Irish people could be sitting on a small fortune in old toys and collectables, according to a leading auctioneer.

On Lunchtime Live this afternoon, Stuart Purcell, Head of Collectables at Mullens Laurel Park Auctioneers in County Wicklow said lockdown has fuelled a surge in interest in collecting.

He said people are making money form all kinds of items – including Pokémon cards, cinema posters and historical memorabilia.

“We are seeing a huge rise in the number of people who are bidding in our auctions,” he said.

“People we have never come across before, who have never bid at auction before, are suddenly joining us online and obviously starting collections of things they are interested in.”

Gotta catch 'em all

He said Pokémon cards from the late-nineties are a “huge area” – with some of the cards costing as much as a three-bedroom house in a Dublin suburb.

“If you were at that age in 1998, 1999, 2000 and you were trading Pokémon cards in the playground and you still have them, they could be worth money,” he said.

“Like all collecting, it ranges from the very best items which are the cards that publishing companies only produced tiny numbers of to the more common ones.

“Pokémon cards have sold for €300,000. If you have the right Pokémon card you could buy yourself a three-bedroom semi-detached house in a Dublin suburb – but it has to be from that period and it has to be pristine.

“Then, if you have a good collection of Pokémon cards from that period, it is going to be worth several hundred Euro if it is in good condition and presented well.”

Antiques outside Ha'penny Bridge Galleries, 28-04-2000. Image: RollingNews

Mr Purcell said old money is another big area for collectors.

“We sold a collection of bank notes, you know the old ones with Lady Lavery on them and even older ones with the ploughman on the front,” he said. “The top lot in that was a €20 note that was produced during the second World War and that made I think nearly €6,000.”

He said there are “any number” of rare coins to keep an eye out for.

“The really, really rare one is the 1943 florin which is like the old 10p,” he said.

“If you remember the old 10p with the salmon on it. The florin was the two shillings version of that, they were almost identical coins. The 1943 one is very, very rare and that can make €3,000 to €5,000 at auction for a nice example

“But a more recent one than that, an extremely rare and very sought-after coin is the 1985 20p.

“If you remember the old 20p with the horse on it, before they introduced that, they had to make sure it would work in telephone boxes and vending machines and so on so they produced about 300 of them

“The Central Bank minted 300 20p coins and they put the 1985 date on them. They sent it out to telecom engineers and vending machine manufacturers so they could calibrate the machines and they were supposed to send them all back.

“But it is believed there are about 30 of them out in the world and each one is probably worth somewhere between €5,000 and €6,000.”

History

Mr Purcell said historical objects are also often worth money to collectors, noting that he recently sold a receipt signed by Michal Collins for €2,000.

Anyone who has something they believe may be valuable can contact Mr Purcell through Mullenslaurelpark.com