Beanie Babies: Reigning Toy Craze Champion | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. too and we're feeling fairly. festive and this is stuff you should. know that's right the episode before the. Christmas. episode yeah which is uh become a uh I.

guess tradition to do a classic toy when. did we start that I'd say more custom. than. tradition all. right I'm sorry custom I'm feeling. contrary it is definitely a tradition. yeah that's cuz you're about to shut it. down for a month so you don't care. you're Burning Bridges exactly I won't. see you until like 2024 um yeah like. chuckle chuckle forget anything that. happens today by then I'm trying to. think of when our first toy one was it. was a handful of years ago I don't.

remember but it was Slinky maybe no no I. mean we've done toy ones just not around. Christmas I'm trying to think of the. First toy christmy one I I can't I'm. drawing a blank right now so this is. like high quality podcasting we're doing. right now. yeah well good pick this year yeah. thanks I don't know what made me think. of Beanie Babies but I did and I think. it it turned out to be a good one too. because it had nothing to do with. Christmas really yeah Christmas pops up. at one part but it's a toy and it's a.

really interesting toy because beanie. babies for those of you who don't know. if you were born after the 90s um were. uh probably well I'll just say the. financial times called it um potentially. the greatest market bubble Of All Times. yeah I mean that's that's really saying. something because there's been some. market bubbles but the Beanie Baby craze. of the mid to late 90s probably topped.

them all it was just that crazy I mean. we've talked about some crazy stuff that. people have done for toys before people. elbowing one another for a Cabbage Patch. Kid that's peanuts compared to what. people did for Beanie Babies yeah I. didn't know anything about this either. because that was sort of uh the end of. college and then my New York New Jersey. years and I just I knew that beanie. babies were a thing but I was not. participating uh in the economy in that. way at that point so you didn't you.

didn't own a single one no of course not. I didn't either no I totally didn't but. the thing is is we were in the minority. in America something like 62 or. 63% owned at least one Beanie Baby at. the height of this this bubble think. about that yeah that that honestly was. one of the most shocking stats in this. whole thing yeah that's like 6.3 people. out of every 10 people yeah that's. amazing when you're talking about a. little kid's toy yeah well that was the.

thing it wasn't kids that fueled this. craze it was almost exclusively adults. because the reason to market bubble grew. is because there became this idea that. beanie babies were um valuable that they. had an inherent value greater than the. the the face value that you would pay. for them at the retail store yeah which. was true for a. while yeah it was it was we'll get into. all that let's start from the beginning. shall we all right uh you can't talk.

beanie babies without talking about the. gentleman who started it all uh I do. remember seeing the letters TY y MH on. Beanie Baby packaging so I wasn't. completely head in the sand sure uh but. I did not know that Ty was the guy's. name it was Ty Warner who was born in. the mid1 1940s in lrange uh Chicago. suburb lrange Illinois and he had a. pretty not great childhood it's seems.

like is that fair to say yeah from from. everything I've heard yeah had a had a. mother who suffered from mental illness. which was not treated which is even. worse uh had a didn't have a great. relationship with his dad uh his parents. got divorced when he was in his 30s but. he went to college at kalamazo uh. College in Michigan where he learned his. love of treading the. boards uh yeah C he yeah calu theater. right exactly but he did he got into. acting and it kind of either he was.

already like a theater kid at heart or. it turned him into a theater kid because. he ended up taking that. um that way of living or that way of. looking at the world or being in the. world with him essentially for the rest. of his life yeah he seemed fairly. flamboyant he was flamboyant there's a. really offs sited story about him. showing up uh when he became a Salesman. uh for the toy company that his father. worked for uh he would show up to these.

sales calls in a a. Rolls-Royce wearing a floorlength fur. coat and a cane and a hat amazing. essentially like Kramer when he. accidentally is wearing the Technicolor. Dream Coat and ends up with that big jir. hat and a cane yeah that's essentially. what Ty Warner showed up to these these. sales meetings looking like in the early. 60s and apparently it worked because he. said that um his premise was if he. showed up to a sales meeting looking. like that people would say I want to see.

what's in that guy's briefcase. yeah or do you yeah it depends on the. kind of party you're in for uh yeah he. was a really good salesperson apparently. um he thought a lot of himself though. and in. 1980 he worked for this company I guess. what for like 18 years because he got. the job in. 1962 so that's a nice long run but uh. his at least the way his former boss. told it guy named Harold uh Naaman who.

is the CEO basically accused him of um. Moonlighting on the company and using. their you know sales list and his. personal personal relationships with. people as a salesperson to sell his own. stuff while he was working right uh as a. sales manager for this company and so he. got fired yeah on those sales calls he. would be like yeah I've got these great. dayen products but also I want to show. you these too so he was not only using.

