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Eldritch
May 15, 2009 3:14 AM
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God... I remember Beanie Babies. They were sorta cute in an odd way, huh? Hell of a lot better than those freaky ass Webkinz. Some of those are just so STRANGE.

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Benguin
May 15, 2009 3:15 AM
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A friend of my aunts was one of those Beanie Baby people years ago. Even as an 11-year old boy I knew that \"investment\" was never going to pay off.

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Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!)
May 15, 2009 10:55 AM
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@Benguin: When I worked at a day camp for overprivileged children, there was an 8 year old whose father was a trader at the Chicago Board of Trade (she would entertain us on the camp bus by teaching us the hand signals) who was always deep in her Beanie Baby guide.

She made THOUSANDS -- literally thousands -- of dollars speculating on Beanie Babies she'd bought with her allowance money and a tolerant mother who'd drive her to whatever store allegedly got a shipment. Though of course she wasn't buying and holding ... she was buying and selling to OTHER collectors.

She honestly showed an unusual gift for markets so early, and kept explaining to me the psychology of collectors/investors and how pig futures worked and things like that.

Her only beef was that her parents kept making her put her earnings in a college fund in nice, safe mutual funds instead of letting her speculate larger sums on Beanie Babies or invest in corn futures through her dad. I believe they did let her buy a pair of Sketchers, though.

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lilyHaze
May 15, 2009 1:01 PM
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@Eyebrows McGee (popping ~May 29): A pretty smart cookie she was. Also she seemed to have decent parents.


I love how you said camp for \"overprivileged\" children. I enjoyed that.

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Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!)
May 15, 2009 2:21 PM
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@lilyHaze: There were live elephant rides on circus day. It was waaaaaaaay overprivileged.

For every kid at that camp with good parents with good values who just happened to be wealthy, there were three kids whose parents had had them as lifestyle accessories and who had ridiculous quantities of money and no sense of its value. In many ways it was just as sad as working with underprivileged kids.

But yeah, this girl had great parents and good values. To the point that Sketchers were a big, expensive treat. :)

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HogwartsAlum
May 15, 2009 9:07 PM
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@Eyebrows McGee (popping ~May 29):

That's one lucky kid.

I went to a fancy Christian summer camp with some rich kids. They were mostly okay.

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Trai_Dep
May 15, 2009 4:34 PM
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@Eyebrows McGee (popping ~May 29): I now have a mental picture of the kids attending the less privileged camp down the path giving out dead elephant rides on their circus day.
Kind of cool, in a John Lydon / Sisters of Mercy way.

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Yoko Broke Up The Beatles
May 15, 2009 3:19 AM
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Collecting Beanie Babies? Bah!


Cabbage Patch Kids and Starting Lineup collectors LAUGH at such a silly notion!

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7 replies
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parkavery
May 15, 2009 12:51 PM
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@Yoko Broke Up The Beatles: Baseball cards, FTW! Still cluttering up my parents' basement to this day.

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cordeliapotter
May 15, 2009 3:03 PM
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@parkavery: Oh man, that reminds me of how my grandmother threw out my great-grandfather's baseball cards...if any collectors knew what she tossed, they'd have heart attacks.

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parkavery
May 15, 2009 3:41 PM
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@cordeliapotter: My grandfather had the autographs of all the 20s and 30s stars, including Babe Ruth. He thinks his mother threw them out when they moved. (!)

Of course, that was back when no one knew that type of thing was collectable. Now that we are all well aware, nothing from the present day will ever be worth what that stuff is. *Sigh* Sixty years too late...

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Trai_Dep
May 15, 2009 5:59 AM
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@Yoko Broke Up The Beatles: I collected vintage pieces of rock cocaine but my darned roommate smoked up my retirement. :(
Well, to be fair, my cat started it first: mistaken attempt to home-cure his nervousness.

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Trai_Dep
May 15, 2009 6:00 AM
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@Trai_Dep: (long story short: long tail. Many rocking chairs. Same room.)

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Kuroda Tadayoshi
May 15, 2009 5:39 AM
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@Yoko Broke Up The Beatles: You are all fools. I have invested everything in Tulips.

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Possinator
May 15, 2009 3:21 AM
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My neighbor hoarded these things talking about how they were going to be worth so much money. The local Wal*Mart would hide these things around the store to make it \"fair,\" let everyone have a chance at getting them.

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tekkierich
May 15, 2009 3:28 AM
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I still have about 7500 late 80's and early 90's baseball cards. I heard too many stories of my fathers generation putting Mickey Mantel rookie cards in the spokes of their bicycles, only to later see them \"worth\" $50,000 to ever toss them.
I also remember seeing stories in my Becket Baseball Card Monthly about how these pieces of cardboard were great investment vehicles.

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Jonbo298
May 15, 2009 3:29 AM
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*has flashbacks to the chaos when McDonalds had beanie babies kids meals*

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joellevand
May 16, 2009 2:11 AM
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@Jonbo298: My best friend worked at McDonald's when the beanie babies came out. We horded the crab ones, then went around high school throwing them at guys and saying \"Ha! I gave you crabs!\"

*sigh*

Fun times.

(I found one of the crabs when I was moving in with my husband, and in a moment of pure 90s flashback, threw it at him and said \"Ha! Gave you crabs!\" He didn't find it very funny.)

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YourTechSupport
May 15, 2009 3:41 PM
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@Jonbo298: I remember wanting to get a couple of them to go w/ my regular size ones (I think Doby and Tiptoe, for some reason I still recall their names). We went to a McDs and people were trying to give us free happy meals, lol.

If only Katrina involved Beanie Babies....

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Spaceman Bill Leah
May 15, 2009 1:58 PM
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@Jonbo298: I worked at McDonald's during that madness. Nothing like being an assy 15-year-old, lording her Beanie control over the dozens of old ladies that descended on the store.

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ncpeters
May 15, 2009 1:15 PM
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@Jonbo298: I remember in my town a police officer got hurt because he was called in to try and control the chaos and some overanxious person nailed his car trying to get a parking spot.

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scgirl_212
May 15, 2009 5:29 AM
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@Jonbo298:

I was about 11 and my mom and I would call ahead to the area McDonald's to make sure they had the one we wanted. good times.

