The Rise and Fall of Beanie Babies

Arriving on the scene in 1993 at the World Toy Fair in New York City, Beanie Babies took the world by storm. For $5 you could get a bean bag animal with names like Legs the Frog and Pinchers the Lobster. Beanie Babies were a combination of 'beans' and stuffing. The 'beans' being small plastic PVC pellets. Each Beanie came with a heart shaped hang tag that had the Ty logo on the front and the animal's name and style number on the back. Consumers loved this new twist on the all too familiar stuffed animal. And they were collectible. But what everyone loved even more was the fact that someday, years down the road, our beloved Beanie Babies would one day be worth a small fortune.
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#beaniebabies #truestories #interestingfacts #thebeaniebubble

[@EricaMariah]

Goodwill for $1 now. beanie baby bears are my 5 year olds favorite toy. She says she has an army of bears 😂

[@ArmchairInvestigator]

That is too cute!!

[@EricaMariah]

Also, $1.99 Happy Meal has me shook!

[@labrinth.plays.6576]

me and my sister have an army of retired beanie baby cats lol

[@nachoslayer2113]

This channel is fantastic, definitely deserves more recognition

[@ArmchairInvestigator]

What a compliment! Thank you.

[@peternystrom921]

First video i see here and i’m a fan. You have a new sub 😍

[@1984BodeaMauO]

Joined today!

[@johnfritz7222]

You answered a question that I always wanted to know with saying Maple was the first draft pick from the beanie baby divorce. And the lady who contracted polio, and waa wheelchair bound and only had limited use of her right arm, only to end up creating the most iconic stuffed bear line, is a very inspirational story

[@maurariverav]

wow i just saw a tiktok that og beanie babies are back

[@maurariverav]

and yes 22 year old here sleeping with stuffed animals

[@ArmchairInvestigator]

I just saw some second generations in an ice cream shop!

[@Silenced_by_nazi_youtube]

Ummm what?

[@leydhiperez3200]

I saw some with beanie boos at 7-Eleven 😮

[@HolographicCathawk]

They never went away

[@cam20118]

Loved this episode Brooke! Needed something lighthearted and obscurely mysterious… thank you for your variety or content and consistently excellent delivery.

[@ArmchairInvestigator]

I always appreciate hearing from you, Cameron. 💛

[@MoriMementa]

As someone who lived through the Beanie Baby craze, I see a lot of similarity with the Squishmallow collecting world. I'll gladly tell anyone who will listen that the secondhand Squishmallow market will eventually crash and then the resellers can say goodbye to the days of sticking hundred dollar price tags on their twelve dollar stock. Don't plan your retirement around reselling plush toys and think carefully before you shell out three hundred bucks for a hard to find Squish. Like Beanie Babies, Squishmallows are meant to be enjoyed, not profited from.

[@BarkTheGoblin]

Ironically, I’m sitting here listening to this video while making necklaces/bracelets for my beanies. I’m almost 18 years old and I’ve recently gotten so attached to my beanies. I have Princess, Millenium, Goochy, Swirly, Pinchers, Patti the 2nd, and Inch. As of writing this, I’m waiting for Scorch and Magic to arrive. They have grabbed me by the neurodivergence and have a chokehold on me

[@ArmchairInvestigator]

Loved reading this! Put a huge smile on my face. 😊

[@BarkTheGoblin]

@@ArmchairInvestigator thank you!! Funny enough, a few minutes after I commented that, I found my Millennium beanie baby!! It was hiding behind other stuffed animals on my shelf. I’m pretty sure my Princess one is in the attic, but I can’t go up there.

[@kristinazubic9669]

Love those dragons

[@lizd.8655]

Yes, I had about 50 of these cuties and I took them to college with me 😁. Fun fact: $115k for that domain name would be more than $230k in today's dollars 💸

[@ArmchairInvestigator]

Another fun fact: before 1995, domains were free! 💛

[@joannlovespapillons]

Oh yes, I remember the craze. My sister’s good friend owned a tiny shop who got a very limited amt of babies We were on cloud 9 when she gave us the scoop on the purple Princess Di one. I was hoping to hear the history of that 1.

