Stuffed toy cold knowledge you don't know
In the 1990s, a $5 toy began mass production in China and created a frenzy of collecting among American adults.
Many American families have purchased such dolls and stored them carefully in their original boxes.
For nothing but fantasies that one day they could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Some people's dreams come true, and the dolls in their hands are sold for tens of thousands of dollars, but more people can only hold a house of dolls and regret it.
What exactly is going on?
Why do ordinary dolls sell for thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars?
And who would be willing to spend so much money on an ugly doll?
In 2015, a British couple, Lea and Ryan, saw a purple teddy bear that didn't look good at a flea market.
As a collector of Doudouwa, the experienced Ryan recognized the doll in front of him at a glance, but the stall owner seemed to be unaware of it.
So the two happily went home with the purple beanie they bought for 10 pounds.
After a search on the Internet, I found out that this bear cub, whose color is not so flattering, is actually a limited edition Diana Dou Doll, and one of the first 100 Diana Dou Dolls in the world. It is now priced at 62,500 pounds.
They thought they could make a small fortune and would be very happy if they sold it for a few hundred pounds, only then did they realize that they had picked up a big bargain.
After all, they are both Princess Diana commemorative dolls. The one they bought can only sell for tens of thousands of pounds, but the second batch can only sell for 20 pounds.
After learning about this situation, the couple have happily planned to open the auction with a "low price" of 20,000 pounds.
The story of a couple like Liya and Ryan deeply stimulates the heart of every Doudou collector who is eager to get rich overnight.
What could be a better investment than Doudouwa, who can make tens of thousands of dollars when they change hands for a few pounds?
However, when people find a bunch of so-called "out-of-print" Doudouwa with the feeling of turning a bicycle into a motorcycle, they are disappointed to find that no one cares about it on the Internet.
Even though the price has dropped from thousands of dollars at the beginning, the discerning eye of a true "collector" has never been found.
Today on eBay, all kinds of Doudoudo can be found.
The same doll, some can be priced hundreds of thousands of dollars, and some are only priced at 3 dollars.
Rare peas that are favored by most people, such as Princess Diana and the princess bear that the British couple found above, are now priced at a few dollars.
But there are also many Doudouwa that have been auctioned for sky-high prices. For example, Doudou in the shape of a princess fetched $25,000, Iggy the iguana fetched $15,000, and Gobbles the turkey fetched $14,888.
Why are they all Doudouwa, but today's worth is so different?
Why do some Beanie Dolls that look exactly the same can sell for thousands of dollars while others only sell for pennies?
The iconic big watery eyes, with a five-to-five body proportion and bold color matching, such a plush toy is called Doudouwa.
Unlike ordinary plush toys, which are filled with cotton, Doudou dolls are stuffed with PVC in the shape of small beans, so they feel very special.
Each Doudou has its own name, and a red heart-shaped card hanging on the ear is printed with a description describing the doll's character.
They were invented by Ty company in 1993. The general Doudouwas are animal-themed, and they often cooperate with other brands to produce commemorative and limited editions.
Some people think they are very cute, and some people think this shape is very weird.
Whether it grows on your cute point or not, it is undeniable that it has a recognized commercial value.
In the mid-1990s, Doudouwa's popularity soared to unbelievable popularity in the United States.
Almost all adults agree that such dolls can be worth thousands of dollars at some point in the future, some even spend $100,000 on Doudou dolls, and even the children's future college funds are invested in this unknown market. middle.
Chris Robinson, American actor, invested $100,000 in Beanie, including kids' college fund
A weekend poll in the US found that in 1997, 64% of Americans owned at least one Beanie.
Home Collection in the '90s Beanie Mania
Objectively speaking, the vast majority of Doudouwas are essentially worthless, but the Doudouwa craze in the 1990s and the exorbitant prices of some Doudouwa led to a collective illusion in society as a whole.
The most curious thing is that after the 3-year Doudouwa boom has passed, there is a huge price difference in today's market.
For every Beanie that sells for tens of thousands of dollars, you can find the exact same product on eBay for less than $10.
Why would anyone be willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars when they can find cheap ones?
"It's either money laundering or a fake transaction. Otherwise it doesn't make any sense," said Doudouwa historian Schlossberg, founder of the Ty Collector website.
"These are fake, you'll see someone put a beanie for $14,000, and then their accomplices will go and buy it, and then they'll cancel the deal. And just like that, this beanie is off eBay. Disappeared. Others only saw Doudouwa sold at a high price, so the price was driven up again.”
In Schlossberg's view, 98% of the sellers who sell Doudou on eBay today probably have no idea about the value of Doudou or Doudou.
They had only seen Doudou on eBay and thought they had some in their own home from their parents, or some found in basements and attics.
Mistaking these dolls for value, they put them on eBay. …
So how did Doudouwa get the illusion of being valuable?
The producer of Doudouwa, Ty Company often produces limited edition Doudouwa, and numbers them and implements a purchase restriction policy.
But no one knows how much each Doudouwa has been produced, and the Ty company has not officially announced this information.
For example, everyone thought the princess bear was a limited edition, and there were even rumors that "every retailer has only 10", so people began to collect this beanie everywhere.
In fact, this purple Doudouwa is mass-produced, but only limited the first batch of shipments, resulting in the illusion of short supply.
The fact that Princess Diana's bear once sold for $16,000 at a charity auction has made collectors more determined to its worth.
But think about it from another angle. People who are willing to spend more than 10,000 dollars to photograph a Doudou doll will gladly photograph the doll by replacing it with anything else, even if it is dirt. Because he wants tax deductions from charitable donations, not the dolls themselves.
Until now, all sellers on eBay have claimed that their princess bears are "rare", but as of the time of this article, a search for the term "princess bear" has resulted in a total of 7,421 related products.
