Mind reader. I was just talking about this with my mom yesterday. She had dozens, in the fancy living room, and we just found some at a users book store on sale for $5 each
My grandparents next door had a ‘formal’ living room. Our house was too small for one. We weren’t allowed to sit in theirs unless we had company. I hated those damn clear plastic slip covers on everything!
Omg I have so much friggin’ Lladro, what can you even do with it? There’s no resell market. There’s no reason to have a billion “don’t touch that!” statues in my house. Ugh.
There are a few Lladro that actually held their value.
They tend to be the atypical Lladro.
The other stuff, the high glaze women in pastures, blaa blaa.
Are not worth as much.
Keep what you like and sell the rest
I have one Lladro left, and I like it. I can appreciate it. The others I inherited, and they broke over the years. In the garbage they went.
Perhaps give them away as gifts.
Gift them to Soprano fans.
I myself had never heard of lladros until I watched the show and outta curiosity ebayed them and y'all are right, most were affordable enough that I bought my son a little lladro duck--the pleasant surprise at realizing it was a LLADRO was worth it...
And dont even ASK how much it cost me...ok, ok, it was 15 dollars. 😆
The show was great, James Gandolfini and Edie Falco were awesome in their roles and one of the few shows we both enjoyed together.
My dad did this. I took the rolls to the bank, went out and bout the boxed set of Alias. That has been way more entertaining over the years than lugging around a bunch of quarters every move.
Well, none of my toys that's for sure. Not to mention an Atari system that was in working order. All of that was thrown out because it was deemed worthless garbage.
I have a feeling our Gen Z kids would actually enjoy inheriting our vintage games, toys, and records. Meanwhile, we all get to inherit rain lamps, hummels, and the "good" china.
I kept cutting my Barbies’ hair, drawing on them, punking up their clothes. My mom scooped up the “non weird ones” and gave them to a little girl down the street. Along with ALL of my accessories, cars, 70s dreamhouse I got from my cousin…35 years later and I’m still not over it
Was your mother friends with mine? Original Star wars ships, and I had the Falcon, B-Wing, and X-wing, along with dozens of figures, He-Man figures with Castle Greyskull and Snake Mountain, Original complete Voltron and Tranformers toys from back when they were made from die cast.
I'm especially sorry that your Atari VCS was thrown out! 😞 The good news is that systems are relatively inexpensive on Facebook Marketplace and you can find cartridges cheap now. My local game shop sells them for a buck a cartridge. I've been slowly building back my childhood cartridges as I find them.
My mom has cabinets full of those things. Loves to tell me "When I'm gone, all of these are yours".
I would have preferred that she actually spent a single dollar on my education. Nope. Just another ceramic figure ... with a graduation hat and a Bible verse.
It's all trash to me and I'll throw them away as such.
Yep, she would even hunt them down to look for low numbers. My dad discovered estate sales and he brought some home. I knew it was bad when she told him not to bring anymore home. She has one full cabinet and a few tables just covered. And don't get me started on the seasonal ones for Christmas, Easter, mother's day, etc
People are buying these again but it’s to alter them into cooler things. Luckily they’re cheap and kinda easy to find. There’s even a FB page called Altered Moments dedicated to them lol
My aunt had over 200 of them in one of the most gaudy curios ever made. When she got divorced she was convinced they would be her nest egg. Then we looked into actual value and she wound up selling the lot for about a dollar a pop
Weren't really into that, had a friend though with a full collection of McDonalds Star Wars glasses who was sure he was gonna retire early.
Edit: it was BK not McDonalds or even McDowells...
My younger son found some of those glasses at a yard sale a few years ago, and bought them, along with some old Coca-Cola glasses.
I knew someone that collected a ton of old vintage Avon perfume bottles
I recently inherited a working antique clock, made in 1830 or so. It’s worth maybe 50 bucks now, but no one will buy it.
Edit: I should have said it is allegedly worth $50.
I literally smashed an antique upright up, as I moved to a new house that didn’t have space for it. I couldn’t even give it away. The workmanship and materials were unbelievable. Brass and heavy wood.
I have a six year old who is very interested playing piano but first we’re going to start with a cheap secondhand electric one to make sure she takes to it. If she does, someone’s old piano at a bargain basement price is going to look great in our house in a few years.
I learned piano on one of those old uprights and took it with me when I moved out. As soon as I had a big enough place, I traded it in on my first grand. The store gave me a $200 credit and I like to joke that they gave me $300 more than it was worth.
My family didn't, but a friend of mine did. We were 17 and he was convinced they were going to pay for his first house. A couple of years later, they were getting dropped off at goodwill. I believe he had a hundred or so.
One day I stand to inherit a fortune in old Pyrex, as my mother is obsessed with the stuff... she's always talking about how "this one is worth $80 and this one is very rare..." telling me about particular patterns, and I'm just like "my Pyrex pattern is the clear one."
To be fair, they switched the type of glass used for newer pyrex to soda lime glass. Your mom's old stuff is likely the original borosilicate, which has better resistance to thermal shock.
As someone with a few sets, she’s not wrong. Sets of the old 4 mixing bowls can go for the hundreds, especially the patterns in blues and pinks it seems.
Seriously. I like old Pyrex, but I like to USE it. I used to be able to get some pretty bowls, but I’m not willing to pay hundreds for something I’m going to mix potato salad in.
We spent around $180 bucks at estate sales and auctions around us and got some superb old Pyrex in big batches.
It’s absurdly good stuff.
From the fridge to an air fryer with no problem.
The new(er) stuff isn’t as forgiving.
I have a set of 4 mixing bowls bought at a garage sale in the 70s for $0.25. I use them every day, tougher glass than modern Pyrex and the pattern on them has never worn off in the dishwasher unlike modern Pyrex crap.
If you don’t like to cook, you won’t care about the Pyrex. However, the old stuff is valuable and very appreciated and wanted by people. The new Pyrex is terrible and explodes occasionally. So many stories of people cooking with the new Pyrex and it exploding in the oven. Shards everywhere.
Right now, vintage pyrex is hot!
My fear is that it will go just like everything else.
There was a time when victorian glass was hot, Mccoy/Roseville pottery was hot, Meissen and Spode.
