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Did you know you could have a small fortune sitting around your home? It’s important to remember that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. So, clean out your closets, basement and attic, but don’t start throwing stuff away until you make sure it’s not worth a lot of money.
Following are four things many people don’t realize are valuable that can actually fetch a pretty price.
Trading Cards
There are many different types of trading cards on the market. The most valuable tend to be baseball cards. If you have a 1952 Mickey Mantle Tops card, it’s worth about $1.3 million. The 1916 Babe Ruth sporting news card is worth about $700,000. It’s worth going through every card individually and looking up their value.
While baseball may be the most valuable, you can also have a good amount of wealth in collectible card games. Some of the best trading card games are Magic: The Gathering, Wizards of the Coast Domination, Pokémon, Dragon Ball and Battlestar Galactica. Keep in mind that baseball and other trading cards fluctuate in value, so it’s best to sell while the market’s hot.
Vintage Costume Jewelry
Costume jewelry is usually made inexpensively for show. However, some of the older pieces fetch high dollar amounts from collectors. The most common manufacturers of these pieces are Sarah Coventry, AVON and Trifari. While not all the pieces are valuable, Trifari tends to have the highest demand and ticket price. If you have any old jewelry sitting around or find some at your local thrift store, it’s worth going through carefully.
Dental Scrap
Would you ever dream that you could sell your old dental scrap for cash? Depending on the material used, your dental scrap may be valuable. Collectors typically seek scrap made with gold so that it can be repurposed. Silver doesn’t have high value, but there are plenty of others that do. High-value fillings are sought after by dealers, and they will buy things like inlays, caps, bridges and crowns.
Dolls
Dolls can be worth thousands, and there’s not much rhyme or reason as to why one is worth more than another. If you have a doll that dates from 1940 to 1980, you have a good chance of getting a great resale price. Some of the most valuable makers are Ideal, Horseman, Mattel, Effanbee, Fisher-Price, American Girl and Hasbro. If you have any childhood dolls sitting around, check the back of their neck for the manufacture and date.
Many factors contribute to the value of trading cards, dental scraps, costume jewelry and dolls. It’s best to get an appraisal from a collector or someone who specializes in that field. The good news is that you may have some precious items sitting around your home collecting dust.