The Beanie Baby Bubble of '99
thehustle.co
The Beanie Baby Bubble of '99
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Re: The Beanie Baby Bubble of '99
#2Relevant portion of the article:
"According to economists David Tuckett and Richard Taffler, we often view a hot new financial opportunity as a “phantastic object,” or an unconscious representation of something that fulfills our wildest desires.
These objects are “exciting and transformational.” They appear to “break the usual rules of life and turn aspects of ‘normal’ reality on its head.” They promise something far departed from the market’s typical behavior.
During a bubble, we formulate a “collective hallucination” of prosperity, and fall victim to groupthink, a phenomenon where “a significant chunk of society feverishly buys into a shared dream” and ignores reality."
Re: The Beanie Baby Bubble of '99
#3Many parallels with what is going on with NFTs right now.
Re: The Beanie Baby Bubble of '99
#4Many parallels with what is going on with NFTs right now.
[deleted]
Re: The Beanie Baby Bubble of '99
#5Many parallels with what is going on with NFTs right now.
except 1000x bigger. ppl are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars like it's nothing.
Re: The Beanie Baby Bubble of '99
#6The current state of NFTs etc. amazes me in the context of Beanie Babies.
So many people have learned nothing. Granted the time gap means these are entirely new people making those mistakes.
We have such a degraded level of discourse now that if it were used in the Beanie Baby craze there would be people arguing about whether all soft toys are evil.
Re: The Beanie Baby Bubble of '99
#7Relevant portion of the article: "According to economists David Tuckett and Richard Taffler, we often view a hot new financial opportunity as a “phantastic object,” or an unconscious representation of something that fulfills our wildest desires. These objects are “exciting and transformational.” They appear to “break the usual rules of life and turn aspects of ‘normal’ reality on its head.” They promise something far…
I think the most relevant portion of the article is:
"There was one person who emerged handsomely from the Beanie Baby bubble: Ty Warner.
Aside from getting caught secretly hoarding $107m of his Beanie Baby riches in an offshore Swiss bank account, Warner has kept a low profile over the years — but he’s quietly amassed a fortune the size of Djibouti’s GDP.
Today, the 73-year-old Beanie Baby inventor touts an estimated net worth of $2.7B, good for the 887th richest person in the world. He owns a fleet of luxury cars, a $153m estate, $41m worth of rare art, and the Four Seasons Hotel in New York, where you can rent the “Ty Warner Penthouse” for $50k per night."
Re: The Beanie Baby Bubble of '99
#8Relevant portion of the article: "According to economists David Tuckett and Richard Taffler, we often view a hot new financial opportunity as a “phantastic object,” or an unconscious representation of something that fulfills our wildest desires. These objects are “exciting and transformational.” They appear to “break the usual rules of life and turn aspects of ‘normal’ reality on its head.” They promise something far…
I think the most relevant portion of the article is: "There was one person who emerged handsomely from the Beanie Baby bubble: Ty Warner. Aside from getting caught secretly hoarding $107m of his Beanie Baby riches in an offshore Swiss bank account, Warner has kept a low profile over the years — but he’s quietly amassed a fortune the size of Djibouti’s GDP. Today, the 73-year-old Beanie Baby inventor touts an estimate…
"$41m worth of rare art"
That bit at least is rather amusing.
Re: The Beanie Baby Bubble of '99
#9There's a great history of this, The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute by Zac Bissonnette. It's a quick read, almost entirely original reporting. Aside from the colorful characters, it's really compelling to see the way some individuals' and limited information combined with mass media fell together to create the bubble. It seems like it couldn't have happened at any other time because it needed cheap independent publishing (both print and web) before ubiquity eroded the perceived legitimacy.
Re: The Beanie Baby Bubble of '99
#10The current state of NFTs etc. amazes me in the context of Beanie Babies. So many people have learned nothing. Granted the time gap means these are entirely new people making those mistakes. We have such a degraded level of discourse now that if it were used in the Beanie Baby craze there would be people arguing about whether all soft toys are evil.
I wonder how many individuals were buying beanie babies compared to nfts?
I suspect far more beanie baby buying individuals.