company context he was using company. time too it's about as bad a thing you. can do as a as a Salesman essentially. yeah and it wasn't long after that that. the beanie baby came along no um that. was so it was 1980 when he lost the job. he apparently moved to Rome he went to. go visit some friends and ended up. living there for a few years and um when. he came back he was inspired to to keep. um going in the toy industry I guess it. kind of got under his skin and and he'd. seen some toy cats there in Rome he said.

and he was inspired to create not beanie. babies at first but his first plush toys. which was a line of cats laying down um. pretty fluffy they looked they were. fully stuffed which is a big difference. between them and beanie babies and then. for every cat um there was a Himalayan. version of it uh and they were pretty. cute little cats but the thing that he. did that I think really kind of helped. sell these things cuz they were like a.

modest success I've seen it described as. um that he gave them names they were. indiv they weren't just some stuffed cat. this was Smokey this was peaches like. these these cats were individuals they. they had an identity and that made them. that much more lovable yeah and they. were larger they were about 17 in they. uh larger than Beanie Babies would be uh. they would cost more than beanie babies. at 20 bucks and like you said they were. stuffed but not stuffed with the uh you. know kind of the genius of the I don't.

know about genius that's probably. stretching that word sure let's just say. the Fairly smart thing that he did with. Beanie Babies uh was he stuffed them. with with beads like a like a what's it. called a bean bag chair yeah pretty. much uh and didn't over stuff it so you. could move them around and pose them and. they could you know droop over your. shoulder and stuff like that not like a. regular sort of fully stuffed um. whatever they stuffed those things with. whatever weird uh chemical um stuffing.

oh like the little styrofoam pellets or. the I don't know what's in those things. styrofoam fiber that's kind of like a. yeah fibers yeah I mean those the those. were the cheapest ones that you would. get as like a prize at an amusement park. yes literal styrofoam uh balls right and. that was a big that was a big deal about. his beanie babies because they were high. quality they were very wellmade um from. the outset he was all up the bottom of.

the South Korean manufacturers he had. partnered with to make these things he. was really involved in the design and. Manufacturing process so these were. really highquality dolls but he made a. very conscious decision to sell Beanie. Babies at five bucks a pop which he said. that that was the he he kids could. typically buy that with their allowance. money cuz as we'll forget multiple times. throughout this episode these were. originally meant for kids to buy the.

beanie babies were so that was a really. big deal because he came out he was one. of the first people to come out with a. high quality toy at a price point of. something you would get at like the. county fair or something as a prize but. instead it was a good good quality uh. plush toy yeah exactly and so this was. 1993 for the actual launch of the beanie. baby uh which launched with brownie the. bear yep and Pinchers the. lobster and like a Cabbage Patch kid it. came with a date of birth he he used the.

name like he you know originally did. with those uh fully stuffed cats or. kitties I guess fully stuffed cat sounds. gross it's like a traduction including. the date of birth and then also another. key was this little short poem and their. little heart-shaped tag turned out to be. a bit of marketing genius it was just. just an extra little something to make. it different to appeal to a kid uh. because you got to even if it ended up. being a thing that adults try to collect. because. you know they thought it was valuable it.

never would have gotten there if he. hadn't have made a toy that kids really. love to begin with right um also I mean. he wasn't the first to do that this was. a good 10 years after the Cabbage Patch. Kids and their adoption papers and all. that stuff but it's still it is a good. marketing technique for sure and it did. work but the thing that made beanie. babies really kind of take off was. multifold part of it was his marketing. scheme um he had a really bril Brant. idea which was only certain kinds of.

stores could carry beanie babies and you. actually had to be a licensed Beanie. Baby retailer to sell Beanie Babies. legally or legitimately and those stores. were like Hallmark stores locally owned. Gift Stores um Hospital gift shops like. small stores so that right off the bat. canel any chance of anyone I saw it. described going into like a big Box. Store like a Walmart or something and.

seeing a Bargain Bin of Beanie Babies. just lumped together for 50% off so the. fact that that didn't that that. possibility didn't exist someone. couldn't see that automatically made it. um they were just higher status than. they otherwise would have been because. he he made enough to sell to huge. retailers like that he he decided. deliberately not to do that for that. reason yeah super smart I mean if you. can create a a scarcity and the illusion. that uh what you're pedaling is like uh.

limited and collectible yeah then you're. going to do pretty well uh and that's. what he did but not only by limiting the. amount of stores that could be sold in. but he also limited the number of Toys. that these stores could even buy like a. that Hallmark store once they you know. really T took off couldn't be like hey. we're going to dedicate half our store. to these things now because they're. selling like hot cakes right so he would. Dole them out in limited numbers to the. stores and and uh each of those stores.

