In 1894, John Hubley founded the Hubley Manufacturing Co. in Lancaster, LA. Initially, the company made wooden toys, but by 1909, they had moved into cast iron and added decorative items such as door knockers and the very popular figural doorstops. Today, doorstops with original paint regularly bring up to $400, but rare shapes can bring thousands.
A Hubley giraffe doorstop recently sold for almost $11,000! Check the back for either a three-digit pattern number or the word “HUBLEY” to know if you have the real deal.
Retro boogie boards
You've probably played with a boogie board down at the beach, but those aren't going to set your retirement fund up. On the other hand, there is a growing market for retro professional bodyboards throughout the world, especially down under. These vintage boards can get expensive.
There are individual boogie boards that are going for upwards of $10,000, and an anonymous collector put his entire collection up for the low, low price of $7,400. Practically a steal! If your years of riding the ways are over, you can still do something with your collection.
Homemade Quilts
Monochromatic vintage coverlets are considered very rare and quite valuable. These back-to-basics patterns (usually a single color mixed with white) were widespread in the '30s and '40s and are a reminder of early quilters' designs when color and fabric options were limited.
The most valuable quilts in today's market are blue and white, red and white, and red, green, and white, in that order. Another consideration is how rare a quilt is. For example, during the Depression, many "Grandmother's Flower Garden" quilts were made.
Old Coins
Well, of course, coins are worth money; that's the whole point. But some coins – rare, misprint, what have you – can be worth way more than you think. In 2007, antique dealer Jeff Bidelman of “Rare Collectibles” was asked to look through an abandoned house by the late owner's daughter, and he managed to find a buried treasure: a collection of 200-year-old coins that ended up being worth more than $200,000, hidden in a hole in the wall of the house.
Coins seem to be on the way out as inflation makes them less and less useful, but you might want to keep them around.
Cereal boxes
One man's trash is another's treasure, but cereal boxes? You've likely thrown out a thousand of these things after polishing off your Chex or Cheerios, and now we find out that some of the boxes are worth a mint – they'll fit right next to a classic lunch box and a beer can.
You may think it's the older boxes that command the highest prices, but not always. A Kellogg's Sugar Pops box from 2009 has reached $161, but the highest earner is an unopened box of Nabisco Shredded Wheat from 1966, which brought in a hair over a grand.