Can everything be fried? After the 1990s, the post-90s generation speculated about blind boxes and funds, and after the funds speculated about sneakers, they are now starting to "foot speculation" again!
Some very ordinary building block bear-shaped toys are often sold in the second-hand market at a premium of thousands to tens of thousands of yuan, and some are even hyped up to more than tens of thousands of yuan or even higher, which makes many young people flock to them. Not long ago, the topic of #Post-90s speculation on bear can only make tens of thousands of yuan# also became a hot search, and the market speculation of the "bear circle" caused considerable controversy.
From "scrambled shoes" to "scrambled bears", most of the people who enter the game are young. Bear speculation has many dark stories behind it. Some young people are eager to "get rich overnight" and blindly enter the market to "counter with bear speculation", but they do not know that there are many routines and hidden risks. Experts suggest that young people should consume rationally, and "speculators" will become "leeks" if they are not careful.
Building Block Bear Picture source: Visual China
Building Block Bear was hotly speculated, some of which are sold at a price of more than 100,000 yuan
"You can make tens of thousands of yuan by selling it at will"
"Building Block Bear" is a toy produced by Japan's MEDICOM company and officially launched in August 2001. Because the original version is similar to the shape of a building block man and has the characteristics of a bear in appearance, it is called a building block bear, with its nickname Brick Bear and Variety Brick. Later, the founder of the company began to collaborate with major brands and popular IPs, cooperated with designers or artists from different fields around the world, and transformed them on the basis of dolls to make them trendy toys.
Image source: bearbrick official website screenshot
The larger the volume, the higher the price of the "building block bear". Among the many styles, not only are there solid color basic models, but also hidden models.
Image source: bearbrick official website screenshot
In addition, MEDICOM TOY company often launches joint and limited edition models with well-known brands or well-known artists, and these styles are more expensive.
It is understood that "Block Bear" is only available in limited quantities in Japan, and it is difficult for buyers to get the price. Last year, due to the impact of COVID-19 , Japan's logistics slowed down, and many players who bought "bears" could only find domestic channels to buy. This has promoted transactions between players. Some people use this as an excuse to push up the prices of many styles of "building block bears" in the domestic second-hand market.
According to Xinhua Viewpoint, Xiaoyan in Guangzhou made a profit by selling a limited-edge building block bear. The clothing brand he often buys jointly launched a domestic limited-edition building block bear with a Japanese company. Because he heard that it could appreciate, he bought the limited bear with a try mentality of spending 2,000 yuan. "Hold the bear on a second-hand trading platform, and someone bids more than 3,000 yuan to buy it." Xiao Yan said.
There is also a building block bear buyer who said that sometimes he bought it himself and collected it for several years, and he could make tens of thousands of dollars by selling it casually.
With the popularity of building block bears, the phenomenon of "fried bears" has emerged. , for example, the Mu Beige Co-branded Bu Erjia model, with a size of 1,000%, and a price of 37,000 yen, equivalent to about 2,200 yuan, but it is listed on a domestic shopping platform of 31,009 yuan, with a premium of more than 14 times. The most expensive bear on the platform is priced at 144,999 yuan, which is a limited co-branded model with the artist KAWS, and its release price in May 2012 was 80,000 yuan. The second-ranked "Block Bear" is a co-branded model with the artist Kongshanji , with a price of 139,999 yuan. Its price was 8,800 yuan in November 2019, and the price has increased by nearly fifteen times in just over two years.
Image source: A certain e-commerce trading platform
According to Red Star News, So far, the most expensive building block bear is an artist-made model called "Qiu Tu". After this joint model of Chinese contemporary artist Yue Minjun was released, the auction price in the art market reached 126,000 pounds, equivalent to about 1.14 million yuan.
"Qiu Tu" co-branded building block bear
Under such temptation, reselling building block bear has become a new way for many people to invest. Some netizens once bought ten building block bears called "Starry Sky Qianqiu" at one time. The price was not more than 10,000 when the purchase price was more than 10,000 yuan, and I sold nine of them, and I kept one for . Later, the same model was sold at the auction for a high price of 100,000 yuan.
Block Bear transformed into a "fried product"?
The original price ranges from several hundred yuan to several thousand yuan is exaggerated. According to its price, positioning is no longer as simple as a toy. Why did it transform from a "trendy product" into a "fried product"?
I searched on the Internet and found that both ordinary people, internet celebrity big Vs and celebrities are involved in the Building Block Bear. Many celebrity celebrities show off their building block bear intentionally or unintentionally, and these phenomena have directly led to the soaring price of building block bears on online shopping platforms.
Jay Chou , Huang Zitao , etc. are all big collectors of "building block bears",
Picture source: Social platform screenshot
At the same time, more and more bloggers have appeared on the Internet to share "cash-out tips" of building block bears, which is exciting.