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babyruthless
May 15, 2009 1:08 PM
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@scgirl_212: Yeah, I had a good time searching for beanie babies with my mom. I was 12 or 13 maybe--it was fun. And we always ate our happy meals after getting them.

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ken2148
May 15, 2009 4:35 AM
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@Jonbo298: I remember us walking into a McDonalds and seeing everyone acting nuts. People yelling to one another across the restaurant \"do we have this, do we need that\". We watched grown women buy Happy Meals and then throw them out on their way out. It took us awhile to figure out what in the hell was going on. When we finally got to the register I asked if we could get a discount for NOT buying a beanie baby. Of course no. To date that has got to be the most absurd thing I've seen grown adults do. All for a stupid bean bag.

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diasdiem
May 15, 2009 4:58 AM
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@ken2148: I remember hearing about that craziness in the news. People acting irate because they already had the Beanie Baby they got in their meal and they wanted some other one. That was one of the nuttiest fads I ever saw.

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Laura Northrup
May 15, 2009 4:06 AM
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@Jonbo298: I think that was the last time I ate McDonald's.

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Radi0logy
May 15, 2009 3:30 AM
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I always thought Beanie Babies were dumb (now Magic TG cards... THAT was a good investment :P )

I guess we all fall into stupid stuff like this when we're young. Honestly though, I was amazed when I heard people were making counterfeit Beanie Babies. Wow.

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InnerRayg
May 15, 2009 3:29 PM
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@Radi0logy: I will never be amazed at the depths that will be undertaken by people to make money my friend, never in a million years.

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Jeff Johnson
May 15, 2009 1:50 PM
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@Radi0logy: Two months ago I was looking to fund a new hobby without dipping into my savings. I was able to do so by selling about 1000 MTG cards (out of about the 10,000 or so that I had) and realized over $850. Of course, I didn't get near as much money as I put into the cards, but at least I was able to recoup some if it.


However, going through all of my Magic cards fueled a desire to play so I loaded up my old Microprose game (Magic: The Gathering - Duel of the Plainswalker & the expansion Spells of the Ancients) and have been getting my Magic fix. Also, it's a lot of fun being able to play with decks that there is no way I would be able to afford (and are particularly broken containing 4 Black Lotus, 4 Mox Sapphire, 4 Mox Jet etc...).

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Radi0logy
May 15, 2009 4:07 PM
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@Jeff Johnson: Believe it or not, when I was playing M:TG I owned 1 of each mox, a black lotus, tons of dual lands, a time walk, ancestral recall and a few other of the really rare beta/unlimited cards. Only missing timetwister to have a full set of P9 cards. Suffice to say my 5 color deck was very, very nasty.

The thing that pisses me off is that now practically every card I used to use is illegal and unusable in tournament decks. Bleh. Whats the point of making cards that you can't use.

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ludwigk
May 15, 2009 4:13 PM
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@Radi0logy: Just play vintage/type1. All the cards you mentioned are legal in that environment. The only ones not legal are wager/ante based cards like jeweled bird, or Ring of ma'ruf.

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Radi0logy
May 15, 2009 7:09 PM
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@ludwigk: Well I sold them all years ago (a decision I regularly regret), and other than a huge box of relatively useless cards I have little reason to play anymore.

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Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!)
May 15, 2009 10:57 AM
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@Radi0logy: Heh. My husband ran across his Magic cards while cleaning the basement recently and running some of the high-value ones through the internets, figures he's got around $800 there. Though of course that's a very small handful of cards ... the other zillion cards are worth like $10 all together!

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Megalomania
May 15, 2009 6:37 AM
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@Radi0logy:

Collecting stuff and thinking it will appreciate in value is idiotic. MTG hasn't collapsed in on itself precisely because no one is rushing out thinking that they can fund their kid's college tuition with Magic cards. Plus, you can actually play with Magic cards, unlike with 10x of each still-boxed beanie baby

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Benguin
May 15, 2009 4:23 AM
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@Radi0logy: The sad thing though was that the few people that I knew who where collecting them weren't children; they were grown adults.

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pixiegirl1
May 15, 2009 3:32 AM
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As a kid I had to make some tough decisions, I chose to invest my money in trolls instead. . .

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3 replies
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Trai_Dep
May 15, 2009 6:02 AM
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@pixiegirl1: Bad call. Thanks to the Internet, they're everywhere.

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pixiegirl1
May 15, 2009 9:11 PM
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@Trai_Dep: Hey I was 10 and had no knowledge of this thing called the internet then. :-p

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MichClay
May 15, 2009 3:33 AM
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I have visions from my youth of old ladies buying numerous orders of Happy Meals just to get a new Mini Beanie Baby. I wonder how much those are worth now? I also remember my aunt pawning all my cousins Beanie Babies to pay their cable bill. She promised she would buy them back, but the pawn shop burned down the following day.

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tekkierich
May 15, 2009 5:27 AM
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@MichClay: That sounds like the makings of a good Merril Haggard song

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MrEvil
May 15, 2009 3:39 AM
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My sister has a good collection, but she adored how cute and cuddly the little critters were. My mom's younger sister ate untold numbers of happy meals to get my sister two full sets of the Beanie Babies from the happy meals.

My mom has them stored at her place, I don't think my sister cares if they're worth money or not.

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WiglyWorm must cease and decist
May 15, 2009 4:01 AM
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Luke Skywalker, Obi Wan Kenobi, and Darth Vader with telescoping lightsabers in pack with card are worth close to $10,000 a piece right now. They did not gain that value in 10 years. It took them close to 40.

I'm not saying Beanie Babies will be worth a damn in 30 years. They may, they may not. What I am saying is you shouldn't expect to be selling them for hundreds quite yet. In fact, I don't know for sure as I was too young, but I would bet Luke Skywalker with telescoping lightsaber went through a long period when they were worth close to nothing and went at garage sales for 25 cents.