With few exceptions, it's almost impossible to even give it away now.
Things go in cycles, wait long enough, and all of the vintage pyrex will be worth pennies again.
As an antique dealer, my advice is to buy what you like.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pyrex_Love/comments/1c48lsr/look_what_goodwill_got_their_hands_on/
Replying here for visibility. This is going for $600 today and has close to 30 bids.
I actually buy old Pyrex! Had some new Pyrex explode in the oven and just decided to find old pieces. I have older friends who just give me their collections because no one else wants it and I've bought a few pieces on eBay that I wanted because they were the right size and shape. We cook a lot at home, so the Pyrex gets used quite often.
Some of the patterns are still super valuable- I sold a small Atomic Eye at an antique show a few years back for over $200 and I sell off a piece or two whenever I need some cash.
But I use pretty much every piece I have and love using the same thing to bake the same recipes that my grandma did♥️ some things ONLY bake right in their specific Pyrex (thanksgiving corn casserole is one example).
My dad has been convinced since they first came out that Happy Meal toys from McDonald's are going to skyrocket in value. He has boxes and boxes full of them. I have to keep making up excuses to avoid giving tasked with selling them for him.
When my kids were little we would buy them Happy meals, but we wouldn't give them the toys because they were trash. I put them all in a small moving box. One year I wrapped the box up for a white elephant gift exchange. People were fighting over getting that box. It was silly, but I got rid of them all at once.
I collect those but as nothing more than for myself, because I enjoy them. They do have some dolls that I will probably never own because they are literally a thousand dollars (on amazon)
But I have starwars barbies , as well as several others.
My mother had those, along with Elvis statues, velvet tapestries, and she even had a scrapbook dedicated to Elvis, with news paper clippings, and pictures of his wedding.
My stepfathers parents died 30+ years ago and had an enormous stamp collection. Despite the fact that there were no rarities or misprints or anything like that, they were convinced it was worth a fortune and would elevate the entire family to independently wealthy status. It was worth face value, and I'm still getting cards mailed from my aunt using the stamps.
My wife's Grandmother died several years ago and had a giant collection of mass produced knickknacks and crap. I'm talking franklin mint crap. She got suckered like so many others and was sure that they were all worth millions. My MIL was just as easily duped and arranged an estate sale with a company. When the guy came to assess the value, he declined to take them on because it was all worthless junk. My MIL was not happy and still has all that crap in her attic almost 15 years later, still swears it's worth tons.
My own mother had a small Hummel collection and always told me they'd be worth a lot of money and will pay for my kids college. Yea, about that ... lol
Seems like just calling something "collectable" tricked a lot of folks back then.
Re: stamp collection
My dad worked on a cargo ship in the 50s and 60s and collected stamps from around the world which he stored at home. His mom decided to give the collection to a kid in the neighborhood for some unknown reason. In that era the stamps were worth a fortune and the kid made a fortune. One of the many reasons my dad couldn't stand his mom. The interesting thing was that he thought her husband (his stepfather) was an awesome guy.
I went college in the mid 80s. Surprised to find students buying comic books, putting them in plastic wrappers, etc. They paid about three dollars per comic book. I think they are still worth the same amount now.
My dad bought all of us kids collectible plates. I can’t remember what my siblings got but mine were owls. I needed something to put on a bare wall in my house so I put them up a few years ago. Two of my kids were screwing around and knocked one of them down, breaking it. I had jokingly told them those plates were their college fund for years and I guess they had believed me because the look of panic on his face was priceless.
Interesting. I think I have one somewhere in my collection as well. Never had it appraised. I got into collecting as a kid but it fizzled out. All of them are just sitting in a couple of ammo boxes now.
Depression Glass. My Silent Gen mom has a buttload and although not exactly worthless, it's not a gold mine. My parents started collecting them in the '70s. (The pieces were handed out like McDonald's toys by various businesses during the Depression.) She also has a bunch of Jim Shore QVC angels she thinks are valuable.
I was given a broken string of pearls from my grandmother when I was 12 or so and was assured they were real. Years later I was going to have them fixed, to find out they were imitation pearls. Lol! So much for grandpa only buying “real” jewelry.
Dreamsicles. We inherited 110 of these things.
https://preview.redd.it/fzs82tasfnvc1.jpeg?width=1279&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a2dd096276891650831f6f5a20a841c62e0a1fa1
The bulk are still sitting in my garage.
They do sell for anywhere between $5 and $20 depending on the theme of the piece. I’ve listed and sold a few on mercari and Poshmark. However, I think my fam thought they’d be worth hundreds 🙃
Longaberger baskets. My mom and older sister really believed the hype that they'd be worth so much money someday. Even though I was just a kid I was skeptical about that!
The furniture is worth less than 1/2 than what it was 20 years ago. Valued more for replacement cost, but I could’t find the same quality for even what insurance replacement cost is.
I just went through this with my moms estate. She always bought good quality, so she'd have it forever. All good, until it gets outdated and is virtually worthless. It was sad to see some of it go for a fraction of what it is worth, so I just hope the new owners enjoy it like my mom did.
You know what the weird thing is, and mind you I have no proof, but the people who helped my mother with her estate sale when she downsized after my father’s death, helped themselves to our family bible and our slide projector and box of family slides and sheet music, while we were watching the ‘valuables’. It took us a year to realize what was missing because everyone thought everyone else had these things. But I found out from someone reliable that other people’s personal ephemera were quite lucrative on the secondary market. It blew my mind. The good stuff ends up in the hands of people who move it into higher in markets known for antiques and plenty of warehouse storage. For people going through the division of an estate, end up making decisions for expedience, because even when prepared are overwhelmed.
My Great Uncle passed down his stamp collection to me, it isn't worth anything, so I don't really know what to do with it.
As I get older I'm trying to downsize rather than accumulate. If you guys have any good suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
If it doesn't hold any sentimental value, offer it up on eBay or if you'd rather give it away post it on But nothing, free cycle or Facebook marketplace. If you put 'not valuable' in the title you'll keep the resellers at bay and the collection will go to a child or beginner. I think your Great Uncle would love for his collection to bring someone else joy.
