Clutter Free by Kathi Lipp

Author:Kathi Lipp
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780736959148
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers, Inc.

16

It Might Be Worth Something Someday

Problem: We are cluttering up our lives by investing in things that have no current value.

Really, people. Have Beanie Babies taught us nothing?

Back when Beanie Babies were at the height of their popularity, I was a sales rep for a number of different gift lines, including a plush animal company. Even though the line I was representing was a knock-off of the real Beanie Babies, people were losing their minds collecting our little animals.

Ty Inc. did a great job of creating a scarcity mentality when it came to those bags of beans. I remember setting up a display in a Hallmark store and there being a line of over a hundred people waiting to buy a new “limited edition” bear. When the gate was finally pulled up and the crowd pressed in, I had to leap out of the way to not be crushed by grown men who needed that cute yellow bear.

An article in the LA Times describes how Ty Inc. founder Ty Williams kept the Beanie Babies value artificially inflated:

First, he adopted the distribution model for higher-end plush toys, selling Beanie Babies through specialty gift and toy shops rather than through Wal-Mart, Toys R Us or other giant chain stores. That way, you couldn’t find the entire line in one place, and buyers would seldom encounter piles of unsold Beanies—enhancing their status as collectibles, not mere commodities.

Not only did Warner keep introducing new Beanie characters, but he sometimes made changes in a line when he wasn’t satisfied with the style or color. Thus, an orange Digger the Crab gave way to a richer red Digger after a year. Suddenly, collectors swooped on the scarcer original version, eventually bidding it up to $600 or more on the resale market—perhaps five times what a red Digger might bring.

Warner discovered he could create the same effect by abruptly ceasing production of a character. Without warning, he would announce such “retirements” on the Ty Inc. website, sending collectors scrambling all over again (Thomas S. Mulligan, “Another ’90s Bad Dream,” Los Angeles Times, August 26, 2004).

It’s easy to scoff at people who spent hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars on tiny toys thinking there was some sort of value to them. But think about the things sitting in your garage that you’ve vaguely thought, Well, I should hold on to it. It might be worth something someday.

I get it. With shows like Antiques Roadshow and Pawn Stars, we’ve all had dreams of finding a hunk of junk in our garage, showing it to an expert, and discovering that we’ve just paid for our retirement in a little cabin in the woods because of Grandma Trudy’s locket that we found in a box of junk.

But I don’t think that’s what keeps us from getting rid of stuff. I think it’s fear.

I think the real fear is that we will give away something of value. The possibility of regret keeps us from culling through the boxes in our attic. Oh sure,

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