A lot of family photo albums have at least one picture of a kid tearing the paper off a box their parents hunted down for three straight weekends. Before restock alerts and resale apps, finding the year's hot gift meant calling every store in town, showing up before the doors opened, and hoping the delivery truck had come in overnight.

Sometimes it worked… Sometimes the only one left in town was in the classified ads at three or four times the sticker price.

Every generation seems to have a gift that everybody suddenly had to have. Here, we're looking back at 17 famous holiday shopping fads, what made each one so hard to find, and how far some shoppers went to get one under the tree.

Fad 1

Pet Rock (1975)

The Pet Rock started as a joke. In 1975, California advertising executive Gary Dahl packed smooth stones into cardboard carriers with a tongue-in-cheek booklet about their care and training.

Dahl estimated he sold about 1.5 million of them at roughly $4 each before the fad fizzled, according to an Associated Press report about the Pet Rock phenomenon. Sales reportedly reached 10,000 a day n the run-up to the holidays, and by February 1976 the rocks weren't selling well anymore.

1.5 Million

Pet Rocks reportedly sold for approximately $4 each before the fad faded.

Nobody trampled anyone over a rock. Still, millions of people paid real money for something they could’ve picked up in the driveway, which makes it the original toy people paid too much for. Dahl later said he sometimes wondered if his life would have been simpler without it.

Rocks have also had a longer career in money history than you might expect.

Fad 2

Cabbage Patch Kids (1983)

Coleco's Cabbage Patch Kids each had a name, a birth certificate, and adoption papers. They grew out of Georgia artist Xavier Roberts' handmade "little people," which had sold for $125 to $1,000 apiece.

The mass-market version got so popular in 1983 that TIME covered the strange Cabbage Patch craze as it happened.

Here’s what that season looked like:

  • About 5,000 people nearly rioted at a department store in Charleston, West Virginia.
  • In Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, a crowd that had waited eight hours turned rough. A woman broke her leg, and a store manager held people back with a baseball bat.
  • Coleco chartered planes to fly in 200,000 more dolls a week from Hong Kong.
  • After a county consumer office accused Coleco of advertising dolls shoppers couldn’t find, the company temporarily suspended its ads.

The craze turned a $25 doll into one of the most famous shopping hunts of the 1980s.

Fad 3

Teddy Ruxpin (1985)

Teddy Ruxpin’s story was as much about the price tag as the technology. Made by Worlds of Wonder, the talking bear had a cassette player hidden in his back. One audio track told the story while a second, silent track moved his eyes and mouth.

The original Teddy Ruxpin sold for approximately $70 (about $159 in today’s dollars), a serious line item in a 1985 Christmas budget. And he still brought in a reported $93 million in its first year.

The toy became one of the decade’s most recognizable electronic gifts and eventually expanded into additional books, tapes, accessories, and a companion named Grubby.

For many families, this wasn’t an impulse stocking stuffer, but the gift.

Fad 4

Super Mario Bros. 2 and Zelda II (1988)

By 1988, the Nintendo Entertainment System was in a huge number of living rooms, and the must-have gifts were two cartridges: Super Mario Bros. 2 and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.

A memory-chip shortage left them scarce, and ABC's 20/20 ran a segment called "Nuts for Nintendo" about the hunt. One shopper reportedly traveled 1,000 miles to find Super Mario Bros. 2. Another said he'd checked seven stores a day for three weeks.

A Nintendo of America executive denied that the company had intentionally held back the supply, according to a retrospective on Nintendo’s 1988 shortages.

The lesson for future console launches was apparently not “make enough.”
 

Fad 5

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993)

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers reached U.S. TV in 1993, and Bandai's first wave of action figures hit shelves the same year.

Stores couldn't keep up with the demand. A December 1993 TV news report described Power Rangers as the hottest toy of the Christmas season and said finding one was quite a feat.

The show aired after school, which meant kids regularly saw another Ranger, Zord, or villain they could add to their wish lists. The request for “a Power Ranger” could quickly become a request for the exact figure that had disappeared from every nearby store.

Fad 6

Buzz Lightyear (1996)

Before Toy Story became a hit, Mattel passed on the opportunity to manufacture the toys. Hasbro and other major manufacturers also turned down the deal.

A small Toronto company, Thinkway Toys, took the order in April 1995, just five months before the film's scheduled release. When the movie took off, the company couldn’t produce enough Buzz Lightyear figures to match demand.

In the United Kingdom, Buzz became one of the hottest gifts of Christmas 1996. Some parents offered as much as four times the store price on the black market, according to Marketing Week’s report on the Buzz Lightyear shortage.

Buzz may have been able to fly to infinity and beyond, but getting one onto store shelves was another matter.

Fad 7

Tickle Me Elmo (1996)

By Christmas 1996, Tickle Me Elmo had gone from an ordinary toy-store item to something people lined up for before dawn.

  • Some shoppers in Norfolk, Virginia, lined up at 3 a.m.
  • A Walmart employee in Canada was trampled during a rush.
  • Some parents paid more than $1,000 on the secondary market.
  • Tyco's sales reportedly jumped from $70 million to $350 million.