[@anniet.poetry601]

I still sleep with my carebear I got when I was 5. It’s good to know I’m not the only one! My boyfriend would get so offended but my carebear is the only one that has given constant comfort throughout my life and I will never give him up ❤it’s funny because it’s true! Oh and we have since broken up lol for other reasons… and my bear is still with me ❤

[@TheKELLOSO]

I personally started collecting Beanie Babies around 2020 or 2021 I believe. The main reason was because of my early childhood, my uncle (who was 12-15 at the time) had a Scorch the Dragon Beanie Babie. And I had absolutely loved everything about it, but I was so young to the point I had no idea where it even came from, or what series it was part of. Many years later I had already learned about Beanie Babies and their existence, one day me and my mom go to a thrift store, as my grandma would take me sometimes as a little gift that was affordable and something I would love! I stumbled across a bag of many toys, but what caught my eye was the beanie babies inside of it. I don’t remember it too clearly, but I believe there was Pinky, Chocolate, The End, and more. Thus starting my collection, but however I didn’t add too much. I got the occasional bday or Christmas gift, as I remember the earliest adding on I did to this reasonably sized collection was Trumpet and Bongo. But when it truly picked up the pace was sometime in 2022, I had found multiple Beanie Babies at thrift stores, bought them online recently as of 2023. And now I’m at about 23, when it all started at 5-8. But anyways, I truly love these things. Even if I’ll only be able to make 50 cents off of them if I ever decide to, it’s just very nice to have them. And shout out to my uncle for starting one of my many loves in life. Edit: 25 with the addition of Crunch The Shark and Jolly The Walrus, Lumberjack The Beaver expected to come soon.

[@ArmchairInvestigator]

Oh my gosh, this was so sweet and lovely to read! Thank you for sharing! Is Scorch the Dragon still your favorite?

[@TheKELLOSO]

@@ArmchairInvestigator Yes I actually got him around March - October of this year.

[@brendatomlinson]

I wish there was a way to reach you!! I would sell you my tub of Beanies for pennies on the dollar! I need them gone. I’m a pet sitter in OKC. I have a web*site for my business called citimutts (you know how to fill in the rest) where I can be reached. I hope writing this comment is allowed. If it gets deleted, so be it.

[@Therese_M]

Ty really worked hard to keep the integrity of beanie babies. He tried to keep the focus on kids and affordability. We’ll always love him for that ❤️

[@ryanf8780]

The only reason this scam worked was the illusion of scarcity. People want what they can't have. Ty artificially surpressed the supply at first to make them seen scarce, and then flooded the market when demand peaked.

[@Kicks_Clothing]

These will make a come back, just wait for a few mega influencers to wear one around their next at a big event LOL

[@kwaddamage8286]

we mostly joke about beanie babies and the 90s craze. my mom bought us a few but never got super into it. definitely nostalgia tho. what i really learned and love about this video is the genius behind Ty and that girl he brought on though

[@Bobbi-the-Croz]

I did not get into the Beanie Baby craze and was always stunned by the amount people would collect. I have a family member who just couldn’t handle her husband’s obsession with them and she ended up leaving him and his beanies. Evidently, he kept them in giant garbage bags and wouldn’t let her touch them…. sounds like a character from a movie… “precious…” 😳 I still cringe a bit when I see one of those little things with the Ty tag. I figured the “discontinuations” were purely for market strategy. I remember the Cabbage Patch dolls were a similar fad. It’s always something. 😅

[@ArmchairInvestigator]

You’re cracking me up! “She ended up leaving him and his beanies…” 💀 You’re right tho, it’s always something.

[@kirstywhyte3496]

I have 4 cats and the moose and my mum had some others. I got rid of a lot but kept my cats and my daughter is not allowed to touch them on pain of death! Mine.....all mine.... Oh I also have two x Fraidy as well. This is a great episode - my 9 year old is beyond excited to see Fraidy on screen!

