It has long been suspected that there is a great deal of money to be made in iconic and vintage toys. Whist most of us were bashing our toy cars against walls or throwing are action men out of the window, there were a select few who kept their toys neatly in their boxes. You might say that toys are made to be played with, but with news that vintage toys prices are reaching record levels, its hard not to wish you kept a few aside just to look at.

Vectis, one of the biggest toy auction specialists have released figures that show a seven percent increase in the price of vintage toys last year. Private sales aside, there was a massive $12 million spent at auction in 2008 on toys alone. According to Vectis the most expensive items to go under the hammer where Victorian rocking horses, vintage Hornby train sets and a couple of Georgian dolls houses. Vectis have stated that their research tells them that over 80% of the item entered for auction had been inherited from relatives.

Ted Bowers from the Antique Toys Society has also spoken about the rising price of old toys. He suggests that because most modern toys are electric, plastic and mass produced, there is no longer the production of higher quality, handmade toys that last a lot longer.This means that the traditional products such as tin and wooden toys are becoming even rarer and thus more valuable. However, he does not suggest selling up just yet.There is still more movement to come in the toy market he says and unlike other collectables your toy items will only ever become more valuable.So the advice for now is hang on to those classic rag dolls, Steiff bears and vintage toy car collection because there is more money to be made from them yet