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korybing
May 15, 2009 3:02 PM
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@WiglyWorm: I would think that since EVERYBODY has at least a handful of beanie babies it will take quite a long time for them to finally become rare enough to be worth a damn. If you want to keep them in your attic for that long then maybe a few generations down the line they might finally increase in value enough to make money, but at this point I don't think anybody who bought them in the 90s will see an significant increase in value during their lifetime, barring some horrible Plushie Plague that wipes out the majority of everybody's Attic Collections, leaving you with a rare collectible.

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catnapped
May 15, 2009 9:14 AM
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@WiglyWorm: You're forgetting one thing...most of the Star Wars figures back then were opened and played with, with never a care given towards future collectability. OTOH, probably 99% of Beanie Babies were stuffed away by greedy hoarders who thought they'd have a goldmine in their basement/attic 20 years from when they bought them.

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Ubik2501
May 15, 2009 3:14 PM
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@catnapped: Yeah, I'm pretty sure my old Darth Vader figure missing its head wouldn't fetch much at an auction.

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Benguin
May 15, 2009 4:28 AM
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@WiglyWorm: But at least in that case the toys are based around a movie. Even if nobody really knew what kind of impact Star Wars would have on the future, it's still something to be built around. There is absolutely nothing tied to Beanie Babies that even grant them the possibility of being relevant. As far as I recall, it was the dolls and that was it. No tv shows, movies, books, or anything.

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onapartyock
May 15, 2009 5:39 AM
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@Benguin:
You should check out the Double Extending Lightsaber version, much more rare.

\"...The small plastic weapon of the Jedi Knight would rise out from the hollow arm of each figure, then a thinner piece would further rise out. This proved difficult to manufacture and broke easily, so it was abandoned in the next wave of figures to reach stores, replacing the telescoping lightsaber with a single-piece version. It's been said that only a few hundred versions of these figures were ever made...\"

Personally I want the Blue Snaggletooth and Yoda with a Brown snake.

These are rare for a few reasons:
1. They were bought by boys.
2. They were usually played with.
3. They were usually played with in a rough fashion.

My originals all went through the horrors of the chlorine reach planet of my pool, flew countless flight with the aid of modified bottle rocks, explored the desert conditions of the sand pit in my back yard (Wet sands really holds smoke from firecrackers to make a Dagaboth like mist) and were baked in the Florida sun countless times.

At 40 years of age, I don't know if I would have given up the joy received then for the money now if I would have known what they would have been worth.

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HogwartsAlum
May 15, 2009 9:11 PM
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@onapartyock:

My brother had TONS of Star Wars toys. Including Yoda with the brown snake. But we played with them. We built Lego forts for them and took them outside and made them fall in the puddles and the rose beds.

He had the X-Wing, the Cloud fighter and Darth Vader's Tie fighter too. I tried to get Mom and Dad to buy him the Millenium Falcon, but they wouldn't. I wanted to play with it!

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Kishi
May 15, 2009 4:15 AM
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@WiglyWorm: First off, Star Wars is 32 years old, so it's closer to 30 than 40. Second, those were worth quite a bit even just 10 years after they came out. I'd be willing to guess that your long period of Star Wars merchandise being worthless probably never happened. I mean, there was a price guide put out for Star Wars collectibles in 1985, so they had to have been worth some money back then.

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Gizmosmonster
May 15, 2009 4:03 AM
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Way back when my sister gave her toddler daughter a Beanie Baby bear called \"Garcia.\" Lexi was happily chewing on the tagless ear at the mall one Saturday. A woman snatched the bear from her and screamed at my sister that she had ruined her daughter's future by letting her touch this rare collectible instead of packing it away to pay for her college education.

I always lived by this basic collecting investment guideline, if it is called a collectible sure to rise in value, it won't even be worth a fraction of what was paid for it.

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nerdtalker
May 15, 2009 4:08 AM
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@Gizmosmonster: Wow, that woman needed to get her head checked.

Insane.

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catnapped
May 15, 2009 9:15 AM
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@nerdtalker: She's far from an anomaly, sadly. There were plenty more like her out there.

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Ayo
May 15, 2009 4:13 AM
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Ha, I have 50 Webkinz..... I didnt know anything about em, but they were $1 a piece! I figure that was cheap.. and good enough to hock on ebay for some extra cash. So far so good.

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Outrun1986
May 15, 2009 4:37 PM
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@Ayo: Just don't take the secret codes off them (the code is a slip of paper inside the tag, so just don't remove the tag), its not the webkinz that kids are obsessed with, its the digital download codes that allow you to download stuff for your online account. Webkinz WITHOUT the codes are a dime a dozen however webkinz with the tag still on them and the code still present might be something to hold onto, as most kids rip the tags off the moment they are purchased.

However if the Webkinz website goes down at some point in the future, these things will be worth absolutely nothing since there will be no use for them, same as if Webkinz starts \"expiring\" older codes. Then you will have to wait 20 years until today's 8-12 year olds grow up and decide they want some webkinz because that is what they loved as a child.

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bohemian
May 15, 2009 12:38 PM
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@Ayo: Where did you find 50 webkinz for $1 each? My daughter is obsessed with the things. She also discovered beanie babies and has a stash of those. They are $1 - $2 each at the thrift stores, most of them still in like new condition.

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Anonymous
May 15, 2009 4:28 AM
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My Grandmother probably spent a thousand dollars buying beanie babies for me and my brother. She would also spend about 100 dollars on those \"rare\" collectors beanie babies and she made me keep them all in specially designed cases. Now 10 years later I have no idea what happened to them. If my Grandmother ever tries to do something like that again I will not hesitate to smack her.

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Woooot!-Offing_GitEmSteveDave
May 15, 2009 4:34 AM
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Forget Beanie Babies. I collected Meanie Babies [www.meanies.com] . Burnsy the Bear, Floaty the Fish, and Splat the RoadKill Kat, are but a few that grace my mantel.

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TheWillow
May 15, 2009 2:53 PM
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@Woooot!-Offing_GitEmSteveDave: A store near my house made modified beanie babies on a similar vein that were true works of art. I wanted one soooo bad.

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Fanboy1217
May 15, 2009 2:34 PM
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@Woooot!-Offing_GitEmSteveDave: i think i have the whole collection.
Series 1, 2, 3
Infamous 1, 2
Holidays
Farce Wars
Keychains

Actually Burnsy the bear always smelled like smoke. i might have to go and look at the collection tonight.

