Wasn’t this right before the market “value” on them tanked? All those collectors hoping for huge eBay auction payouts.
What do you mean tanked?! Sounds like you’re jealous of my 1.2 million dollars worth of beanie babies (once they sell).
“They’ll be worth 1.2 million, once their value finally reaches 1.2 million!”
I think some of them are still still hoping for that sweet payout
I was trying to find a specific beanie baby I had as a kid the other day and all the results were for these pristine in box listings that I don’t think anyone’s given a second glance in years going for like ten or twenty dollars
…man I just want the dumb jingly elf I had as a kid I don’t really care about the tag
Twenty dollars for an out of production toy still in the box isn’t exactly asking for the moon.
True, but I always get the vibe from tise auction listings that they were originally for much more - they’re always set up nice and pretty with backgrounds and super nice shots and everything
It was, yeah. The market crashed pretty much over night too. Really obvious in hindsight, but if you’re making six figures from reselling the things you’re probably too close to really notice the wider picture.
No it wasn’t. It’s just that the problems we had back them have either been solved, forgotten, lost relevance or have become the problems of today. Sorry for being a downer but it really annoys me when people idolize the past like it had no problems.
“Yesterday you survived which is a luxurious certainty you don’t have about today” Walt Whitman
I wonder how these peoples lives turned out 30 years later. I can’t imagine the mindset and lifestyle of a beanie baby investor.
They’re probably on r/wallstreetbets
Only been 24 years so far
If they are investors, shouldn’t they all be in box?
They never came in boxes - they were just loose on racks and in bins.
TIL there was a thing called beanie babies
I wish I had your yersterday’s innocence.
Seriously I had to google it. I didn’t grow up in the States so I wonder perhaps a lot of people in some parts of the world never heard about it or seen one.
After my research, I realised I’ve seen some toys like that during my childhood but they must have been knockoffs or other brands. Pretty sure I’ve never seen one that wasn’t a keychain. I had no idea people were investing in them as valuable collectibles.
Yep, while they were still being produced…so you had a situation where people were buying based on the assumed scarcity of a product upon which there was no pressure of limited quantity and in fact with the way they were selling there was every incentive for the manufacturer to keep making more and more, destroying that scarcity and in the process, the value.
There were certainly “limited edition” models, but even those weren’t that rare, and the omnipresence of beanie babies in general likely mitigated any sense of rarity to all but the most dedicated collectors.
I remember not knowing the bottom had fallen out, but thinking it was odd to see someone at a flea market selling them for like $3 each, then realizing I hadn’t seen them in a major retailer in a while, and then figuring out that the bubble had indeed burst.
My sister had a few dozen, including some rare ones, and I had received one (not a rare one) as a gift at some point, but even at the peak of the craze, my parents were very good about explaining what was going on with them to us kids.
It was insane back then…
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I’m never going to financially recover from this.
