Pop-Culture Profiteers Turn To eBay

from the ah,-the-new-economy-at-work dept

When I was a kid, I remember there was the "cabbage patch kid" craze. Now, it seems like every year there's some other toy craze, which kids simply need to get their hands on each holiday season. Of course, those super hot toys are inevitably sold out, leading to stories (and bad movies) about the lengths parents will go to get their kids the desired, overhyped piece of plastic. It turns out that the place to go these days is (of course) eBay where all the hottest toys are available for a bit more than their MSRP. The article discusses how the toy industry overhypes certain toys each year, knowing that they won't supply enough to stores. Savvy speculators got out early this year and bought up all the hot toys (this year, it's something called the FurReal). It's apparently easy to pick out the hot toys based on toy industry trade magazines, and then wait for the corresponding crush of desperate parents on eBay. Update: In an oddly related story, it seems that some think this year's remote controlled minicar craze is being driven by spam. Spam and eBay: two things that are driving toy crazes. A new economy, indeed.

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