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Verucalise (Est.February2008)
May 15, 2009 12:16 PM
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@Woooot!-Offing_GitEmSteveDave: Pfffft. Forget Cabbage Patch Kids... I collected GARBAGE PAIL KIDS.


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humphrmi
May 15, 2009 4:37 AM
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While I was selling my old computer junk on eBay about 10 years ago, I bought a few (about 10) beanie babies as a hedge. (You never know, some things take off, and some don't.) They're pretty rare but now even the rare ones sell for chump change on eBay. Eh, whatever, only cost me a few bucks.

Now that Taco Bell Chihuahua that says \"Yo Qiero Taco Bell\" when you squeeze it - that I'm holding on to!

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xredgambit
May 15, 2009 4:30 PM
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@humphrmi: I have one that says \"here lizard lizard lizard.\" Plus I have a couple of the Alf hand puppets from burger king. I got them for like $1 at a yard sale. Now I just play the waiting game.

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sponica
May 15, 2009 1:57 PM
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@humphrmi: I have the pets.com sock puppet....granted I took it out of its packaging but it's still in decent shape somewhere. Ah life before the internet bubble kerploded

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timsgm1418
May 15, 2009 9:33 PM
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@sponica: i loved the pets.com commercials....


don't tell me how to do my job sock puppet

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idip
May 15, 2009 12:36 PM
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@humphrmi: I want one of those! Lol. I can't find those stupid white dogs any where.

*shakes head*

lol.

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bobert
May 15, 2009 4:51 AM
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This stuff is all like art. Buy it if you like it, and don't count on making money on it.

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TEW
May 15, 2009 4:55 AM
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One of my neighbors growing up was arrested for stealing these from a swap meet. It was sad because he was about 40 years old and a very well respected business owner. Looking back at it I do wonder how these became so popular. It is nothing more than a stuffed animal.

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Skankingmike
May 15, 2009 4:59 AM
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[cgi.ebay.com]

you can buy TY beanie baby Obama girls?

how was that allowed?

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DistortedViewListener_GitEmSteveDave
May 15, 2009 3:05 PM
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@Skankingmike: I was wary about those, but I saw they were authenticated by True Blue Beans, and that's all I needed to hear.

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Landru
May 15, 2009 2:19 PM
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@Skankingmike: They were made for only a few weeks. Hence the $2,299.95 buy-it-now price. They're dreaming too.

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Michael Belisle
May 15, 2009 6:58 AM
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@Skankingmike: You can do anything if you don't ask questions first. Then, when pressed about it, say the names and likenesses are purely coincidental. After that, you can stop making them so that some guy can try to hawk them on eBay for a couple grand.

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diasdiem
May 15, 2009 5:04 AM
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This is not unlike when people looked at comic books as an investment. There were stories of #1 Action Comics selling for tens of thousands, other early comics being worth hundreds and thousands of dollars. The reason of course was because of rarity. Because kids in those days read the comics, and during WWII they were dutifully collected by their mothers and taken off to be recycled, or thrown out because they \"corrupted the youth\". So there were fewer copies lying around. In the 80's and 90's people were buying and preserving their copies, so there were lots of them around, meaning they did not increase in value very much.

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catnapped
May 15, 2009 9:17 AM
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@diasdiem: Exactly. Mass produced-stuffed away in a box = not worth jack.

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onapartyock
May 15, 2009 5:47 AM
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This past year during a move from Miami to Buffalo (yeah, I know) I ended up giving away two steamer trunks full of Baseball cards to a young family friend. Most never opened with gum, the younger brother I found out was forced to try some and said it dissolved in his mouth like sand (These cards are 15 to 20 years old).

Our agreement was this, if by chance anything was found to be of value (unlikely) that I would never be told about it and it was his to do with what he wished. Too many people collected these cards during that time frame, there were dozens of shops I could drive to in 20 minutes back then; now not many people consider them to be an investment.

Any possible value was not worth the space on the moving van to me. I just wished I had the money now to pay of the credit card bills I have. One of the few regrets I have so far in my life.

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Trai_Dep
May 15, 2009 5:57 AM
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\"Beanie Madoffs\"
Tee-hee. Well done, Laura. Very well turned phrase!

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bibliophibian
May 15, 2009 6:41 AM
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Anyone remember the divorce that turned into a custody battle over the Beanie Babies? I don't remember the exact number on the legal fees in the end, but it was appalling.

A quick google for information on it led me to this:
[kwc.org]
in which a divorced man is trying to sell some of the BBs his ex-wife left behind, and meets with members of the Beanie Baby Brigade. It'd be hilarious if it weren't so scary:

\"Very clever listing; however it is very likely you have some fakes (counterfeits) among the listing and I suggest you pull them from the auctions until you have them authenticated. Humphrey the camel is an example. It is a requirement of eBay as well as unde the provisions of the U.S. Criminal Cpode that a seller know the authenticity of a trademarked item s/he is selling. ... To sell counterfeits of a trademarked item wold make you a common criminal.\"

He's supposed to put the time, effort, and I presume money into AUTHENTICATING a miniature, given-out-as-Happy-Meal-toy STUFFED ANIMAL?

::eyeroll::

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Joe Littrell
May 15, 2009 7:30 AM
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I prefer this bit from a 2004 LA Times article on Beanies:

\"Now and then, Marks still sees customers who once believed that Beanie Babies would pay for their kids' college educations.

When they ask him what to do with their collections, he offers this advice: \"They make great insulation if you stick them in the walls.\"\"

[seattletimes.nwsource.com]

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MooseOfReason
May 15, 2009 8:12 AM
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A Beanie Baby Bubble? No way!

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ryaninc
May 15, 2009 9:45 AM
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Hopy crap, you've brought back some horrible memories. My grandmother was OBCESSED with beanie babies. Wanted every single one. Anyone remember the McDonalds Tiny Beanie Babies? The horror...while driving cross country, we stopped at every single damn McDonalds to make sure we obtained two or three of each one. I was so freaking sick of happy meal burgers. That was a rough year.

