I sold my old toys online and made £100 in 30 minutes

I would say I am a seasoned Vinted seller. I started selling on Vinted a few years ago when I moved house to help me get rid of some items I no longer needed and make a bit of money from them.

If you are not familiar with Vinted, it is an app where you upload pictures of items you want to sell, set the price and send them in the post when they are sold. Think eBay, but I think it is easier and smoother to use. Mostly it is for pre-loved or unwanted items, and while at times I am shocked at the cheekiness of some buyers and sellers, this is in the minority and all part of the fun.

When my nan gave me a bag of my old toys from the 1990s (yes, I am 40), I held on to them for a few months before realising they were just taking up space, so I opened the Vinted app.

You hear rumblings of how there could be a goldmine in your attic if you have a box of old toys, but I have only ever half-believed it.

Polly Pockets were first sold by UK toy company BlueBird Toys in 1989 after a man named Chris Wiggs made an early design for his daughter using an old make-up compact. BlueBird continued making Polly until Mattel took over the brand and redesigned Polly Pocket – but it is these Bluebird Toys creations that are most sought-after.

And my, now vintage, Polly Pockets had been well-loved in the 90s. I didn’t have the internet when I was seven, so you could find me making up intricate sopa opreas with my Pollys, which meant the playsets were not in mint condition and some were missing pieces — those early Polly Pockets were so tiny.

But I should not have worried because the rumours about Vintage Polly Pockets are true and even the most used ones sold within minutes.

I had never seen anything like it on Vinted. From the moment I uploaded my first lot of old plastic toys, they were sold, and I was inundated with messages of “Do you have any more? I am interested in buying them all.”

I couldn’t keep up with demand. I had looked online at how much some Polly Pockets were listed for, some of them well over £100 each in perfect condition. I thought this was ridiculous, so I sold them cheap — selling a set of eight for £40 and a huge farm for £30. I also sold a few light-up ones for £10 and some more individual ones, all adding up to over £100.

I even had one Vinted user message and say I was selling them too cheaply, as they were worth more. Now that may be the case, but in my view, Vinted is where you want to go for a bargain.

It is also where I want to sell things fast, not put them up for an inflated price and have them sit in a box on my wardrobe waiting for the right buyer.

I also didn’t want someone having an issue with the quality, as I said they were played with a lot and the big farm had what I called “storm damage” as when I was a kid I had sprinkled talcum powder all over it as if there had been a big freeze in Polly world.

So I did not want the risk of selling something for a huge amount of money and having it fall through because Polly’s face had been worn off from years of play.

So my advice for anyone with a loft? Check it.

If something is taking up space, get it on Vinted. But don’t start Googling the mint condition prices and pricing it unreasonably on the app. Chances are, it won’t sell and will continue to take up space while you could be paying for a nice meal or a day out.

Unless you are a legit Polly Pocket dealer, let someone else play with it and give them the thrill of a bargain.

Be honest about the condition by taking lots of photos and detailing any damage. This makes everything transparent in case the buyer has an issue.

And make sure you package it well, taking pictures of it before wrapping it and sending it to the buyer — just a little insurance policy for yourself.

I think I am going to spend my new fortune on a fancy afternoon tea, and I will be raising a cup to my old friend Polly.