Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 19, 2022

She should have microchipped them.

So where are Kim’s coders right now??!!

And in today’s dollars they would be worth about [calculating inflation] $30.

Ah yes, the Beanie Baby Bubble.

Um—Alex is 10-years old—isn’t it time for Mike to stop saying, “Daddy will…”, as if she was two??

I’m with Mike here, Say what?!!

the story of these was fascinating. how they grew and then how the market just collapsed but people were thinking they’d be funding their retirement.

My grandson used to collect those. His grandma told him that they would be worth some money some day. He refuses to get rid of them.

They aren’t worth that now – sorry.

I remember my nephew telling us how much his beanie babies were “worth” – he wouldn’t accept that they were only worth what someone would give him for them. I think they all ended up at Goodwill.

And like every bubble, I was right there and missed cashing in on the ride. A casual collector, I just picked them up if I saw a cute one, or the critter meant something to me.

A friend at work who was deep in beanie fever, trading like they were his IRA, found out I unwittingly had some crazy rare beanie and wanted to buy it. Out on a special day, I had picked it up early on before the insanity, so it held “memories,” and I kept declining the weirdly escalating offers.

Nearly 30 years later I have neither a memory of the event, nor the $2,500.

On a lark, I checked and it’s now worth about 15 bucks. I like to tell myself that in a karmic way I helped him dodge a bullet in his retirement plan.

Beanie crypto – just wait, it’ll bounce back…

Poor Alex.

I remember when one of my nephews amassed a collection of BBs. His mother said the estimated worth was about $5,000 and it will only go up and could possibly pay for college. I suggested that if the goal were investments then sell now and put the money into bonds or something safer. She scoffed (a lot of people scoff at me) and said I didn’t know what I was talking about. A year later the BBs were fetching between 25 and 50 cents apiece at yard sales.

Are you listening cryptocurrency investors?

Ok, time to hit ebay and the internet for some reconnaissance and do some back tracking then hit the dark net for some Russian mercs and get those babies back. Spokeo is your friend.

Playing with their Beanie Babies…

Looking at this in small part, I thought I saw Beanie Brains!

When she gets older, she’ll be collecting “crypto-babies”.

My daughter collected beanie babies for the fun of it. As common sense parents, we never thought that they would pay for her college education! As a mother I enjoyed the time we spent together as she searched for a new beanie baby to add to her collection. As all things with children, it was sweet, brief, & passing phase. She still has them in her closet, if someone broke into our home, and stole only them, she would react just like Alex.

I don’t think we ever had Beanie Babies sold in India (officially, that is).

It’s true of all collectibles…there was a similar bubble in comic books and baseball cards during that era. Lesson – buy what you’ll enjoy, period. (Which was always my philosophy.)

Beanie babies. The NFTs of the ’90s.

" Save your Confederate money, honey. The South will rise again! "

The Death Of Superman turned out to be the death of inflated prices for comic books.

Okay,now where do you “fence” a Beanie Baby?Wiretap Uncle Duke’s phone(if it hasn’t been turned off for nonpayment)

Back when L. Ron Hubbard was just a mediocre science-fiction writer, he was on a cruise with other SF authors to view an eclipse in the Southern Hemisphere, and they got to talking about how poorly authors in that field were paid. He grumbled “You know, the real money is in religion.” A few years later he had founded Scientology, based on entirely SFnal premises, and was raking in big bux like there was no tomoro.

So maybe there’s a future in Beanie Babies if you can convince enuf people that they’re gifts from God, or avatars of the 2nd coming, or some other such nonsense.

Homeowners insurance often covers this. My son had his Pokemon collection stolen, and my insurance covered it (less the deductible of course)

Which came first? The Beanie Baby bust or the dot com bubble burst?

Is this guy in touch with ANY part of his life?? What a maroon!

Adults stealing kid toys for their own profit continues to this day. How many stories have you heard about grown men rushing to MacDonald’s to grab all the Pokeman card packs before some kid could have some fun.

Check with the lout in the garage. He has has been a thief since they hired him. Stealing time and money from them.

Mike, I know you’re in shock right now, but maybe you should… I don’t know… CALL THE COPS!!!

Or, something along those lines.

The NFT of its day.

Now they’re not worth a dime each.