only had certain products like you know. you might have spot the dog and Squealer. the pig at one store or chocolate the. moose and Flash the dolphin at another. and that creates a situation then where. kids are like I I gotta you know like. completing the collection is a classic. kids toy scam for sure yeah collect kids. to buy all the things exactly and so you. would have to go around town to multiple. stores in your town to to get the ones.

that were available and because they. were allowed to only buy limited amounts. frequently those things were sold out so. the idea that these things were scarce. collector's items was manufactured out. of the gate by Tai Warner in his. marketing SK um I almost said scam but. scheme I think is a better way to put. it yeah the other big thing is that this. coincided with the rise of the internet. um there's a great uh scene in the movie.

uh there's a movie that's out now uh I. think an apple original called the. beanie bubble yeah I haven't seen it did. you watch it no the reviews aren't kind. um I may watch it because I love Zack. galanakis who plays Ty Warner and. Elizabeth Elizabeth Banks is in the. movie is a sort of a um thinly veiled. version of his former uh business. partner and and romantic partner I think. Patricia Roach. uh but in the movie in the trailer I saw.

today Zach uh said because you know they. started a website and they were you know. an early website in those years yeah uh. Zack gfan or I guess Ty Warner says uh. we broke the internet. thing which I thought was a pretty good. line Because the Internet was so new. everyone was like I guess you know this. is a thing yeah apparently so he had an. employee named Lena travetti and she was. a coder and this is like 1993 94 and she. convinced Ty Warner to create a Beanie. Babies website cuz they were getting.

calls and and letters and stuff like. that from people saying like this is my. checklist is this accurate am I missing. any and they thought well let's just put. like a central place where all of the. beanie babies can be listed and it can. be a place where everybody who likes. beanie babies can come and like learn. and and get excited about beanie babies. and buy Beanie Babies CU starting in. 1995 they started selling Beanie Babies. on this website and that was the same. year that Amazon and eBay launched so. they were one of the first e-commerce.

sites on the internet. too yeah which is amazing uh the movie. has a character named Maya who is again. a thinly veiled version of Lena trabetti. which I'm curious why they didn't just. use their real. names they they touted this as Loosely. based on on um uh Zack binet's book um. and that they that some of it was. fictitious I think to keep from getting. sued I get the impression that Ty Warner.

is not shy about suing people well which. is interesting because he played Ty. Warner in the movie like that's the only. name that wasn't changed yeah I don't I. don't know why they did it but they. definitely did it well judging from the. trailer it seems that both the banks. character and the Maya character are uh. kind of one of the threads of the movies. as as it was seemingly in real life was. that there were at least a couple of. women in the organization that had a lot. to do with with their growth and the.

sort of story is that he never gave them. enough credit and that seems to play out. in the movie oh yeah he like if you read. any like um corporate writeups like like. press releases or the very rare. interviews he's given like it sounds. like the whole thing was just him just. him yeah and in part it was largely him. because he owned the company from the. outset always has he's never sh he's. never sold one share he didn't take it. public it's been a privately owned. Company by him 100% as far as I know um.

from the outset so he definitely you. know really was the driving force in. this but he had help that is largely. unacknowledged publicly that it's a good. thing that Zack banet came along and and. also the people who made that the movie. based on Zack binet's book to kind of. shine a spotlight on the other people. particularly women who helped him yeah. Zach and Zach that's right the two Zachs. on the Zack attack against Tai War. that's right uh the other thing that he.

did to sort of you know drive this um I. mean I guess we can call it a false. scarcity is he had he was very secret. about the company uh he didn't want. people outside the company knowing like. when they were going to launch a new. kind of toy how many they were making. right um in 1995 he started retiring. models that was huge and then adding. other ones and he would just all of a. sudden drop like you know this uh Marty. Moose what did I call them something the.

Moose Chocolate Moose Chocolate Moose is. gone let's say and and if they're Bea. baby people out there are like no. chocolate mousse never left I'm just. using that as an example that's a good. idea but they would just announce that. on the website and all of a sudden. people are like oh my God they've. retired the moose and you know people. are driving around and trying to find. them in those stores before they're all. gone yeah that was a that was a. deliberate thing to do as well to create. the further scarcity like legitimate. scarcity but apparently. he fell into that backwards or he.

stumbled into it because we said that he. was really involved in the design after. these things would launch he would like. see one and be like that's too orange I. want it more red and all of a sudden I. saw Pinchy the the lobster would be a. much deeper red well they'd stop. producing the orangish red one and the. Beanie Baby collectors would go Bonkers. trying to find the other one he started. to notice that and um so he created real. scarce by deliberately retiring some.

