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The only thing worth collecting is something that has intrinsic value or something you love and will enjoy owning. The BB craze wasn't IMHO about collecting so much as hoarding which is NEVER a good idea.
Who knows, in 500 years or so, there may be an actual value to these stuffed, mass produced pieces of fluff!
Amen - and I have a small list of flea-market obsessed relatives I'd like you to talk to for me...
One relative kept a bog box of stuffed animals in a storage shed. Two years later, she opened it and it was crawling with bugs. They'd nested in them! Now I'm paranoid about storing plush animals.
In the 90's I had a successful Toy and Doll Shop. People couldn't believe i refused to carry Beanie Babies. But I decided not to after I heard other merchants talk about how their phone would start ringing off the hook as soon as school got out with kids going down the list looking for certain BB. Shop lifting became a huge problem, Fist fights over BB and zall sort of other ridiculous behavior. I once had a man in my shop telling me how he took his family's savings account to buy all the BB he could find. he was beaming and so proud as he listed all the "rare" BB he had. I thought how pathetic a grown family man could be suckered into this ridiculous fad. He said he was uncomfortable with the stock market cause he didn't know anything about it but he studied BB and knew what he was doing. yeah right. wonder where he is now.
This guy made a fortune with the perceived future value of these $5 toys and he risked his freedom and alot of this fortune by trying to hide a few hundred thousand dollars of income in a Swiss bank account. $53 million fine is a steep price to pay for such greed but he deserves it. He has effectively bought his way out of a jail term.
This guy made a fortune with the perceived future value of these $5 toys and he risked his freedom and alot of this fortune by trying to hide a few hundred thousand dollars of income in a Swiss bank account. $53 million fine is a steep price to pay for such greed but he deserves it. He has effectively bought his way out of a jail term.
The article did not mention how much money that Ty had in the account. It did say that he made an income of over $3million from the money in the account. It also said that he had been trying to resolve the issue for a few years now. Usually when you are willing to work with the Feds in a situation like this they don't make you go to jail. He paid the fine and life will go on. On a side note he didn't make his $2.3billion speculating on the value of beanie babies. The public just kept buying them left and right. The truth is that the $53million fine he is paying will be earned back in a year or two anyway. LOL
I notice a drug store in town has Beanie Babies half-price. I knew an older lady who had one of each one. She eventually sold her collection and did well with it, but, I don't remember the selling price. This was back when they were still hot.
I had an art and antique doll and toy shop in Atlanta when all this Beanie Baby madness was going on. I refused to sell them. At Toy Fair (the industry annual wholesale buying show in NYC) I heard so many complaints from retailers about how every day school kids would start calling around after school trying to find out about the latest shipments, tremendous shop lifting losses and adults getting into fights over a $5 stuffed animal. I did have customers who bragged about how much they had "invested" in BB and how much they were going to make in profit when they sold them in a few years. It was really sad.
And I know he did not speculate about future value. But so many bought into the dream that they would get rich selling BB down the road.
I give him credit for his business tactics. Big long applications to be a retailer, huge initial investments necessary to carry his products, uber secrecy about where the headquarters were, etc. The public bought into it hook, line and sinker.
Anything that is mass produced is not a good investment. I love those "Collector's Edition" DVDs and magazines and everything else. The producers of this crap lead you to believe it will have "collector's value" 20 years down the road. Nope.
I was watching Pawn Stars and a woman brought in a brand new Rubik's cube from the 1980s. She said her grandmother bought it when the craze was in full force and it was part of the first shipment of Rubik's cubes. She told the granddaughter to NEVER open it or take it out of the packaging, don't touch it, etc. because it will be worth "alot of money one day". It wasn't worth squat. They wouldn't even give her $8 for it!
I notice a drug store in town has Beanie Babies half-price. I knew an older lady who had one of each one. She eventually sold her collection and did well with it, but, I don't remember the selling price. This was back when they were still hot.
I can remember the Beanie Baby frenzy, even with McDonald's including the mini-versions with their happy meals. We'd see them locked up at flea markets/antique () shows, and one of my co-workers had a pile of them in an spare room at home.
There's always a fad that people go nuts over, and which fizzles not long after it started.
I've sent gently used or like-new BBs to a Ukrainian charity which serves over 1,000 kids in local orphanages and institutions - they repackage them and give them to the children on their birthdays, along with a candy bar or two. That's generally all the children receive - and they are thrilled to have a cute and cuddly toy companion that's their very own and does not have to be shared.
It's reassuring to know that good still can come from Beanie Babies, considering the greed and foolishness associated with the Beanie Baby craze - and now, with their originator as well.
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Now I'm paranoid about storing plush animals.
Beanie Baby Fraud
) shows, and one of my co-workers had a pile of them in an spare room at home.