Image source: Screenshot of a video platform
According to CCTV Finance, Online blogger: I bought a Van Gogh building block bear in March, and the price was 7,000 yuan on the online platform. After a few days, it was 10,000 yuan. Now the price is 19,000 yuan.
celebrity effect, profit-seeking principle, plus the label of "only this batch, once you miss it, it will never be again", the supply is far less than demand, scalpers and second-hand vendors are acting when they hear the sound, which aggravates the situation of "hard to find a bear".
"Snatch Bears", "House Bears", "Fight Bears"
behind many tricks
According to Xinhua Viewpoint, the reporter learned that in addition to some real building block bear enthusiasts, more and more people are smelling business opportunities and following the trend to enter the market.
Xiao Fan, a post-90s generation who bought and sold building block bears on WeChat Moments, said . One of the major reasons why "bear speculation" is that the threshold is low, and it does not require specialized knowledge or a large amount of capital. You can get started with a few thousand yuan. If you are lucky, the return rate is very high.
According to the respondents, there are also routines such as "hoarding bears" to raise prices, "robbing bears" plug-ins, and "washing bears" fraud in the building block bear market.
Xiaofan introduced that some people will "stock bears" from purchasing agents and "bear dealers" to create a manifestation of shortage of styles, and then sell them at high prices on e-commerce platforms. "Players with sufficient funds can obtain a large amount of upstream supplies and gradually raise prices; then some 'scalpers' and second-hand players who have experience in speculating on 'trends' enter the market and continue to hype the market. They make profits at all levels, and the ones who are harvested are often 'small retail investors'."
"The limited edition products are small and the demand is large. Except for a very small number of people who can occasionally grab the original price building block bear, most of the building block bears were snatched from the building block bear's official website by some speculation plug-ins." Xiao Fan told reporters.
At the same time, some popular styles have also begun to have "counterfeit versions".In order to "wash" fake goods into genuine products, some sellers even sent domestically produced products to Japan first and then back to China in disguise "foreign shipment".
"Block Bear" on the e-commerce platform is expensive. Image source: Screenshot of a certain e-commerce platform
In addition, due to the few purchase channels, the transaction platform cannot be separated from the trading platform. The platform plays the role of guarantee, appraisal, etc., and will charge the seller's margin and service fees, accounting for about 10% of the selling price in total; and if the goods are identified as counterfeit by the platform, the margin will not be returned.
Xiao Yan, who is familiar with the platform's operating rules, said that because the delivery of goods and the platform's "truth verification" lacks third-party supervision, it is impossible to achieve full-process traceability, so once a fake product problem occurs, it is easy to controversy in which link "fake" is prone to dispute, and it is difficult to protect rights.
Hot-fried "trendy toys" hide risks
may give birth to a batch of "zero after leeks"
In recent years, popular trendy products have emerged one after another. And these popular trendy products are still products in essence. Its premium in the second-hand market is also hyped.
buy and sell, and there are rises and falls. According to CCTV News, a social network platform netizen "Lilicheng" introduced: "Even in the bear circle, it is not necessarily profitable to speculate in bears." The netizen spent 30,000 yuan to buy a pink limited-edge building block bear last year, but the price has dropped by 14,000 yuan this year.
fried bears look very popular, but there are actually big problems. According to China Radio International, Liu Junhai, director of the Institute of Commercial Law of Renmin University of China, believed in an interview that the serious scarcity of building block bears was caused by the shrinking logistics caused by the epidemic, and some people seized the opportunity to start hype.
He said that after buying building block bears for the purpose of investment, in addition to facing market risks, there are also legal risks. "If you promise to buyers that the price will increase in the future, and if it does not increase later, it may be suspected of fraud."
According to Xinhua Viewpoint, industry insiders believe that "trendy toys" are popular, and there are many e-commerce platforms and capital behind it. The platform gradually forms a consumption trend by designing marketing topics and creating product gimmicks with the help of celebrity effects to make profits. Unlike physical investment, the value of these consumer goods is largely derived from the "stories" created by merchants and the psychological expectations of consumers, among which the bubble component is very large and the "investment" is very risky. Some speculators use multiple routines to raise prices and pass on risks to ordinary consumers, which requires vigilance.
Hunnan Jiaoyang Law Firm's lawyer Zhu Zhuoqi believes that "trendy toys" hype is often the beat the drum and pass on the flowers game. Although operators do not violate the price law under independent pricing, illegal behaviors may occur during sales, such as collusion between each other, fabricating, spreading price increases information, and price gouging. Moreover, behind the hype of "trendy toys", there may also be illegal and criminal problems such as fraud and illegal pyramid schemes.
It is understandable to buy trendy products, but "small krypton is happy, big krypton hurts the body." When facing industrial products with vague values, we should be especially rational and act within our ability, avoid blindly following the trend in order to "get rich overnight", and prevent "trendy toys" from being "fried" and being "cut off".
source: Daily Economic News, CCTV News, CCTV Finance, Xinhua Viewpoint, Red Star News
