computer BOOKS. lol. that was a very specific time in history.

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pgcotype@reddit

We have a dinosaur PC upstairs in the "office." Really a room dominated by my husband's "desk" (a slab of pressed wood and two file cabinets), piled with papers he ignores, but insists are too important to touch. The computer sits there like a giant fossil, because you can't get the same version of AutoCad anymore. Think he's used it once in 25 years.

JoeyKino@reddit

My wife and I LOVE the creepy ones people have made, but they're crazy-expensive and she's got some pretty spectacular art skills, so we've started buying some of the ones we find at thrift stores if we can think of something weird to do with it...

So far we've got a child sitting on a stump with a book I'd like to make into a Deadite reading the Necronomicon, a kid dangling a toy for a dog I'd like to turn into a kid holding raw meat for a demonic dog (possibly Cerberus if we can find something sturdy enough to make entirely additional heads), and at LEAST one more that's escaping me.

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Demonkey44@reddit

You could sell that on Etsy for a pretty penny as a OOAK item.

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JoeyKino@reddit

That's exactly where we got the idea - wife found some on there she wanted to get me until she saw the price they were selling them for (not to mention the person who does the REALLY awesome ones is in the UK and we're in the U.S. - shipping alone bumps the cost up pretty good). This one is a favorite:

I will have to find the photos. She did a series of the larger angels as different characters: They Live, Alex from A Clockwork Orange, Leatherface, Pinhead, and Pogo the Clown (John Wayne Gacy).

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geof2001@reddit

Definitely going to need a link to photos. Guessing etsy links probably not allowed, but maybe just her store name?

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Mountainjoie@reddit

Hummel used to have a Hummel of the Month club 🫠

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biteyfish98@reddit

Yep. Yep. Yep. Should have sold them allllll in the 80s!

My mother still loves hers, some of which her mother brought over originally from Germany, so if they make her happy…🤷🏻‍♀️

My mom worked for Hershey when I was a kid. During their 100yr celebration they gave all employees a Steuben vase engraved with the Hershey logo. My mom swore it would be worth a significant amount in years to come because “it’s a Steuben”.

It’s still sitting in her China cabinet for all to see like it’s the World Cup trophy. Right now they’re going for $40 on eBay.

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siamesecat1935@reddit

My dad worked for Merck. At some point, they were voted either THE best or one of the best companies to work for. Every employee was given a 1 oz silver commemorative coin. In going through my mom's stuff since she's moved to skilled nursing, i found it.

Thankfully, she isn't one to collect things, or hoard. But she asked if I wanted to keep it. NOPE. I'm selling it, along with a bunch of silver flatware and silver jewelry.

I did that with gold jewelry we had. We both went through it, kept what was sentimental, and sold the rest. Got almost $6500 for it, which will help pay misc. expenses since she gets a whole $50 a month under Medicaid.

I kept some things, including things she said were sentimental, even though they aren't to me. they were small and can be easily hidden away.

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Designing1166@reddit

"Got almost $6500 for it, which will help pay misc. expenses since she gets a whole $50 a month under Medicaid."

Jaded-Maybe5251@reddit

I took over 80 pounds of those goddamn things to the bank. The idea was my sperm donor was going to "melt them down and sell the real copper." At least they were rolled.

Sperm donor collected coins - he was a numismatist. Actual higher-than-face-value coins.

The whole collection sold for around $80k. He was

A couple months ago, I found another complete set... a near duplicate of one of the sets sold.

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PNWcog@reddit

Stamps are basically worthless. But coins still can be worth something. Gold coins obviously, but a handful of old dimes and quarters could be worth $30+ just from the silver content. No, nothing to retire off of, but enough to not throw away.

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KansasDavid1960@reddit

My parents had a crap load of stamps, I sold a few for 85% face ten sheets at a time. The rest I used to ship my eBay sales, and it worked out great and I have a few left, my mom passed in 2006.

