10 Budget Collectibles That Can Turn a Profit

7. Vintage board games

In an era when families get together to play a game on Wii, board games from the 1950s to 1970s must seem like a very antiquated pastime, but that's a sentiment making these games worth some dough to collectors. Games should be in good condition, in the original box and include all of the pieces. "A lot of them were made for a limited amount of time and the components changed over the years," says McNellis. He says, for example, to look for Monopoly games with the original metal pieces rather than plastic.

8. Atari and vintage pinball

While the kids of the 1950s and 1960s didn't have anything but board games, the kids of that generation did have pinball and other arcade diversions, while the generation growing up in the late 70s and 80s had Atari. Those kids are all grown up now, sometimes wanting to relive their early gaming days.

"You can still use them and they have a limited supply and intrinsically have entertainment value," says McNellis. "They are easy to learn and Atari can be played on a big screen TV and are fun to share with younger members of the family."

The pinball machine fetish, in particular, has developed into a cottage industry.

9. Vintage movie posters

Bob Brooks, a long time movie poster collector and expert in Vancouver, B.C., says he just scored one of the only known posters from the classic 1959 film "Ben Hur" for less than $1,000. "Movie posters are still relatively inexpensive, so there's a lot of upside," says Brooks. There are never going to be pictures such as "Lawrence of Arabia" or "2001: a Space Odyssey" ever again, he says. "They would be far too expensive to shoot, so they'd have to animate them." Brooks expects classic movie posters to only keep increasing in value. Brooks says you have to look for rarity, citing the example of a rare poster from the movie "Pulp Fiction" which sold for less than $100 in the 1990s and is worth nearly $1,000 today.

10. Limited edition art prints

"Limited edition art prints are economical, especially in comparison to the original, not just retaining their value but highly likely to go up in value, especially if the artist gains more recognition over time," says Meredith Hannon , an artist and gallery owner. "Generally, these types of reproductions are signed and dated by the artist, printed on archival quality, acid-free paper or even cotton with high quality inkjet printers."