{"id":42265,"date":"2023-07-30T11:08:56","date_gmt":"2023-07-30T15:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/investing\/remember-the-beanie-babies-craze-its-back-and-people-are-paying-thousands-for-some-rare-ones\/"},"modified":"2023-07-30T11:08:58","modified_gmt":"2023-07-30T15:08:58","slug":"remember-the-beanie-babies-craze-its-back-and-people-are-paying-thousands-for-some-rare-ones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=42265","title":{"rendered":"Remember the Beanie Babies craze? It\u2019s back, and people are paying thousands for some rare ones."},"content":{"rendered":"
For many, the Beanie Babies craze of the \u201890s was a harsh lesson in bubble economics. Meaning, they bought the popular stuffed animals and looked to cash in as their value increased, only to see the market tank by the early 2000s.<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s the twist: There\u2019s actually still a market for those cutely-designed plush creatures with names like Batty, Scoop and Bubbles \u2014 and by some accounts, it\u2019s been heating up in recent years.<\/p>\n
\n
Buyers and sellers are seeing prices in the three and four digits for rare and in-demand Beanies. And some say examples going for $10,000-plus occasionally abound, as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m bullish on the top-tier Beanie Babies. I feel like attention is back on them,\u201d says Rob Petrozzo, founder of Rally Road, a collectibles investment platform.<\/p>\n
Indeed, part of what\u2019s prompting the new Beanie wave is the fact Hollywood has taken an interest in the toys. Just as there\u2019s a hit Barbie movie (and a hot Barbie collectibles market), there\u2019s now a Beanie Babies movie: Apple TV+ \n AAPL, \n +1.35%<\/bg-quote> \n has just come out with \u201cThe Beanie Bubble,\u201d a partly fictionalized account of just what its title says. The film stars Zach Galifianakis as Ty Warner, the toy-industry visionary whose privately-held company, Ty, was and is behind the Beanie brand.<\/p>\n
The film comes following a documentary about the bubble \u2014 2021\u2019s \u201cBeanie Mania\u201d from HBO Max \n WBD, \n +4.07%<\/bg-quote>.<\/span> \n Plus, there\u2019s Zac Bissonnette\u2019s 2015 book, \u201cThe Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute,\u201d which served as the basis for the Apple TV+ movie, with Bissonnette receiving a writing credit for the film.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
Experts say it\u2019s the same factor that\u2019s likely driving both the media interest in Beanie Babies and the reawakened collectibles market. Namely, nostalgia.<\/p>\n
Many who came of age during the \u201890s Beanie boom and were drawn to the toys are now rediscovering that passion, experts note. It also didn\u2019t hurt that the pandemic gave people time to go through their attics and closets \u2014 and many Beanie collections that were put in boxes and tubs long ago were suddenly unearthed.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow you have\u00a0tons of people asking what their Beanies are worth,\u201d says Myca Jester, an Arkansas resident who collected Beanies as a child and is now active as an seller on eBay.<\/p>\n
Dr. Lori Verderame, a well-known collectibles appraiser, says the Beanie market actually started to see values increase around 2017. If anything, she says prices have dropped since the onset of the pandemic because so many vintage Beanies came back on the market due to those attic finds. But Verderame says the Apple TV+ movie could create another spike.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n \u201c<\/span>\u2018I\u2019m bullish on the top-tier Beanie Babies. I feel like attention is back on them.\u201d \u201d<\/span>\n <\/p>\n
\n \u2014 Rob Petrozzo, founder of Rally Road, a collectibles investment platform.<\/span> \n <\/small><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
What Beanies are in particular demand? While there\u2019s no \u201choly grail\u201d Beanie the way there is in other collectible categories \u2014 think the 1952 Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card that can sell for millions of dollars \u2014 but there are several that stand out for one reason or another.<\/p>\n
Obviously, the reason Beanies increased in value back in the \u201890s was because of the lack of availability \u2014 the toys were often \u201cretired.\u201d Ty Warner and his company \u201cused the illusion of scarcity to drive the urgency around Beanie Babies,\u201d as one Vox reporter described the situation.<\/p>\n
A Ty representative told MarketWatch that any information about the company\u2019s production numbers is \u201cproprietary.\u201d As for the new Apple TV+ movie, Ty Warner issued a statement that said, \u201cI applaud the filmmakers for capturing the unprecedented energy and excitement \u2014 though not the facts \u2014 surrounding the original release of Beanie Babies 30 years ago. The movie is, by its own admission, partly fiction. But, like the filmmakers, I am in the business of dreams, and I admire their creative spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n
The most valuable Beanies today range from ones given to Ty employees to mark the company\u2019s success \u2014 by nature, these were very limited in terms of release numbers \u2014 to others with production errors. And Beanies from the earliest days of the toy\u2019s history \u2014 \u201cfirst generation\u201d Beanies, as they\u2019re called by collectors \u2014 can have a premium.<\/p>\n
Some newer Beanies can even draw attention from collectors \u2014 for example, the limited-edition 30th<\/sup> anniversary series that Ty has issued \u2014 with the hope they will appreciate in value over time.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also the Princess bear Beanie that Ty released after the 1997 death of Princess Diana, with sales going to support a memorial fund tied to her. The bear was \u2014 and is \u2014 hugely popular as a collectible. But while some examples can be valuable, experts warn that the Beanie\u2019s sheer ubiquity keeps it from becoming too pricey. Some sell for a couple of hundred dollars, others for well under a hundred.<\/p>\n
Lest anyone get too caught up in Beanie mania again, those active in the market caution that most Beanies are worth very little \u2014 and if they\u2019ve been played with or have suffered any damage while sitting in storage, their value is going to be even lower. It\u2019s not unusual to find Beanies for as little as a buck, especially if they\u2019re sold in large lots.<\/p>\n
Those bargain Beanies may apparently be inspiring new people to come into the collectibles market. Dallas resident Rich Delorey, 25, has turned into an active Beanies seller \u2014 he, too, has a presence on eBay \u2014 after he purchased a lot of 200 for $200 a few years ago, and turned around and sold them for $600.<\/p>\n
Delorey says he now sells individual Beanies anywhere from $3 to $3,500. His most memorable sale? He found a rare Peanut the Elephant Beanie at a flea market for $5 and later sold it for $2,000.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n \n <\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
Jennifer Baum, a New York hospitality marketer, may have the best Beanie collectible story of all. Baum is hardly a fanatic for the toys. But in 2006, when she was working on the opening of a New York restaurant run by famed French chef Jo\u00ebl Robuchon in a hotel owned by Ty Warner, she got one of the teddy-bear Beanies produced for the occasion. And she\u2019s held onto it through the years, storing it in a Mason jar. <\/p>\n
This Beanie is now considered among the rarest of the rare, because so few were produced. Experts say it could easily sell for thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n
But don\u2019t count on Baum to be putting it up for bid anytime soon. After all, it\u2019s a Beanie Baby, which means, well, it sparks a certain reaction.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really cute and I love it,\u201d Baum says.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n