None of the stamps were valuable other than the postage.

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CreativeRiddle@reddit

I went through my FIL’s coin collection after he passed. Not really much of anything to get excited about when I looked it up. What was surprising was finding he had US script printed specifically for use on base during the Vietnam war. I guess most guys spent it and not a ton of it is still around. Nothing to get rich from, but worth more than I’d expect. He was a pilot and also had a pack of random bills from various countries, all 1960s, I’m guessing it was in case he was shot down. It was an interesting rabbit hole.

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Dumbkitty2@reddit

I’m in this camp. I ended up with a fair bit of silver melt weight, a couple gold coins from a great grandmother and rolls and rolls of bicentennial quarters that I hand out to kids because they think they are cool. So what if they all end up in a bubble gum machine a week later?

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DrJagger452@reddit

Pennies. Nothing special about them, but for some unknown reason they have kept every penny they've received in the last 50 years (or more). EVERY.FUCKING.PENNY.

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We collect coins too, and bills. They’re in a book w the plastic sleeve things. Labeled by country and organized by continent. When we travel we make a ‘withdrawal’ from the bank book so we have some initial cash on hand, then make sure we’ve got bills and coins to put back in the book when we get home.

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Die_Immediately@reddit

Yep. My uncle gave me a US proof set every year for my birthday when I was a kid. They were the most boring gifts and decades later were worth little more than the coins inside.

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draggar@reddit

Are you my nephew? 🤣🤣😥🤣🤣

He 18 now and my sister and I had a talk, while she says he's appreciated them I don't have to get them anymore (and they're so f-ing expensive now, especially for the silver proof sets I'd get him).

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ConstantConfusion123@reddit

My dad too! He still buys them once in a while. It would make sense to me if he just enjoyed collecting unusual or old coins, but to think they'll be valuable is just silly to me.

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raerae1991@reddit

This^^^^

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Jaded-Maybe5251@reddit

Porcelain dolls.

There's about 50 of them.

Maybe? I have no idea…a musician I am not! 🤣 I remember my guy mentioning something about the frets making the guru realize that it was original/special/early edition or something. He also told us if we listed it ourselves in the right place he thought we’d net $3K easy. But it was a difficult time, and we needed to have it over with, and that wonderful sale agent deserved every ounce of his commission, so we let it go. Bonus: a collector in my very music centered city got a great find.

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Impressive-Shame-525@reddit

Like this one?

Yeah. Tell me about it! At the time of the sale, my Moma was pissed at my sister for getting married or of the blue. (That's a story for another day. Suffice to say, it saved her life)

My mom buys those is huge lots off eBay and replaces their plastic pellets with BBs or lead shot and sells them as sewing weights.

Good news, they are worth something. Not much, mind you, but something

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Olivia_Bitsui@reddit

What are sewing weights?

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KerissaKenro@reddit

advwench@reddit

I've asked my mother to leave everything she has to my brother. She laughed, but I wasn't joking :/

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ellylions@reddit

Hubby has a brother who took some things, but the bulk was "collectibles" and TONS of Princess House. The real valuables were claimed by the aunts. You should've heard the detailed stories of how those boys mom promised them the items. Queuing the ugly cry face and the trembling hands...

I'm an only child, so it's all going to fall to me. The beer steins, the Earnhardt stuff...it's very sad to know that if they do go before me, the illusion will go with them. They truly believe that it's all "priceless".

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Designing1166@reddit

I'd love to take that Princess House off of your hands. If only I could afford it. 🙄Lol. Call me crazy but some of my best memories are of helping a dear bonus sister sell it way back in 1986.

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Daghain@reddit

Oh god I had forgotten about Princess House.

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Atwood412@reddit

Haha. My mom had a pull behind trailer full of stuff. This was in the late 1990s. She sold stuff at auctions. She proudly proclaimed to my teenage brother that when she died “all of this would be his”. His response was “ I don’t want this fucking shit seeing xyz wants it”. My mom tried convincing him not was worth money. He told her if it was worth so much sell that shit and give him the cash.