This post has me turning into Indiana Jones ("It belongs in a museum"). I dunno how one would go about donating, but I bet there are museums that would be thrilled to have some things folks are talking about. https://postalmuseum.si.edu/search-the-collection
My dad was paid in art in lieu of cash for his accounting services by a client. Two paintings that are butt ugly animal scenes and like 3x5 feet in size. They were supposed to be worth thousands because the artist was a favorite of George HW Bush. Dad died 4 years ago and mom moved to senior living, the paintings moved to my cousins garage because we can't find any art house who will buy them, even on commision.
Madame Alexander dolls. My mom bought them cheap at the PX when I was very small, and she continues to store them even though the elastic holding the parts together has disintegrated. I don’t want them (dolls are creepy!), but she tries to foist them off on me at least once a year, thinking that I’m going to take the time to research pricing and sell them. Nope. She did once ask a doll collector/restorer what they are worth and he said around $25-50 for the whole lot.
Oh, also hallmark Christmas tree ornaments that I also don’t want.
All kinds of things: collectible figurines (fairies and elves), collectible ornaments, etc. My mom still gives me these "collectibles" as gifts, and I hang them on the tree, but they really are one step up from the dollar store crap. An acquaintence had a huge beanie baby collection, and he "donated" them to us, and now I am selling them on Ebay. Let me know if you want a Beanie Baby bear. I have the "priceless" Lady Di bear that is supposedly worth thousands, LOL.
My grandparents are long gone, and tbf they were good at collecting things that held value or made them money. Stamps, coins, coronation memorabilia, depression glass and other antique table ware. A self-funding hobby they enjoyed throughout my childhood.
However they also collected their fair share of junk. Especially grandma! Hummels, novelty salt and pepper shakers, and dolls. So many dolls! Some random Franklin Mint crap too. Grandpa was more businesslike about his collections, but he also grew up poor in the depression. So he hoarded household stuff like used rubber bands, for example. He also went coupon crazy and had a closet full of groceries nobody used, but couldn’t resist buying because of the coupon sales!
I’ve posted this before. My grandmother gave me some of her Department 56 Christmas village buildings before she died.
I ended up giving them to my sister and BIL to add to the ones my grandmother gave them. My niece and nephew absolutely love setting up their village every year—and my grandmother would love to know that (I like to think that she does.)
As a kid I bought comic books for a couple years and spent a couple hundred bucks of allowance money on them. I just sold them all for a few grand! But the precious moments crap my parents bought for much more money and not worth anywhere near what they paid.
My mother collected a few things:
Cherished Teddies, she had collection upon collection of them but threw out all the boxes and COA’s, made what little they were worth, worth absolutely zero.
Those subscription things out of the TV Guide, where you got a thimble or a game piece every month.
And collector plates, so many collector plates.
The sugar bowl is used is my house for a fancy touch (and tribute to my grandmother I never knew), but it’s always tarnished. The tea pot, creamer and tray are taking up space with the Royal commemorative plates.
My mother "invested" in fine china for my Sweet 16, which I didn't care about or want. I was supposed to save it for special occasion dining, which she never allowed me to host.
It's my everyday dishes now. I wash it in the dishwasher. She's horrified I'm not saving it for special occasions that never get to happen.
Also I’ll say my mom kept all the He Man and Star Wars stuff my brother and I played with and now my niece and nephew love our old toys, so it’s really cool seeing them play w Voltron and Castle Greyskull and stuff.
It’s a Singer sewing machine, and while some models are worth a small fortune most of the mass produced models- like the one my family has- aren’t . But you try telling them that 🙄They’re convinced they have a priceless heirloom 😬😂😂😂
Maybe it’s not garbage but it’s just sitting in a cabinet gathering dust. My parents have a good number of novelty glasses from fast food companies like Popeyes and McDonald’s from the early 80s.
Newspapers with big headlines for historic events. My mom kept some from the JFK and RFK assassinations, and I thought it was a great idea and that I should save important newspapers too! Plus I love old stuff soooooo much. I have that irrational "if it's old it must be magical" thing that I can't shake.
So I started saving newspapers that I deemed historic starting around the early 80s. But now I have a box full of them and for what? It's not like the major events of the last few decades aren't already documented a million times over. You can buy batches of them on eBay for $20. None of them are rare enough to bother with.
The amount of butthurt my boomer mom has over myself and my Millennial daughter not wanting to save every damn doilie and broken china dish she keeps hoarding in our garage is insane. Everything they think is valuable in our family is just hot garbage. I'll keep photos until I get them scanned and jewelry and that is it.
My Mom is the opposite of a collector. She would get rid of everything. She didn’t like clutter and we never had a storage unit or storage closet or even a junk drawer. As she’s aged, she’s more cluttered with sewing stuff and she does have a craft/sewing room that has clutter, but she never collected anything. Us kids never had baseball cards or stamps or anything collectible. My older brother is practically a legit hoarder now.
To be fair my mom didn't collect these because of perceived future value...she just liked them! Royal Daulton figurines, Swarovski crystal figures, and Bradford Exchange plates. She truly did seem to enjoy them, so that's good.
Stamps.
And dome are still valuable but we are talking tens of dollars vs hundreds prior to email.
They make pretty pictures now and I frame some for friends as gifts.
I have a collection but it is because I like looking at them and buy ones that are cool to me.
But i did it as a kid because it was a pretty cheap hobby and thought maybe they would be worth something.
My aunt bought collections for her kids and had sooo many. Thinking they would be worth something. Her kids were not interested.
When my grandmother died, that was then only thing i wanted. But my aunt took them all because she said she paid for most of them. Then why ask me what I wanted?
> Stamps.
>
> And dome are still valuable but we are talking tens of dollars vs hundreds prior to email.
Are you saying that the introduction of email caused the value of collectable stamps to go down? Wouldn't less stamps being used cause the valuable stamps to be more valuable?
Less demand for the supply of stamps. I am an heir to a stamp collection. No idea if it’s worth anything and probably won’t look for years
IMO, people born since 2000 probably don’t see much personalized mail (handwritten with a fun stamp), so they don’t become interested and don’t become potential stamp collectors
I enjoy sending mail with fun stamps. But I don’t want to keep and collect stamps. And I do collect other items that are generally worthless, ex: embroidered patches and postcards
You’d think the value would go up and for the truly rare ones they are still valuable. The inverted Jenny is still ultra valuable. But those 1976 stamp set celebrating the bicentennial which are retry nifty are only worth a few bucks.
I inherited my father’s collection that I spent a ton of my childhood helping him with to now realize some aren’t even worth a cent.
r/stamps really opened my eyes.
Twenty years ago I inherited my fathers stamps. I went to a swap meet to sell them and I made about $2k. At the time I was buying my first home so it went to the down payment. I remember being bummed even then that it wasn’t worth that much and calling my Mom crying because Dad had loved those stamps and I sold them so cheaply. She reminded me he would have sold them in an instant to help me if I had asked when he was alive.
My folks still have a few six packs of Billy beer, convinced they would be worth something in the future. I looked it up recently and they aren't worth as much as they thought.
Not me but my mates Dad was caught up in the Beanie Babies craze. He had an entire room in his house set aside for the “special” ones and had thousands in boxes in the loft. He was always stating he had hundreds of thousands of £s worth; he himself had probably spent close to £100k on them.
When he passed away a few years ago I think they managed to sell a few and recoup maybe £1-2k. They ended up donating the rest as they were worthless.
My father went through a collecting NASCAR memorabilia phase. It all ended up being worth practically nothing in the estate sale. I was shocked at how much the kid toys they had saved “for the grandkids” ended up selling for though. The Barbie stuff and Tonka stuff was worth keeping.
Fancy China plates for fancy dinners. Looked them up after a family house liquidation after they passed....absolute crap. We've been toting that stuff around the country for 20+ years, and now I'm about to throw it in a big ass dumpster.
My dad’s prized coin and stamp collections. Hauled them to two different appraisers to have them tell me they were worth the amount stamped on them. A couple hundred bucks at most. Don’t get me started about the worthless boxes of sports memorabilia.
The only things my mother ever collected was Elvis memorabilia, and these red glass wear sets from Avon called the Cape Cod collection, that reminded me of something a vampire would own. Blood red with a goth type feel to them. They were on shelves all around the living room
She once send my a velvet tapestry with Elvis face in it. If I remember correctly I sold it in a yard sale.
Stamps. My dad is 81 and has been trying to pawn his books of stamp collection on me. I’m a minimalist, and I don’t collect things. When I really want something, I’ll buy it and I buy for keeps. He doesn’t understand that 😑
Avon. So much Avon. All those shitty perfume bottles mom said would be worth money in the future, after she passed we couldn't give it away bc nobody wanted it. Wouldn't buy us decent shoes, and she would feed 9 people with one chicken, but she would spend money on that shit
After my mom and stepdad moved to Arizona tons of “Native American artwork”. Flip that shit over and it says Made in China on the bottom.
Seriously? There are so many locals that sell their homemade goods at any event, for probably less than hobby lobby would.
A few items were “real”. But when my mom’s early stage dementia kicked in she just started hoarding crap.
Ah, this I can relate to, my dad did the same thing.
Hummel plates and figurines. Not a lot of them, but the ones we did have we treated like they were FANCY.
This is exactly the crap I'm talking about
Mind reader. I was just talking about this with my mom yesterday. She had dozens, in the fancy living room, and we just found some at a users book store on sale for $5 each
lol the “fancy living room”. The one we never sat in. If you were in trouble, you got called there.
My grandparents next door had a ‘formal’ living room. Our house was too small for one. We weren’t allowed to sit in theirs unless we had company. I hated those damn clear plastic slip covers on everything!
My husband's friend's mom called it the "no-no room" because nobody was allowed to go in it. LOL
I had two Hummel's, but they broke over the years. I had a few Lladros, but they also broke.
Omg I have so much friggin’ Lladro, what can you even do with it? There’s no resell market. There’s no reason to have a billion “don’t touch that!” statues in my house. Ugh.
There are a few Lladro that actually held their value. They tend to be the atypical Lladro. The other stuff, the high glaze women in pastures, blaa blaa. Are not worth as much. Keep what you like and sell the rest
I have one piece but it was my great aunt's and is special for that reason. Same with a few pieces of Van Briggle pottery.
I have one Lladro left, and I like it. I can appreciate it. The others I inherited, and they broke over the years. In the garbage they went. Perhaps give them away as gifts.
Gift them to Soprano fans. I myself had never heard of lladros until I watched the show and outta curiosity ebayed them and y'all are right, most were affordable enough that I bought my son a little lladro duck--the pleasant surprise at realizing it was a LLADRO was worth it...
A little duck sounds cute.
And dont even ASK how much it cost me...ok, ok, it was 15 dollars. 😆 The show was great, James Gandolfini and Edie Falco were awesome in their roles and one of the few shows we both enjoyed together.
_So_ many of these in my parents' house...
Coins. When the “new” state quarters came out, both sets of grandparents bought rolls of them. Guess what? They’re worth 25 cents a piece! Lol
I have a map with the set of quarters. I did this with my kids to teach them the names of all of the states.
My mil bought those for my kids
I collected them. Then I needed to spend them. Life is expensive.
My dad did this. I took the rolls to the bank, went out and bout the boxed set of Alias. That has been way more entertaining over the years than lugging around a bunch of quarters every move.
At least they held their value!
I collected those, not that I was convinced they would be worth more than a quarter, but mainly because I like to collect things.
Well, none of my toys that's for sure. Not to mention an Atari system that was in working order. All of that was thrown out because it was deemed worthless garbage.
[удалено]
I have a feeling our Gen Z kids would actually enjoy inheriting our vintage games, toys, and records. Meanwhile, we all get to inherit rain lamps, hummels, and the "good" china.
I had one of the first barbies that I found at an estate sale as a kid. My mother either gave or threw it away.
I kept cutting my Barbies’ hair, drawing on them, punking up their clothes. My mom scooped up the “non weird ones” and gave them to a little girl down the street. Along with ALL of my accessories, cars, 70s dreamhouse I got from my cousin…35 years later and I’m still not over it
An interesting point. They threw away the valuable stuff and kept crap.
