It's Not Time to Panic:

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

The bottom is not falling out of the Beanie Babies craze. The prices are down a bit, and I believe that you can point to a natural price correction in the hobby as the cause. In every collectible market you have periods of boom time followed by a price settling... a regression of price... a very natural, don't worry about it, don't jump out of the window or yell at your spouse price correction. The beauty of being associated with the Beanie Babies craze has been the fact that we have enjoyed a series of connected boom times. It seems as if corporate Ty , in all of their genius, has been able to feed the hobby with continuous promotion and creative marketing. The never-ending newspaper clippings, the incredible media coverage, the insane McDonald's promotion and the pumped up secondary market has left the Beanie Babies collector tired...

I'm tired. I've chased the teenie beanies from McDonald's to McDonald's. I've dealt with questionable secondary market sellers. I've talked about Beanie Babies each and every day for the last half year. I've marvelled at the genius that is Ty corporate. I've bought the tag protectors. I've yelled at the television when the guys at Shop at Home tell me that Princess for $500 is a great deal. I've missed meals in order to stand in line for the newest Beanie Babies. I've sat in my computer chair at 1 am and reloaded the ty.com page to see just who the latest retired Beanie Babies will be.... and dang it, I've had a wonderful time doing all of these things, but I'm tired.

So, what now. Well, I'm not taking a break. Randy isn't taking a break. Our operators that work in the chat room are not going to take a break. However, it is completely expected in every hobby that the average collector will take breaks. This is break time.

My advice to the average Beanie Babies collector: Go buy a big, fluffy, cute non-Ty related product, and set it on fire. You'll feel free, and you'll be back to your Beanie Babies collecting very soon.

 

Here's to the hobby...

 

Jeremy Padawer - click for more info