She died broke.

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I don't have anyone to dump my treasures on, so I go through things at least 2-3x a year to create a pile for my 2 friends who are expert at estate sales. I let them take a heftier than normal commission because they are my family-by-choice and we all profit.

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PassiveAggressiveLib@reddit

Not my boomer mom, but me: a giant tote full of Beanie Babies. I was absolutely convinced they would pay for college. I still can’t bear to part with them because knowing my luck, they’ll shoot up in value as soon as I do. The struggle is real.

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to_old_to_be_cool@reddit

Do what we do.....hand them out at Halloween instead of candy

We had totes full as well, and have handed all of them out, so now we buy them at garage and estate sales, as all the kids in the neighborhood expect beanie babies from us.....

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droppingrumpeez@reddit

Former MiL kept a plastic bag full of broken glass that used to be college team beer mugs. They are apparently very valuable and someone will surely be able to glue them back together and sell them for a tidy sum one day. So she's hanging on to them for dear life.

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haywoodjabloughmee@reddit

gif

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droppingrumpeez@reddit

My son found the bag o' glass when he was a toddler looking for toys in Granny's basement.

Maybe create a fake company, make an offer, get a friend to pick up the bags and throw away. But I'm pretty sure no offer would be sufficient.

Or, if she asks for a ridiculous amount, create a fake charity that she could donate that money to, and come full circle 😂

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citymousecountyhouse@reddit

I think that's the worst. The broken crap they insist can be repaired. Most of the time they don't even have the missing pieces.

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Skookum_kamooks@reddit

So… hate to admit this, but I’m the A-hole that buys a lot of this broken crap from boomers. In my defense, I repair what I can but I’m not above gutting some things to make something new that looks retro/vintage. Things like old stereo equipment, with blown out speakers cones, fried electronics, etc. I take this stuff and if I can’t repair it, I gut it and swap in modern electronics. One of my favorite success stories so far is an old burned out fisher stereo… long story short I modded it to have a Bluetooth receiver/transmitter and wireless charging station while keeping the original amplifier circuitry for the radio, turn table, and aux input.

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neverincompliance@reddit

my husband does this and it drives me nuts. Sure let's put that broken leaf blower or coffee maker downstairs in the basement. It just needs time to heel and will be good as new

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DrEnter@reddit

I’m bad about this, but that’s because I grew up on a farm and my Dad was “Silent Generation” (so grew up in the Depression and WWII rationing).

I’ve had to make a rule for myself: If I’m going to keep this, it either needs to be being fixed or stripped for “useful” parts (motors, switches, screws in screw jar) within 2 weeks or out it goes.

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anaphasedraws@reddit

I just went through this with my mom when she moved into senior living. Full set of china & crystal that all had to be put into kitchen cabinets “for when we have company”. Okay, fine. But she had several wine & water glasses with the stems broken at the goblet join. “I’ll fix those.” How long have they been broken? 10 years.

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Id_Rather_Beach@reddit

I AM RUTHLESS

when I go back to my folks to help, I say "NOPE" and nothing. There are a few things we've discussed, we've looked up items that we thought might have some value ( none ) and then let go of things. I kept a few thing I had as a kid that are very pretty items, but have -0- monetary value.

A print of an Eagle and a tiger with the American flag in the background. The funniest part is that my step dad was insisting the frame was worth $300. It's an ugly frame, too.

BEANIE BABIES

I remember the ads for the tapes...."Buy it now, before it goes 'back in the vault'."

Right? According to her, every single one was going to be a ticket to college debt-free.

I donated them all when she died. 😂

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citymousecountyhouse@reddit

How wonderful. She would be happy to know all the children's educations she helped fund with your donation. lol

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mindcontrol93@reddit

Some VHS tapes are worth an absurd amount of money. I do not think of them are Disney, maybe Song of the South.