just out of the blue people would go. scramble to find them and then retailers. most importantly would start stockpiling. everything that he had um that that they. could sell of say the orange. Pinchy yeah he was also smart enough to. um to realize that the Cabbage Patch. Kids like when they when that Bubble. Burst it just kind of all went away and. so he would do things like hey Hallmark. if you want to order these Beanie Babies. you got to also order some of this other. stuff that I'm selling it's not as.

nearly as popular but he he tried to. increase Revenue sort of across the. company so he wasn't all in on the. Beanie Baby right um I say we take a. break and come back and talk about how. McDonald's factors into this what do you. think me what yeah lately I've been. learning some stuff about. insomnia or. Alia how about the one on borderline. disorder better yet birth order heard.

that one before but it was so nice I. learned it. Twi everybody listen. up oh it's Charles and. Joshua it's stop stop stop you should. know learning stuff is fun with Josh and. sh. [Music].

sh okay Chuck so we said McDonald's. factors into this like any great. American economic bubble story. McDonald's is going to play some role in. it whatsoever somehow some way and um. McDonalds is the one that basically said. if you are just kind of out there on the. margins and don't really know what's. going on in this Beanie Baby collector. World growing under your very nose this. McDonald's Happy Meal promotion is going. to. just blow the doors off of any illusions.

that Beanie Babies are not a cultural. force to be reckoned with yeah over a. couple of years I think they had two. versions in 97 and 98 where they there. were hundreds of millions of teeny. babies these were even smaller obviously. because it was you know to fit into a. Happy Meal yeah teeny beanies uh yeah. what did I say teeny babies it works too. I like teeny babies I like teeny babies. too teeny beanies. uh and you know even if your thing is.

already popular all of a sudden if. hundreds of millions of these things are. going out in Happy Meals and you know. the most popular you know fast food. restaurant chain in the world then it's. going to just Skyrocket this thing even. further and that's exactly what it did. yeah the the 1998 one the second one. that they did where you could get teeny. beanies in a Happy Meal uh the first. weekend of that promotion McDonald's saw. the the highest increase in sales in its. corporate history it had never sold more.

in any weekend in the history of. McDonald's than it did for at the. beginning of that second Beanie Babies. promotion and people were ordering as. many happy meals as they were allowed to. order and telling the McDonald's workers. to keep the food I just want the Beanie. Babies McDonald's had to set up rules. like individual franchises had their own. rules it was really Patchwork where um. you could say get five Happy Meals per. order and or per visit and you had to. have a 2hour waiting period in between.

visits so people would like just go from. McDonald's to McDonald's and then just. go on like a circuit to get as many of. the Beanie Babies as they possibly could. um people were tackling like delivery. people showing up with the boxes of the. new Beanie Babies it was nuts what. people did just for the McDonald's. version of the the beanie babies yeah. that McDonald's record that even counts. passing the great MCB Feast of 92 the. pre record holder the mcb's back right.

now I saw I've been meaning to go get. one talk about false scarcity yeah same. thing for sure I mean I mean they could. put that on their menu at any time right. totally for sure you know that the fat. cats at McDonald's corporate are eating. MC ribs every day of the year. yeah the employee lounge is just stocked. with them right but all this that's. going on Chuck is is uh it it. underscores a larger cultural thing and. that is that people are buying these. beanie babies not just because they.

think they're the cutest thing on two. legs but because it has become um. largely widely accepted that they are a. Sound Investment um if you want to. diversify your portfolio or more often. was the case make your entire portfolio. just Beanie. Babies yeah you know this was by the. like you said the Cabbage Patch Kids. that already come and gone everyone has. already known at this point about the. you know Star Wars Collectibles and. baseball cards and trading cards so the.

idea I I think there are certain people. out there after all those things. happened that are always sort of looking. for that next thing as a you know sort. of alternative investment uh if I can. you know buy 50 beanie babies and put. them in a box and just sit on them and. that'll put my kids through college one. day yeah uh and that's you know a lot of. people did stuff like that I think you. mentioned eBay had launched uh very soon. soon afterward they launched in 995 and.

in 1997 this is the other most. staggering stat of uh the show to me 6%. of all of eBay was Beanie Baby sales. yeah isn't that nuts so the secondary. Market really did grow up and there. really was like a a huge market for. Beanie Babies that say had been retired. and one that you had bought for $5 and. kept in the package you could sell for. hundreds of dollars on eBay legitimately. in the in the mid to late 90s yeah so.

it's this really was happening like it. it wasn't like the everybody was just. hoping Beyond hope that their beanie. babies were going to increase in value. they were increasing value before their. very eyes so people who weren't sucked. into it were like this is the dumbest. thing I've ever seen and the if there's. ever been an economic bubble this is it. um and yet people were buying these. things for like long-term investing they. were buying them hang hanging on to them. for 20 years or 30 years from now the.

