2/29/2024 0 Comments Military tank toys![]() In 1998, police investigating a stolen-goods fencing operation in Columbus, Ohio discovered $20,000 worth of the beanbag animals most had been lifted from the van of a toy distributor in town for a Beanie convention. More ambitious thieves looked for targets further up the food chain. “I thought, good heavens, this bear is worth $400,” officer Gary Cameron told The New York Times in 1998. Ohio police reported coming across Beanie Babies during busts of organized-crime groups, with one officer recalling the jarring sight of a floppy purple teddy bear discarded on the floor. On the basic, petty-crime level, people filched Beanie Babies from owners, snatching them from homes and car dashboards alike. Rising Values Spurred a Beanie Baby Crime Wave The company's efforts eventually contributed to the implosion of the 1990s’ fad. In the end, the excessive greed seemed to infect the parent company Ty Inc., which was accused not of criminality, but of trying to manipulate the market. ![]() ![]() Some opportunists who crossed the legal line to profit from the craze spent years in jail as a result. said it would stop making the popular plush animals at the end of that year, this store only allowed 12 be be purchased at a time. Theft, fraud and counterfeiting spun up over fuzzy-faced soft toys with names such as “Bananas” (a monkey), “Hairy” (a spider) and “Humphrey” (a camel).įive-year-old Adam Kalina with an armful of Beanie Babies at a toy store in 1999. ![]() And when the Beanie bubble ultimately burst, their stacks of floppy, understuffed toys were rendered virtually worthless.Īmid such hysteria, an underground economy began to flourish-and with it, a wave of criminality. Some families sank their entire life savings into acquiring the rarest examples, hoping to fund retirements and put kids through college. ![]() Like tulip mania before it, and cryptocurrency after, Beanies became a popular alternative asset, with some examples of the $5 toy-in mint condition, with its original hanging tag-selling for thousands of dollars apiece.ĭivorced couples fought over their Beanie Baby assets, and children were trampled by stampeding collectors. By mid-decade, investment mania reached such dizzying heights that an active collectors’ “gray market” developed. Beanie Babies were one of the 1990s biggest fads: colorful, pellet-filled plush toys given cutesy names and an aura of collectibility. ![]()
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