The price ranges from $3 to tens of thousands of dollars, and even more, it still has a sky-high price of $900,000.
In the late 1970s, a company called Dakin was the world's market leader in plush toys, selling nearly 70 million toys a year, and Ty Warner was Dakin's best salesperson.
Despite Ty's natural instinct for plush toys, a serious personality flaw eventually led to his being fired from the company he worked for 15 years.
In 1986, Ty founded Ty Toys in suburban Chicago.
Seven years later, the first Doudouwa was born.
At that time, when the global manufacturing industry was gradually shifting to China, Ty also found a Chinese partner to manufacture Doudouwa for himself.
The first officially recognized Doudou baby
These cute and posable toys, unlike most plush toys on the market at the time, could "wave, dance and hug."
This crucial innovation quickly filled a gap in the market, beating out other stiff plush toys.
Not surprisingly, the first buyers of Doudouwa were children with pocket money, and the light and soft material captured many consumers.
In 1995, Ty discontinued production of a plush lamb named "Lovie" for the first time because of a disagreement with a Chinese supplier.
Buyers were delighted when they heard the news, as they realised that the Lowe lambs they had already bought could turn out to be valuable.
Seeing this reaction, Ty began to intentionally discontinue some toys.
By early 1996, the scarcity strategy came into play.
The main consumers of Doudouwa have changed from children to mothers, and adults have begun to collect these "weird" plush dolls.
Doudou collectors who frantically "looted" toy stores in the late 90s
People at the time generally saw the cheap doll as a long-term investment.
The first batch of Doudouwa collectors who accurately grasped market trends did indeed make huge profits and even made a fortune by reselling Doudouwa.
This kind of deed has been passed on by dozens, and driven by the "common dream" of Americans, Doudouwa has been pushed to the cusp of an unprecedented situation.
Humorist Dave Barry explains this phenomenon in his column as "everything that creates joy for a child can be turned into an addictive, compulsive commercial collection by adults".
Beanie Doll Collector
The reason why Doudouwa has achieved such unexpected success is directly related to the founder's dedication to dolls and business acumen.
Although Doudouwa's sales have surged since its launch, owner Ty insists on designing each product himself, spending several months each year working in factories in Asia.
Like many successful businessmen, Ty Warner was seen by employees as a paranoid and difficult boss, who called him "the Steve Jobs of stuffed animals."
FounderTy Warner
By the end of 1996, Ty's sales had grown tenfold to $280 million.
Ty's attitude towards "collectors" who buy low and sell high has also changed. From the beginning of the fight and prosecution to insinuation and cooperation.
In 1998, Ty's annual sales exceeded 1.4 billion US dollars, and almost all of this 1.4 billion came from the wholesale price of 2.5 US dollars for Doudouwa.
On December 12, 1998, at the Ty Company's year-end party, Ty Warner, 54, said to the 250 toy salespeople in the audience, "Wow, I've never been in the same room with so many millionaires."
The audience instantly boiled, because such a statement is actually no exaggeration.
With three weeks to go until the end of that year's sales, Ty has broken all sales records in the toy industry.
After a long time, the applause from the audience gradually subsided.
FounderTy Warner
Ty announced the bonus plan for the year: All employees will receive a Christmas bonus equal to their annual salary.
In addition, each employee was given a limited production of 253 red Doudou dolls named "Bear No. 1".
All bears have a "1" sewn on the chest and are signed and numbered.
The 253 No. 1 Bears represent Ty's achievements this year: more than $3 billion in retail sales, No. 1 in the U.S. in gifts, No. 1 in collectibles, and No. 1 in cash registers.
The employees cheered even more, because they knew very well that the Doudou doll in their hands could sell for more than $5,000 in just a few weeks.
Andy, who was sitting in the back row of the venue, was a salesperson who was peddling porcelain on the streets before he came into contact with Doudouwa.
In 1993, Andy hauled suitcases full of china across two states, earning less than $30,000 a year.
In 1998, Andy made more than $800,000 selling Beanie to independent toy and gift shops in Chicago's northern suburbs.
Since she sold Doudouwa for Ty company, the calls to order have never stopped.
Later, many of Andy's relatives became her employees, answering the phone for her.
But not everyone at the banquet was as happy as the salesperson.
Founder Ty's then girlfriend Faith McGowan thought that he had been with Ty for 5 years and had no property in his name, and he couldn't help worrying about the future of himself and his children.
So after the banquet was over, she made the worst plan - sold the No. 1 bear she got - the real No. 1 of the 253 bears to a local collectibles dealer for a few thousand dollars in exchange for The money created an emergency fund for himself.
As it turns out, McGowan was wise.
The 1998 Christmas party happened to mark the absolute peak of the Doudou craze, and the beginning of its rapid decline.
The new millennium is about to begin, and Doudouwa's bubble is also facing bursting.
Kylie Jenner's diamond-encrusted beanie for $12,000
The earliest signs of decline came in January 1999, when Ty's prices remained relatively stable after the company announced a series of Doudouwas were discontinued.
This is the first time since the Doudouwa craze began that prices have not surged after the shutdown.
On the same day, Ty also launched 24 models of Doudouwa, which this time saw a 20 percent drop in wholesale shipments from the previous year. At the flea market, these new members are selling for as little as $3.
Eventually supply exceeds demand.
Overnight, discontinued Beanies were easily found on store shelves across the United States.
By the beginning of 2000, even Doudouwa, which had just been discontinued, could only be sold for three dollars for $10, and by the end of the year, it had been reduced to a dollar store.
Since too many people participate in the market with a speculative mentality, the actual market mechanism proves that only a few people can actually make a profit from this behavior.
The little Doudouwa is also called by economists as one of the five most serious bubble economies, and the subprime mortgage crisis and Japan's