Financial Speculation Quotes

“It is often said of the gold rush that the people who got rich were the shovel dealers who profited from the greed of the forty-niners. With Beanie Babies, most of the lasting personal fortunes came from selling books and tag protectors, not from speculating in plush.”
― Zac Bissonnette, The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute

“[Peggy Gallagher] was also appearing once a month for two hours on WGN Radio [...] During one summer show, a caller asked, 'Do you think there is a seasonal cycle for Beanie Babies?'

'It’s not different than any other kind of investment—the stock market or the commodities market,' was Gallagher’s reply. Then she explained that she used to be a trader on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. 'There are peaks and valleys. It’s an investment for people. There’s nobody as big as the market. The Hunt [brothers] tried to do it with the silver market. There is nobody bigger than the market. The prices have stabilized a bit right now, but now they’re starting to get more active. So it’s just like any other type of investment'.”
― Zac Bissonnette, The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute

“The Bradford Exchange—a knockoff of [Joseph] Segel’s [Franklin Mint] business—created a murky secondary market for its collector plates, complete with advertisements featuring its “brokers” hovering over computers, tracking plate prices. To underscore the idea of these mass-produced tchotchkes as upmarket, sophisticated investments, the company deployed some of its most aggressive ads (which later led to lawsuits) in magazines like Kiplinger’s Personal Finance and Architectural Digest. A 1986 sales pitch offered “The Sound of Music,” the first plate in a new series from the Edwin M. Knowles China Company, at a price of $19.50. Yet the ad copy didn’t emphasize the plate itself. Rather, bold type introduced two so-called facts: “Fact: ‘Scarlett,’ the 1976 first issue in Edwin M. Knowles’ landmark series of collector’s plates inspired by the classic film Gone With the Wind, cost $21.60 when it was issued. It recently traded at $245.00—an increase of 1,040% in just seven years.” And “Fact: ‘The Sound of Music,’ the first issue in Knowles’ The Sound of Music series, inspired by the classic film of the same name, is now available for $19.50.” Later the ad advised that “it’s likely to increase in value.” Currently, those plates can be had on eBay for less than $5 each. In 1993 U.S. direct mail sales of collectibles totaled $1.7 billion”
― Zac Bissonnette, The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute