When we first started out in the retail industry many moons ago, we soon heard stories of fortunes being made on the back of Ty’s Beanie Babies, which had customers queueing around the block and saw retailers stocking up on luxury cars and holiday homes as the cute characters flew off the shelves.
Now it seems the legendary Babies are the gift that keeps on giving, with the most collectable pieces thought to be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. A 1997 version made to honour the late Princess Diana has been seen for sale on eBay for as much as £350,000, while the Peanut the Elephant and tie-dyed Peace Garcia versions regularly fetch four figure sums online. If you think you might have one in hibernation somewhere now would be the time to wake it up!
After a long lull, new Beanie Babies are back on the market and can be spotted at trade shows around the UK and Europe alongside countless imitations and variations on the same theme of cute, collectable plush. Whether any of the current crop has the potential to single-handedly enrich the embattled gift and home retail trade is another matter, perhaps, but one that’s worth investigating.
Also rocking the antiques world as much as the modern realm of gifting is Harry Potter, with copies of JK Rowling’s original books changing hands for up to £40,000. This is a truly magical merchandise franchise, as a cursory glance at Platform 9 and 3/4 at King’s Cross Station will tell you. The winding queue of betwitched children and long-suffering parents is matched only by the adjacent Harry Potter gift shop next door, which tends to be more packed than a pop concert or football match. If you don’t already stock magic potion pendants, plush petronas characters or golden quidditch drones then what are you waiting for! (Petronas characters pictured are by Noble Works)
Lego is another hot property and while its popularity may be past its peak, pristine vintage sets can be very valuable and there is big demand for rare individual blocks. The Star Wars Millennium Falcon is available on Amazon for more than £7,000, which is 20 times its original value and also highlights the value of the Star Wars franchise, still going strong after all these years.
