List of Valuable Collections and Collectibles You Might Have at Home

I'm a big fan of the television show Storage Wars, where people buy abandoned storage lockers in hopes of finding something valuable inside. (If you've never heard of the show, you might want to visit Best Reality Shows on Television.) It's amazing the kind of loot they tend to find: jewelry, collectibles, safes full of rare coins... Even more, it's hard to believe that people would just abandon some of this stuff.

However, that got me to thinking: what kind of treasure might the average Joe be sitting on at home and not know about? What kinds of things might the average person have and not recognize the value of? With that I mind, I focus on some of the collectibles that many of us might have tucked away in an attic or basement.

Vinyl records as a commercial industry has pretty much gone the way of the dodo. Digital music, as exemplified by the ubiquitous iPod, has taken over. However, that doesn't mean you should just toss all of of your vinyl records in the trash. Far from it.

As a collector's item, vinyl records can have immense value. For instance, certain Beatles' records have been known to sell for tens of thousands of dollars, as have other artists. Some extremely rare items have even sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars!

Bearing that in mind, it's probably to your benefit to look at any old vinyl records you have (or that your parents may have, if you were born any time after the mid-80s) and go online to assess their value. (Sites like Popsikes.com can help you with this.) You could be sitting on a gold mine.

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Another area in which people often let collectibles slip through their fingers, literally, is with respect to coins. Most of us barely pay attention to the loose change that we use to buy our morning coffee, lunch, etc.

Some coins, however, will often have a worth that is far in excess of their face value. In fact, some coins can be worth thousands of dollars.

If you have some old coins, it would behoove you to take some time to try to assess their value. (A site like coinstudy.com might help.) Moreover, going forward, you should scrupulously check the change you receive to see if you've come into possession of something unique.

As much as they cost, you'd think that many video games would be designated as collectibles upon leaving the factory. Moreover, lots of kids have a tendency to trade them in for store credit the minute they finish with them.

However, if you (or your kid) happen to be something of a packrat and have made it a habit to hold on to your game purchases, you might find yourself with a collectible or two on your hands. And if you think that video games may not sell for much, keep in mind that not too long ago a copy of Stadium Events for the NES sold for over $40,000! Of course, that was a rare game, but there are others that are also worth thousands, so it's definitely worth checking out.

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The simple truth of the matter is that almost anything can have significant value to the right person. There are lots of other collectibles that you might have around the house that also have value: books, dolls/action figures, miniatures, gun collections, and so on. It probably won't hurt to carve out some time one day to get a handle on what you have and it's what it's worth.