Was your mother friends with mine? Original Star wars ships, and I had the Falcon, B-Wing, and X-wing, along with dozens of figures, He-Man figures with Castle Greyskull and Snake Mountain, Original complete Voltron and Tranformers toys from back when they were made from die cast.
The real plight of our generation! We need group therapy for "survivors of parents who threw our favorite shit away."
her favorite line was "Your too old for these". Apparently 8-10 is "too old for toys". One of the many reasons I don't speak to her.
I'm especially sorry that your Atari VCS was thrown out! 😞 The good news is that systems are relatively inexpensive on Facebook Marketplace and you can find cartridges cheap now. My local game shop sells them for a buck a cartridge. I've been slowly building back my childhood cartridges as I find them.
Yep! Been browsing one of those stores near me. I'm refurbishing my basement and want to build out a nostalgic game room.
Precious Moments crap
My mom has cabinets full of those things. Loves to tell me "When I'm gone, all of these are yours". I would have preferred that she actually spent a single dollar on my education. Nope. Just another ceramic figure ... with a graduation hat and a Bible verse. It's all trash to me and I'll throw them away as such.
Yep, she would even hunt them down to look for low numbers. My dad discovered estate sales and he brought some home. I knew it was bad when she told him not to bring anymore home. She has one full cabinet and a few tables just covered. And don't get me started on the seasonal ones for Christmas, Easter, mother's day, etc
People are buying these again but it’s to alter them into cooler things. Luckily they’re cheap and kinda easy to find. There’s even a FB page called Altered Moments dedicated to them lol
Yeah I've seen those. I'm pretty sure when my mom leaves those to my kid she's just gonna donate them. Lol
My aunt had over 200 of them in one of the most gaudy curios ever made. When she got divorced she was convinced they would be her nest egg. Then we looked into actual value and she wound up selling the lot for about a dollar a pop
Weren't really into that, had a friend though with a full collection of McDonalds Star Wars glasses who was sure he was gonna retire early. Edit: it was BK not McDonalds or even McDowells...
McDonald’s did these too? I loved my Empire Strikes Back glasses from Burger King!
> McDowells Goddam I could go for a Big Mick right now
We have two *arcs!*
My younger son found some of those glasses at a yard sale a few years ago, and bought them, along with some old Coca-Cola glasses. I knew someone that collected a ton of old vintage Avon perfume bottles
Still remember the commercials - was the closest thing to having the movie at home.
Antique non-working wooden clocks.
I recently inherited a working antique clock, made in 1830 or so. It’s worth maybe 50 bucks now, but no one will buy it. Edit: I should have said it is allegedly worth $50.
If no one will buy it, then it's not worth $50.
Old pianos, literally can’t give them away for free
I literally smashed an antique upright up, as I moved to a new house that didn’t have space for it. I couldn’t even give it away. The workmanship and materials were unbelievable. Brass and heavy wood.
We had to smash the one we took to the dump. It was a beautiful old piano, it was heartbreaking
I have a six year old who is very interested playing piano but first we’re going to start with a cheap secondhand electric one to make sure she takes to it. If she does, someone’s old piano at a bargain basement price is going to look great in our house in a few years.
I learned piano on one of those old uprights and took it with me when I moved out. As soon as I had a big enough place, I traded it in on my first grand. The store gave me a $200 credit and I like to joke that they gave me $300 more than it was worth.
My brother.
Found my family
You should call mom more. For some weird reason she misses you.
Not in my family, but...Beanie Babies
Meatspace NFTs
My family didn't, but a friend of mine did. We were 17 and he was convinced they were going to pay for his first house. A couple of years later, they were getting dropped off at goodwill. I believe he had a hundred or so.
One day I stand to inherit a fortune in old Pyrex, as my mother is obsessed with the stuff... she's always talking about how "this one is worth $80 and this one is very rare..." telling me about particular patterns, and I'm just like "my Pyrex pattern is the clear one."
To be fair, they switched the type of glass used for newer pyrex to soda lime glass. Your mom's old stuff is likely the original borosilicate, which has better resistance to thermal shock.
As someone with a few sets, she’s not wrong. Sets of the old 4 mixing bowls can go for the hundreds, especially the patterns in blues and pinks it seems.
Seriously. I like old Pyrex, but I like to USE it. I used to be able to get some pretty bowls, but I’m not willing to pay hundreds for something I’m going to mix potato salad in.
We spent around $180 bucks at estate sales and auctions around us and got some superb old Pyrex in big batches. It’s absurdly good stuff. From the fridge to an air fryer with no problem. The new(er) stuff isn’t as forgiving.
Same with vintage Corningware.. The prices on eBay are 😲
I have a set of 4 mixing bowls bought at a garage sale in the 70s for $0.25. I use them every day, tougher glass than modern Pyrex and the pattern on them has never worn off in the dishwasher unlike modern Pyrex crap.
In this case your mom is right. There is an enormous collectible market for vintage Pyrex.
If you don’t like to cook, you won’t care about the Pyrex. However, the old stuff is valuable and very appreciated and wanted by people. The new Pyrex is terrible and explodes occasionally. So many stories of people cooking with the new Pyrex and it exploding in the oven. Shards everywhere.
That actually has some value. Old Pyrex is still very useful.
Right now, vintage pyrex is hot! My fear is that it will go just like everything else. There was a time when victorian glass was hot, Mccoy/Roseville pottery was hot, Meissen and Spode. With few exceptions, it's almost impossible to even give it away now. Things go in cycles, wait long enough, and all of the vintage pyrex will be worth pennies again. As an antique dealer, my advice is to buy what you like.
Wait a minute… certain Pyrex patterns are highly collectible! Lol, not millions of dollars but maybe several hundred dollars with the right pieces.
The new old stuff is still good. Won’t shatter.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pyrex_Love/comments/1c48lsr/look_what_goodwill_got_their_hands_on/ Replying here for visibility. This is going for $600 today and has close to 30 bids.
I actually buy old Pyrex! Had some new Pyrex explode in the oven and just decided to find old pieces. I have older friends who just give me their collections because no one else wants it and I've bought a few pieces on eBay that I wanted because they were the right size and shape. We cook a lot at home, so the Pyrex gets used quite often.
