8 Rare Vintage Tech Products Worth Thousands That Might Be Hiding In Your Attic – BGR

If you’re wondering if some of the old tech you’ve got stashed in your attic might be worth enough to pay for a round-the-world cruise, the answer is a cautious maybe. Some gadgets and gizmos from the late twentieth — and even early twenty-first — century sell for well over a thousand dollars. A few have even sold for six-figure amounts. But, in most cases, the big money is for brand-new items in boxes that have never even been opened. The game console that you fondly remember playing for hours on end in the 1980s might not net you all that much.

Mint condition tech is incredibly rare. Most of us aren’t going to splash out on a brand-new iPhone and never take it out of the packaging. However, good condition used items can still fetch decent, if not life-changing, amounts. Even broken devices can make money if they’re rare or interesting enough. It also helps if what you’re selling has an interesting provenance. If, like some of the original owners here, you’re an astronaut or world-changing law student, your attic finds are going to be more valuable.

Collectible tech is a lot newer than most other kinds of vintage items, which might take hundreds of years to become interesting. Nostalgia plays a big part. People who played with the first NES systems as kids are all grown-up now, and some of them have a lot of money to spend. If it turns out that you haven’t got something collectors are prepared to pay big money for, there’s always Plan B. Buy some pioneering new tech now, maybe Steam’s new VR headset, stash it away unused, and keep your fingers crossed that in 20 or 30 years’ time, it pays for your retirement.

While it’s unlikely that anything in your attic is going to be worth close to half a million dollars, if you’ve got an original Apple computer up there, then you might be in luck. In September 2025, a wooden-cased Apple I computer sold for $475,000. This particular computer had a noteworthy history. It belonged to June Blodgett Moore, the first female Stanford Law School graduate. It was made in 1976, when most Apple computers were just bare circuit boards that tech enthusiasts would purchase as part of a kit and put together themselves — a bit like a Raspberry Pi today.

Then the owner of a California computer shop struck a deal with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. He would buy fifty Apple computers, but only if they were pre-assembled with a case. The resulting wood-enclosed Apple computers are truly a limited edition. Only fifty were made, and of those, only nine are known to still exist today. If you’ve got one of the other 41 originals in your attic, then you’re likely sitting on a small fortune.

If you have one of its successors, the Apple II computer, then you’ve got an interesting piece of computing history, but one that’s not quite as rare or valuable as the first Apple. The original Apple II computers were made between 1977 and 1979, and a restored, working model sold for an impressive $1,600 on eBay. When it comes to vintage computers, Apple products are the most popular among collectors, due to how pioneering the brand was. However, if you’ve got something even older like a 1901 tabulating machine — a distant ancestor of the home computer — that sold on eBay for $1,373.

The release of the first iPhone in 2007 was a big deal. Before the iPhone, smartphones like Blackberry had keyboards; the iPhone was the first phone to popularize the touchscreen interface, with the swiping, pinching, and tapping that’s now second nature. So, even though the first iPhones are less than 20 years old, they’re already highly collectible. In 2023, a mint-condition first-generation iPhone sold for $190,373. Another one sold more recently for $147,286. Both were still factory-sealed in their boxes. Counterintuitively, the 4GB version sells for higher prices than the 8GB model. It was less popular and is therefore rarer. Prices for used first-gen iPhones vary wildly. While one sold for around $6,600 on eBay, used iPhones without boxes can be worth less than $100.

There were mobile phones before iPhones, of course. A 1983 Motorola “brick” phone sold for around $4,000 on eBay, which amazingly is almost the same price as it cost new. Quite a drop in value when you factor in inflation. Eighties yuppies really were prepared to drop the equivalent of $12,000 on a status symbol that took 10 hours charging to produce 30 minutes of talk time. Nokia phones from the 1990s were ubiquitous and famously unbreakable. Nevertheless, there’s still a collector’s market for them, although you’re unlikely to make a fortune. A used working vintage Nokia can fetch around $150 to $300.

While the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was released in Japan in 1983, it didn’t come to the U.S. until two years after that. If you bought one back then and never got around to opening it, it’s worth quite a bit of money. A mint-condition NES sold in 2023 for $50,000. The rarer — and more expensive — deluxe version is worth even more. This set included a zapper gun and a robot buddy alongside the standard console and controllers, and one went for $120,000 at auction in the same year. 

Nintendo released the NES Action Set in 1989. This was evidently a popular product because it pops up on eBay fairly regularly. A mint condition Action Set sold for $3,000, but used ones (even with the original box) are unlikely to go for much over $300. Overall, Nintendo seems to be more collectible than its rivals. But if your game console allegiance was with Sega or Sony, there’s still a collector’s market for consoles. A 1992 Sega Genesis sold on eBay for $2,275, and an original 1990s PlayStation made $1,125.

Big resale prices aren’t just limited to the consoles. In many cases, the games can reach even higher sums, providing they’re in mint condition, of course. Pristine copies of original Super Mario games have sold for over a million dollars. A copy of The Legend of Zelda sold for $870,000. PlayStation games fetch big money, too. In 2022, a copy of Twisted Metal sold for $156,000, and in 2021, a copy of Resident Evil made $264,000.

While there’s been some speculation about whether Apple might bring back the iPod for a special anniversary edition, really, the world has moved on since we used to carry around MP3 players in our pockets. Now we’ve got our phones to take care of our music listening requirements, but back in 2001, iPods were revolutionary. They weren’t the first MP3 players, but until the iPod came along, portable MP3 players were big, prone to skipping, and often couldn’t hold more than a CD’s worth of songs. Apple’s really genius move was releasing iTunes at more or less the same time. Originally, iTunes was just a digital jukebox for managing music files, but a couple of years later, the iTunes Store debuted, and we could all just buy digital music for our iPods rather than having to rip CDs or use file-sharing sites like Napster. 