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rpm773
May 15, 2009 10:49 AM
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For me it was baseball cards in 4th - 6th grade. While baseball card collecting had always been an innocent pursuit, it was turned into a commodities market in the mid 1980s. And, true to a form I would eventually repeat, that's when I bought in.

Unfortunately, very few of those cards are worth anything, mainly due to lack of scarcity. Once manufacturers started selling entire sets in 1985, demand could not keep up with supply. Eventually the bottom fell out of the modern cards, people lost interest, and the bottom fell out of the entire market.

Oddly enough, the Star Wars figures and matchbox cars that I had growing up would have probably been worth a ton. But i never kept them. The important thing is that I did have fun with them...and that's what it's all about.

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Anonymous
May 15, 2009 1:40 PM
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@rpm773: Selling entire sets was not the issue, the problems started once Topps begain making multiple printings of the cards and the other manufacturers followed suit. If scarcity had been imposed, or some indication made on the cards as to the printing run, it would have allowed the market to maintain a higher pricing level for the \"origininal\" and scarce material from the first runs.

Unfortunately Manufacturers did not do that, and instead would just run the presses dozens of times over the course of a season, creating massive amounts of cards.

To this day they are still dealing with the ramifications, which is partly why Topps (who was the largest sinner of this activity) began breaking the printing plates and inserting them into the sets as special chase cards...basically to prove that they would not make any additional cards. ( although in this modern age with digital files and computers, it probably would not be difficult to recreate the plates if needed.)

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rpm773
May 15, 2009 10:30 PM
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@IsaiahKonowalchuk: Interesting. Thanks for the information.

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KittensRCute!
May 15, 2009 11:02 AM
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as a kid i got hustled by this very book. i spent $100 of my sayings as a little girl on this. i think my 1998 $100 is worth $6 today. my sister and i little kids that we were would hoard these things and ask for them for gifts for all occasions for a year and we got 3 sets of the mini babies that are worth 25 cents each today.

i dont real feel bad for the adults that put their retirement in this, but i feel bad and sad for the kids that the duped into these kinds of \"collectibles\" at least once every generation, baseball cards, trolls, pokemon cards, yugi-oh all this crap. sadly parents indulge this and dont say to the kids \"dont waste your money on this crap\"

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h3llc4t, breaker of office dress codes
May 15, 2009 11:51 AM
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@KittensRCute!: I don't know that many kids who purchased them as \"collectibles\" without serious pushing from their parents. It was my impression that it was really the adults who thought of the increased value; the kids just wanted some damn toys.

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Julia789
May 15, 2009 11:17 AM
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Now if only I could get my husband to give up his boxes of comics. Huge boxes of comics, 2 dozen boxes of them, in a very small condo. Had to get rid of my beautiful artificial christmas tree because I had no where to store it and had to have room for comics. He thinks they will be worth a lot of money someday. But they all look crappy/trashy to me. I think the cost of renting a storage unit for them will cost far more than any value they will accrue over the years. He hasn't read them in the 12 years we've been together. He gets no personal value out of them. They just take up room I need for storing out of season items in our tiny place.

There is an old lady in my condo building who still has dozens of beanie babies in glass cases, waiting for them to pay off 10 years later. Like my husband and his comics, she won't give hers up either. She's convinced someday someone will pay a lot of money for her collection.

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Papercutninja
May 15, 2009 1:45 PM
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@Julia789: I have a pile of comics too. 2 cases worth. Guess what? They're worthless. Except they're my childhood. It's not about how much they're worth. I haven't bought a comic book in damn near 10 years, but going through my pile of comics i get nostalgic.

What if your husband threw out your harlequin novels or hummels or whatever women collect besides artificial christmas trees?

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Julia789
May 15, 2009 3:24 PM
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@Papercutninja: But they weren't his childhood. He bought them when he was 18-20 because he thought they'd be worth something years in the future. They take up two closets and our storage unit - 20 or so large storage boxes. Many of them are smutty or really violent. It's not like they are superman comics from his childhood that he wants to keep.


I have never told him to get rid of them. I've asked him to please consider it. We need more room as our family is growing. The only other available closet had our artificial christmas tree in it. I asked my husband if he wanted to get rid of the tree or a few boxes of comics to make room. He chose to get rid of the tree. We gave it to his brother, who did not have one.


I would NEVER throw out his collections, or demand that he do so. It doesn't mean I have to be thrilled about what I believe is an excessive collection of items of very little value that are unlikely to increase in value over time. I would be thrilled if he would go through them, pick out his favorites out of the hundreds, and keep maybe five or six boxes instead of 20 or so. But that is up to him.

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Joe Littrell
May 15, 2009 3:59 PM
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@Julia789: Keep the faith. Those severely overprinted, remarkably overspeculated comics should be worth something in another 25-50 years, if the acid in those ten year old bags and boards haven't completely ruined them by then. Until then, your husband's just gonna be one of those guys who gets pointed to our fifty-cent room to see the hundred boxes of useless stuff from that era moldering away in their gummy, sticky polybags.

That said, there are a handful of comics from that era that have some value, but it's not those Death of Superman issues and Spawn #1's that most people keep bringing in.

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Julia789
May 15, 2009 7:18 PM
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@Joe Littrell: You are too funny with your descriptions! That predictable, huh? Yes, they are all in those clear individual slip-bags, and in those big long white boxes made just for comics.


Some of the comics he has look kind of cool. A few look borderline pornographic. Others are really violent. I guess there are a wide range.

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h3llc4t, breaker of office dress codes
May 15, 2009 11:53 AM
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@Julia789:
\"Had to get rid of my beautiful artificial christmas tree....
...they all look crappy/trashy to me.\"
I am intrigued by said mythical \"beautiful artificial tree\". I've never seen one. And the point of collecting comic books is that you *don't* read them. That causes wear and tear so the value decreases.

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JulesNoctambule
May 15, 2009 3:08 PM
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@h3llc4t: A friend of mine has a mint condition 1950s aluminum Christmas tree and I have to say that thing is pretty damn cool.

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mechteach
May 15, 2009 12:40 PM
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@h3llc4t: Re: beautiful artificial Christmas tree. Here it is: [www.7gadgets.com]

In all seriousness, though, I love our artificial tree (not that one!), because it doesn't make me sneeze all though Christmas, so I understand where Julia789 is coming from.

