I’ve seen several times the comparison of the possible future of Pokémon tcg to the collapse of beanie babies in the 90s. While clearly they are two entirely different things and the comparison falls flat, it makes me wonder why did beanie babies collapse? I’ve heard of the beanie baby craze and the jokes about it and picture of a couple sorting their beanie baby collection in court, but have never seen why. How did a collectible hobby with such interest and big money put into it with serious adult collectors not sustain itself?
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I can’t say I’ve dug into the answer very thoroughly but if I had to make a guess, I’d say the market was filled with people who were only speculating on the future prices and any interest kids had just wasn’t sustained over time. Basically the main distinction between collectibles that hold value vs not is intense and sustained interest over a long period of time.
Additionally, I think there was some issue where beanie babies were kind of branded as investibles even to the point where production number were under-reported to make them seem rarer than they actually were
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Fun fact – the creator of Beanie Babies, Ty Warner, released HIS OWN Beanie Baby price guides. Can you imagine Pokémon saying “OK Dark Charizard is worth $50, Dark Blastoise $20”?!
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@pokecollectoramy figures there’d be a whole book on it, lol
@pkmnflyingmaster of what little reading I’ve done, it looks like that might be the case. No actually sustained interest in the hobby, just every mom and dad in the country trying to get rich quick off the soaring prices until the supply surpassed the demand and everyone trying new to unload when they realized it wasn’t a good long term investment
PFM hit the main points. I think the biggest factor was there were just too many produced. At the time it was difficult to find them and was a frenzy for a couple years. I remember going to the mall with my mom when there was news of a shipment and it was a madhouse, but when you multiply that by several malls in thousands of cities, then the apparent scarcity was really just an illusion. Some beanie babies do go for thousands today though, the ones that were actually rare or discontinued or produced with certain materials or in certain factories (verified by the tag code). Go check out ebay and you’ll find some sold for 5 figures.
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I can see this as a possibility. Honestly, Beanie Babies reminds me of the Burger King gold cards for Pokemon - people bought them like crazy because they supposed it would increase in value tenfold.
Did people actually take that much of an interest in the gold cards themselves? Not really. They were all but forgotten until people came across them again years later and discovered that the prices were laughable.
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They were massed produced.
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There wasn’t any deep engagement or experience as a consumer.
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High financial speculation on something unproven.
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That’s a great point I didn’t consider. There were no tv shows, video games, tournament play, or inherent trading motivation. It was hardly even a toy, they were just cute with a clever poem and a birthdate. It’s hard to stay interested as a kid with something that even as a toy doesn’t do anything but sit there lol. The most fun my friends and I had with beanie babies was throwing them at each other. 
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If you ever go through Pokémon / trading card magazines from '98/99, there are TONS of Beanie Baby ads. I’ve always wondered if people at the time mentally compared the two. Beanie babies were heavily crashed by 2000… If they hadn’t, maybe unlimited Jungle / Fossil / Rocket packs wouldn’t still be available for less than MSRP a full decade later, because they would’ve been bought up by more speculators instead of sitting on shelves.
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ahem…
I still like beanie babies 
And I am also very lame and just a treat at parties.
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Kids love stuffed animals. Plus how many collectors these days do play the TCG vs look fondly at their cards sitting doing nothing 
A big issue with something where the inherent value to children is cuddling with the plush, when you keep it mint condition in a sealed box and don’t let your the original target market touch them, the long term collection value suffers. Imagine if your parents in 1999 were into Pokémon and you were too, but they bought Base boxes to hoard in storage while giving you nothing!
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I would also say in addition to the points mentioned that everyone was keeping them unplayed with tags attached expecting the value to go up. Like has been said before with pokemon - they may have had that initial craze in the beggining but they were still I think mostly being played by kids and not kept totally mint the whole time - and definitely not unopened - which has made unopened and mint original cards worth so much more
I guess I was more referring to the atmosphere of Pokémon is what fueled the interest. Certainly the way to enjoy beanie babies was/is the same as cards like you say: looking fondly at them. The difference is when you held a Pokémon card like Charizard, you had layers of imagination enhanced by playing the game and throwing out a Charizard containing pokeball in battle, remembering the epic battles you saw on tv, etc. With beanie babies there’s nothing but the object itself. No stories, few memories, little nostalgia. Sure kids love stuffed animals, but the interest wears off quickly when there’s nothing built up in their imaginations like Pokémon was. That’s likely why Pokémon is so visceral for many of us without us even realizing it. The nostalgia of the Pokémon music, tv, toys, video games etc. is remembered through the cards. At least for me the cards are like a recording of my childhood. If none of those elements existed and it was strictly just the cards that were released I doubt I’d be collecting them today.
I realize many people collect Pokémon today without having the childhood connection, but most of the momentum of why the cards are so popular is from nostalgia.
When was the last time you bought a vintage beanie baby?
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I’m a little surprised they didn’t make some beanie babies animated tv shows or games. Toy companies had things down to a formula to release a tv show for upcoming toy lines. Maybe beanie babies might have lasted
About a year-ish/year and a half ago. Found a few at a 99 cent store so just said why not 
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You’re saying you don’t cuddle your 1st ed base Chansey to sleep each night? Fake collector imo
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Fun fact: Beanie Babies got me back into the Pokemon TCG.
I’ve told this story here before, but back in late 2016, I decided to go and buy all of the Beanie Babies I didn’t have as a kid to complete my collection. After I did that, I thought, “I wonder what Pokemon is doing?” Got back into the hobby in early 2017 and have not looked back since.
On a side note, @krill: I freaking love your avatar.
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If a few hypebeast brands collab with beanie babies I feel like the prices will rise lol.
People are out there spending 50$ on supreme stickers.