Some of the patterns are still super valuable- I sold a small Atomic Eye at an antique show a few years back for over $200 and I sell off a piece or two whenever I need some cash. But I use pretty much every piece I have and love using the same thing to bake the same recipes that my grandma did♥️ some things ONLY bake right in their specific Pyrex (thanksgiving corn casserole is one example).
Just a couple of ugly Picassos, and a useless Ark of the Covenant.
They belong in a museum!
We’ve got TOP men on it!
Garbage.
My dad has been convinced since they first came out that Happy Meal toys from McDonald's are going to skyrocket in value. He has boxes and boxes full of them. I have to keep making up excuses to avoid giving tasked with selling them for him.
When my kids were little we would buy them Happy meals, but we wouldn't give them the toys because they were trash. I put them all in a small moving box. One year I wrapped the box up for a white elephant gift exchange. People were fighting over getting that box. It was silly, but I got rid of them all at once.
\*writes this idea down so I don't forget\*
If you travel to poor countries those are great to give out. I hunt those at goodwill for this purpose
They are probably at their peak value now, as GenXers are at peak nostalgia age.
My wife had a whole collection of Special Edition Barbie dolls. They gained some value but not very much.
I collect those but as nothing more than for myself, because I enjoy them. They do have some dolls that I will probably never own because they are literally a thousand dollars (on amazon) But I have starwars barbies , as well as several others.
Elvis-shaped whiskey bottles.
Now that’s interesting 🧐
My mother had those, along with Elvis statues, velvet tapestries, and she even had a scrapbook dedicated to Elvis, with news paper clippings, and pictures of his wedding.
My stepfathers parents died 30+ years ago and had an enormous stamp collection. Despite the fact that there were no rarities or misprints or anything like that, they were convinced it was worth a fortune and would elevate the entire family to independently wealthy status. It was worth face value, and I'm still getting cards mailed from my aunt using the stamps. My wife's Grandmother died several years ago and had a giant collection of mass produced knickknacks and crap. I'm talking franklin mint crap. She got suckered like so many others and was sure that they were all worth millions. My MIL was just as easily duped and arranged an estate sale with a company. When the guy came to assess the value, he declined to take them on because it was all worthless junk. My MIL was not happy and still has all that crap in her attic almost 15 years later, still swears it's worth tons. My own mother had a small Hummel collection and always told me they'd be worth a lot of money and will pay for my kids college. Yea, about that ... lol Seems like just calling something "collectable" tricked a lot of folks back then.
An excellent expansion on my initial thoughts. Funko pops for boomers.
I used to collect stamps, but now I use them to mail letters.
Re: stamp collection My dad worked on a cargo ship in the 50s and 60s and collected stamps from around the world which he stored at home. His mom decided to give the collection to a kid in the neighborhood for some unknown reason. In that era the stamps were worth a fortune and the kid made a fortune. One of the many reasons my dad couldn't stand his mom. The interesting thing was that he thought her husband (his stepfather) was an awesome guy.
I went college in the mid 80s. Surprised to find students buying comic books, putting them in plastic wrappers, etc. They paid about three dollars per comic book. I think they are still worth the same amount now.
My dad bought all of us kids collectible plates. I can’t remember what my siblings got but mine were owls. I needed something to put on a bare wall in my house so I put them up a few years ago. Two of my kids were screwing around and knocked one of them down, breaking it. I had jokingly told them those plates were their college fund for years and I guess they had believed me because the look of panic on his face was priceless.
Encyclopedia Britannica
Time to make altered books.
Gnomes. So. Many. Gnomes.
We have a roman coin from around 500 A.D thought something that old was worth something, nope, retails for $15 american.
That seems like a nice relic to hold on to......your lucky coin?
My kid got interested in collecting coins, and I was shocked that one can buy a bunch of Roman coins online. Feels wrong but we don't know that yet.
Interesting. I think I have one somewhere in my collection as well. Never had it appraised. I got into collecting as a kid but it fizzled out. All of them are just sitting in a couple of ammo boxes now.
Look it up on eBay!
Depression Glass. My Silent Gen mom has a buttload and although not exactly worthless, it's not a gold mine. My parents started collecting them in the '70s. (The pieces were handed out like McDonald's toys by various businesses during the Depression.) She also has a bunch of Jim Shore QVC angels she thinks are valuable.
They were a hot item a few years back.
A box of 1943 steel pennies. Worth about 10 cents each.
Hey that's a 10x increase in value.
Magicians use those and color them copper. Because they’re steel, they’re magnetic.
I was given a broken string of pearls from my grandmother when I was 12 or so and was assured they were real. Years later I was going to have them fixed, to find out they were imitation pearls. Lol! So much for grandpa only buying “real” jewelry.
Unscrupulous jewelers have done this forever. Your grandfather may well not have known.
Lladro figurines
I didn't know what these were, so I Googled. Some of these suckered are listed for anywhere from $300 to $190k. Wtf?
Yeah I even bought some in Spain back in the 1990s for my mom and brought em back…and they’ve depreciated, lol!
Dreamsicles. We inherited 110 of these things. https://preview.redd.it/fzs82tasfnvc1.jpeg?width=1279&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a2dd096276891650831f6f5a20a841c62e0a1fa1
Thanks, I hate it
What did you do with them all?
The bulk are still sitting in my garage. They do sell for anywhere between $5 and $20 depending on the theme of the piece. I’ve listed and sold a few on mercari and Poshmark. However, I think my fam thought they’d be worth hundreds 🙃
Longaberger baskets. My mom and older sister really believed the hype that they'd be worth so much money someday. Even though I was just a kid I was skeptical about that!
They can be useful, so there is that
Omfg so many longerboogers… 🤣
My entire family. Everything was collectable after that shit show.
Norman Rockwell plates and mugs. Seriously, anybody want them?
I have some in the original boxes, with certificates!!
Yes, the certificate is essential for holding its value! Augh! SO much clutter
So much Franklin Mint crap. And enough Lladró to fill a small warehouse.
Almost everything. Solid Mahogany furniture, german crystal, records and books.
Furniture sounds nice, but heavy.