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Julia789
May 15, 2009 3:33 PM
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@mechteach: It was a 6-foot $399 life-like pre-lit tree, only 4 years old, I had planned on keeping it many years, so I got a really good one. My parents had a good one for 15 years.


I'm allergic to the real cut pine trees, too! Nothing like Christmas time with your eyes swollen shut, sneezing like crazy and scratching hives after decorating the tree. Ahhhh, Christmas on Benedryl!

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TCama
May 15, 2009 11:53 AM
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Why do I sometimes get the feeling that Consumerist and Fark share a bit too much ...

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techstar25
May 15, 2009 12:00 PM
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The same thing happened with baseball cards in the '90's. EVERYONE started hoarding them and keeping them in MINT condition. Now, you can easily get cards from 1989 in perfect MINT condition and tons of them exist.
The reason why old baseball cards were worth so much is because most of them ended up in bicycle spokes. Once people started hoarding them and keeping them mint, the market dropped out unexpectedly and probably won't ever recover.

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h3llc4t, breaker of office dress codes
May 15, 2009 12:04 PM
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We have giant tubs of action figures from my boyfriend's days at KB. Some are almost 10 years old and a few might be worth a fair amount (especially the giant Pinhead), but most are worth next to nothing because they were marked as a collectible. Every other hypernerd has them so short of torching someone's collection they're not that rare. For me, that's okay though; once a year or so when we're clearing things out we go through the box to check on everything's condition and revel in the awesomeness that is McFarlane. I just wish I could open some of them and add to the epic Duke Nukem vs. Aliens battle that currently rages in our living room.

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mechteach
May 15, 2009 12:32 PM
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The best thing about BB is how cheap and abundant they are now - my Kindergartener loves them, and I can pick up a handful for a few bucks at just about every garage sale. And if they get lost, eh, so what.

Now my original Star Wars figures on the other hand, that's where I've put all of my retirement savings... :^p

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bohemian
May 15, 2009 12:41 PM
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These ceramic houses were supposed to be another collecting/investing trend that started around the same time. They charge an insane amount of money for them and supposedly limit the number made (but they don't).
[www.christmas-house.com]

Who started this stupid collectibles trend in the first place?

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GreatWhiteNorth
May 15, 2009 12:54 PM
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I clearly recall the day when walking through the mall my young daughter saw a stuffed animal she instantly fell in love with... a large beanie baby bunny, I think. After some discussion I bought it for her and immediately took it out of the hard plastic packaging... Instantly the cashier starts screaming at us \"Stop, you can't do that! You are destroying the value of it! STOP!\" Everyone stopped walking in the vicinity of this kiosk... Everyone was staring at her them at my daughter and I, as if they had just witnessed a capital crime.

I looked at the cashier and asked her if my daughter now owned the toy... Since she did, she could do with it whatever she wanted... and right now she wanted to give the rabbit a big hug and cuddle.

If the cashier had been a cobra I would have been a goner... She was rhythmically swaying back and forth... her eyes were burned holes in everything they fell on... I suspect she was about to have a stroke.

We departed... I learned later that the bunny I had bought my daughter was supposed to be quite the collectible... the plastic package was actually an aftermarket protective dome to keep it in mint condition.

It turned out to be a great investment afterall as my daughter enjoyed it for years... I would bet the dogs enjoyed it in turn too.

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korybing
May 15, 2009 3:30 PM
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@GreatWhiteNorth: I don't understand why people do that. Wouldn't it make THEIR collectables go up in value if everyone else opened and played with their stuff? If they tell everyone to keep their stuff in mint condition, their own mint condition items go down in value because they are less rare and therefor worth less.

But I guess you don't really need an excuse to act like an elitist assohole, even if it's over something like a child's toy.

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Papercutninja
May 15, 2009 1:48 PM
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@GreatWhiteNorth: absolutely. Anyone who saves something in the package because it's going to be \"worth something\" is a fool. My future in-laws are like that. They buy all sorts of worthless crap and leave it in the package because it's worth soemthing. My fiancee remembers being a kid and just staring at a box with a limited edition barbie in it because it was going to be \"worth something\" (it isn't worth anything). In the end if you force that upon your kid, they end up playing with boxes and blister packs instead of the actual toy.

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SanDiegoDude
May 15, 2009 1:26 PM
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@GreatWhiteNorth: I experienced a similar event with my daughter way back when with one of those collectible barbie dolls my daughter received as a gift. It was a \"husker doll\" (back when my appropriate user name would have been OmahaDude) and apparently the nebraska barbie community collects these things. Well, my daughter got it for xmas, I opened it for her, she had her stripped down and dressed into more \"regular\" wear pretty quickly. A neighbor visited later on who also happened to be a barbie collector and I got a speech about the importance of taking care of collectibles.... and yes, this crazy neighbor lady also had a shit-ton of Beanie Babies as well.

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CFinWV
May 15, 2009 1:07 PM
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My cat adopted a moose beanie baby, she used to carry it around and sleep with it. It wasn't until I looked closer at the object of her affection that I realized it was a beanie baby, I didn't even know I had any in the house. Someone's kid probably left it behind, it was really small like the ones that came from a Happy Meal.

In the end even my cat became bored with it. She moved on to catnip-enhanced companions. So the moral of the story is that beanies babies corrupt youth and lead them to do drugs. =p

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babyruthless
May 15, 2009 1:17 PM
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I volunteer at a Ronald McDonald House. Whenever a family checks in or comes back to the house with visibly upset child in tow (they are usually not terribly happy after having some of their procedures done), we dole out stuffed animals. A few months back (before Christmas, I think) we got a boatload of beanie babies, and are STILL giving them out. I have no idea how many we got, but the kids are glad that the crazy beanie baby hoarder gave up the stash. There are some cute beanie babies, and are on average better stuffed animals for little boys than some of the other toys--there are cool things like scorpions.

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mrgenius
May 15, 2009 1:43 PM
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I have to look at this and smile, as it truly captures the zeitgeist of the late nineties.


It seems so silly now, but this was pre-tech bubble burst, pre-2000 election debacle, pre-9/11, pre-Iraq war, pre-Abu Ghraib, pre-world financial collapse, and pre-\"The Hills\".