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kcpirana@reddit

I’m old enough to remember when they were $100 new. I was a kid and my uncle worked as an appliance salesman. He was an old movie buff like me now. He bought the first VCR of anyone I knew. I forget which movies were released first, but I know he bought Psycho the minute it dropped and it was $100 in 1980s money.

The whole family except me watched it. (I was probably reading. My family wasn’t great to be around.) He lived with my grandpa and when everyone was gone, I watched Psycho by myself.

I don’t think I took a shower in an empty house for six months after that. 😂

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ThatsWhatTheySey@reddit

They priced VHS like that ($70 to $100) because it was for the rental market. A store would pay that super high price, but rent it out over and over.

Then “Batman” came along and the distribution company thought, “hey we can sell this direct to consumers for $20”. They marketed it as a Christmas gift. This began a long string of summer blockbusters being sold on VHS for $20 as the perfect Christmas gift. Before that you mostly rented.

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kcpirana@reddit

That makes sense. I never knew when the rides on pricing changed. By the time I was buying, everything was cheap and then it was over and DVDs came in. Then Blu-Rays.

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Brevemike@reddit

Anything which may have fallen victim to the cult of political correctness. It’s like finding old copies of books that were banned and burned during the inquisition! 🤦‍♂️

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kcpirana@reddit

Yeah. I wish my state would ban book bans like Illinois just did. 😕

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mindcontrol93@reddit

There was this giant warehouse called Super Flea around here. I got a bootleg copy of SotS for my mom. They also had a DVD of Yellow Submarine which was out of print for a long time in the US.

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discussatron@reddit

Disney VHS

So.much.china.

China they used, china they didn't use, china that was "for special occasions" that nerver happened, china that was too good to use...

I feel you so much it hurts.

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Bundt-lover@reddit

Trying to break my parents of the compulsion to save things “for a special occasion” is a never-ending battle. We buy them nice bottles of alcohol (they ask for a good wine or whiskey, we’re not buying alcohol for teetotalers) and it never gets drunk. They ask for good coffee beans, it sits unopened until the beans are rancid as they drink cheap stuff. Get them a gift card to a place they’ve talked about going, they never use it. It’s never a special enough time.

Stop. Wasting. The good shit. When are you finally going to have it, at your fucking funeral? (Parents are elderly) They tease me for having “expensive taste” when the reality is that if I get a chance to enjoy something, I will! While I’m still alive and in possession of all my faculties is really the best time to do all of that.

I think my generation (Gen X) suffers from the residual effects of this approach. I had to break myself out of saving “stuff” just for the sake of it. I have a lot of things that I do love, but I don’t use them and I have to really think about why I have it. I just got rid of a couple big boxes of crap that I bought and hadn’t used after 2 years.

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FelicitousLynx@reddit

My parents have so many sets of dishes (they used to have tons of parties so there's china and colored glass and antique and fiestaware and everyday and holiday and you get the idea). Sets of flatware too, and linens.

My dad told me the other day that if mom dies before him, he'll never wash another dish. He's going to use a plate and throw it out.

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CartographerEven9735@reddit

Ugh, I know it used to be more. We're kinda within driving distance. I'll probably do what my parents did and just start using the fine china regularly bc life is to short.

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grandmaratwings@reddit

Replacements limited for the win. Love them for selling family sets, buying pieces I want, and their yard sale in the fall is friggin amazing!!!!

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ClubExotic@reddit

Yep…this too! I already posted once in this thread but my mother has several sets of china. She’s got Fiestaware, Desert Rose, and some from my aunt.

They’ve also got cookie jars, salt and pepper shakers, vinyl records…

I’m so glad I’m no contact so I dont have to deal with it!

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stuck_behind_a_truck@reddit

I admit to loving beautiful China and wanting to show it off. It’s an aesthetics thing. This stuff really was valuable once. 80 year olds remember that age and really can’t believe it’s not.

