Live long enough in one place, and you'll find yourself accumulating all sorts of junk in your attic and closets. And while most of it is, doubtless, both worthless and useless, if you dig deep enough, you might be surprised to find that you're sitting on some pretty valuable stuff. How valuable? Some pretty common household items that are now considered "vintage" can actually sell online for thousands of dollars!
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Which items? Read on to find out, and hey - if you hit the jackpot, don't be shy to send something our way as a "thank you."
Game Boys
Nineties kids are sure to remember this little gadget: the Nintendo Game Boy!
First launched in 1989, the Game Boy completely revolutionized the gaming industry. Some people even claim it paved the way to the way we think about and use smartphones today.
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The device's iconic status helped cement games like Super Mario and Tetris as classics, and today the 1989 version of the handheld console regularly sells for hundreds of dollars on sites like eBay - but the real money is in old game cartridges, which go for thousands: the 1990 Super Mario Land game cartridge alone, for instance, is on offer on eBay for more than $5,500!
Cookie Jars
If you happen to have a hand-me-down cookie jar bought back in the '50s sitting on your kitchen countertop, you just might be sitting on a fortune without knowing it.
Vintage cookie jars bought back in the '40s and '50s at Marshall Field's Co. Department Store sell for outrageous prices today, reaching thousands of dollars a piece.
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So if you're rushing to the kitchen to check if your jar might be eligible at this very moment, we understand; just make sure you don't get your hand stuck inside them!
Perfume Bottles
They say you can't put new wine in old bottles, but when it comes to perfumes, sometimes just having the old bottle is more than enough.
Perfume bottles have almost always sported intricate designs, but many aficionados and collectors seem to especially prize perfume bottles from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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Delicate, tiny, and painstakingly designed, these bottles often lay forgotten in old attics, but can actually fetch surprisingly high prices on the market. On eBay, it's possible to find small, antique perfume bottles priced at well over $3,000, but apparently, the really big sales take place in dedicated auctions.
VHS Tapes
Kids in the '80s and '90s didn't have Netflix, but that didn't mean they were strangers to binging. By the mid-nineties, almost everyone had their very own VHS cassette player, and we would all wear our video cassette’s magnetic tape thin from repeated viewings of our favorite movies.
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But while DVDs and digital media have replaced most of our old tapes, there are some rare gems, particularly from the horror and science fiction genres, that have never been converted to digital formats, and which can fetch a hefty price among collectors - sometimes in the hundreds of dollars.
Band T-Shirts
We all have a few old T-shirts from our grungier days in the back of our closets. Often, they're a bit ragged and a little embarrassing to wear. But if you have a few band tees that happen to be in good condition, you just might be sitting on a pretty hefty sum.
How hefty? Nirvana’s In Utero tour tee apparently sold for almost $7,000 - but that's far from being the priciest wearable band merch out there.
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A promo T-shirt in good condition for a show of the New York rap legends RUN-D.M.C. from the early '80s was priced at over $13,000!
Kugel Christmas Ornaments
Christmas ornaments are, traditionally, accumulated over the years and passed down as family heirlooms from one generation to another. So chances are, you might have some pretty old ornaments hanging from your tree each year.
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If you're very lucky, you might have some ornaments created under the Kugel brand in Germany sometime between 1840 and the 1940s. These blown glass baubles are highly sought after - and collectors are willing to pay. How much? Some go for as much as $18,000!