people who were actually. trading in the moment are the ones who. might have made money off of it but. that's pretty much the only people who. did yeah for sure uh it also created a. sort of an IND industry around it uh you. found some examples of people that made. a lot of money just in the ancillary. Beanie Baby Market by doing things like. writing books about stuff uh this woman. Peggy Gallagher she was a pargal she 200. Grand on a book that she self-published.

called the Beanie Baby phenomenon and. then started making I imagine a pretty. good deal of money as an official well. not official but as just an experienced. beanie. authenticator uh another woman named. Mary Beth sooi uh she was a IBM uh. systems engineer and she just made sort. of the the go-to list like the the Bible. basically of uh Beanie Baby pricing and. made a lot of money off that and also. started putting out a magazine yeah like.

a was it a monthly uh yes it was based. around the price list like did you ever. collect or read beckets monthly for. baseball cards it's just a big price no. but I knew about it okay it was. basically that but for for Beanie Babies. it was called Mary Beth bean bag World. they sold 650,000 copies a month at its. peak for six bucks a pop so that's. almost $3 million a run per issue yeah. for Beanie babies's price guides right. but she really went to town with it it. wasn't it wasn't you know just based on.

nothing they she and her her um. assistants like called dealers Beanie. Baby dealers to find out what their. prices were what was selling really fast. what you got what you got they were. right right they were following eBay. prices like they were it was a. legitimate um Olivia put it was the gold. standard price list for a reason yeah. you know so um and Marth so Mary Beth. sooi is um another woman who is often. overlooked for the contribution she made.

to the Beanie Baby Mania because in. addition to creating the gold standard. price list she was one of the original. um. self-described uh Chicago Suburban. soccer moms who started trading beanie. babies in the first place and apparently. their fervor in trading beanie babies in. suburban Chicago actually kicked off the. national trend of collecting and trading. beanie babies and and they essentially. created the secondary Market there's a. HBO documentary a couple years ago I.

think called beting beating Mania that. really does a good job of shining a. light on on them and their role and. contribution to the whole thing too so. we've had a documentary now a feature. film yes Broadway Broadway's next and. then James M is coming back to life to. write an epic novel about it that'd be. pretty amazing uh speaking of amazing. there are also some amazing stories. about uh just how kind of crazy things.

got uh in in many different ways um one. of which is a 1999 divorce case in Las. Vegas where this couple was was. divorcing and they had a lot of combined. Assets in the form of Beanie Babies that. they thought you know were worth a lot. and they may have been worth a lot of. money their collection uh and they. there's a very great picture if you look. it up on the internet just type in you. know like Vegas Beanie Baby divorced. couple and they brought all these beanie. babies in on the floor and the judge.

said like like choosing a team at recess. you just go one at a time and each of. you pick out a beanie baby that you're. going to keep for yourself and it's just. a very kind of funny looking photo it is. and until you read like some of the. quotes from the woman involved in the. divorce case the wife who was like this. it was really you know demoralizing and. um and degrading to have to be forced to. do that she was really upset that the. judge made her and her ex-husband do.

that but it it really yeah she was she. was not happy about it at all um but it. was like the whole thing was worth five. grand I think they said but that was. five grand at the time and people were. speculating on beanie babies so that. thing could have been worth a million. dollars that pile of Beanie Babies which. is why they went to the trouble of. selecting them like that one at a. time I don't know I mean I guess. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion. it's her life but degrading I I don't. think she used the word degrading but it. was it was along those lines I'm.

paraphrasing okay I would have felt more. silly unless he like tied them both up. and made them do it with their mouth or. something that's degrading yeah no the. if when they picked a beanie baby they. had to pick it up with their chin and. hand it to their ex to to say whether it. was okay if they kept it or not and then. they had to hand it back all without. using their hands right or that uh what. was the thing you would do where you. would pass a something with your neck. that's what I'm talking about oh okay. they they did that but with the beanie. babies they selected okay what did.

people used to pass though what was like. a orange I think is what it was oh yeah. yeah yeah that's right I can't remember. when you're a kid it's I think the whole. point of that game was like o look how. close we are exactly right it was like. um spin the bottle but with an orange. and necks and chance no bottle right uh. there was a guy in California named. Chris Robinson senior I don't think any. relation to the the other Chris Robinson. and he bought 20,000 Beanie Babies uh.

not $20,000 worth 20,000 actual Beanie. Babies uh spending a hundred grand or so. and he was one of those guys that was. like this is going to put my five kids. through college one day and one of his. kids uh Chris Jr of The Black Crows I. guess made a documentary called bankrupt. by beanies about like I guess how dumb. he thought his dad was for spending that. much money like emptying their Bank. account cuz he thought it was a good. investment yeah it's like it's a very. short documentary it's like 8 to 12.

