Who Gets the Beanie Babies?

November 1999: After filing for divorce, Frances and Harold Mountain proved unable to agree on how to split up their Beanie Baby collection. So Family Court Judge Gerald Hardcastle instructed them to bring the entire collection into the courtroom, spread them out on the floor, and pick one each until they were gone.

The judge remarked, "This isn't about toys. It's about control. Because you folks can't solve it, it takes the services of a District Court judge, a bailiff and a court reporter."

Frances Mountain said, "I don't agree with the judge's decision to do this. It's ridiculous and embarrassing." Nevertheless, she got down on her hands and knees and started picking out Beanie Babies.

Santa Cruz Sentinel - Nov 6, 1999

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Posted By: Alex - Sun Feb 19, 2017
Category: Divorce | Collectors | 1990s

Comments

I believe this was the period when Beanie Baby collectors thought they were sitting on a gold mine. Oh well... shoulda invested in Pets.com

Posted by Brian on 02/19/17 at 11:56 PM

Oh, Brian, you hit that one on the head. My mother had a good number of these little toys and kept telling the kids that there was value in them. When she died five years ago and I researched the value on them, they turned out to have an average asking price / collector value of 25 cents each. I ended up giving them to the local thrift shop to brighten some child's day.

Posted by KDP on 02/20/17 at 09:36 AM

Currently on Ebay, Maple the Bear has a "stupid person tax" price of roughly $500. But there are numerous other listings with a "buy it now" price of around $5.

Posted by PupTentacle on 02/20/17 at 09:36 PM

Or the judge could've used another technique for children: Harold, you split them into two piles. Frances, you get to pick which pile you want.

Posted by RobK on 02/22/17 at 10:34 AM

There was no mention of whether the number was odd or even. If it was odd, did the judge offer to cut the baby in two?

Posted by BMN on 02/22/17 at 02:10 PM

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