Bean there, done that...

[Lace Neil Singer]

This is a story that my teacher told me. He went to a McDonald's when they were giving them away, he ordered a kids meal and he went through it and pulled out the Beanie Baby. Through all this, there is a line of cars with kids in them waiting for those Beanies, my teacher had his in plain sight and threw it away. He knew he didn't need it, the sad part is that everyone came running out of that van willing to dig through the trash just to get a Beanie.

I would have burned it. Just to see the looks on the people's faces.

[ArenaBoy]

I would have burned it. Just to see the looks on the people's faces.

Hilariously, he purposely threw it away, but like I said he held it in plain sight in front of everyone and just tossed and went on with his day.

[Dreamstalker]

All I want is the Mongoose (I think that's what it is) with the poem about killing things.

But it's not worth paying more than $5 for.

A poem about killing things? COOL!

I have the wolf beanie, some cats (I remember dragging my poor dad all over the place to find the Siamese) and a few of the newer insects with the iridescent bits. A cousin of mine in NJ had a fifty-gallon plastic tote full of the damn things when she was about 10. She's in college now...I wonder what her parents ended up doing with them. I also have a bundle in the storage unit that I've been trying to unload...

There's a hacking project in one of my techie books that involves reprogramming a furby. I'm tempted to get one for that reason only.

[MystyGlyttyr]

I had a Cabbage Patch when I was a baby, but I didn't get it for a few years after the craze.

My mom has told me stories of getting one for my older sister right in the middle of the heyday (I think it was Cabbage Patch but I can't remember). She didn't really expect to get one and my sister knew and understood as much, but she still really did want one, but my mom put her name on a waiting list at Montgomery Ward's just in case. So it literally gets to be Christmas Eve, everyone's all but forgotten it, and my mom gets a call from the store. "We've got your Cabbage Patch doll!" So my mom drives to town and goes into the store and there is a MOB there. She said that she actually put the toy under her coat and was getting offered $1000 a pop for the thing, but she got it home to my sister safe and sound.

Don't have a damn idea where that thing is these days

[Spiffy McMoron]

If I remember right, wasn't there a similar demand for GoldenEye cartiges for the N64? Including the mobs, and insanity? I could have sworn that I read something like in the paper.

I was unaffected by all of this: Christmas shopping when I was a kid meant ordering for the Sears Wishbook. When it first came in, there would be a giant fight to see who could get it first-if it was me, I'd grab a pencil and write down "CWL" (Cameron would like) beside everthing that caught my eye.

[protege]

There's a hacking project in one of my techie books that involves reprogramming a furby. I'm tempted to get one for that reason only.

Hehe have you seen the Furby autopsy page?

[Kogarashi]

I personally only have two beanies, and both were birthday gifts from friends in high school. One's one of the dragons (Scorch, I believe), because that friend knew I'm a major fantasy nut. The other is a snail that the friend in question got me because she thought it was cute (and really, it is). Beyond that, no actual Beanie Babies for me. Nor did I ever have a Cabbage Patch doll, or Tamagotchi/Giga Pet. And I absolutely despised the Furbies.

[Kika]

My daughter's babysitter (15 year old) had over 300 beanie babies in her collection. She offered to give them to my daughter. I told her, in no uncertain terms to keep anything she particularly valued, because Anna would be allowed to *gasp!* play with them.

She kept back about 10, and we have the rest. These are my daughter's favorite toys; she's "loved" a few to death, but she plays with them all the time. Naturally, all the tags are ripped off, because, hello toys?

My dad's cousin - whose son is also 15 - found out about my daughter's new collection and FREAKED. She actually came over once (40 miles one way) to "see" the "collection."

I received an hour long lecture on Parental Responsibility because I took the tags off. "Kevin's (the son) been looking for that beanie for years and you destroyed it!"

She still won't speak to me, but Kevin's already asked if Anna wants HIS beanies too. I told him he had to ask his mom, and I wished I could have heard her reply. (Naturally, he wasn't allowed to give them to us.)

Family gossip says she's still desperately trying to complete the collection "for Kevin."

[lordlundar]

I received an hour long lecture on Parental Responsibility because I took the tags off.

Parental Responsibility, riiight. Because letting your daughter choke to death is very responsible.

Family gossip says she's still desperately trying to complete the collection "for Kevin."

