Tickle Me Elmo X (TMX) 09/20/2006
This is a truly insane thing that cause me to even want to write something like this. I guess it is in hopes that it will get Googled and I will have yet another page in their database to infinity.
As you know, 09/19/2006 was the release date of the new TMX. The Tenth Edition of the Tickle Me Elmo toy. I knew about it before this date and saw the pre-ads in the stores like Target but I didn't think I would ever come back to get one. For some reason though on the release day I got an itch to go to Toys-R-Us under the false pretense that I was going to purchase one for my 4 1/2 year old son. Well, I got there and saw the large display up front and it was game-over. I quickly rushed over and picked up 2 (which was the purchase limit for that store). This left 3 on the display table, one of which was opened and laughing on the table. Mind you that this was probably around 11AM that I had ventured over to the store... so in about 1 1/2 hours they had apparently sold down to 5 TMXs.
I took them back to the office and was pressured into opening one up so the people at the office could see what the big innovation with the TMX was. I must admit that it was pretty damn funny. This thing immitates several aspects of having an uncontrollable laughter fit including what I will call slapping his thigh (although other people will say he is doing something else); doing the gut-grabbing crunch while laying down; and kicking legs uncontrollably. This is definitely entertaining for kids but I don't know about the $39.99. Which brings me to why this article even exists.
When I got my Elmo back into the box, I sat down and went to eBay to see what the action was like. Right off the bat I saw about 140 TMX Elmos for sale and they were selling for about $80-$90/each. Some people had listed them for $50-$70 earlier in the day as pre-sale items (I bet they are kicking themselves now). I saw the trend going up in terms of the amount people were bidding so I decided to go to Target and see if they had any more. On my way to the toy section, I passed a man with about 12 TMX Elmos in his shopping cart. I asked him if he left any on the shelf and he said there were about 3-4 left. I quickened my pace and passed a lady with 2 in her hands and got to the end cap where I quickly snagged the last 2! Target was now sold out! So at this point I had 4 in my possession with one open one so I decided to drive by Toys-R-Us just in case they had any more... They had 2 left... the open box one and one more that was on the side of the display. Bam! I had 5. This was now around 4PM and I was on my way home to happily list the 4 unopened ones on eBay.
Upon getting home I did a quick search again and found that there were now 1,800 TMX Elmos listed (this does not take into account the number of TMX Elmos that were already sold and not part of the current live listings). So, as fast as I could, I listed my Elmos with prices of $70-$80 with Buy it Now prices of $80-$90. Thinking that this would be pretty sweet I left to make myself something to eat. About an hour later I checked on my auctions and noticed that 6 people had already viewed my listings. So I decided to see what the market was like again. To my disbelief there were now about 2,800 TMX Elmos listed with two of them selling for $305 and $265 with less than 30 minutes each to go! I rushed to edit my auctions and raised the starting bids to about $90 and Buy it Now to $100-$110 (because I figure 100% profit is more than enough).
Through-out the night I checked in to see the number of TMX Elmos rise steadily through 7,000 then to 9,000. By the time I went to sleep that night I saw about 14,000 TMX Elmos listed. The kicker is this... I wake up to find 21,000 TMX Elmos listed!
Insane. I will post what happens with my 4 that I have eBay. Good luck to anyone else that was lucky enough to get their hands on one of these guys.
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