[@BrabbitHabit]

Ahh this brings me back to my childhood. I’m still a collector and beanie babies had a lot to do with instilling in me the thrill of the hunt, especially as a kid. This is the most informative video on beanie babies I’ve seen on KZbin, thank you for being so thorough! Edit: I’ve collected several different things over the years, but now, I mainly collect vinyl records and Citizen Brick custom minifigures (sometimes I grab minifigures from other companies but CB is definitely the best), just to clarify lol. Although, I could see it being fun trying to track down some of the beanies that were well beyond my price range as a kid

[@NancyAnneMartin]

I never understood how anyone could draw the conclusion they would become valuable since there were so many manufactured. 🤷‍♀️

[@LISA.R.2112]

There you are !!! Have missed you dear. Diving right in now. Hope you have a wonderful day ❤️👍

[@ArmchairInvestigator]

Hope you have a great day too, Lisa! 💛

[@PokeGrillz]

what a time, i swear me and my nan and a couple friends of mine and their grandmas would go every weekend beanie baby hunting, hitting up Hallmark stores, flea markets, and the beanie baby stores, i can still remember it like it was yesterday, i was around 11 12 years old. We moved to fl in 1998 and my nan just had a feeling these were gonna go belly up soon, we sold all of ours for about 5k, this was in August of 1998. Believe the market fell about 2 months later, all my friends and their grandparents still have those damn beanie babies to this day, just gathering dust lol.

[@PokeGrillz]

and those mcdonalds beanie babies, omg what a hit those were, we would go buy 30 happy meals, take the beanie, then go to the football and baseball fields and give the food to the kids playing, we knew most of them. it was so wild its hard to get people to understand just how big it was, Pokemon only thing could compare.

[@bodean137]

My dad tried getting into the craze back then and he came home with a garbage bag full of them and a price guide book he spent like 200$ on from ebay (this was in Canada btw & ironically i seen that same book years later at a thrift store for 50 cents. you cant give something like that away now. lol) I remember watching an epsiode of 3rd Rock from the Sun with my mom that was dedicated to the insanity surrounding the craze and they refered to them as "Fuzzy Buddies." My dad at the time had an obsessive Mr. Toad personality and would jump on fads like he did with the comic book boom and action figure crazes of the 90s and ebay did not help matters. my mom got the invoice for the price guide before he did and as soon as she seen the garbage bag she was like: "Nope, Not Happening!!"and she took the bag and gave the beanies to a local kids toy charity; i was proud of her then but now in retrospect I highly doubt those beanies made it to a single child due to the sad and terrible greed surrounding them.

[@ArmchairInvestigator]

I got a chuckle reading this! Thank you for sharing your(brief) encounter with the craze! 😆

[@Guigley]

A truly fantastic documentary! This brought back so many memories.

[@Catanya9]

I have enjoyed all of your investigations so much. I am fascinated by the Sherman murders (billionaires Barry and Honey Sherman, in Canada). I'd love to hear your take, if you're looking for topics to cover.

[@brendatomlinson]

I just watched her video on the Sherman’s. It affected me so strongly I dreamed about them last night. Such a sad, but fascinating tale.

[@TechnetiumTheDragon]

Now I can find them for dirt cheap if i look in the right places. I love my dragon beanies Scorch and Magic and there is no way I would part with them. I just collect the ones I personally like such as the snail and the worm.

[@claudiabothma]

I didn't collect fad toys as I am self employed and to me food etc was more important. However, in the 1970's, I had some Star Wars figurines, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Chewbecca. Unfortunately through the years, moving houses and so on, they dissapeared. Apparently they are valuable now...

[@maryamdear2122]

I'm a married, 30 something year old woman and I still sleep with a stuffed animal, it's so comfy!

[@Septer_Sever]

Speculators and market manipulators seem to ruin every hobby 😒

[@Lee-wg7en]

Outstandingly clear narration. Very easy to follow. Excellent story compilation. Interesting and varied presentation. Very good overall. I will share this.

[@alicianason-yf8sc]

I was 7 when Bennie babies came out I loved them! So did adults ! Adults liked them just as much at children and teens

[@Victoriaghh]

Oh wow. I used to put beanie babies in my car. They'd get so sun bleached and damaged. I wonder how much money I had thrown away LOL

[@ArmchairInvestigator]

😆🙈

[@jennyrx13]

I still have Stinger the Scorpion 😊

[@baileymoffat-vu6mi]

I have bongo II

[@katie3657]

Omg I had so many as a kid. I have no idea what happened to them

[@ArmchairInvestigator]

I had to go digging around my parents attic for mine!

[@Therese_M]

I’d like to see a video on the Trolls craze!

[@kariann430]

i had some beanie babies, but stopped when the store i got them from did a promation that you had to buy 12 beanies at once to get the princess diana bear and it made me so mad that no place else here had that bear

[@ArmchairInvestigator]

That “promotion” is insane! I would have been mad too.