minutes I can't remember which one and. it's mostly it's just him interviewing. his family members about this period in. their family's history and is dad dumb. yeah it was like the dad is definitely. like you know I it was not a good idea. but um he's still holding out hope that. you know at some point sometime down the. road oh yeah they still have them like. they're the background in all of the the. um the shots like the interviews. uh it's pretty it's cute it's not like. you know condemnation or anything like.

that but it's just it's it's worth the8. to 12 minutes that you'll spend watching. it I think all right let's go check that. out the dad's like this this documentary. is very degrading right I'm. paraphrasing uh there were a lot of. cases uh you know there were people. indicted in court for counterfeiting. these things um you know POS that were. never delivered and and Distributors. kept them money Mone uh The Craze was so. bad there was actual crime like people.

breaking in and stealing Beanie Babies. uh this one case of a 77y old guy in. Chicago named Ben Perry uh was charged. with stealing close to 1300 Beanie. Babies uh there was a pi that found him. uh a tie Incorporated private eye in. fact they found him moving stuff out of. a storage locker moving these toys in. and out and I'm not sure like he said. that they weren't stolen yet he gave. them up and donated them uh to a charity.

like that seems very fishy to me he. apparently bought them for dirt cheap at. a produce market like a farmers market. and he swore he didn't know that they. were stolen even though they were in. boxes labeled tie like they were. shipping boxes stolen out of the. warehouse but he got off finally but it. became clear to him that he he didn't. steal them but that they were stolen so. he just you know donated them so he. didn't get in trouble no but apparently. he loved all of the Limelight that was.

cast on him by the Press during this. this um the time that he was in court as. the Beanie Baby Bandit he apparently ate. it up so he got something 77 he's like. I'm going out in style exactly uh there. was another one a murder is frequently. linked to Beanie Babies even though. that's kind of a stretch if you start to. stretch beneath the surface but um a man. named Jeffrey white murdered uh another. man Harry Simmons in West Virginia. um supposedly over a dispute over who.

owned some Beanie Babies although really. what happened was Harry Simmons and. Jeffrey white used to work together and. I think Jeffrey white was stealing or. loafing or something like that and Harry. Simmons got him fired so Jeffrey white. who had borrowed beanie babies from him. and hadn't given them back killed Harry. Simmons we understand you've been. loafing exactly is that. true uh yeah is that a crime if if you. got time to lean you got time to clean. son oh man uh should we take a break on.

that note yeah sure all right we'll be. right back and wrap up the story of the. Beanie Baby lately I've been. learning. ins or. alumia how about the one on borderline. disorder better yet birth order heard. that one before but it was so nice I. learned. everybody listen.

up oh it's Charles and. Joshua it's stop it's St St you should. know Lear stuff is fun with Josh. [Music]. and all right uh we called the this a. bubble uh like any sort of collectible. or real estate bubble or financial.

bubble because they eventually burst uh. and the the beanie baby really followed. the the I was about to say rise and fall. the internet the internet clearly. clearly never fell survived but the big. dotc boom was what what helped the. Beanie Baby along and also helped kill. it a little bit uh although you know. beanie babies were bound to um I think. they were bound to go away one way or. another anytime is something it's. something like this uhuh uh uh uh August.

1999 the website said or stop we're. stopping the operation we're not going. to make any more of these at this point. 325 different Beanie Babies at the end. of the year uh some people thought no. this is we know that Tai guy by now this. just a stunt to get people to buy more. of his stuff uh but it you know it kind. of worked because enthusiasts and. collectors were like all right this is. our last chance to go and get what's out. there to complete to complete our. collections right um I didn't read the.

book Zack binet's book but I read a a. review of it that they they mentioned. the way that he puts it this was this. was in fact 100% a stunt to kind of. juice the beanie the beanie the Beanie. Baby Market again yeah and it did work. but in the short term and he basically. says Ty Warner killed his his creation. by by carrying out this St. because um on Christmas Eve here's where.