To the person who’s parents bought her a China set at an antique store - my Fancy Nancy 23 year old would totally take it off your hands.

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JustALizzyLife@reddit

I get the anesthetic thing. Except these have been sitting in boxes for longer than I've been alive, moved cross country multiple times and are now collecting dust in my basement. But I'm the bad guy for not "appreciating my history." My dusty, boxed up history that the boomers bitching at me haven't looked at probably since their grandparents died. Just more stuff that will end up in a landfill while they keep buying more and expecting their kids to deal with once they're gone. But don't throw it out! That's disrespectful.

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stuck_behind_a_truck@reddit

I get it. We have a small set of Wedgewood china, and we display it.

Demonkey44@reddit

You can sell it to replacements.com, at least get something for it.

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JustALizzyLife@reddit

Thank you! I'll check them out.

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menellinde@reddit

My mother collected Royal Dalton China over my childhood and gathered 12 full place settings plus all the serving dishes etc. After I got married she started me on my collection and got to 5 place settings before I finally got her to stop. I have used then once. We never entertain at my place because my apartment is small and my sister has a huge house with 4 kids so it always made sense to go there.

JustALizzyLife@reddit

I refuse to patronize Salvation Army, but I'll check the local resell/ thrift stores. Most don't want old china. One, they're overwhelmed with all the china they already have and two, a lot of the older stuff is full of lead and not healthy to actually eat off of.

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Impressive-Shame-525@reddit

Good point, I didn't think about that.

so that's "NOS" ????

(new old stock)

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new2bay@reddit

Most Franklin Mint stuff is just worth whatever the scrap metal value is. They did make coins for foreign countries, though, and some of those are worth something.

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tn-dave@reddit

Yeah they had some big sets of .999 silver rounds that were selling so for cheap in the early 90s

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new2bay@reddit

That’s because silver was like $6 / ozt then. It’s a little over $36 today.

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AZJHawk@reddit

My great uncle was as a world class hoarder, but he had a few good items in his hoard. In the 60s, he collected silver certificates and turned them in for silver grease bars. When he died in 2005, he had five of them, each roughly 100 ozt. My dad kept two and gave my brothers and I one each.

My brothers promptly sold theirs, but I’ve kept mine. Not for investment reasons, but just because I think it’s cool to have an 8+ lb silver bar. Still, it’s nice knowing I have a few thousand bucks in silver if I need it.

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tn-dave@reddit

The fishing lure shaped like Joe Camel’s head? That’s gonna be worth some real money someday!

On a serious note, I helped a fellow GenX buddy go through some of his (GenX) late wife’s things after she passed and he pulled out a half-dozen limited edition Whataburger Pez dispensers still in the packaging because they’re so hard to find and, ”will be collector’s items someday!”

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distract_@reddit

Were it not for Matt Mitchell on “Bless your rank” I would have no idea what a Whataburger is.

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wipekitty@reddit

Don't laugh too much, the Joe Camel dartboard went for about $50 when I had to play estate sale after my parents passed.

I mentioned to my ex that he just might want to torch it because there was no way he'd get it cleared out. Ever. He won't, his family built the house, but seriously, I have NO IDEA how you deal with that.

5000 sq ft of literal garbage. (and do not get me going on the expired food.... )

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ThisCromulentLife@reddit

Her house is not huge, but I dread the day we have to clean out all of her garbage.

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FlippingPossum@reddit

My MIL was a hoarder. My husband rented a dumpster and shoveled stuff out of the house. In her case, it wasn't worth trying to clean things up.

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Head-Proof7273@reddit

My husband missed being a Boomer by a year. When I tell him, "Ok, Boomer!" about something he's trying to save because "it's worth something"' he goes on a rant about how he missed being a Boomer! I think he's joking! (At least I hope he is!) Anyway, here is a list of things my husband is still trying to save because they might be "worth something": 1. Old comic books, NOT in mint or even good or fair condition, in plastic photo albums. 2. A case of boxes of Wheaties cereal (WITH THE CEREAL inside) worth of about $6.00 each. He is saving them because Cal Ripkin Jr. is on the front and at the time, his jersey didn't have a team or number on it!

