Beanie Babies

[HGTVfan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GalaxyBoy DW had a cabbage patch doll in the box when we got married. I finally convinced her to get rid of it a few years later.

I was thinking of the cabbage patch doll craze, too. My mom's neighbor's were obsessed with them, buying and selling at flea markets. I think they got stuck with a lot of them when the "market" collapsed.

[donheff]

DW still has a couple of pristine Barbies in their boxes from the 50s. She saved them for DD who isn't interested so she continues to save them for a potential DGD. Her family were fanatic toy neatniks. I borrowed an erector set from her father's house - perfectly organized in the case, not one part missing. Our son had it trashed in days (just as I would have). I quickly reassembled it as best I could and returned it. After my FiL died DW's engineer brother got the erector set which is still maintained in the almost pristine condition we returned it in.

[Senator]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound Collector items are weird things that I never understand. Some can get quite expensive, and many are throwaways. I can understand why a van Gogh painting can fetch $10M. Or some Egyptian archeological artifacts stolen from a pyramid. But would a South Sea Company stock certificate not be worth something as a conversation piece? As I wrote above, one went on auction for $1000 starting bid and there was no taker. On the other hand, a beanie baby went for $5000 on eBay, and only it's only 25-year old. Are beanie babies more rare? Can I assume that there are more surviving South Sea Company stock certificates than Princess Diana 1st Edition Beanie Babies? Or perhaps it's because more people know about the latter than about the former?

One major problem with the collect-ability factor Beanie Babies is that they were made in China, and China has no controls over the quantity, or the authentication of genuine-icity of the items made. This applies to most all products made there.

If a Beanie Baby was worth more, many more were made, diluting the supply.

[NYEXPAT]

My Daughter gave me one for Fathers day many years ago, it has lived on my dresser ever since and is here next to me as I type in Peru. Never checked it's value and never will as it will always be priceless to me.

[Which Roger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brucethebroker Yep. Many people also think that ALL sportscards are worthless now that the bubble burst (20+ years ago), but the older and rare cards are still very valuable. It's the mass produced cards from the late 80's that are (mostly) worthless.

The collectibles that tend to hold their value are the ones that were not created with long-term value in mind and are not artificially scarce. And even those are subject to bubbles. Baseball cards are a good example. In the early 70s, when Aaron was chasing Ruth, Aaron cards were highest in demand. Then it was Rose when he was chasing Cobb. Then it was Ryan when he was blowing away the strikeout records (compare the value of a Ryan rookie 25 years ago vs today). Those were the bubbles, and the one constant just beneath the bubble has been Mickey Mantle. Modern collectibles are artificially scarce. Top-grade Mantle cards are scarce because kids played with them and bent the corners and their moms threw their cards away when sonny went off to college. And a barge load of 1952 Topps cards, which include the iconic Mantle, were dumped into the ocean because nobody wanted them.

[MRG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Helena I still have a pet rock that a fellow college student made for me after we returned from a geology field trip. .

Best kind!

[GalaxyBoy]

I figure anything that I or my family actually had must be so common by definition that it can’t be very collectible. Cousin’s MIL had an entire room full of those baskets when she passed earlier this year and they are still trying to figure out what to do with them. At least my Dad’s coin collection had some intrinsic value to it.

[travelover]

I'm thinking Beanie Babies will come back, maybe, very strongly some day. Now is the time to start buying them up cheap so when the market soars again, I can cash out, big time.

Contrarian thinking.

[FUEGO]

I'm still trying to disabuse my mom of the notion that all the random things that are old that she has are worth anything. She gets it now after showing her at least a dozen different things that are being sold on ebay for pennies on the dollar, or even more persuasive, are listed for pennies on the dollar on ebay and still don't sell (because they are literally worthless and no one will pay anything for them at any price).

I kind of get the mindset. Things used to cost a lot because of much less efficient manufacturing and distribution practices and less competitive consumer marketplaces (and some will argue "toys were made better way back when" but that's often demonstrably false). A toy might cost the equivalent of many many hours of wages from one's labor. Now most toys cost very little (just bought a wooden trainset manufactured in Germany for $10, roughly the rate for 1 hr of unskilled labor here). Dollar store = a half dozen toys for an hour's worth of minimum wage labor.

When things cost a lot, you think they are valuable and you really conserve that resource. Growing up I heard the common refrain "take care of that stuff; it's a collector's item and will be worth something someday". Boxes were kept. We had to be very mindful.