Christmas pops up as we said at the. beginning Christmas Eve 1999 right. before the turn of the Millennium or no. I guess that was a year later um he said. Ty Ty Warner announced on the website I. changed my mind I'll leave it up to you. guys to vote whether we should keep. making beanie babies or not and in his. credit you had to you had to pay 50. cents to vote but each 50 Cent um vote. went to the uh Elizabeth Glazer Glazer. pediatric AIDS Foundation so that was. something but 91% of people said yes we.

want to keep beanie babies going of. course he did yeah and the company said. oh well that's great we just so happen. to have a whole new line of them ready. to go so here you go everybody beanie. babies for all and it was met with some. um um craziness but but nothing like it. used to be and very shortly after that. the whole thing started to fizzle out. rather quickly yeah it seemed like this. sort the last hurrah uh I don't know if. Ty Warner like saw the writing on the.

wall and wanted one more sort of big. sales crunch uh I mean if that's how we. planned it then that was pretty smart. because that's you know that's what. happened they had a huge sales jump uh. even though brief they sold about $800. million do in. 2000 I mean that's seven years. later I think Beanie Babies lasted a lot. longer than I would have expected them. to it it seems to me like it would have. been like a 2-year flash in the pan but.

they were around for a while yeah I I. saw that they were still going until. about 2002 so that's yeah that's a good. long almost a decade of a of a craze of. a bubble um and but but at the end of it. all people started to realize like oh. wait a minute everybody has these things. this this Clubby bear that I I had to. pay for the privilege of buying to be. part of the club um everybody has that. or everyone has the princess Dy um. Beanie Baby Bear the special limited.

edition um Beanie Baby they released in. honor of Princess Dy after she died they. made it sound like this was like the. scarcest beanie baby yet there were. there's like a hundred million of them. out there so people started to realize. like these things aren't aren't scarce. at all there's a glut of them and these. thousands and thousands of dollars worth. of Beanie Babies that I have set aside. um are are. worthless um and and that was a huge. blow to a lot of people at the same time. I think it was also freeing because you.

it's you'll just come across stories of. people who basically spent all of their. free time tracking down Beanie Babies it. was an obsession that they couldn't quit. and so they were they were out a bunch. of money and time and Wasted Years but. they were free finally when the market. finally. crashed yeah it's like uh. Bitcoin I've seen it I've seen it very. um closely compared to bitcoin in at. least one article yeah I mean I know. people who are sort of obsessively hours.

and hours a day trading uh. cryptocurrency MH and it's it seems. exhausting to me and it's the same thing. if you ever see a bubble coming along. that's not a long-term thing if. something suddenly just jumps in value. and it's shocking and people are writing. like crazy articles about it buy it and. then sell it during that don't hang on. to it long term same thing with Bitcoin. like a lot of people made a lot of money.

by buying Bitcoin cheap and then selling. it at its peak it's people who hung on. to it as a long-term investment that are. now like I lost my shirt you know yeah. so um it's the same thing with beanie. it's the same thing with any economic. bubble you have to know when to get out. at just the right time or you can sit on. the sidelines and be like you guys are. Chumps right uh well who certainly. wasn't a chump was uh was Tai because he. and I feel like I can just call him Tai. because that was so his brand that Ty. yeah for sure uh no one knows exactly.

what kind of dough he made on these. because uh like you said earlier he. never you know became a he never. launched an IPO and didn't have to. disclose stuff publicly but he uh is and. was a man with with some ego because uh. in 1998 there were some questions about. you know Beanie Babies did they really. sell as much was it the top toy seller. in the world and he himself took out a. full page Wall Street Journal ad saying. that he made $700 million in profits in.

1997 alone which is I don't know if that. number is true but if it's 700 million. just in profits in one year then that's. remarkable that that would have made Tai. Inc more profitable than Hasbro and. Mattel together that year this is just. from everything they sold exactly just. in profits right that's what um that. taking out that ad in Wall Street. Journal is what you call today a flex. Flex yeah but I mean he is still a legit.

billionaire um it's sort of gone up and. down according to Forbes as far as his. net worth goes uh 2002 supposedly at 6. billion 2009 down to 3.2 2023 forb says. he's worth about. 5.7 uh but it's you know he still has. that company but he also uh Diversified. got into real estate uh notably as a. hotelier uh and he owns the I think. still closed Four Seasons Hotel uh New.

York still closed what's it closed for. uh it depends on who you ask I think he. claimed it was Renovations but other. people said it was a dispute with the. the Four Seasons brand but I think it's. supposed to reopen in sometime next year. yeah I saw he had a dispute with the. Four Seasons brand over upkeep fees like. what he basically needed to spend to. keep the thing up to Four Season. standards yeah I also saw that um that. was the first hotel that open to First.

Responders and doctors and nurses um who. were working on the front lines of the. co pandemic so that they they had a. place to stay and wouldn't have to go. home and infect their families which I. thought was pretty cool yeah I mean I. guess we can talk about that a little. bit in a broader sense because um Warner. is someone who like has has been notably. charitable as far as like uh. front-facing sort of. uh putting stuff out there kind of stuff. like the Elizabeth Glazer pediatric AIDS.

