[jdkee]

Relevant portion of the article:

"According to economists David Tuckett and Richard Taffler, we often view a hot new financial opportunity as a “phantastic object,” or an unconscious representation of something that fulfills our wildest desires.

These objects are “exciting and transformational.” They appear to “break the usual rules of life and turn aspects of ‘normal’ reality on its head.” They promise something far departed from the market’s typical behavior.

During a bubble, we formulate a “collective hallucination” of prosperity, and fall victim to groupthink, a phenomenon where “a significant chunk of society feverishly buys into a shared dream” and ignores reality."

[jpm_sd]

I think the most relevant portion of the article is:

"There was one person who emerged handsomely from the Beanie Baby bubble: Ty Warner.

Aside from getting caught secretly hoarding $107m of his Beanie Baby riches in an offshore Swiss bank account, Warner has kept a low profile over the years — but he’s quietly amassed a fortune the size of Djibouti’s GDP.

Today, the 73-year-old Beanie Baby inventor touts an estimated net worth of $2.7B, good for the 887th richest person in the world. He owns a fleet of luxury cars, a $153m estate, $41m worth of rare art, and the Four Seasons Hotel in New York, where you can rent the “Ty Warner Penthouse” for $50k per night."

[lowercased]

I did some tech consulting and dev work for them around the peak of the craze. I never met Ty personally, but was in their office multiple times. One Christmas (98?) everyone got a bonus of their salary, IIRC. The money was just... pouring in at that point. I'm sure it's died down since then, but the stories were... nuts.

[toomuchtodo]

I think we worked at the same place? Office in the suburbs moved to downtown near the train station, foozball table in the kitchen and green carpets? Coldfusion app running on Solaris gear.

[lowercased]

I seem to remember the office I visited was in Rosemont...?

[toomuchtodo]

Rolling Meadows perhaps? I think the Ty craze was wrapping up when the dev shop moved downtown (right before the dot com bust).

[lowercased]

westmont. I knew there was a 'mont' in is. chestnut avenue...

[carpintech]

Also: https://www.independent.com/2022/02/08/beanie-babies-billion...

[Lerc]

"$41m worth of rare art"

That bit at least is rather amusing.

[jpm_sd]

He could sell NFTs of it and burn it, and double his money!

[technofiend]

You're thinking small. You sell raffle tickets to let someone burn the artwork and pocket the profits from that too. Bonus points if there's a sponsor of the event.