“I wish I held on to that…”

Every December, somewhere between the wrapping-paper shrapnel and the half-built toys, a few gifts take on lives of their own.

They start as the thing every kid wanted that year - a console, a doll, a gadget with a commercial that at some point was burned into the national retina… and then, quietly, they slip into the vault of cultural permanence.

Most holiday gifts have a short half-life: excitement → exhaustion → the attic in a random box somewhere. But every generation gets one or two that survive the kid’s-interest-collapse. They grow more mythical as they grow rarer, and decades later they show up on auction blocks wearing price tags that feel like typos. This week, in Shiny Things 213, we’re taking a look at a few that made the unlikely journey from “must-have holiday gift” to bona fide modern asset.

Nintendo Entertainment System + Super Mario Bros. (1985) 

When the NES landed under Christmas trees in 1985, it didn’t just revive the video game industry, it rewired childhood for an entire generation. Kids tore into those big gray boxes without a second thought, which led to some of the most shared holiday gifs of the 2020s. The pack-in Super Mario Bros. cartridges were meant to be played, not preserved, which is why sealed examples are basically nonexistent today. 

A pristine, early-print sealed copy graded 9.8 (the highest graded copy known the exist) sold for $2M from Rally in 2021 - a 1500% gain from the IPO, btw. It instantly became the most expensive video game ever sold. And while its insane to think a video game with over 40 million copies sold would have the rarity to command that price, anyone who grew up during that era can attest to the fact that keeping that game sealed and never playing it was UNTHINKABLE. You ripped it open on Christmas morning and played it until your eyes hurt. The NES wasn’t just a console - it was an on-ramp into the digital age, and Mario became its patron saint. What was once the default “open it now” gift is now a museum-level collectible.

Star Wars Action Figures (1977–1983)

You could argue no toy line has ever dominated the holiday season like Star Wars. The Kenner figures (Luke, Leia, Vader, the whole plastic pantheon) were the currency of Gen X childhood. Parents tossed the cardbacks immediately; kids destroyed the figures minutes later in backyard battles. Which is exactly why early sealed examples became the ultimate grails. A 1978 double-telescoping Luke Skywalker, still on its original card and fully sealed, sold for $161,000 this past summer, and prototype figures have breached $500K in recent years. These weren’t luxury goods… they were stocking stuffers. Now they’re high-end assets from a franchise that never stopped compounding cultural interest.

Air Jordan 1 (1985)

The AJ1 is what started sneaker culture. Period. Iwasn’t just a sneaker, it was an ignition switch for multiple industries and would eventually become the reason an entire generation of kids got into sneaker reselling on eBay. Back in 1985 when the first version dropped, kids literally begged for them in ’85. Oddly enough, they were already out for a few months before the Christmas season, but at a $65 price tag they were still pretty pricey. The holiday season became the perfect excuse for a “big gift” for the kids that were begging through the summer. 

Most pairs were worn into the ground. But deadstock early pairs, particularly the black/red “Bred” colorway that was banned from the court, became genuine alternative asset relatively early in their lifecycle. Game-worn pairs with good provenance basically have a $500K floor today, and pristine retail pairs of standard store-bought versions from 1985 regularly cross $50K+. The Jordan 1 is proof that the line between hobbyist sneaker culture and serious investment blurred long before anyone admitted it, and Nike is certainly still pricing money off the silhouette with new retro releases every year. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Figures (Late 80s to Early 90’s)

By Christmas of 1988, the Turtles weren’t just a cartoon, they were a full-blown cultural meltdown. Every kid wanted the Playmates action figures: Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo, and the universe of mutants and thematic versions that followed. These were $4.99 toys meant to be smashed together in living-room battles, which is why sealed first-wave figures are now barely out there. 

Early-run sealed mint-on-card examples now sell for tens of thousands as a aet, and rare prototypes are increasingly becoming extinct in the market. One of those variant grails, The 1991 Giant Slam Dunkin' Don  found its way to the market in 2023, selling for $6,000. For one of the relics from the last analog childhood generation, that kinda seems cheap.

Pokémon Base Set Cards (1999) 

The Pokémon Base Set was the eventual grail gift of 1999, and it was EVERYWHERE That year. The first card set, the first movie (which grossed over $170M in the US despite horrible reviews of the Japanese adaptation), the booster packs were loaded into stockings, and whole were decks wrapped under the tree that winter. The sense that you were buying a game but really buying a global cultural shift.

Kids shredded these packs instantly, and much like many of the card games of the era, nobody saved them in the original condition, much less sealed in packs. That’s why a sealed 1st-Edition Base Set box has sold for $400K+, and a PSA-10 Charizard has stayed in 6-figure territory for nearly a decade. The Base Set is the Rosetta Stone of modern trading card culture - a childhood phenomenon that aged into one of the most investable collectible categories on Earth. It started as a Christmas toy aisle buy. Now it’s a financial instrument, as was the case with our recent world record sale of $911K for a full 103 card base set.

Until Next Week…