Foundation when he donated you know the. 50 cents for those votes and stuff like. that because he got in trouble at one. point for um for tax well not tax fraud. but what do you call it tax evasion and. as part of his uh sentence uh one of. which was a couple years probation 500. hours of community service and $100,000. fine on the criminal side he paid uh. over $53 million in civil penalties um. but part of the argument was like Hey.

you know as far as this defense goes. like this guy's really charitable he's. donated millions of dollars to the. children's hunger fund and the Andre. agasse foundation and like I said a lot. of really public facing like uh large. donations but prosecutors are like. that's a pittance of what this guy's. Worth right and just because he gives a. little bit of money and makes a big deal. about it doesn't mean he didn't break. the law yeah the judge in the case. though was like. yeah he did but again I'm pretty. impressed with his charitable work so he.

got off easy he could have gone to. prison for four years instead he got off. with a $100,000 fine 500 hours of. community service and two years. probation um and it was for just the. dumbest thing he had a a a Swiss bank. account that no one knew about but him. um that had like a hundred million do in. it this guy was a billionaire three. times over at his poorest point there. there's just no reason to have done that. and he did and he got got caught doing. it and so he he called it the greatest. mistake of his.

life. besides besides that pump and dump. scheme at the turn of the. Millennium so they kept making stuff uh. stuffies in fact um as a company in 2004. they started licensing deals or or. getting involved with you know licensing. other people's stuff like Garfield and. some Disney stuff uh there was something. called beanie booze that came out in 20. 9 those were kind of big uh that were. yeah they they did okay I mean nothing.

obviously went like the beanie baby but. nothing ever has probably sure but he. still is out there making money selling. stuff and he's doesn't seem to be um. slow and down I think how old is he now. 70 what three I think 79 years old 79. that was pretty close give her takes six. years uh but he's still trying to Market. um himself and his toy company I I think. it was a little dismissive of the movie. like everybody who's ever had a movie. made about themselves they always say.

like yeah 10% of that thing is true but. I think they also secretly kind of like. that they've made a movie about them you. know sure sure that kind of thing right. for sure there's that also that. secondary Market Chuck is still around. and people are trading on that that myth. that some people still have that Beanie. Babies are really valuable and so if you. go on to eBay and start searching Beanie. Babies you'll find some for like a. some I think for less than a dollar and. then you can turn around and find the.

exact same ones for sale for $25,000 or. $60,000 or something like that and I was. reading a I think Tai collector.com. article where they were basically saying. like we're pretty sure this is either. money laundering that's going on or it's. some sort of scam where these people are. trying to beef up like the the um market. value of these things or the secondary. Market um artificially or it's just a. straight up scam where like you you pay. them or they buy from you and say oh I.

overpaid pay me back in a gift card. which is another thing in addition to. selling at the height of a bubble never. do business with somebody who demands to. be paid in gift cards Something Fishy is. going on right there that's my other. word of advice around this Christmas. time yeah this not like a babysitter or. something yeah even still I'd be like. what's your what's your angle babysitter. uh the one thing that cracked me up. though was that uh when the movie came.

out and he kind of which was just. recently I think this summer um or last. summer or whatever he uh said you know. uh I really wanted I would preferred. somebody like Warren batty or Daniel T. Le to have played me yeah I'm like when. this was going on he was in his 40s. Warren batty is 89 years old yeah he's. aged Daniel De le is 66 they're not even. close in age uh he's 26 23 years younger. than Warren batty like this guy's all. over the place well his thing with. Daniel de Lewis is that he really did.

beat somebody to death with a bowling. pin once so he thought Daniel de Lewis. could really bring that to life on. screen like he did and There Will Be. Blood oh boy you got anything else I got. nothing else have you forgotten all the. mean things I've said to you this. episode I don't even know what you're. talking about great well since Chuck. doesn't know what I'm talking about. everybody that means that it's time for. listener. mail uh you know we're we going to forgo. listener mail this week it's late in the. year and we would just like to uh remind.

everybody we're going to say our. official Christmas greetings on our. Christmas episode but uh we've got some. great live shows coming up next year. we're doing our Pacific Northwest swing. and as we do every year in SE almost. every year in Seattle Portland and San. Francisco at sketchfest and uh we went. to some bigger theaters this time in. Seattle especially so we would love to. see everybody and for you to fill those. places up start 2024 off right just go. to our website stuff you should know.com.

and click on the tour page and buy. tickets from legitimate sources please. do not go to scalper sites you might. think it's the real site but if the. tickets are more than like 40 bucks or. something then it's not a real site or. if they want to be paid in gift cards. not a real ticket seller that's right. but we hope to see everybody uh in. January late January absolutely and in. the meantime everybody if you want to. get in touch with us you can send us an. email send it off to stuff podcast.

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