The toy originally retailed for $28.99. Demand took off after Elmo was featured on The Rosie O’Donnell Show, according to 13News Now’s look back at the 1996 craze.

That’s a lot of money for a giggle.

Fad 8

Beanie Babies (Late 1990s)

Ty Inc.’s Beanie Babies sold for approximately $5. Then came the “retirements,” and the small plush animals turned into something many people treated as an investment.

Some collectors paid hundreds or even thousands for particular designs, and the frenzy brought theft, fraud, and counterfeits. In 1998, one Ohio police officer was startled to find a bear he figured was worth $400 lying on the floor at a crime scene, according to HISTORY’s account of the Beanie Baby bubble.

The holidays got their own twist. In September 1999, Ty announced that it would retire every Beanie Baby at the end of the year, and its Christmas collection included a black bear named “The End.”

The company later allowed customers to vote on whether production should continue. Once the craze faded, many carefully protected collections were worth far less than their owners expected.

Fad 9

Furby (1998)

Furby, from Tiger Electronics, went on sale in October 1998. The $35 robotic creature blinked, wiggled its ears, and slowly mixed English words into its made-up language, “Furbish.”

Holiday demand pushed resale prices past $100, and sometimes much higher. Some parents even got into arguments and fistfights at Toys “R” Us. The Computer History Museum’s Furby retrospective explains the technology behind the toy and the fears that later made it even more famous.

The strangest part came in 1999, when the National Security Agency banned Furbies from its facilities over concerns that the toys could record conversations.

They couldn’t.

Want More Strange Money History?

Read More Financial History

Fad 10

PlayStation 2 (2000)

Sony planned to ship 1 million PlayStation 2 consoles for the North American launch on October 26, 2000. A component shortage cut that to 500,000, and many consoles were already pre-sold.

One 23-year-old shopper in Atlanta bought his console at midnight and had already resold it on eBay for $600, twice its retail price. By that afternoon, some systems were selling online for more than $1,000, according to CNN’s launch-day coverage.

$300

Original list price

$1,000+

Some reported online resale prices

If you hadn’t preordered one, you mostly had two choices: get lucky or pay a reseller.

Fad 11

Xbox 360 (2005)

Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 on November 22, 2005, at $300 for the basic model and $400 for the version with a hard drive.

Some stores reportedly got fewer than 50 consoles. According to eBay figures reported by NBC News, about 1,800 systems were resold during the first 12 hours at an average price of $660.

At one Walmart, a line of roughly 300 people turned into a scuffle after a manager changed how buyers would be selected. More than 10 officers were called to restore order.

All of that happened over a video game console that most buyers knew would eventually return to stores.

Fad 12

Nintendo Wii (2006–2007)

The Wii launched in November 2006 and sold more than 600,000 units in its first week. It came with Wii Sports and a $249.99 price tag, which drew in grandparents, families, and people who'd never played video games before.

The shortage lasted for a second holiday season. In fall 2007, Nintendo of America's president admitted that the company couldn’t meet demand and said each day's inventory was typically gone within a day.

One analyst estimated the shortage cost Nintendo about $1.3 billion in Christmas sales $1.3 billion in Christmas sales.

This wasn’t a one-week problem. The console didn’t just sell out once. It kept selling out through another holiday season.

Fad 13

Zhu Zhu Pets (2009)

Here's one with a Missouri connection. Zhu Zhu Pets, the robotic hamsters that scooted around and cooed, were made by Cepia, a St. Louis company with just 16 employees at the time.

In 2009, the toys sold for about $8 at Walmart and appeared on secondary-market sites for around $60. The CEO of Toys "R" Us called them the hottest toy of the year.

Part of their appeal was the original price. Zhu Zhu Pets were a smaller, budget-friendly gift during a difficult economic year, right up until the resale market made them considerably less budget-friendly.

TIME documented the craze in Zhu Zhu Mania: Hamster Toys Are Ruling Christmas.

Fad 14

Hatchimals (2016)

Spin Master’s Hatchimals went on sale on October 7, 2016. Each furry toy came inside an egg that kids tapped and rubbed until the creature began pecking its way out.

Shelves emptied quickly. Some resellers listed packages of seven Hatchimals for more than $2,500 on eBay Canada, although those were asking prices rather than confirmed sale prices.

Spin Master issued a public statement saying that it didn’t support inflated prices from unauthorized resellers and promised more stock in early 2017. When Target restocked the toys at $59.99, shoppers were limited to two each.

The official Hatchimals website even offered a downloadable letter from Santa for parents who couldn’t find one. That may be the most realistic feature any toy company has ever added.

Fad 15

NES Classic Edition (2016)

The kids who chased Nintendo cartridges in 1988 were parents by 2016, and Nintendo sold them a miniature version of the console they had grown up with.

The NES Classic Edition sold out at several retailers during the holiday season. Toys “R” Us promoted one December restock alongside another sold-out item, Hatchimals, according to CNBC’s coverage of the holiday restock.

This time, nostalgia wasn’t merely helping parents understand the appeal. The parents wanted one too.

