TGIF! Look at Fox over here spreading more fake news. They say a baseball game is happening tonight even though everyone knows the season ended last Monday. DIE IN A FIRE SPRINGER YOU CHEATING DISGRACE!

Word Count Filler Time

Let’s learn about a guy named Ty Warner.

Ty worked a sales job for a stuffed toy company way back when. In 1980, he decided to strike out on his own and start his own toy company. He did well, but in 1993 he made it big time by coming up with a cheap stuffed animal that even kids could afford with their allowance. His stuffed animal would be made of polyester fabric, tiny, stuffed with plastic beans, a tag with its name, birth date, and a short poem describing it, all for the low cost of $5. Everyone in the industry thought he was crazy because the animals look deflated and felt like beanbags. That was on purpose, of course, because he called them “Beanie Babies.”

Well, you all know those were a big thing, right? Ty made that happen with scarcity. He only sold them to small shops, no shop could purchase every Beanie Baby, and each store was limited to 36 per month of each animal they could procure. Ty also regularly retired Beanie Babies, and did so and varying lengths. Some had long runs, some had short runs. Furthermore, small changes were periodically made to some animals, such as changing the coloUr of one of its elements, or the entire animal itself. Best of all, Ty would not advertise, announce, or disclose any information about them except for retirement announcements. So buyers couldn’t know how many, where, versions, or when or if an animal would be retired.

This quickly fueled a rabid collector fanbase. Resale values for the oldest and rarest Beanie Babies skyrocketed. Stores sold out new Beanie Babies immediately to collectors camped out for hours before opening. Delivery drivers were followed to their drop-off spots. McDonald’s did a promo that offered a Teenie Beanie Baby in Happy Meals. Collectors would buy dozens of Happy Meals, throw out the food, then get back in line to buy more. 100 million Teenie Beanie Babies were sold out in 10 days, by far McDonald’s most successful promotion.

Then the crash happened. Asian factories copied the animals and flooded the market with hundreds of millions of copies. Collectors got burnt out chasing so many different versions. Beanie Babies were piling up unsold on store shelves. So, in 1999 Ty, who had already made $6 billion, announced all Beanie Babies were being retired at the end of that year. That produced a bump in sales, so Ty put out a vote to if he should continue. Callers only had to pay 50¢ to cast their vote and, of course, it passed. The craze was over by Ty still produces Beanie Babies today.

As always, don’t invest in fads folks.

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