As a late twenty-something now, I feel a little nostalgic for 10 years ago when all people cared about was beanie babies, 28.8k baud modems, and blow jobs in the White House.


As a bright eyed 18 year old in 1999, I thought everyone I knew with a beanie baby collection and a website would be a multi-millionaire by now!

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Saboth
May 15, 2009 2:23 PM
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I kind of did this with my magic the gathering cards. Most of them went down slightly in price, a few went up. I've been selling them 1-3 at a time on Ebay. I probably spent about $200 on them 10 years ago, and so far I've made about $130 back. Takes a lot of patience though.

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Fanboy1217
May 15, 2009 2:42 PM
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ever since i got my own house i wanted to display all of my collectables and toys (boxed and unboxed) is it manly to display some of the beanie bears? :)

I have one room that i do not know what to do with it. right now there is just a dresser with all my power ranger zords on it.

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HogwartsAlum
May 15, 2009 9:18 PM
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@Fanboy1217:

Build some shelves that go around the room and put your things on them. And it's your house - you can put up anything you want to.

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Fanboy1217
May 15, 2009 2:43 PM
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@Fanboy1217: i have TMNT, Transformers, Power Ranger, He-Man, Simpsons, Family Guy, Lego Star Wars Sets, Hot Wheels, etc.

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pengie
May 15, 2009 3:17 PM
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Hey, I still own that very book.

The one good thing about Beanie Babies, when I was young, was that they taught me a lot about money management. Did I really want to complete my collection of cats, or would I buy myself books from the summer reading club instead? If my dad bought us a Peace bear, would he be able to eat lunch that week? I didn't put a lot of stock in them being \"worth\" something in the future, money wise, but it meant a lot to me to track them all down and pay for them myself.

That and I still remember how happy I felt every time I managed to stumble across something I really liked, rare or not. That feeling goes all the way back to my very first one. Hilariously, said first Beanie is actually listed on eBay once or twice for a pretty hefty amount. (But nobody's bidding.)

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JulesNoctambule
May 15, 2009 3:18 PM
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My childhood love of Barbie dolls extended into collecting as I got older, and I have to say that I did profit when I finally parted with those ladies (my husband is freaked out by dolls).

The only Beanie Babies I bought were for my little cousins, who promptly tore off the tags and played with them just as I'd hoped they would.

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bizzz
May 15, 2009 3:46 PM
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For me it was Burger King Star Wars drinking glasses. I still have a box of them in the garage.

For my parents? Norman Rockwell \"collectible plates\". I have a box full of those plates next to the glasses, which I had forgotten about. Some of the plates are almost 40 years old......and worthless.

Ebay crashed the collectibles market en masse. Before, the approved way to get this junk was at local collectible stores (which were few and far between), garage sales, or physical auctions. Ebay changed all that. The regional markets got flooded with national merchandise. Heck I can't remember the last time I saw a B&M collectibles store (i.e. Baseball card store).

I hang onto my glasses and plates mostly for sentimental reasons now. Maybe I'll pull them out and actually start eating off of them, or drinking out of them.

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Gravitational Eddy
May 15, 2009 3:56 PM
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I'd like to remind everyone here of the yardsale creed:
\"It's only worth what you can sell it for, not what -other- people can sell it for.\"
REMEMBER THIS.
There *has* to be a buyer. I'm not talking about heresay evidence that someone sold a giraffe for $200, I'm talking about the person who is willing to pay you $200 right this moment for that same giraffe.


I get amused when I see these at a flea market these days. There are actually people out there -still- trying to get $200 for that giraffe, just because that book said so, back in 1999....

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grapedog
May 15, 2009 4:02 PM
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My mom used to/still collects on occasion those little ceramic figures that have round bases, and you pop them into village scenery.


I have almost all of my toys from my childhood. I've only got a few Star Wars figures as those were probably my earliest. I should still have all the parts to my Millenium Falcon with the removable roof...that thing was awesome. He-Men, Micro-Machines, GI Joes, Muscle Men, Matchbox...


I always kept them for sentimental reasons and also if I have a son some day...we'll have a ready stash of toys for him to play with.


I already blew up all my duplicate GI Joes...so we'll have to get him something else to blow up.

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painfullyblunt
May 15, 2009 4:15 PM
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have about 200 of the beanie babies in plastic boxes in my garage.

and about 125 webkins in my son's room.

at least he plays with those.

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CorrieCJ
May 15, 2009 4:19 PM
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My kids love the Webkinz. They play with them and enjoy them (they have way too many). Once you enter the code # on the computer, it pretty much loses all its value anyway. On the other hand, my husband and I have a huge container (ok, 2 huge containers. Maybe 3) of not only Beanie Babies, but the Disney Beanies. Most were bought in the late 1990s. We figured we'd get rich off the Beanie Babies and let our (future) kids play with the Disney ones. Our kids are now 9, 6 & 2 years old. Beanies are still untouched. It makes me very sad (about the money spent, the time wasted, the space they are taking up, and the persistent fear that if I donate them today, they will be worth BILLIONS tomorrow).

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ethereal_pete
May 15, 2009 4:44 PM
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@Jonbo298: The store I worked at was in a general well-to-do area of town, that made it all the more surreal when we had to call the cops on well dressed soccer mom for trying to steal the toy display case.

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dragonfire81
May 15, 2009 9:37 PM
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@ethereal_pete: I remember similar insanity for Furbies and Tickle Me Elmos and heck even Nintendo Wiis when they first came out.

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econobiker
May 15, 2009 4:56 PM
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Best way to generate money from a collectable market is to buy up the stuff you intend to collect and then write a book about collecting it and publish some crazy prices in the book...


IE metal lunch boxes, Little Golden Books, Hot Wheels, etc

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econobiker
May 15, 2009 4:58 PM
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@econobiker: I forgot to say that the item has to be mint and in original box/package to ever get crazy money for it...

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robotrousers
May 15, 2009 4:58 PM
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TY knew marketing. Make something cheap enough for poor people to buy, and imply that it's \"collectible\". Boom! Thousands of idiots think a stuffed toy will pay little Timmy's tuition in 15 years (or buy a new mustang. You know, whatever).