The iPod line wasn’t actually discontinued until 2022, but the nostalgia value is high, and first-generation iPods are sought after by collectors. A first-generation iPod sold for $40,264 in August 2025. Another went for $25,000 a few years ago. Some iPods don’t even need to be that old. Reconditioned 7th-generation iPod Nanos (made between 2012 and 2017) have sold on eBay for around $1,500.

Apple has appeared several times on this list, as its products are often more sought after than the non-Apple equivalents. A sale of a Diamond Rio PMP300 MP3 Player only made $150. The only other MP3 player that can give the iPod a run for its money is the Sony Walkman Digital Player, a brand that people retain a lot of affection for. Sony’s MP3 players can fetch around $2,500 on eBay. Cassette Walkmans in good nick can fetch similar prices.

Game Boys aren’t worth the same sums as the NES, but a 1989 Nintendo Game Boy with Tetris sold for $38,000 on eBay. Of course, we’re talking about mint condition items here. Used Game Boys are more likely to be sold in thrift stores for a few dollars. As with other gaming consoles, it seems like the real money is in reselling the games. Pokémon titles are sought after by collectors. A copy of Pokémon Red sold for $156,000 in 2021, and a Pokémon Blue sold for $114,000. Mario titles are also a good bet, with a 1989 copy of Super Mario Land fetching $90,000 at auction.

If you’re old enough to remember Nintendo’s handheld games before the release of the Game Boy, then you may have fond memories of the Game & Watch. These devices had only a single game each and were pretty inexpensive to purchase at the time. These don’t fetch the same sorts of prices as Game Boy consoles and games, obviously, but a brand-new copy of Fire from 1980 sold for $1,500 on eBay.

Other handheld consoles can also make good money at auction, so it’s worth checking whether you have any of Game Boy’s competitors hidden away. An Atari Lynx console sold for $9,375 in August 2025, and a Sega Game Gear made $7,200 in 2023.

Although they don’t fetch the high sums that analog watches from major luxury brands do, some digital watches are surprisingly collectible. Casio was a major pioneer in digital watches, so it’s no surprise that its watches are amongst the most sought after. Its G-Shock watches sell for high figures, a new one can set you back $4,000. And it’s not unusual to see certain G-Shocks selling for $8,000 on eBay. Some G-Shocks cost less than $100 new, but one model — a Casio G-Shock 5600E – sold for $5,499 at auction. However, this particular watch had the distinction of being worn in space by German astronaut Hans Schlegel.

A 1980s Casio Twin Graph AE-20W men’s digital sports watch sold for $7,500 on eBay. The Twin Graph watch had a segmented screen, which enabled you to keep an eye on the time, the date, and a stopwatch all at once, and switch between different modes. It doesn’t look premium, due to the plasticky appearance of its resin case, but it captures a moment of digital watch innovation in the 1980s. Casio brought back the watch, with a few updates in 2023, so you can buy a new version for $40. Don’t expect a high resale value if you’ve got a 2020s model rather than an ’80s one, though.

Although Casio dominates the vintage digital watch market, another noteworthy digital watch is the Hewlett-Packard 1977 Calculator Watch, which sold for $2,000 on eBay, even though it wasn’t actually functional. More properly known as the HP-01 wrist instrument, this was a digital watch, calculator, calendar, and personal organizer, all in one, and was years ahead of its time. If you’ve got one in your attic in working condition, you’d be sitting on a gold mine.

The Boombox is a very 1980s bit of nostalgia. These supposedly portable — but really quite heavy — cassette players featured in numerous movies, ads, and music videos at the time. High-end models in mint condition can fetch a good price. A Sony 1983 Hi-Fi cassette boombox is, at the time of writing, on sale on a specialist music website for $5,699. Other vintage Sony music systems are also desirable, like Hi-Fi towers, which can be worth around $5,000, and original Walkmans, which can sell for more than $1,500 if you’ve still got the box and accessories.

Boomboxes from other brands do well, too. A JVC M90 sold for $3,225 on eBay. And if you’re a fan of the movie “Say Anything” and are wondering what particular model John Cusack famously held aloft, that was a Sharp GF-7600. These go for about $500 on eBay. There’s no record of what happened to the particular one from the movie, though. If, for some reason, you’ve got it tucked away, it’s going to be worth a lot more. For example, the Promax Super Jumbo boombox from Spike Lee’s movie “Do the Right Thing” sold for $9,375 in 2014, and is now in the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Tamagotchis were first introduced in the mid-1990s, and while the second-hand market for them might not reach astronomical heights, there are certainly collectors out there who are looking to purchase them. The big money in Tamagotchis seems to be in the rarest or most limited edition models, rather than the oldest. An original 1996 Tamagotchi, still in its original packaging, raised $350. Whereas a 2020 Tamagotchi, that featured Sanrio characters like Hello Kitty, sold for $1,349.

A Tamagotchi Tamawalkie sold for $1,200. These Tamagotchi-based pedometers were only available in parts of Asia and Australasia, and are relatively rare, so they can command higher prices than a standard Tamagotchi. The less successful a Tamagotchi was on its release, the more money you’d likely make from it now. The Tamagotchi Devil or “Devilgotchi” was released in 1998 in Japan, following the success of the Tamagotchi Angel. The devil character wasn’t nearly as popular as its angelic counterpart, so it’s rarer now and more sought after by collectors. It can fetch prices of $700 on eBay.