Speculators sought to make quick profits trading tulips of unusual colors. Outrageous prices were paid, in the hopes of reselling to A greater fools. While a small house in town cost about 300 guilders, a single tulip bulb is recorded having been sold for 5,500 guilders. Fortunes really can be made during such wild speculation. You just want to get in and out of the market before the inevitable crash.
All speculative bubbles grow out of unrealistic expectations.
Although Beanie Babies are mass-produced in China and Indonesia, the manufacturer, Ty Inc., has created artificial shortages by randomly retiring models. Those of us who did not save our childhood Star Trek toys or Barbie dolls in their original boxes, unopened, for 30 years, have all heard of the millions of dollars we threw away. Frantic Beanie Baby buyers have followed UPS trucks to toy stores. Beanie Babymania is exacerbated because buyers do not know how many copies of a model have been or are going to be produced. Adults as well as children threw or gave away the food.