Ten toys that have increased thousands of percent from launch

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Most of us remember having a favourite toy as a child that might of been a bear or doll, or action figure to a transformer. I wish I had treated some of my toys better and kept them or persuaded my parents to keep a few more. Of course, I didn’t listen when I was told to keep a stunning toy car in its box – unplayed with, no chance.

If you are lucky enough to have a box of treats in the loft or attic or garage where some of this might of been saved from the elements and from the paws of other kids… you could have a profitable item on your hands.

Ten toys have increased in value by thousands percent wise in recent times.

For the purpose of this post, we will reference this article from a UK outlet from 2020 so prices can change or vary, but on checking recently sold auctions on eBay the prices are still within 5-10%.

Sure, some professional sellers on eBay might be scoping up at a garage sale and other items and holding out for top prices, but these give you a good estimate

  • A Hot Wheels toy car from 1968 is now being sold online for £434.36
  • A Cabbage Patch Kid was now the most expensive old toy found at £2,109.88
  • Other toys include Transformers & Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures
  1. Hot Wheels the toy which saw the biggest jump in percentage increase in price since its release date from 1968 to now is the Hot Wheels original car. Cars are popular with kids from sports cars, to micro machines or Corgi or Hotwheels. An original Hot Wheels car sold for £434.36 at the time of sale, up from its price equivalent pre-decimal price of £0.48, an increase of over 90,625%.
  2. Barbie original if you have found a couple of these dolls somewhere well done to you, these have sold for over £607.81 from their equivalent launch price of £2.43 in 1959. So the increase would be 24,867%.
  3. Cabbage Patch Kid from 1978 original doll recently sold for over £2109, its post decimal price would have been £20.29 so still quite a bit of money at the time, and the increase would be a massive 10,300% increase which shows there is plenty of factors and appeal for these original non-digital toys.
  4. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle original from 1987, the Turtles have had a few comebacks and the original action figure was the 4th highest percentage increase sold for £350 from its original price of £4.87 a percentage increase of 7089%.
  5. Rainbow Brite Doll from 1980 the brightly coloured doll increased from its price of £5.68 to around £385.18 which is over 6681%.
  6. Transformer action figures from 1980 are pricey toys to try and obtain now. They have had some reboots and Hollywood films and are always popular with kids. The original figure will cost over £850 from its price of approx £16.23 which is an increase of over 5137%.
  7. Care Bear again from the 1980s the original Vintage Care Bear doll can set you back a huge £81.09+ up from its 1.62% from what we could see.
  8. Monopoly’s original board set from 1933 might be over 8 years old but still popular and can still cause arguments and greed and fights. The original price was around £1.62 and will cost over £56 around 3350% but would you like an original and well-used board, money and cards? Or instead, switch to one of the many new themed or city versions.
  9. Polly Pocket I remember my sister loving the original Polly Pockets and they cost around £12.17 originally if you wanted one now it would set you back around £349.99 so an increase of 2275%
  10. G.I. Joe action figure from 1982 would have cost you around £9.74 back in 1982 but now the same one would cost 249.99. So this is an increase of 2467% so has this made retro-cool, who knows? I know one thing though how many have survived not being broken or buried somewhere?

Or perhaps the push for digital toys means, that people now really see the value of holding what might not be around or might not reboot or will be different and should appreciate.