Old underwear he has had since High school that he can't bring himself to throw away. He can't fit into them anymore! The same goes for socks so threadbare, there's no benefit to wearing them! Also, in the same category of clothing, he has a pair of Sears seafoam green polyester pants from 1978 his mom bought for him! They are size 34 waist. My husband hasn't worn a 38 waist even when we met in 1999! Yet we still have these pants in the attic! https://photos.app.goo.gl/uXECEdLRjrdQHqG18
An old PC with the green screen and a case of blank (new) floppy disks (4 1/4"). The computer doesn't work. It's taking up space in the attic. He also has one of those shitty cheap plastic drawer systems filled with VHS tapes with clips of Star Trek shows he recorded! We don't even own a VCR anymore!

There's so much more stuff he thinks is "worth something"... Sigh! Oh, and his parents are Silent Gen and they are way worse with saving worthless crap!!

My grandfather had a ledger that he used to track him Bradford Exchange collection. That was more interesting than the plates. My grandmother heck a living auction to liquidate her assets before selling her house. So many plates.

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Traditional-Ad9115@reddit

Have a set of bedroom furniture from the 50s that my FIL says was on the show friends so it is worth big money. I've only occasionally watched Friends but a friend has watch it all multiple times and says it's not. Also 2 old organs and othe ods and ends like that

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MinimumBrave2326@reddit

Avon figurines from the 80s.

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Yo_Biff@reddit

While cleaning out the house of a deceased family member had another family member pull out seasonal/holiday plates, napkins, and table settings. Those things were worth something!

Vintage hot wheels new in pack $20 - $thousands (depending on model)

Tickle me Elmo $20

Real rubber vintage balls (this one surprised me) $20 - $170

You want to get rid of them? Put them on eBay. Then you can both be happy. The stuff is gone and they get to be right about them having value.

(If you don't know, you can sort eBay search results to filter only sold items. It will show you the last 90 days, I think)

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helpthe0ld@reddit

Longaberger baskets. Dear god my MIL has a metric ton of them. If I’m put in charge of their house clean out, I’m going to make a bonfire out of them.

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amnichols@reddit

My stupid Star Trek plates. Oooof.

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empericisttilldeath@reddit

My dad kept a bottle of ash from Mount Saint Helens eruption, and took it to Hawaii, he went into a Chinese import store, and traded the jar of ash for Jade bracelets for my mom!

I think it's a generational thing. For us it was literally everything my FIL had accumulated before he developed dementia.* Including -

A hanger with clips on it from a dry cleaners.
A chamber pot that may or may not have been used at some point.
An airplane calendar from a Boeing promotional mailer in 1997. (He was a pilot.)
A set of Ginsue knives a client had given him as a gift. (the flimsy ones off tv)
A bottle of Makers Mark he got on a tour of the place where they make it.
A set of incredibly heavy, 70's sectional couches with zero support and worn out upholstery.
The matching tv - the only console type in wood console frame with no remote and a physical channel knob.
A pad of carbon transfer paper.

* I wish it was the dementia, but he's always been like this. Very impressed with himself and by extension everything he's ever done or owned. But other than that, a really great guy.

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Atwood412@reddit

My mom was obsessed with my getting her Kirby vacuum cleaner. It reeked of cig smoke and weighed enough to crush my foot. I sold it for $25 on Craigslist in 2021. Yea, you read that correctly people still use Craigslist and they’re willing to buy useless shit. It’s mostly boomers buying other boomers shit. I took full advantage of

My dad was never a collector of anything annoying. But he had 2 collectible colors light bottles that he REFUSED to throw away. They are displayed in his kitchen still unopened and filled with what I’m sure is the nastiest beer known to mankind. He recently passed and I cannot bring myself to toss those damn bottles in the trash.