Once I had kids and my parents started buying stuff for them, this created a little conflict. My mom and dad would get toys that "are collectors items and will be worth something someday" and then ask that we only let our kids play with the toys when we are closely supervising so they toys don't get messed up or damaged. Waaaay too much work and stress, so given the strings attached, we would kindly ask that they keep the toys at their own house for the grandkids to play with while there since we didn't want to take on such a great responsibility. I think they've gotten rid of a few things a decade later that they kept for the grandkids to play with but they never did, and now the grandkids no longer care about them since they are older (porcelain dolls come to mind).

At least we're on the same page re: antiques and them passing on material goods as an inheritance. I've said that we don't really want anything so they can feel free to get rid of whatever they want to make their life and surroundings as best as possible.

[athena53]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FUEGO My mom and dad would get toys that "are collectors items and will be worth something someday" and then ask that we only let our kids play with the toys when we are closely supervising so they toys don't get messed up or damaged.

American Girl dolls come to mind here. I have two granddaughters but fortunately, DDIL and I agree on this: you don't buy a kid a toy and then put a lot of constraints on how they play with it. They won't be getting any American Girl dolls.

[Hamlet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by athena53 American Girl dolls come to mind here. I have two granddaughters but fortunately, DDIL and I agree on this: you don't buy a kid a toy and then put a lot of constraints on how they play with it. They won't be getting any American Girl dolls.

Yup. My wife gets stressed out when my two young daughters damage/wreck/lose their toys.

I just can't expend energy worrying about all the little plastic things they play with. My mother was the same way, and talks about vacuuming up the little guns from my Star Wars toys.

[FUEGO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by athena53 American Girl dolls come to mind here. I have two granddaughters but fortunately, DDIL and I agree on this: you don't buy a kid a toy and then put a lot of constraints on how they play with it. They won't be getting any American Girl dolls.

Yes. I'm glad my parents didn't know about these (nor did my kids ).

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelover I'm thinking Beanie Babies will come back, maybe, very strongly some day. Now is the time to start buying them up cheap so when the market soars again, I can cash out, big time. Contrarian thinking.

Sounds like a sure way to make money. Still, you need to hedge and diversify.

I propose that you find as many things as possible which have fallen out of favor and load up on them. Don't do just Beanie Babies alone.

[cbo111]

In my Air Force days I flew with an electronic warfare officer (seemed to be a normal, intelligent individual) who was just nuts about Beanie Babies. Every time I traveled with him, he would say, "we gotta stop at this restaurant, they are supposed to have a big supply of x-type beanie. " This guy spent thousands $$ on these highly collectable stuffed animals. We were in MooseJaw Canada and he was buying a giant pile and claimed he would make a fortune back home. I wonder how that all worked out?

[foxfirev5]

After reading this thread and all the bitcoin mania, gold is starting to look reasonable to me. However at my age I'm sticking to my AA. I still have my fun money sitting there waiting for the opportunity to jump in on something I know. It could take awhile.

[97guns]

I’ve done really well on guns and ammo as my name suggests, I’ve never lost money on them and on most all pieces that I’ve sold I’ve doubled and tripled up on the investment, higher end knives have done well for me too

[97guns]

I did lose money on baseball and sports cards, at 17-18 I thought I was gonna be a millionaire off my $2500 stash, can’t even use it for toilet paper now, a few have held up ok

[CaliKid]

My MIL still thinks she'll retire on her Beanie Baby money one day. Even after I show her the closed sales on Ebay showing sales for $1.50 with free postage. They are essentially worthless outside of a couple rare ones. She has none of those... though she doesn't believe that I really checked enough... so they sit.

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound ...........I propose that you find as many things as possible which have fallen out of favor and load up on them. Don't do just Beanie Babies alone.

Excellent idea. I'll start looking for 8 track tapes and maybe some spats.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelover ... 8 track tapes ...

You just reminded me of the following.

For some years now, I have meant to digitize home movies made on VHS tapes. When I had my first born - she's 32 now - I paid $1,300 for an over-the-shoulder camcorder so I could tape her growing up. I have been too busy with other stuff, and the other day it occurred to me that I might not have a working VHS player to hook up to my PC to digitize.

I may still have one or two inside the home, but out of curiosity looked on the Web and found that new VHS players were expensive! On Craigslist, used ones can get close to $100.

I should have picked up a new one at Costco when these were being liquidated for $50 or so.