How Much is Enough?:

By Jeremy Padawer - Webmaster/Co-Publisher, Absolute Beanie Babies.

If you've spent much time in the Absolute Beanie Babies chat room, you will notice that the chatters will always get around to the subject of the number of Beanie Babies that they own.  Many individuals own three, four and even five-hundred Beanie Babies! Considering the fact that less than two-hundred Beanie Babies have been placed into production, there are collectors in our hobby who own several of each. When I asked the chatters why they had more than one of each Beanie Baby, I received a diverse response.  

Some collectors own several of each Beanie because they are completely caught up in the chase of the collectible item. After they finish collecting the series, they start over again. Although they say that they would sell the duplicates, they never seem to follow through with their plan. I would like to diagnose these people with Beanie disease. While it's difficult for the infected Beanie diseased person to articulate why she continues to add to her collection, she knows that she must scower the chat and the free ads boards on a daily basis. She also knows that if she sold her collection today, she'd get a great return on her dollar.  ...hmmm, this might not be a bad disease to catch?  However, will she ever sell?

Other collectors own several of each Beanie because they are absolutely interested in turning quick bucks.  These folks most definitely are making a relative Beanie killing. The brave souls who are not afraid to sell their collection, over and over again, end up with the most magnificent collections in the long-run. They keep their duplicate Beanie Babies only temporarily. If they see a trend in the price of a particular Beanie Baby, they might buy, sell or trade. This group of people are extremely similar to individuals who play the stock market.  

Finally, there seems to be a third, hybrid group of collectors who embody traits of the Beanie diseased collector and the Beanie stock market collector.  These individuals will sell their Beanie Baby items occasionally.  They are entirely too difficult to predict. I'm guessing that it depends on their mood. Some days they question why they have sunk so much money into Beanie Babies, and because of this, they sell off a few Beanie Babies. By selling of a couple Beanie Babies, they prove to themselves that they are in a hobby as well as a business. Once they've sold a Beanie they then buy twenty more... They go through this cycle over and over again.  

The bottom line is that each collector is different, but we all fit into some category. If we didn't, it certainly would be difficult for corporate Ty to predict what is going to suck us further into a hobby.  heheh...

Here's to the hobby...

 

Jeremy Padawer - click for more info