Easy money creates unusual mascots. Creepy dolls selling for used-car prices signal massively distorted capital conditions.

Every era of easy money produces its speculative mascots. In the late 1990s, it was Beanie Babies — tiny stuffed animals that cost under a dollar to make, yet sold for hundreds to thousands. The Princess Diana memorial bear that once fetched more than $60,000 now goes for around $3; one variant, Peanut the Royal Blue Elephant, once a $5,000 trophy, now sells for about $6. At the height of the craze, these toys accounted for 10 percent of all eBay listings. Their boom coincided perfectly with the late-1990s dot-com melt-up, a period defined by suppressed interest rates, rapid credit expansion, and rampant speculation. When the tech bubble burst in 2000, the Beanie Baby market had already collapsed — a micro-indicator of distorted price signals and misallocated capital.

A full generation later, the same underlying forces have produced the newest collectible frenzy: Labubus. Made by Chinese toymaker Pop Mart, these demonic-looking plush figures were sold in “blind boxes,” injecting a gambling-like payoff structure into retail purchases. For much of the past year, drops sold out instantly. Secondary-market prices rocketed: a limited-edition Vans Old Skool Labubu sold for $10,585, and a unique four-foot-tall version went for $170,000 in China. Counterfeits proliferated, and stores faced crowds, shouting matches, and physical brawls. Even Forbes briefly labeled the toys “good investments.”

But the correction has now arrived. Only months after its enthusiastic coverage, the same Forbes writer issued an update: prices were falling, inventories rising, and attention shifting elsewhere. Today, none of the 60 priciest Labubus on eBay has significant bids. And, as one middle-schooler put it succinctly, “they’re not that cool anymore.” The wall may have already been hit.

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