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siamesecat1935@reddit

My mom had the UGLIEST pottery dishes. I've always hated them, and joked that when she either passed or moved out of her apt., they would be the first things to go.

So please tell me WHY I felt the need to keep one small baking dish, and the pitcher?

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Atwood412@reddit

Right?? Now they make me smile.

My parents held on to a bunch of “old coins” and $2 bills (along with a ton of other random stuff). I used ChatGPT in real time to price out most of it—and turns out, almost nothing was worth more than face value. Just decades of hanging on to clutter, thinking it was treasure.

I told them, “Why not sell this off and use the money for a vacation instead?” No point in carrying this stuff around for another 40 years.

What does it really matter if she has three things?

I could see if she had a house full of collections that you will have to deal with but even then, if these things give her joy or a feeling of security, it's not a lot to package up the items after she passes and donate them as a lot. They are hers in this life.

Unless she was a hoarder and her things would affect her health and the value of her property, I would never ask my parents to purge what they want to keep.

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MaleficentSwitch8975@reddit (OP)

Oh, I just listed 3 kind of silly examples. There are countless examples. 3 (broken) portable cassette tape players. Hundreds of books. Hundreds of doodads. Clothes from every era. This is apart from the hoarding (straight up hoarding) of her husband. All in the same house.

And the thing is that she doesn't enjoy this stuff. None of it is nostalgic or sentimental to her. She can't open a closet without things falling out. Drawers, cabinets, she can't find anything she needs because of the stuff.

LOL. When I was in college you could order these COD (cash on Delivery).

My best friend and I had a thing going where we were always ordering them for each other, COD of course.

My mother-in-law will still occasionally ask "what happened to the bottle opener that was in the left drawer that your great uncle frank gave me as a wedding present" or some shit. We just tell her it's packed up still.

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carolina822@reddit

I bought my parents old house a while back and they just left all the stuff in the attic there. Every once in a while, my mom will ask about some random thing that she knows is up there - the 4th of July napkin holder has come up more than once in the 20 years since they moved. Anyway, we are now moving and have to clear out the attic and the absolute junk that someone decided was worth putting in a box, carrying upstairs, then climbing the attic ladder with is unbelievable. Since it's not my stuff, I told mom that I'd set aside anything that I thought she'd want. So far, I haven't even filled up one packing box with salvageable things.

And wouldn't you know, I found that damned 4th of July napkin holder. She could have spent 3 dollars on a new one at any point in the last two decades (and probably has) instead of pestering me to climb into a 9000 degree attic, but hey, at least she has it now. It's so bizarre the things people will fixate on.

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Texas_Prairie_Wolf@reddit

Man I still have one of those solid rubber balls the size of a tennis ball, it bounces super high but it can cause some damage when it hits a parked car or window if it gets away from you on the bounce.

Is it worth a fortune in your research?

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MaleficentSwitch8975@reddit (OP)

No, not at all. Ebay has them for $18-38 dollars. A vintage magic.8 ball is worth more at $88. (Again though, these are asking prices, not the actual price they sold for.) Also they are not hard to find. Fun ball though!

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Texas_Prairie_Wolf@reddit

Ha! I got it for like a dollar so at $38 that is a 3,700% increase in value, solid investment from my childhood, I should have bought 2!

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supermouse35@reddit

My mom had "silverware" from her father that she swore was real and worth a FORTUNE.

She also had a copy of a lithograph of a Picasso painting of a bouquet of flowers that she swore was signed and dated by Picasso himself. It hung in our bathroom for my whole childhood, lol.

To be fair, not all stamps are worthless, but if they paid very little for them when they bought them, they're still worth nothing. As an avid collector myself, that's 99.999% of the time.

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WhiskerWarrior2435@reddit

There was so much crap sold as "collectors items" in the 80s and 90s. Remember those ads with a figurine or coin or china? Or some promotional item where people were encouraged to collect the whole set?

