I'm thinking Beanie Babies are looking good again.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

Much more tangible and cuddly than a boring old T-Bill.

Actually, I bring up beanie babies just as a reminder about how totally crazy people can be in matters financial.

[skooooo]

1. explain...?

I know people invested in them, but what exactly do you mean about people being "totally crazy.."?

[Warpy]

2. I used to get out of work in a hospital at 7:30 AM on Mondays

and there would be a long line of people sitting on the floor outside the gift shop waiting for it to open at 9 AM. Some of them had been there all night.

They were waiting for new Beanie Babies. The gift shop put out a new shipment every Monday.

That was crazy.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Warpy those people were nuts

They used to camp in front of our Hallmark store too. They had fire in their eyes. :scared:

[skooooo]

11. weird...

That was the 80s I guess.

[Blue_Tires]

12. actually, the speculation craze was in the late 90s

i had a gf in college who was into them

[Warpy]

20. No, 90s

Cabbage Patch Kids were the 80s and it was just as nuts. Now everybody seems to realize how grotesquely ugly those things were all along.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Oh gag me

I used to work in a Hallmark store. I was over Beenie Babies in about a day. :)

[billyoc]

5. Forget it, Dutch tulips, that's where the smart money is.

:evilgrin:

[HereSince1628]

7. What are you talking about? It's fall crocus and selling saffron via e-bay

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

6. If Beanie Baby craze still existed today, we would have the Beany Baby Commodity Modernization Act

and the investment bankers would have figured out a way to do credit default swaps based on the projected prices of Beany Babies in the future. They could book a nice fake profit based on their projections and mathematical models and earn a huge bonus. And AIG could insure the swap.

[jakem]

8. could be worth more than my house soon....

[Vinca]

9. That was one of the all time dumb fads. Some of them sold

in the thousands. Now I see them in piles at yard sales for a dime.

[billyoc]

10. Like a folder full of subprime mortgages.

[ourbluenation]

13. several years ago I bought one for 5 bucks and sold it for $375 on the intertubes n/t

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

14. And the person who bought from you was hoping there was a greater fool.

And maybe there was. And maybe there was an even greater fool. And a greater fool. But, it did have to stop at some point, yes? Just like any bubble that has no rational basis for the valuation.

[ourbluenation]

15. yep - somwhere out there is a moldy old beany baby that someone paid a lot of money for.

[dembotoz]

16. friend of ours invested big bucks in beanie babies

like she was buying poor mans gold coins.
There were even beanie baby collectors shows with lots of people.
she could not concieve of the idea that it was a fad and would end.
Needless to say....she lost her ass.
she later got a divorce and is now poor like a church mouse.

to make money on a fad you need to get out before people realize it is a fad.
I am sure somewhere is some guy with a warehouse full of pet rocks.....

had not thought of her is some time....how very sad.

[MadrasT]

17. Cut them open and make bean soup. That's what it may to come to.

:shrug:

[OnyxCollie]

18. Better Beanie Babies than Thomas Kinkade "art".

Me, I've got a stack of 70's Wacky Packages stickers to keep me warm.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

19. You mean Thomas Kinkade, Painter of Shit (trademark symbol )?

OMG, you have touched nerve my friend. He is the biggest talentless shill going who licenses out his saccharin glop anywhere he can. I feel so sorry for the Mom and Pop folks who bought into buying gallerys of his "art".