Spring cleaning: 4 surprisingly valuable treasures hiding in your loft

Spring is finally here, and it gives us the perfect opportunity to bring some order to our lives in the form of a spring clean. Not only is spring cleaning a great way to refresh your home and de-clutter your life, but you can even make a good profit from it too! Many of us have items hidden away in our lofts or at the back of a cupboard, which we don’t realise are actually surprisingly valuable.

So if you’re looking to make some extra cash for a big event coming up, or simply to put some money away for a rainy day, now is the perfect time to get started on spring cleaning. Read on to find out which hidden treasures can be sold or pawned to make a good profit.

Beanie Babies

Not only are they incredibly cute and the perfect gift for a little one, but Beanie Babies can be extremely valuable too. Beanie Babies were incredibly popular as a toy when they first emerged in the early 90s, but more recently some collectors have found them popular as a financial valuable.

While not every Beanie Baby will be worth a fortune, there are a number of rare ones to look out for. Valentina is a particularly rare Beanie Baby, as the Valentine’s Day themed bear was only in production for a year. And if you have a Valentina bear with no red stamp on the Tush Tag (the apt name for the tag found on the Beanie Baby’s rear end), it can be even more valuable. These bears can be worth as much as $57,000 (£43,388.12).

Another valuable Beanie Baby is the Princess Bear, which was made to commemorate Princess Diana after her tragic passing. The simple dark purple bear is decorated with just a white rose on the chest, and has a touching poem on the tag. The Princess Bear varies in price depending on the condition and edition of the bear, but some have been put up for auction on eBay for a staggering $500,000 (£380,597.50).

Football programmes

If you’re the sort of person who can never throw away a football programme from matchday, your hoarding might bring you some luck. While they may not seem like much, programmes can be incredibly valuable if they come from particularly memorable or monumental games. For example, the programme for the England vs Germany World Cup Final in 1966 is unsurprisingly a valuable one in this country, and has been put up for auction on eBay for an impressive £1,000.

The most valuable football programme in the UK to date was sold for an impressive £30,000 in 2013. This programme comes from the earliest surviving FA cup final in 1882, between Old Etonians and Blackburn Rovers. While many of us won’t have programmes as old as this one, programmes over 50 years old from particularly important games, as these are the ones likely to do well at an auction.

And if you have a vast collection, good news! Football programmes can be particularly valuable if they come in a set. In 2012, a family stumbled across a box of old programmes in their garage and made £46,000 by auctioning them (BBC News).

Vintage video games

If you’re an avid gamer, your old video games may be worth more than you think. Old tech can be incredibly valuable, with a vintage Apple computer selling for $500,000 (£382,537.50) at auction in 2021 (PCMag). So it’s no surprise that vintage video games can go for a lot of money too. There is also a selection of very rare Game Boy games that are particularly valuable.

For example, Spud’s Adventure, a niche game based on a potato who has been given the task to save a princess, saw low sales numbers initially, but has since gone on to be a cult classic for Game Boy fanatics and collectors. Selling this game could make you an impressive $2,158.13 (£1,642.76). On top of this, the prequal to this game, Amazing Tater, is currently valued at $1,745.84 (£1,328.91) in mint condition.

Lego

Pretty much every family has a box of Lego somewhere in their house. It’s a staple of so many people’s childhoods, and has been enjoyed for generations. But did you know it can also be very valuable too? Rare Lego sets can sell for surprisingly high figures if they’re in a good condition, and especially if they’ve been kept in the original packaging.

On top of this, the sets don’t even need to be vintage to be considered valuable. For example, the Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon was produced in just 2007, and has been sold second-hand for an impressive $15,000 (£11,417.92). However, older sets can do incredibly well too. The 1984 King’s Castle set for instance is listed upwards of £2,000 on eBay.

Currently H&T does not buy or lend on these items but we do lend on a wide variety of other items such as handbags, artwork, watches and jewellery. If you have something you’d like valued, feel free to take it in to your local H&T branch. Alternatively, you can use our online pawnbroking portal and get a quote in 30 minutes during business hours.

Representative 165.5 %APR.

Pawnbroking Loans are secured on your items, if the loan is not repaid it will be sold to pay the debt.

Please note that Cheque Cashing, FX, retail purchases and sales are not regulated by the FCA.