Smitty Two wrote:
In article
,
aemeijers wrote:

companies
that try to engineer their stuff becoming valuable almost always fail at
it. (Beanie Babies, ...

Uh, Ty Warner is *filthy* rich. He doesn't give a damn whether his
beanie babies are still collectibles. He made billions * yeah, that's
billions with a "b" * on them in the blink of an eye.

And I admire him for it, just like I admire the Pet Rock guy. He came up
with a relatively harmless hustle, and made his pile. But he made his
billions fleecing sheep at the outset, not because his hustle had any
staying power. For years after the fad collapsed, I saw thousands of
dollars worth (original price) BB's going for a quarter apiece at garage
sales, as people tried to recover something from their foolishness. The
BB's themselves were essentially worthless, it was the hype that made
the money.

I always wondered about those collector cards in the foil packs, that
supposedly lose most of their value if opened. How do the people who buy
them second and third hand at shows know there isn't just blank
cardboard in there? Talk about faith....

Wish I could think up a hustle like that.

--
aem sends...