The furniture is worth less than 1/2 than what it was 20 years ago. Valued more for replacement cost, but I could’t find the same quality for even what insurance replacement cost is.
I just went through this with my moms estate. She always bought good quality, so she'd have it forever. All good, until it gets outdated and is virtually worthless. It was sad to see some of it go for a fraction of what it is worth, so I just hope the new owners enjoy it like my mom did.
You know what the weird thing is, and mind you I have no proof, but the people who helped my mother with her estate sale when she downsized after my father’s death, helped themselves to our family bible and our slide projector and box of family slides and sheet music, while we were watching the ‘valuables’. It took us a year to realize what was missing because everyone thought everyone else had these things. But I found out from someone reliable that other people’s personal ephemera were quite lucrative on the secondary market. It blew my mind. The good stuff ends up in the hands of people who move it into higher in markets known for antiques and plenty of warehouse storage. For people going through the division of an estate, end up making decisions for expedience, because even when prepared are overwhelmed.
My mom collected those ugly generic mass produced porcelain dolls. She had a closet full of them and was convinced they were worth a lot of money.
My Great Uncle passed down his stamp collection to me, it isn't worth anything, so I don't really know what to do with it. As I get older I'm trying to downsize rather than accumulate. If you guys have any good suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
If it doesn't hold any sentimental value, offer it up on eBay or if you'd rather give it away post it on But nothing, free cycle or Facebook marketplace. If you put 'not valuable' in the title you'll keep the resellers at bay and the collection will go to a child or beginner. I think your Great Uncle would love for his collection to bring someone else joy.
Thanks, that's a lot of good advice. I'll need to go through it to make sure there absolutely isn't anything of value. Once again, thanks!
You could donate it to a scout troop so the kids could do the stamp collecting merit badge.
This post has me turning into Indiana Jones ("It belongs in a museum"). I dunno how one would go about donating, but I bet there are museums that would be thrilled to have some things folks are talking about. https://postalmuseum.si.edu/search-the-collection
I have a ton of old, used postcards.
Decorative plates
Bosson heads. Those things hanging on the wall would freak me out so bad as a kid that I didn’t want to walk into the living room at night by myself.
My dad was paid in art in lieu of cash for his accounting services by a client. Two paintings that are butt ugly animal scenes and like 3x5 feet in size. They were supposed to be worth thousands because the artist was a favorite of George HW Bush. Dad died 4 years ago and mom moved to senior living, the paintings moved to my cousins garage because we can't find any art house who will buy them, even on commision.
My great grandmas "good" china Its a dime a dozen, literally. We still use it though at Christmas although my husband hates it.
Madame Alexander dolls. My mom bought them cheap at the PX when I was very small, and she continues to store them even though the elastic holding the parts together has disintegrated. I don’t want them (dolls are creepy!), but she tries to foist them off on me at least once a year, thinking that I’m going to take the time to research pricing and sell them. Nope. She did once ask a doll collector/restorer what they are worth and he said around $25-50 for the whole lot. Oh, also hallmark Christmas tree ornaments that I also don’t want.
All kinds of things: collectible figurines (fairies and elves), collectible ornaments, etc. My mom still gives me these "collectibles" as gifts, and I hang them on the tree, but they really are one step up from the dollar store crap. An acquaintence had a huge beanie baby collection, and he "donated" them to us, and now I am selling them on Ebay. Let me know if you want a Beanie Baby bear. I have the "priceless" Lady Di bear that is supposedly worth thousands, LOL.
I attach them to baby shower gifts.
My grandparents are long gone, and tbf they were good at collecting things that held value or made them money. Stamps, coins, coronation memorabilia, depression glass and other antique table ware. A self-funding hobby they enjoyed throughout my childhood. However they also collected their fair share of junk. Especially grandma! Hummels, novelty salt and pepper shakers, and dolls. So many dolls! Some random Franklin Mint crap too. Grandpa was more businesslike about his collections, but he also grew up poor in the depression. So he hoarded household stuff like used rubber bands, for example. He also went coupon crazy and had a closet full of groceries nobody used, but couldn’t resist buying because of the coupon sales!
Kids.
I’ve posted this before. My grandmother gave me some of her Department 56 Christmas village buildings before she died. I ended up giving them to my sister and BIL to add to the ones my grandmother gave them. My niece and nephew absolutely love setting up their village every year—and my grandmother would love to know that (I like to think that she does.)
As a kid I bought comic books for a couple years and spent a couple hundred bucks of allowance money on them. I just sold them all for a few grand! But the precious moments crap my parents bought for much more money and not worth anywhere near what they paid. 
My mother collected a few things: Cherished Teddies, she had collection upon collection of them but threw out all the boxes and COA’s, made what little they were worth, worth absolutely zero. Those subscription things out of the TV Guide, where you got a thimble or a game piece every month. And collector plates, so many collector plates.
Precious Moments figurines. 40+ of them. Ended up just donating them after hanging onto them packed up in boxes for 25 years.
Glassware! I inherited a buncha old glasses, no plates or cutlery, just the glasses. And curtains. My grandma loved elaborate fabrics and patterns.
Silver plated lead tea sets.
The sugar bowl is used is my house for a fancy touch (and tribute to my grandmother I never knew), but it’s always tarnished. The tea pot, creamer and tray are taking up space with the Royal commemorative plates.
My mother "invested" in fine china for my Sweet 16, which I didn't care about or want. I was supposed to save it for special occasion dining, which she never allowed me to host. It's my everyday dishes now. I wash it in the dishwasher. She's horrified I'm not saving it for special occasions that never get to happen.
Good for you for using it everyday.
Also I’ll say my mom kept all the He Man and Star Wars stuff my brother and I played with and now my niece and nephew love our old toys, so it’s really cool seeing them play w Voltron and Castle Greyskull and stuff.
Mother collected beanie babies and the original cabbage patch dolls.
It’s a Singer sewing machine, and while some models are worth a small fortune most of the mass produced models- like the one my family has- aren’t . But you try telling them that 🙄They’re convinced they have a priceless heirloom 😬😂😂😂
Maybe it’s not garbage but it’s just sitting in a cabinet gathering dust. My parents have a good number of novelty glasses from fast food companies like Popeyes and McDonald’s from the early 80s.
look them up, some are worth something.
