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You are here: Home / Life / Beanie Babies, Naked Barbie, American Pickers and Old Coots

Beanie Babies, Naked Barbie, American Pickers and Old Coots

by jlcollinsnh 17 Comments

As we begin preparing for our move we’ve been poking thru our various boxes and bins looking for stuff we don’t want to pay to move.  Which, for me, is just about everything.  I love getting rid of stuff.

In one of those plastic bins (the oversized version) is my daughter’s collection of Beanie Babies.  Boy howdy, do I hate these things.

On the off-chance you missed it, or were smart enough to just ignore it, BBs were all the rage in the mid to late 1990s.  They are little bean bags in the shape of various animals and the Ty Company was cranking them out just as fast as they could come up with new versions.

Each had a little tag with the BB’s name.  How cute.

This was perfect timing for my little girl as she was about 4 to 10 while this was going on.  Between those we bought for her and those she got as gifts she wound up with around 100 of the little sacks.

One day at work a woman mentioned that she was “investing” in BBs and that these were going to finance her kids’ college educations beginning in about a decade.  What the….

A little quick research showed that, sure enough, these things had become “collectable” and people were rushing to pay ever-increasing dollars for “discontinued” Babies.

 

Now I have no crystal ball, but the most rudimentary understanding of supply and demand economics was enough to know this could only end badly.  Most likely sooner rather than later.

After failing to convince my colleague of the flaws in her “investment” plan (hey at least I tried), I rushed home.

“Gather up the Beanie Babies,” I said to my wife and daughter in delight.  “We’re going to make a killing!”

“No Daddy,” said my little girl.  “I love my Beanie Babies.  They are not for sale.”

“Quickly now.  This bubble will be bursting momentarily.”

“You can’t sell our daughter’s toys,” said my wife.

“Sure we can!  By the way, you didn’t take the tags off did you?”

 

“I don’t,” tears rolling down her cheeks “want them to go.”

“Ah sweetie, we’ll get you some other dolls.  Silly people will pay lots of money for these, but not for long.  Gather them up.  How many do you have?”

It didn’t take long before I realized that this just wasn’t going to happen.  That I was doomed to watch as this asset (and how could I now consider them anything else?) depreciated into nothing.

Now, opening that bin, here the despicable little things were.  Staring up at me.  Mocking.  No longer cherished, no longer wanted and, of course, no longer of value.  Just to be sure, I went to Ebay.  As of today there are 10,649 listings for BBs.  All but a very, very few have zero bids.  Zero.

 

Yours for only $500,000.00

The most expensive offered is a Princess Diana for $500,000.00.  Nope, that’s no typo.  Half a million dollars.  Really?  Could anyone be stupid enough to pay that kind of money for a bean bag toy?  Can you say “Tulip Bulb?”

This “very rare” BB is one of seven currently offered.  The lowest priced one is $4000.  No, I don’t know what the difference between a 500k and 4k Diana is other than, perhaps, the seller’s assessment of how stupid people can be.

Not surprisingly, they seem not to be selling.  So if you want one, you’ve got time. (And I’ll make you a deal on a bunch more.  Call me.)

Did they ever sell at such levels?  Beats me, but if they did I can guarantee there are lots of counterfeits out there.

 

The cheapest one with an actual bid is 55 cents.  With free shipping.  So, basically this seller is paying to get rid of it.  I sure hope my old colleague found a better way to pay for her kids to go to college.

The problem with Beanie Babies, or anything else produced as a collectible, is that when people buy them they save them.  They will never be rare and rare equals value.  I know people who each year buy the annual Barbie Collectible Edition and tuck them away in their unopened original box.  Barbies from the early 1960s are valuable, right?  So in a few decades these will be too.  Right?

This Headless Vintage Barbie is on Ebay as I write.

18 bids so far.

$71

Clothes evidentially not included.

Nope.  These old Barbies have value precisely because no one at the time ever dreamed they would be collectible.  Very rare is the Barbie from that time still in its unopened box.   Those produced now by Mattel as “collectables” will never be rare.  ‘Cause, well, everybody is collecting them.

Personally, I’m not a collector.  In fact, I’m just about as far from being a collector as one can be.  I don’t much like owning things. Feels heavy and burdensome to me.

But for some reason I can’t quite explain I have recently become addicted to TV shows about collectors.  American Pickers, Pawn Stars, Storage Wars and the like provide me great entertainment.  Maybe it is just that these people are so alien to me it’s hard not to be fascinated.