[@robertsides3626]

I was in elementary school when these things where everywhere. Never really understood the draw or why everyone thought people would buy them at ridiculous prices. The pieces didn't fit together, but I just figured I was just too dumb to understand it. Kept away from them. I still don't get collecting for profit. Got into Pokemon cards for a time though, but still never understood why people thought there would be this magic pool of rich people that would spend crazy sums on the things if everyone was trying to sell. Collectors that gave a damn would already be in the process of buying them when they were new, so what's the point? The repeated phenomena just made me resent people for being so easily swept up in something without even considering how it made little sense. The backstabbing.. the scalping... literally stealing from children. Worst of all nothing has changed. The lessons learned aren't inherited from generation to generation.

[@vickiedennison5197]

I was there when they first came out my youngest daughter still has her original collection that she started with plus a whole lot more

[@sammy9360]

Omg I still have mine! How about the Cabbage Patch doll craze remember that one? I love your channel ❤

[@ArmchairInvestigator]

Yes!! I had cabbage patch kids too. You have to look up their nursery experience - it’s very interesting!

[@sammy9360]

You have to do a story on them, I remember being in line at the store a women had her Cabbage Patch Doll ripped right out of the box that was crazy!

[@portablepulpit]

Great job as always Brooke! ❤ But I do miss that signature background music 😢

[@ArmchairInvestigator]

Hey you! Thanks for watching! 💛

[@portablepulpit]

@@ArmchairInvestigator Enjoyed the last one too of Padre Pio. Good to see you changed it up. Miss that Armchair soundtrack tho lmbo

[@SirMogwaiTheGreat]

R.i.p princess diana,TY made a beatiful beanie baby for her

[@slimshqdyy]

I prefer beanie boos but I like beanie babies too

[@pikachuphotobomb2482]

I was not born yet but I collect them now

[@diegolaradiaz8948]

Will Funko Pops eventually fall the same way with how things are going for them?

[@fluorite1965]

I am so tired of seeing Funko Pops.

[@joekirkwood]

Those baseball cards that were featured.......1988-1989.......I have them. Baltimore Orioles!

[@monikabauer7219]

I had bought a lots of those Beanie Babys also some German ones,still have a lots of them

[@angelsbum]

I love how you tell these stories. But i do love watching you. You are so beautiful. Thanjs.

[@chevyforever4420]

Now you find them in goodwill piles and thrown away

[@chevyforever4420]

I had a pog collection. What a waste of money. The new phase was fidgets. I know I bought my kids hundreds of them. In about a year they will be worthless too

[@ArmchairInvestigator]

I loved pogs! The tubes that held them all were neat too.

[@susanfit47]

I have 3 comprehensive books on Beanie Babies. I have Inky the Pink Octopus, and other ones I haven't got yet.

[@kristinazubic9669]

I sleep with two real animals and one stuffed one. One of my real animals eats stuffed animals (and blankets and sheets and towels and…) but the one we sleep with is the one he’s never tried to eat.

[@ArmchairInvestigator]

Aw!! 💛😢

[@mirrorcatz]

I love your voice, it's a beautiful voice in my opinion

[@ArmchairInvestigator]

Thank you!

[@theeternalslayer]

1.99 meals at McDonald's.... man inflation sucks

[@shawnntea]

can you do one about webkinz and one about polly pocket please??

[@Venialbartender]

To think my childhood was ruined cuz everything was satanic . But this obsession was ok lol

[@LarryLegend3923]

I do

[@karrieschmidt3817]

I have oitso and clubby iv

[@alicianason-yf8sc]

I still sleep with my teddy bear 🧸

[@RanchuRanch]

Ist Dir kein eigener Name eingefallen ? Du siehst besser aus, als das Original und Dein Kanal ist auch besser. Schade drum. Ich glaube, es würde besser kommen, einen anderen Namen zu nehmen, ohne den bitteren Beigeschmack, Du kannst viel mehr . Das war ein durchaus positiv gemeinter Kommentar.

[@Toxicjay24]

You are so stunning.

[@IdiotSandwhich]

Do you guys still have your beanie babies? I have some still

[@ArmchairInvestigator]

I do too! 🖐🏼

[@IdiotSandwhich]

@@ArmchairInvestigator That's Awesome!