Thousand-dollar items you might have lying around your house

Your expert guide on how to get stuck into alternative assets.

Your expert guide on how to get stuck into alternative assets.

The "kidults" among us - those buying up toys, board games, and collectibles, for fun - might be onto something. 

With the market downturn, people are investing in their passions more. Vinyls, video games, sports cards, wine.

"Where the equity markets are right now, people's eyes and attention are on alternative (assets) for sure. On the one hand, it's actually like the wrong time - they should have been doing this like a year ago. But we're having a moment right now like, for sure," alternative investments community Alts.co co-founder Stefan Von Imhof said.

Just don't expect a quick flip. You should be looking long-term. "Think about what will look good in a museum in 50 years," Von Imhof said.

"(Even) two or three years from now, those original iPhones could end up in a museum somewhere."

Alts.co are gaining thousands of new subscribers each month. For their $1.4 million investment fund Alts 1, which launched earlier this year, video games are up 30% and comic books are up 58% to June 2022.

Alts 1 has purchased sealed Star Wars action figures from the 70s for $20,000 (although it's worth around $50,000) and pressing 0000002 of The Beatles' The White Album for $50,000.

Here's how to get started and what valuable items might be hidden in a box in the garage. 

How to start collecting

Von Imhof tips to get started:

1. Take a look around your childhood home. Most of it will be junk but if you have stuff in great condition and in some sort of packaging, it could be super valuable.
2. Check out estate sales, flea markets and garage sales. "People do not know how to price stuff in flea markets and estate sales ... so if you get a smart agent, they'll know, this is valuable, that's valuable," Von Imhof said.
3. Stick to what stuff you care about because you're going to be doing a lot of research on it.
4. Don't expect a quick-flip opportunity. Rather, have a ten-year plan. "Try to buy really valuable stuff that is going to be valuable in at least ten years."
5. Educate yourself about what's valuable and why.

Six valuable assets you might have lying around the house

Vinyl records

Vinyl is the alternative asset popping off right now, and it's an easy one to get started with because "everyone's parents have some vinyl records" and it doesn't have to be sealed to be valuable.

"On the higher end ... Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, are definitely the ones that tend to fetch the most. The Beatles for sure. Rolling Stones. I mean, these names are all familiar, like rock from the 60s and 70s."

A signed Led Zeppelin album recently sold for over USD $35,000 on RR Auction.

"Generally speaking, you want to look for first press records. That's the key. Not reissues. Everything gets reissued."

Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here LP.

But even if you don't have those valuable pieces, vinyl can be a solid investment.

"The average collection is probably 100 records. At a minimum that's worth $500 to $1000 - depending if you have some really good pieces in there. And even if you don't, that can be worth $2500 to like $15,000," he said.

The reason vinyl is such a good asset is because everyone likes music.

"During lockdown it got big. There's a hipster element to it. The sound is better. The artwork that you get is beautiful. There's a tangibility to it that you just don't get with streaming you own the music. With streaming, you're just renting the music. You don't really own it. Like there's a lot to love about vinyl for sure."

Old electronics

• An iPod Classic 1st generation (sealed) fetched up to USD $20,000 on Rally last month. 
• An iPhone 1st generation (sealed) is going for USD $18,000 on Ebay. New generation 2 iPhones could go for $2000 or $3000.

Video games and consoles

"If you have sealed original video games you're talking USD $60,000 to $120,000," Van Imhof said.

"There's value in the open, the loose and the unsealed, but that's a different market. The collectors need it sealed and need it a graded."

• Super Mario Brothers games (sealed) go for A LOT. Late last year, a copy of the '88 Super Mario Brothers for Nintendo sold for over USD $88,000.
• Sonic the Hedgehog games are also pretty valuable. At the top end, an original Sonic the Hedgehog for SEGA Genesis reportedly sold for USD $430,500 at auction.
• A rare, sealed 1992 Super Nintendo console recently sold for USD $66,000.
• '89 Nintendo Gameboy (sealed) recently sold for $22,500 on Rally.

Final Sale Price: $430,500

An all-time record for any @SEGA Genesis game. pic.twitter.com/aGgBX0cSjh

— Goldin (@GoldinCo) September 19, 2021

Lego and hot wheels

Our brothers were definitely playing with these as kids.

• Star Wars LEGO sets. LEGO Star Wars Cloud City (new/sealed) is going for over $8,800 on Brick Economy right now.
• Certain Hot Wheels cars, such as the "Pink Beach Bomb". There are only six of them in the world, so if you happen to have one, you could fetch $50,000 to $70,000 for it. It wouldn't matter if they were sealed since they are so valuable.

And here's why LEGOs are really popular and make good collectibles.

"Lego collecting is definitely like coming up. There are a lot more people that do it and I think during COVID and lockdown a lot of people got into collecting and playing Legos. The company still has high brand awareness and love - it hasn't diminished at all," Van Imhof said.

Trading Cards

These also don't need to be sealed but they need to be graded (rated on a scale of 1 to 10), which can cost $300 or $400 and take six months.

• Pokemon cards. There are certain cards that are more valuable than others. The Charizard is the most valuable. In March, an original (1999) Charizard was sold at auction for a record-breaking USD $420,000. 
• Sports cards. Some rare basketball cards like a 1986 Michael Jordan rookie card could go for $500,000. "You could buy a house with that". 

"The card absolutely has to be in good condition unless it's like a super, super old, rare baseball card," Von Imhof said.

Ticket stubs

If you've ever used a ticket stub as a bookmark, you might be in luck. (Those of us who shove them in our wallets or back pockets - probably less so.)

But either way, what matters most is what event you attended. Is it a historic event all these years later? Who was involved? How many people were in the audience?

If you happened to be at the Patriots Super Bowl victory in 2001 where Tom Brady won his first Super Bowl, and you kept the ticket stub, you're probably sitting on a small fortune. That's because if 50,000 attended the event and 99% of those people threw their tickets in the trash, then you've got yourself a rare piece of history. 

If your ticket stub is signed, it may be valuable for that reason. 

Bonus: Sneakers

Kanye West's Yeezy's can go for $25,000. Some of the rare ones can fetch $50,000.

But you probably don't have a pair of shoes just lying around the house, unless you're a collector.

"You cannot have worn them even once. They've got to be in pristine condition ... You can always get another box that's not a big deal but the sneakers themselves have to be perfect," Von Imhof said.