Take American Pickers.  If you haven’t seen it, basically these two guys drive around the country in their van looking for “rusty gold.”  They’ll roll up on some old coot’s spread and say “We’re Pickers from Iowa.  Mind if we look around?”

The places they visit are usually out in the country and are surrounded by junk in the yard.  Often as not, there will be several out buildings each crammed to the rafters with crap.  They will rummage about thru these piles and pull out something.

 

“What a great piece!” they’ll say holding up a rusty piece of crap that, to me, looks like all the other rusty pieces of crap.  “How much would you have to have for this?”

 

“Well I don’t know.” says the old guy, and it is almost always an old guy.  “I don’t think I could part with that.”

What?!  Until this moment you probalby  haven’t seen this thing in 40 years and you forgot you owned it 30 years ago.  Sell!

“How about $400?”

Sell, Sell, Sell you idiot; and then beg them to buy more!!

“Nope.  Think I’ll just hang on to that there.”

Old signs seem popular and they like old bikes and motorcycles.  Other random stuff, too.  Since their business is reselling this stuff they must know what has value.  I get that.  But they ain’t buying no Beanie Babies.

 

Old crap is not the only reason to watch this show.

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  • Vanguard.com

Filed Under: Life, Money

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Comments

  1. DollarDisciple says

    January 25, 2012 at 10:23 am

    My mom and sister were *obsessed* with beanie babies when that fad was still going on. I can remember my mom going to mcdonalds for dinner specifically to get the ones that they passed out in happy meals. At one time, im sure my sister knew the names (that’s right, they have names too) of all the BBs in circulation. Those things have been sitting in a cabinet gathering dust since then.

    Reply
    • jlcollinsnh says

      January 25, 2012 at 11:54 am

      would they like to buy some more? I’ll give them the “son/brother commented on my blog” discount.

      These things can only go up in value….. 😉

      Reply
  2. zebrashoes says

    January 28, 2012 at 4:52 pm

    hahah you must really love me if you were willing to let me keep the Beanie Babies rather than sell them.

    You should have just sold them. I would have got other it….eventually.

    Reply
    • jlcollinsnh says

      January 28, 2012 at 10:48 pm

      now you tell me! 🙂

      guess I figured I had already given you enough material for your future therapists.

      Oh, and taking you to Disneyland (twice!) is a far greater measure of my love.

      Reply
  3. femmefrugality says

    January 29, 2012 at 4:38 pm

    I have a Princess Di bear. I’m pretty sure every little girl who was a little girl when she passed does. Those will never sell. If they do, let me know because I’ll be very rich. These are some great points that can be applied across the collectibles market.

    Love those shows, too, but Pickers is my least favorite. I feel like they rip people off. I know it’s how they make money, but somehow it seems so much less offensive when people approach them, like in Pawn Stars.

    Reply
  4. Wrecked says

    April 19, 2012 at 9:07 pm

    This is really funny and very true too. Thanks for making me laugh!

    Reply
    • jlcollinsnh says

      April 19, 2012 at 10:23 pm

      My pleasure, Wrecked….

      glad you enjoyed it!

      Reply
  5. The Keichi One says

    May 29, 2012 at 9:14 am

    Man, this is me and “Spawn” action figures. Thought I would retire at 21 with those things when I was a teenager. When I’m back in that states they are all going going gone.

    Reply
    • jlcollinsnh says

      May 29, 2012 at 11:21 am

      We’ll all have skeletons in our closets.

      or Spawn figures, as the case may be. 😉

      Reply
  6. Emily Eisenhauer says

    July 21, 2012 at 6:55 pm

    Do you have any of your beanie babies left. My little sister saw a few of mine I had and now she is obsessed.

    Reply
    • jlcollinsnh says

      August 15, 2012 at 1:09 pm

      Hi Emily…..

      They are my daughter’s and yes she still has them. I’ll shoot you an email.

      Reply
  7. Jen says

    March 24, 2014 at 8:52 pm

    This post sent some shivers down my spine, because my husband just started collecting bank notes – hey, this stuff will be worth millions some day, and yes, we will send our kids to college on them. Shipments from ebay arrive daily to our home – some with old notes costing several thousand $$ per pop. Sad thing is that I am sure the ebay value of these things already has taken into account the note appreciation (if any) and they are selling at net present value. Just hoping we can resell those notes some day for what he paid for them.

    Reply
    • jlcollinsnh says

      April 10, 2014 at 3:47 pm

      And your comment sent shivers down mine, Jen.

