the tag is in the official red, rather than the knock-off orange), they could be worth something according to the eBay Beanie Babies buying guide.

But what if the Beanie Babies craze passed you by? Can you still mine treasures from your toy collection? Megan Mulrooney, a toy expert at valuemystuff.com, a company set up by a former Sotheby’s director, says you can.

'Nostalgic toys from the 1980s and 1990s are appreciating in value. Emerging products include vintage Hello Kitty items, My Little Pony, and of course, Barbies. Even dolls of groups like The Spice Girls are collectable.'

A quick eBay trawl confirms this. We found:

So it’s worth manufacturing a reason to dash home and root through your old bedroom (although if your parents turned your room into a gym as soon as you left for uni, you’re well within your rights not to inform them of any tiny fortunes you discover therein).

'To get the best prices, make sure your items are in their original packaging, or at least in very good condition,' advises Megan Mulrooney. She adds, 'Look out for toys that were a cult in their period, as these will always have strong sentimental appeal for the generation that played with them.'

In addition to auctioning off your childhood, it’s also time to own up to that Zayn Malik doll you bought in a hormonal fit of drunken weakness. Yeah, you know the one. Fish it out from under your pillow and and keep it in the best possible condition for the next ten years or go. Because today’s toys are tomorrow’s treasures, and you never know – one day Zayn just might buy you that jet ski after all.

Follow Robyn on Twitter @orbyn

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.