Have you ever went looking thru an antique store and seen something you had had years ago but had gotten rid of but now its worth a lot?
I notice my old kids bicycle I could probably get $300-$400 for it now.
I know I once had a copy of the “Flash of Two Worlds” comic. I remember the cover clearly. It was featured in an episode of The Big Bang Theory. When I re-watched the episode recently, I went thru my Silver Age comics to show it to Mrs. FtG. Not there.
It’s weird that several of the now most famous comics I had from that era are no longer in my collection. (E.g., the first “New Look” Batman.) No one would have taken them. Just random losses.
My View-master and several really cool reel packages “Poseidon Adventure,” et. al…
When I was in first grade I had a 1973 Scooby Doo lunchbox. 
All the baseball cards I pinned to my bike’s forks and fed into the wheels’ spokes to make that cool sound. I mean, before I mutilated them in this way.
My sanity.
my sanity
my virginity
my teeth
I could probably sell them on eBay for some quick cash.
When I reached the age of being interested in Barbie dolls, I got a new one for Christmas (1973,) and inherited a bunch of dolls and accessories and clothes from my older cousins. Some dated back more than ten years, and would be worth a mint now - at least enough to finish the back porch, maybe even enough to hire a landscaper to come finish my pathetic yard, too!
I miss my brother’s big metal Tonka trucks and tractors, especially the road grader. I don’t know if they’re collectibles, but I loved those things!
The other toy I really miss: my grandfather was a bit of a collector of other people’s cast-offs, and was always apt to come home from the dump with a bigger load than he took. When I was a very little kid, he brought home a wagon - a bit of surface rust, but solid. It had a bottom that lifted out of the interior, and pedals below. Using the handle to steer the front wheels, a solo kid could maneuver herself quite nicely when there was no one around to pull. Never saw another one like it.
None of the 50’s toys I had as a kid survived, or not in any kind of condition to be collectible. I wish I had my grandmother’s big six burner coal stove. Or maybe not. Actually do have a small Schwinn and a tricycle from husband’s youth, but they are pretty rough, and the grandkids prefer bright plastic cheap Chinese crap. I had Lone Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy comics, and one Sheena of the Jungle.
I get kitchen stuff in those shops…to replace things I wish had been kept;)
Wednesday I was walking by a used bicycle shop in Seattle, when I saw an Apollo 5-speed similar to the one I had when I was a kid. The one in the shop didn’t have the stick-shift (it was an earlier model), but the shape was unmistakeable. I moved in with my dad when I was 15, and I assume my mom eventually donated the bike to Navy Relief or to someone who had a kid that needed it. I wish I still had it. Not that I’d ride it, but it would be a unique thing to have as clutter.
I wish I had kept my first MGB. I really wish I had kept my Porsche 911SC. And my '73 Yamaha 100 Enduro and '76 Yamaha 250 Enduro.
If I could go back in time, the one thing I would do is buy my dad’s 1970 Cessna 172K. (If I ever win the lottery, I’ll try to get the current owner to sell it to me.)
1949, 80 cu.in. flat head Harley Davidson. It was bone stock. :::: sigh ::::
Plus other stuff. X 10 ::::: sigh :::::::
Fortunately, my parents didn’t just throw away stuff after their kids moved out. They’d box it all up and give it to us. And that’s why I still have my MAD magazines from the 1960s. A couple of things they just set out for the trash collector still bug me, though. I had a couple of antique radios from the 1930s and 40s that I used to fool around with in the basement. They worked, and they had wooden cabinets. I kinda forgot about them. One day long after I had left home my parents went on a “let’s clean the basement” frenzy and threw them out. I would love to have those now!
And when my wife and I were first married, she had a blue 1972 MGB, bought new. We moved to an area where it was impossible to have foreign cars serviced, so we sold it. We both wish we hadn’t.
All my stuff is the opposite. The stuff I kept went down in value:
- Comic books before the early 90’s crash.
- Baseball cards before the 90’s crash.
- Gold when it was 1800.
- Collection of Wired magazine from issue #1 up to bubble crash.
A 1950something Gibson amplified acoustic guitar and amp. Sold 'em to a friend for $75 with absolutely no idea of their value(clarification: neither of us had any idea of the value; she wanted a guitar, I wasn’t using it). She took the guitar to Antiques Roadshow a few years back and got an appraisal in the four figures.
She still has it, and she’s kindly offered to give it back if my daughter decides she wants to play guitar, so that’s nice of her. She could be a big ol’ jerk about it, but she completely understands that neither of us knew what we were dealing with when we were 17! But I’m also not a big ol’ jerk; since she still likes to play it, she can keep it for now, at least.
My Mom had a collection of what they now call Carnival Glass. She had weird shaped vases, and unique bowls, in all kinds of groovy colors, in the 70’s. They were only a few dollars back then, but I heard they would be worth big money today.
A lot of stuff from my Mom I wish I had now. The dress she made for herself for the factory Christmas party she worked at. The clothes she made for us on her sewing machine, long into the night after working all day. My siblings were embarrassed to wear hand made clothes, but I loved everything she made me, and just wish I kept at least one thing.
I also wish I had gotten her cheesecake recipe and bread pudding recipe before it was too late.
I sure do miss my Mom, this is my first Easter ever without her.
Oh, yeah… My 15th- (or was it 16th-?) Century signed wakizashi. And my 1942 ‘byf’ Luger.
Oh, I just remembered two things:
I had a 14" or so (seemed bigger than 12") Darth Vader doll.
Also, one christmas I got a 7-8" R2D2 model. I had no idea how to put them together, so I left the model in the box with the shrinkwrap for like 4 years, finally i opened it, put it together badly, and threw it away.
Only thing I’ve never kept. 100’s of original Hot Wheels red lines. Gave em to a kid of a gal I knew and now wish I had them to give my own kid. Plus they are worth something now.
Oh well.
EDIT: 1980 Dodge Colt with the twin stick transmission. That was way cool!
A ton of Barbie and Barbie accessories, which wouldn’t have been worth as much as one may think because I actually played with them, but still. I had the cowgirl Barbie that winked and the cowboy Ken with the weird elastic waist, several “rare” ones and most of the “Barbie and the Rockers”. I also had a Jem doll.
When the movie Labyrinth came out, I became quite taken with it, and therefore had both the hardcover illustrated storybook and the paperback from the movie.
There’s a few of the things I wish I still had, if for no other reason then to pass to my daughter.
Baseball cards, complete sets, 1949-53, Bowman and Topps. Mint condition Superman and Donald Duck comic books, ca. 1950, in Swedish, that a penpal sent me. All taken to the church rummage sale by my mother, when I went to college. Never let your mother talk you into going to college – stay home and guard your stuff.