Fad 16

PlayStation 5 (2020)

The PlayStation 5 launched in late 2020, during a global chip shortage and with scalpers buying consoles by the thousands. Automated buying tools and organized reseller groups added another layer of frustration.

One data analysis of eBay sales found the median resale price that December was over $1,000 for both models. The original list prices were $499 for the disc version and $399 for the Digital Edition.

One reseller group claimed it had bought nearly 3,500 consoles to flip.

By 2023, Sony said its supply problems had ended, and the market had changed dramatically. Some resellers were listing consoles below retail, according to TechSpot’s report on the end of the PS5 shortage.

Fad 17

Xbox Series X (2020)

Microsoft’s Xbox Series consoles launched during the same holiday season and faced many of the same supply and resale problems.

One eBay analysis counted 29,255 resold Xbox Series consoles with around $23.5 million in total sales. The researcher also noted that eBay represented only one part of the resale market.

For shoppers trying to buy either new console in 2020, the modern version of calling every store in town was refreshing retailer websites and hoping to reach checkout before the stock disappeared.

Why Do Holiday Shopping Crazes Become So Expensive?

A few forces usually show up together:

Limited Supply

Manufacturers guess too low, or parts run short, as with Nintendo's 1988 chips and the PS5's semiconductors.

Media Attention

Advertising, television appearances, and stories about empty shelves can increase demand.

The Gift Deadline

Christmas morning doesn't move, so waiting until January doesn't feel like an option.

Collector Demand

Some buyers want to preserve the product rather than use or play with it.

Resellers

Some shoppers buy available inventory specifically to sell it again at a higher price.

Fear of Missing Out

The worry that everyone else will get something can make waiting feel harder.

Social Proof

When everyone seems to want the same thing, the item can start to feel more valuable.

What Is a Resale Markup?

A resale markup is the difference between the retail price and the amount a reseller charges. If a $28.99 Elmo sells for $1,000, more than $970 of that price is markup.

When people start treating a toy like a can’t-lose investment, the excitement can start to resemble other speculative bubbles.

What These Holiday Fads Can Teach Us About Spending

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to see someone’s face light up on Christmas morning. These ideas are simply meant to help you notice when the excitement starts making the decision for you:

  1. Set your total gift budget first. Do it before you start shopping, not halfway through December.
  2. Decide your max price for a hard-to-find item ahead of time. It's much easier to stick to that number than one you make up in a checkout line.
  3. Know what you’re paying for. If a $60 toy costs $250 from a reseller, $190 of it is the markup.
  4. Keep a backup gift in mind. Rain checks, alternative gifts, and even a letter from Santa have worked before.
  5. Remember that disappointment isn’t a financial emergency. Kids bounce back faster than credit card balances.
  6. Wait out the rush when you can. Many "must-have" gifts showed up on shelves again after the holidays, and PS5 scalpers were eventually listing below retail.
  7. Be careful with “investment” collectibles. Beanie Babies were supposed to pay for college.

A dedicated holiday savings fund can make all of this easier. PSB Bank’s savings account options include the Super Savers Club Account, which is designed to help customers save throughout the year and receive the funds in November.

The Gifts Change, but the Rush Is Familiar

Make the Memory Bigger Than the Price Tag

Rocks, robot hamsters, talking bears, and game consoles have almost nothing in common, except for the stories families still tell about hunting for them.

Whether it was a 1983 department store line or a 2020 restock alert, most people remember a gift someone searched everywhere for.

This season, we hope your best holiday story is about the people around the tree, with a budget that still feels good in January.

Explore More From the PSB Bank Blog Explore Savings Options

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the biggest holiday toy craze?

No single toy can definitively be named the biggest. Several caused major shopping frenzies in different decades, including Cabbage Patch Kids in 1983, Tickle Me Elmo in 1996, Furby in 1998, and the PlayStation 5 in 2020.

Why do popular holiday toys become so expensive?

Limited supply can run into heavy demand immediately before a fixed gift deadline. Resellers may buy available inventory, while advertising and media coverage can increase demand further. Together, those factors may push resale prices far above retail.

Which toys had some of the biggest holiday shortages?

Well-documented examples include Cabbage Patch Kids, Tickle Me Elmo, Furby, PlayStation 2, Nintendo Wii, Hatchimals, and PlayStation 5.

Are old holiday toys still valuable?

Some rare products in excellent condition with original packaging may attract collectors, but resale values can change significantly. Many old toys were produced in large numbers and may be worth less than owners expect.

Why did people pay so much for Beanie Babies?

Ty regularly “retired” designs, which made the toys appear scarce. A resale market developed, and many buyers began treating the $5 toys as investments. When demand and collector interest dropped, so did the value of many collections.

How can shoppers avoid overpaying for a popular holiday gift?

Set a total gift budget and a maximum price for hard-to-find items before shopping. Keep a backup gift in mind, compare the resale price with the original retail price, and consider waiting until after the holidays when supply may improve.

Is a collectible a reliable investment?

No collectible is guaranteed to increase or maintain its value. Demand, condition, rarity, authenticity, production volume, and collector interest can all change. Avoid treating a popular toy as a guaranteed financial return.

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