The Beanie Babies were the 90s stuffed animal classic. People loved them so much. Many were flocking to stores and waiting in long lines just to get one. And many hoped they will be able to resell them for a big profit down the line.
Today though things are different. And while some Beanie Babies can fetch quite the prices, for the most part, they remain quite cheap.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Beanie Babies aren’t even worth it. The Rogue Toys store chain for example buys collectibles from people. But not Beanie Babies. “If you bring Beanies to me and try to sell them to me in bulk, I’ll give you about 20 cents. That’s me telling you I don’t want them,” said Steve Johnston, the store’s owner. “Give them away.”
Even the rare Princess Diana memorial bear isn’t a big seller. In fact, currently many sellers of Beanie Babies try to inflate the prices by quoting stories or other items which claim there’s a big rise in prices of the cute toys.
“There’s just this cycle of fake news about Beanie Babies, some of them are the same article, copied and pasted, but they get a ton of traffic,” said Mr. Ryan Tedards from Love My Beanies, who fields about a hundred questions a week from people asking what their Beanies are worth. “It is always a bit of a battle. I have to explain to them that what they read or saw is not true.”
Many people now say they can’t sell their Beanie Babies even for $2. Part of the reason is that back in the 90s, there were many stories and predictions claiming some Beanie Babies’ prices would skyrocket 8000%.
Of course, that didn’t happen. But it did drive up demand for toys at the time. So, the collectible Beanie Babies, aren’t rare at all. Plus, today’s generation isn’t really the collecting type.
So, does all of this matter? Well, it depends on your point of view. If you bought Beanie Babies for the sole reason to resell them for profit, yes, it matters, as it looks like you lost money.
If you are like us, you buy Beanie Babies (and other toys, too) because you like them. So, you don’t care about their resell value or potential profit. You care about your furry, plush friends. And that’s what matters, not the money.