      Hope you have a plan “B” 🙂

      If not, it will be character building for your kids to pay their own way… 😉

      Reply
  8. cbeck says

    February 12, 2016 at 9:22 am

    I know this post is pretty old, but in case anyone is wondering still, the reason for drastically different price points on Ebay is simply a racket attempting to inflate the market value of a collectable. I see it with used “vintage” guitars all the time. A single seller has a few different store fronts and/or accounts. They have a good stock of the same or similar model of guitar. The best one they list for a thousand or more with “rare” or “mint”, the next best one maybe half to 75% of that value with an “or best offer”. And then one at a time they dump the rest off with starting prices of a hundred or more/less or even a dollar. People who are not too familiar with the market see the “valuable” guitars on storefronts and assume that could be a reasonable value – then find the lower price one on what appears to be normal accounts and start bidding thinking they might make a steal on a very valuable product – when in reality they have probably paid at or over market value on an otherwise unsalable product. It boils down to using a single “mint” or “first edition” specimen of a product as it’s own loss leader.

    Reply
  9. Greg says

    April 30, 2017 at 9:58 pm

    G.E. Miller has a good discussion on his blog about baseball cards from the early 1990s, which were their own bubble before Beanie Babies got started:

    https://20somethingfinance.com/the-junk-wax-era-sports-card-investment-bubble-and-crash/

    Reply
  10. Ron Cameron says

    April 30, 2017 at 10:01 pm

    “Quickly now. This bubble will be bursting momentarily.”

    Hahaha! I just laugh every time I read this line. I imagine Spock, or a bad actor, is saying it in the scenario in my head.

    Reply
  11. thelughsperience says

    April 17, 2020 at 9:22 am

    Hey,
    Just reading this post now. I know you don’t post on this blog anymore, but I can’t help but ask, maybe you will see this… I am in the midst of “selling out” all my old toys. Many things I consider “collectible” Uh, if these things aren’t really collectible, how does one, if it doesn’t sell, when to stop selling it? I am trying to sell before I donate, but it is seriously delaying everything else that I have planned after because nobody is buying.

