Beanie Babies

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are in dire straits. With the market in a severe downturn, it’s safe to assume the NFT bubble has well and truly burst. It was never clear why these digital collectables traded for such large amounts of money. Now they mostly do not. What’s behind their turn of fate? And is there any hope for their future?

What are NFTs?

• “Non-fungible” means unique, as opposed to a “fungible” item such as a five-dollar bill, which is the same as every other five-dollar bill.
• Digital assets are easily copied, so an NFT is essentially a receipt showing you have paid for something that other people can get for free.
• Both sets consist of 10,000 similar-looking but unique figures, distinguished by differing hairstyles, hats, skin colours and so forth.

Why did people buy NFTs?

• Even the venerable auction house Sotheby’s, founded in 1744, jumped on the NFT bandwagon.
• Sotheby’s sold 101 Bored Ape NFTs for more than US$20 million in September 2021.
• As with Bitcoin and similar speculative tokens, the primary driver for buying NFTs was greed.
• Then came the Beanie Baby and dotcom booms of the late 1990s – and more recently, meme stocks and Terra-Luna cryptocurrency.

The NFT crash

• Prices in the NFT market have also seen huge falls.
• One high-profile example is an NFT of the first tweet by then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
• Crypto entrepreneur Sina Estavi bought this NFT for US$2.9 million in March 2021.
• What drove the NFT collapse?
• Last year, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced, when he was chancellor of the exchequer (their equivalent of treasurer), the Royal Mint would produce an NFT.

Gone for good?

• Some subjects of past bubbles are still around.
• Poseidon shares, which ran up from 80 cents in September 1969 to $280 in February 1970, are still listed (and currently trading for 2 cents).
• They will probably join the Dutch tulips and dotcoms in the history of speculative follies.

• Why are some Beanie Babies worth more than others?
• – Theo R., age 8, Rockford, Illinois
  Why are some Beanie Babies worth more than others?
• – Theo R., age 8, Rockford, Illinois Most Beanie Babies are not worth much money.
• That’s because Beanie Babies are made in large enough quantities that anyone who wants one can get one.

Beanie bubble

• Beanie Babies were launched in 1993 by a toy company called Ty.
• As more and more people started looking for certain Beanie Babies – especially those Ty had produced only in very limited quantities – resale prices went up.
• Some buyers believed collecting Beanie Babies was a great way to make money.
• A bubble is when a lot of enthusiastic people buy a particular thing at prices that far exceed its true value.

Rarity makes a Beanie worth more

• Today, only a tiny fraction of Beanie Babies are worth something.
• Valuable Beanie Babies are simply the ones that are very rare.
• For example, Pinchers the lobster was for a short time labeled as “Punchers.” To be worth money, rare Beanie Babies must also be in perfect condition.

Beanie Babies’ value is what people will pay

• Just because someone lists their Patti the platypus for $11,000 doesn’t mean a buyer will come forward to pay that amount for it.
• The best way to learn about the current value of something is to look at recent sales of items that are very similar.
• Even if some Beanie Babies are worth a lot of money today, nobody knows if they will keep their value in the future.
• The value of anything is what other people are willing to pay for it.

• In honor of the now decades long tradition of ostensibly smart people embracing, promoting, and investing in verifiably bonkers investment ideas, Toews Asset Management , through the National Archives, has established a new holiday, Investment Risk Management Day, to be celebrated annually on January 19.
• In 2021 and 2022 we saw “investment” ideas that made investing in Beanie Babies in the 90’s seem fiscally responsible.
• Join us in celebrating National Investment Risk Management on January 19th, 2023 and beyond.
• Toews Asset Management specializes in risk-managed strategies, offering a suite of funds that attempt to provide investors with upside market exposure and heightened risk protection during market declines.

• OAK BROOK, Ill., March 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --Ty Warner CEO, of TY Inc .
• Ty Warner is an American toy manufacturer and owner of luxury hotels worldwide.
• He is Chairman, CEO, and founder of Ty Inc., the largest manufacturer of plush toys in the world.
• Most recently, Warner released Max the dog Beanie Baby , with 100% of profits being donated to NEXT for Autism to raise awareness of autism support.