We have a "Royal Doulton" china set from my father-in-law that he was convinced was worth something. I'm pretty sure it's low quality that was just sold through a mail order ad. Kind of like the c-grade crap that brand names sell in outlet malls now.

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TheConsequenceFairy@reddit

All the old baby food jars and plastic butter tubs full of hardware that "they might need."

Jars and jars of screws, washers, nails

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BerryLanky@reddit

Everything is their house. Including recipes cut out of Magazines from the 70’s and 80’s. She thinks everything is an antique

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No_Owl_250@reddit

Not my parent but a dear boomer family member who passed away sadly - 8-10 Harley Davidson jackets. We live in south Florida where it's extremely warm so you're rarely going to wear them, realistically. They were convinced they were super valuable, and maybe they were, but they sat in a storage unit (filled to the brim with random stuff) gathering dust for at least a decade. Then they were rapidly cleaned out after she passed. It was so sad to me.

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Alex_Plode@reddit

The 1992 NBA draft had some great players like Shaq and Alonzo. My buddy and I were big NBA fans back in ‘92 and recognized this draft was gonna be special. We went out and bought tons of basketball cards until we had every version of every first round pick. I had 20 different Shaquille ONeal rookie cards. We were convinced we were sitting on a gold mine.

Well no one gives a shit about sports cards anymore. That entire collection is probably worth like $200.

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Target2030@reddit

Happy Meal toys and old crumbling magazines stacked without any protection in the shed.

Stupid collector plates

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TradeBeautiful42@reddit

The Disney stuff my mom and her siblings and my siblings and cousins and I played with from the 50’s. They’re beat up but my uncles wife thinks they’re going to be worth something to someone. Probably not with the chips and cracks and stains or ripped out pieces.

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CustomCarNerd@reddit

I am ALWAYS buying hot wheels. If you have anything from 1968-1990 send me a message and pics.

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ThisCromulentLife@reddit

National Geographics. Not rare ones, but stacks of them from the 80’s/90’s. You’re just stacked in the basement and covered in dust and some of them have water damage from the time the basement flooded. They probably have mold. The local library won’t even accept that specific publication from anyone for free. It’s literally listed on their donation website under things that they do not accept., but my MIL is convinced they are worth a ton.

Depression glass. Not rare colors, but the basic stuff I seen in the thrift stores all the time for three dollars or less a piece. She is right that she probably could sell this, but she thinks her collection is probably worth something like $25,000. I priced it out and she listed the entire thing as a lot AND somebody bought it, she could probably make between $100 and $200.

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bubblesnap@reddit

A Little Sambo book they keep on the coffee table. 🤦🏽‍♀️

Not at all. At the end, she wrote “If you don’t do this, I won’t haunt you, but please do it” or smthn like that.

Subtext: “I am 100% hoping to be able to haunt you to protect my stuff”

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DataPlenty@reddit

50+ year old leather bound copies of LOTR and The Hobbit. These sell for around $30 these days.

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chjrtx2@reddit

Ah man

My mum had so many crystal glasses that were never used for anything but collecting dust

Those big coins from the Franklin Mint.

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advwench@reddit

Edna Hibel plates. There are boxes of them in my garage that my mom paid a couple of thousand to ship and, based on Ebay, are each worth about $5. She moved them because she was going to go through and sell them, but it's been almost two years and still they sit.

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Befuddled_GenXer@reddit

I've got some family heirloom antique furniture. No idea what, if anything, it's worth. Also got my Mom's baby doll that my grandfather bought for her on the day she was born.

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AgingTrash666@reddit

a collection of vintage Sears Silvertone guitar amps ... I'm not saying they're not collectible, they're just not worth more than what he paid for them

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dee_lio@reddit

Broken furniture (it can be fixed and it's quality)

Rusted filing cabinet (they're metal, they don't make them like that any more)

To her credit, she did have some vintage fashion that was actually worth something.

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