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Outrun1986
May 15, 2009 5:00 PM
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The trick to collectibles is to collect something that everyone is NOT collecting. You have to choose your items carefully. If everyone is collecting it, its going to be worth nothing in the future. I made a nice bit off Pokemon and Dragonball Z figures, mainly because no one ever thought to save them in the package. I made sure I bought the ones that were harder to find in stores and bought them when there were sales. A common figure of Goku, not worth so much, but a figure of Majin boo, Mr. Boo or Cell, worth a bit since they are lesser known chracters. Everyone opened up their Pokemon toys and played with them. I have sold them all off now, but most were bought at the dollar store for 1$ per package. I probably at least tripled my money on them, and no I didn't hoard that many, probably less than 20 items. However I am not sure its worth the space constraints that it takes to store action figures, unless you are able to have a whole room dedicated to storing your collectibles.

With toys you want to pick something that is appealing to children and will be appealing in the long run and hopefully something that will go out of production in a few years and still be popular with the kids.

I try to get my stuff from yard sales too, which means I am spending a very small amount of money to get stuff. People, at least around here, do sell stuff that is worth much more than what they are selling it for, most just want to see their toys and video games gone from the house! I made a killing a few years ago selling Pokemon backpacks on ebay to desperate parents who's children just HAD to have a Pokemon backpack for back to school. These backpacks were not on store shelves at the time either. Call me dirty if you want but I started each auction at .99 and they went up to $50-60 each. Capitalism at its best!

That and I like toys too, so I don't mind buying toys for 25 and 50 cents, seeing what they are like, and then maybe selling them off on ebay for more than what I paid if possible or giving them to my cousins who then enjoy them. So I have other motivations for buying stuff other than just pure profit. There are some toys out there that are cool for adults too. When people come over they see all the cool stuff I have and marvel at it and want to play with it too, then they think I am rich when it is all really from yard sales!

Webkinz are not good collectibles because they lose all value once the code is used and the website could theoretically shut down at any time. They might become collectibles even without the codes when the 8-12 year olds of today grow up and start wanting the toys of their youth again. But that could take a while and is very unpredictable, they are a dime a dozen these days and there are so many of them.

You can still make a bit on beanie babies if you purchase them in mint condition for 10-25 cents at yard sales out of the stuffed animals bin. People will pay a bit for themed sets like cats, dogs etc but you have to sell at least 10-12 of them in a lot to get anything, most people don't buy single beanies.

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Winteridge2
May 15, 2009 5:04 PM
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Let's see, an investment strategy? Buy up all the $.50 beanies at garage sales, and maybe your grandkids can cash in. I had a similar experience investing with Merrill Lynch. It's not only Bernie Madoff, but all those self-proclaimed \"financial experts\" making millions selling his scam, and not able to say they are sorry. Stick with Ty.

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trujunglist
May 15, 2009 5:52 PM
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The same thing is true for many collectibles starting in the mid 80s-early 90s, especially the goddamned comic industry.
I say goddamned because I consider myself one of their marks... if only I'd saved all that money instead of buying things for $3 each that became instantly worthless.

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Alex Chasick
May 15, 2009 6:55 PM
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Ben told me yesterday that he still has his Force of Nature and loves dual lands.

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painfullyblunt
May 16, 2009 1:51 PM
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@Alex Chasick:

alpha beta or 3rd E duals?

black border FTW.

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IfThenElvis
May 15, 2009 7:05 PM
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I'm surprised that Cracker Barrel survived the Beanie Baby collapse. Apparently people now go there for the food.

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HogwartsAlum
May 15, 2009 9:24 PM
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The only things I have are:

--ONE Beanie baby (the Princess Diana one) in a plastic case. I only paid $20.

--A Tamagotchi in the package. I had one I played with and one I saved. The saved one was in case I wanted to play with it when I was old and actually had time to do it!

--Some comics (not the ones from my childhood - my mother pitched them which made me FURIOUS). Mostly horror comics from the 90s, a few Peanuts from the '50s. Also a bunch of Fangoria mags, including the #1 with the Godzilla poster, which isn't worth as much as I had hoped.

--Now I collect cabinet cards. I have three albums I'm trying to fill. The most I spent on those was $35 for a postmortem of a small child. The more unusual they are, the more they're worth, but they also cost more. Unfortunately, the dealers know that. :P Mostly I just buy ones where I like the people, although I did find a postcard that had Harry Earles on it!!! For only $3!

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BCK
May 15, 2009 11:52 PM
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The flower shop around here is the only place I know of to have made a profit off these stupid things. Stopped in there one day to buy some flowers for Mother's Day and there was a hoard of people standing around waiting for the UPS truck to arrive with the latest and greatest shipment of beanie babies.

The other thing that struck me of the craze was the same shop was selling a beanie baby for $365 dollars (The thing sold to some poor sap, because it was gone a week later).

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synergy
May 16, 2009 2:53 AM
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I think the age of making money off keeping a toy or \"Collector's Item\" of whatever is completely over. It was fine when a certain number were made, but now there's so much mass manufacture that just about anyone has one copy/version/whatever. Items aren't rare anymore.

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cambook2
January 8, 2010 10:35 AM
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My sister, as an adult, got involved with the Beanie Baby craze about 20 years ago. She collected probably a thousand Beanie Baby varieties and stored them away in garbage bags in hopes to have a huge payoff in the future. She never cataloged them, so I'm making a list right now. I'm guessing that she spent over $10k.Some of the items still have price tags so I check what other collectors are marketing them for now. I think that if lucky, my sister may be able to get back 40% to 50% of what she paid. If she has to wait another 20 years to get more than she paid, don't know if she will still be around because she's close to retirement age now. I think she just quit collecting them because she ran of out room to store them.

Seems like people are always looking for ways to 'get rich quick'. Can't blame them, that's why so many play state lottery. For me, I would rather invest the $10k in stock or play the state lottery.

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sofakingbroke
January 28, 2010 5:03 AM
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I'm holding out for everyone to get discouraged and throw theirs away i'll be rich, then you'll see you'll all SEE!!!

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