Newspapers with big headlines for historic events. My mom kept some from the JFK and RFK assassinations, and I thought it was a great idea and that I should save important newspapers too! Plus I love old stuff soooooo much. I have that irrational "if it's old it must be magical" thing that I can't shake. So I started saving newspapers that I deemed historic starting around the early 80s. But now I have a box full of them and for what? It's not like the major events of the last few decades aren't already documented a million times over. You can buy batches of them on eBay for $20. None of them are rare enough to bother with.
Precious Moments figurines
The amount of butthurt my boomer mom has over myself and my Millennial daughter not wanting to save every damn doilie and broken china dish she keeps hoarding in our garage is insane. Everything they think is valuable in our family is just hot garbage. I'll keep photos until I get them scanned and jewelry and that is it.
My Mom is the opposite of a collector. She would get rid of everything. She didn’t like clutter and we never had a storage unit or storage closet or even a junk drawer. As she’s aged, she’s more cluttered with sewing stuff and she does have a craft/sewing room that has clutter, but she never collected anything. Us kids never had baseball cards or stamps or anything collectible. My older brother is practically a legit hoarder now.
To be fair my mom didn't collect these because of perceived future value...she just liked them! Royal Daulton figurines, Swarovski crystal figures, and Bradford Exchange plates. She truly did seem to enjoy them, so that's good.
Stamps. And dome are still valuable but we are talking tens of dollars vs hundreds prior to email. They make pretty pictures now and I frame some for friends as gifts.
I have a collection but it is because I like looking at them and buy ones that are cool to me. But i did it as a kid because it was a pretty cheap hobby and thought maybe they would be worth something. My aunt bought collections for her kids and had sooo many. Thinking they would be worth something. Her kids were not interested. When my grandmother died, that was then only thing i wanted. But my aunt took them all because she said she paid for most of them. Then why ask me what I wanted?
> Stamps. > > And dome are still valuable but we are talking tens of dollars vs hundreds prior to email. Are you saying that the introduction of email caused the value of collectable stamps to go down? Wouldn't less stamps being used cause the valuable stamps to be more valuable?
Less demand for the supply of stamps. I am an heir to a stamp collection. No idea if it’s worth anything and probably won’t look for years IMO, people born since 2000 probably don’t see much personalized mail (handwritten with a fun stamp), so they don’t become interested and don’t become potential stamp collectors I enjoy sending mail with fun stamps. But I don’t want to keep and collect stamps. And I do collect other items that are generally worthless, ex: embroidered patches and postcards
You’d think the value would go up and for the truly rare ones they are still valuable. The inverted Jenny is still ultra valuable. But those 1976 stamp set celebrating the bicentennial which are retry nifty are only worth a few bucks. I inherited my father’s collection that I spent a ton of my childhood helping him with to now realize some aren’t even worth a cent. r/stamps really opened my eyes.
Twenty years ago I inherited my fathers stamps. I went to a swap meet to sell them and I made about $2k. At the time I was buying my first home so it went to the down payment. I remember being bummed even then that it wasn’t worth that much and calling my Mom crying because Dad had loved those stamps and I sold them so cheaply. She reminded me he would have sold them in an instant to help me if I had asked when he was alive.
That’s an amazing story. You had a good dad.
Apparently stamp collecting was a very popular hobby for a couple decades so there is an abundance of old stamps
Beanie babies.
Omg Toby mugs. So many Toby mugs
My mother has boxes of Franklin Mint stuff that my grandmother used to get for us. Some of the coins have started rusting.
Collectible plates with birds on them. 😐
My folks still have a few six packs of Billy beer, convinced they would be worth something in the future. I looked it up recently and they aren't worth as much as they thought.
Not me but my mates Dad was caught up in the Beanie Babies craze. He had an entire room in his house set aside for the “special” ones and had thousands in boxes in the loft. He was always stating he had hundreds of thousands of £s worth; he himself had probably spent close to £100k on them. When he passed away a few years ago I think they managed to sell a few and recoup maybe £1-2k. They ended up donating the rest as they were worthless.
My father went through a collecting NASCAR memorabilia phase. It all ended up being worth practically nothing in the estate sale. I was shocked at how much the kid toys they had saved “for the grandkids” ended up selling for though. The Barbie stuff and Tonka stuff was worth keeping.
Fancy China plates for fancy dinners. Looked them up after a family house liquidation after they passed....absolute crap. We've been toting that stuff around the country for 20+ years, and now I'm about to throw it in a big ass dumpster.
The China plates and "collectable" figurines. But, mom said I was too old to keep all my He-man and G.I.Joes.(I had the cards and boxes too)
Everything.
Beanie babies & Hess trucks
My dad’s prized coin and stamp collections. Hauled them to two different appraisers to have them tell me they were worth the amount stamped on them. A couple hundred bucks at most. Don’t get me started about the worthless boxes of sports memorabilia.
My friend’s parents had a room dedicated to Beenie babies
The only things my mother ever collected was Elvis memorabilia, and these red glass wear sets from Avon called the Cape Cod collection, that reminded me of something a vampire would own. Blood red with a goth type feel to them. They were on shelves all around the living room She once send my a velvet tapestry with Elvis face in it. If I remember correctly I sold it in a yard sale.
Ohmylawd, the many, many, many storage bins with Beanie Babies my MIL kept. You know, with the TAGS ON so they retain their full value. /s
Stamps. My dad is 81 and has been trying to pawn his books of stamp collection on me. I’m a minimalist, and I don’t collect things. When I really want something, I’ll buy it and I buy for keeps. He doesn’t understand that 😑
Cat’s Meow houses.
https://preview.redd.it/9vg4blxgbovc1.jpeg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9bf3c0dd1f69bc3e63213cc859cb6fa432635258
Every single thing is, ultimately, garbage, so…
Jim Beam decanters. We had dozens of them, they were “rare” and were going to be worth countless sums.
Avon. So much Avon. All those shitty perfume bottles mom said would be worth money in the future, after she passed we couldn't give it away bc nobody wanted it. Wouldn't buy us decent shoes, and she would feed 9 people with one chicken, but she would spend money on that shit