Nya huh, for kevin, sure. By the way, that "whole priceless collection" is now worth about 20 dollars at a flea market.

[Mark Healey]

Never have I seen the likes of the Beanie craze.
And all in the name of 'getting rich'. I've mentioned this here before, I think, but I can remember so many Beanie customers who proudly told me all of the things they were going to do with the money when they sold these things for a hefty profit.
I deserve an Oscar for holding back many a smirk.
I wanted to explain to them that if they and everybody else in the universe are buying these things, who are they going to sell them to in the end?

Speculative bubbles aren't all that unusual. There was tulipmania, radio in the 20's ,comic books in the early 90's and of course the dot com boom. The items being traded had some value and a few early speculators made a bunch of money. The problem is that people go cargo cultist and start speculating without understanding where the real value is. A good number of the early cargo cultist make some money and more join figuring that there will be bigger fools down the road. Eventually all the fools join the cult, panic selling sets it and prices plumet.

Of course,if you're going to invest based on the bigger fool theory, the trick is knowing where the market is in this cycle. Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to do this. If I had I'd be the rich SC.

Ty Warner (the guy who creted beanie babies) had a brilliant scheme. Unlike most manufacturers who will make as many of a given product as they think they can sell, he constantly realeased new models and discontinued old ones, creating artificial shortages and increasing the perceived value.

Sad to say this happens alot with books and I capitalize on it. People collect first printings of books. The later printings are just as good and often better (typographical errors are corrected). I'm not above taking the money who want first editions.

In most fields of collecting when manufacturers create "collectors" versions the real collectors are never interrested. This isn't the case with books. Publishers will release special limited editions that people will buy like lemmings. My favorite example is the Harry Potter special editions. It's the same text as the originals with a decorated cloth cover and gilt edges. The paper is little better than newsprint and they're perfect bound instead of sewn signatures. Yet, they're fetching U.$. 50.00.

I like nice editions of my favorite books as much as the next guy, but you don't have to spend a lot of money. Modern Library editions from the 60's are great, signatures, good paper, cloth covers (ugly jackets though). Konemann did some nice cheap well made books.

I'm rambling now, Good Night.

[booger]

My crazy aunt would buy the maximum allowed Happy Meals (10 or 12, I forget which) just to get the McD'S teeny beanies, because you were required to buy food to get the toys because of the high demand. She threw all the food away because she didn't like it.

It wouldn't have been so bad if I weren't the one making all the hamburgers for her. o_O I don't understand how people can be so wasteful.

My mom was my boss, and at closing time, she would lock all the Beanies in the freezer so that no one could get to them. I had another manager who would load the beanies into her truck and keep them in her house overnight so no one would steal them. Pathetic, eh?

[Misanthropical]

My husband bought the very last crawling baby Mickey Mouse in a toy store, which was a Christmas present for the little guy, who was only about 3 at the time.

A woman in the parking lot offered him $100 for it. He told her it wasn't for sale, because our son really wanted it. She went up to $150 before realizing that my husband wasn't going to sell it to her.

[Dreamstalker]

I received an hour long lecture on Parental Responsibility because I took the tags off. "Kevin's (the son) been looking for that beanie for years and you destroyed it!"

One of my random talents is detaching (intact) and reattaching plastic hang tags to things. The plush can't be too thick or stuffed and it requires a leather sewing needle and tons of patience, but I can do it.

I honestly have no idea why I figured out how to do that...

[MystyGlyttyr]

It's kind of funny to me that people would reject "bad" beanies because in my experience, flaws usually end up making a product more expensive years down the road. For example, I have in my room an Eddie Guerrero action figure, however, it is still in the box, mislabeled with Kurt Angle's name on it. Ten years from now, what do you think people would pay more for, a correctly labeled figure or a "flawed" figure that is the only one of it's kind in the world?

This doll that cost me $7.62 has gotten me offers up to $50...no one would ask me for my boxed, perfectly labeled, "limited edition" Rey Mysterio doll with some God-awfully high number of articulation points. (I only keep it boxed because it's slightly bigger than my display figures and I don't want them to be irregular on their shelf, heh heh.)

[Rapscallion]

Well, how about the ultimate error? The Penny Black, for those interested in philately. It was a penny stamp printed in the wrong colour, and now is worth (as in people will pay large sums for it, not that it's actually any use...) millions and squillions.

Rapscallion