    Reply

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    • ► September (2)
      • Case Study #2: Joe -- off to a fast start!
      • Chautauqua 2013: A Week of Dreams
    • ► August (1)
      • Closing up shop plus an opening at Chautauqua, my new podcast, phone, book and other random cool stuff
    • ► July (1)
      • They Will Kill You For Your Shoes!
    • ► June (4)
      • Stocks -- Part VIII-b: Should you avoid your company's 401k?
      • Shilpan's Seven Habits to Live More with Less
      • Stocks -- Part XIX: How to think about money
      • My path for my kid -- the first 10 years
    • ► May (5)
      • Why your house is a terrible investment
      • Stocks — Part XVIII: Investing in a raging bull
      • Dining with the Ghosts of Sarah Bernhardt and Alfons Mucha
      • How we finally got the house sold
      • Stocks — Part XVII: What if you can't buy VTSAX? Or even Vanguard?
    • ► April (4)
      • Greetings from Prague & a computer question
      • Swimming with Tigers, a 2nd chance on the Chautauqua, a financial article gets it wrong and I'm off to Prague
      • Storage, Moving and Movers
      • Homeless, and a bit on the strategy of dollar cost averaging
    • ► March (4)
      • Wild Turkeys, Motorcycles, Dining Room Sets & Greed
      • Roots v. Wings: considering home ownership
      • How about that stock market?!
      • The Blog has New Clothes
    • ► February (5)
      • Meet Mr. Money Mustache, JD Roth, Cheryl Reed & me for a Chautauqua in Ecuador
      • High School Poetry, Carnival, cool ads and random pictures that caught my eye
      • Consignment Shops: Best business model ever?
      • Cafes
      • Stocks -- Part XVI: Index Funds are really just for lazy people, right?
    • ► January (5)
      • Social Security: How secure and when to take it
      • Fighting giraffes, surreal landscapes, dancing with unicorns and restoring a Vanagon
      • My plan for 2013
      • VITA, income taxes and the IRS
      • How to be a stock market guru and get on MSNBC
  • ► 2012 (53)
    • ► December (6)
      • See you next year....until then: The Origin of Life, Life on Other Worlds, Mechanical Graveyards, Great Art, Alternative Lifestyles and Finding Freedom
      • Stocks -- Part XV: Target Retirement Funds, the simplest path to wealth of all
      • Stocks -- Part XIV: Deflation, the ugly escort of Depressions.
      • Stocks Part XIV: Deflation, the ugly escort of Depressions.
      • Stocks -- Part XIII: The 4% rule, withdrawal rates and how much can I spend anyway?
      • How I learned to stop worrying about the Fiscal Cliff and you can too.
    • ► November (2)
      • Rent v. owning: A couple of case studies in Ecuador
      • So, what does a month in Ecuador cost anyway?
    • ► October (4)
      • See you in December....
      • Meet me in Ecuador?
      • The Podcast: You can hear me now.
      • Stocks -- Part XII: Bonds
    • ► September (6)
      • Stocks -- Part XI: International Funds
      • The Smoother Path to Wealth
      • Case Study #I: Putting the Simple Path to Wealth into Action
      • Tales of Bolivia: Calle de las Brujas
      • Stocks -- Part X: What if Vanguard gets Nuked?
      • Travels in South America: It was the best of times....
    • ► August (1)
      • Home again
    • ► June (4)
      • Yellow Fever, closing up shop for the summer and heading to Peru y Bolivia
      • I could not have said it better myself...
      • Stocks -- Part IX: Why I don't like investment advisors
      • Happy Birthday, jlcollinsnh; and thanks for the gift Mr. MM!
    • ► May (6)
      • Stocks -- Part VIII: The 401K, 403b, TSP, IRA & Roth Buckets
      • Mr. Money Mustache
      • The College Conundrum
      • Stocks -- Part VII: Can everyone really retire a millionaire?
      • Stocks -- Part VI: Portfolio ideas to build and keep your wealth
      • Stocks -- Part V: Keeping it simple, considerations and tools
    • ► April (6)
      • Stocks -- Part IV: The Big Ugly Event, Deflation and a bit on Inflation
      • Stocks -- Part III: Most people lose money in the market.
      • Stocks -- Part II: The Market Always Goes Up
      • Stocks -- Part 1: There's a major market crash coming!!!! and Dr. Lo can't save you.
      • You can eat my Vindaloo, mega lottery, Blondie, Noa, Israel Kamakawiwo 'Ole, art, film and a ride on the Space Shuttle
      • Where in the world are you?
    • ► March (7)
      • How I lost money in real estate before it was fashionable, Part V: Sold! and the taxman cometh.
      • How I lost money in real estate before it was fashionable, Part IV: I become a Landlord.
      • How I lost money in real estate before it was fashionable, Part III: The Battle is Joined.
      • How I lost money in real estate before it was fashionable, Part II: The Limits of the Law.
      • How I lost money in real estate before it was fashionable, Part I: Impossibly Naive.
      • You, too, can be conned
      • Armageddon and the value of practical skills
    • ► February (6)
      • Rent v. Owning Your Home, opportunity cost and running some numbers
      • The Casanova Kid, a Shit Knife, a Good Book, Having No Regrets, Dark Matter and a bit of Magic
      • What Poker, Basketball and Mike Whitaker taught me about Luck
      • How to Give like a Billionaire
      • Go ahead, make my day
      • Muk Finds Success in Tahiti
    • ► January (5)
      • Travels with "Esperando un Camino"
      • Beanie Babies, Naked Barbie, American Pickers and Old Coots
      • Selling the House and Adventures in Staging
      • The bashing of Index Funds, Jack Bogle and a Jedi dog trick
      • Magic Beans
  • ► 2011 (22)
    • ► December (1)
      • Dividend Growth Investing
    • ► November (2)
      • The Mummy's head, Particle Physics and "Knocking on Heaven's Door"
      • "It's Better in the Wind" or why I ride a motorcycle
    • ► October (1)
      • Lazy Days and School Days
    • ► July (2)
      • The road to Zanzibar sometimes goes thru Ecuador...
      • Johnny wins the lotto and heads to Paris
    • ► June (16)
      • Chainsaws, Elm Trees and paying for College
      • Stuff I’ve failed at: the early years
      • Snatching Victory from the Jaws of Defeat
      • The. Worst. Used. Car. Ever.
      • Top Ten reasons your future is so bright it hurts my eyes to look at it
      • The Most Dangerous Words Your Customer Can Say
      • How not to drown in The Sea of Assholes
      • What we own and why we own it
      • The Ten Sales Commandments
      • My ever so formal and oh so dry CV
      • How I failed my daughter and a simple path to wealth
      • The Myth of Motivation
      • Why you need F-you money
      • My short attention span
      • Why I can’t pick winning stocks, and you can’t either
      • The Monk and the Minister

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