This is the photographic evidence of the most valuable stuffed animal I have ever owned. Pictured above is Peanut, the Beanie Baby. There was only a very small number of Beanie Baby elephants that were made with the dark blue fabric-- after one batch, they were switched over to light blue.

One year for my birthday, Trish bought a little dark blue elephant toy to put on top of one of my birhday gifts. I thought it was a cute little elephant, and I kept it on my bookshelf for a couple of years. I really didn't think much of it.

A few years later, I was at the boardwalk down at the Shore somewhere with my boyfriend Mike. We went in some store, and they had a huge display of Beanie Babies. This was my first time ever seeing what the elusive "Beanie Baby" thing was really all about-- up until then, I didn't know they were little stuffed animals; I thought they were baby dolls with bean-bag bodies for some reason. But anyway, we were looking at them and I thought the little heart tag looked very familiar and I remembered my little elephant at home. I wandered around and saw that the display-owner had placed a sign up that listed the Top 5 Most Valuable Beanie Babies. It listed some like a dog with only one spot on its eye or something; a monkey with a different colored tail than the mass-produced one; and then a dark blue elephant.

I called the guy over and asked about that, my heart pounding. When I told him I had a dark blue elephant BB at home, he said I must be kidding. After all, there was only about 6 known in existence. When he told me how much it was worth I almost threw up: $1,000. I ran out to payphone and excitedly called my Mom to tell her the news. For the next couple of months I debated about what to do. Should I hang onto it and hope it grew in collectible value, or do I try to sell it while the trend was still going on? And if so, who do I sell it to?

The guy at the boardwalk told me it was worth $1,000 but said he'd only be able to give me $750 for it. I ended up going to a flea market and meeting up with a husband and wife who were interested; two days later they called me and offered me the full $1K. It basically then became a very covert operation-- I met them at the flea market as it was closing one night, with Mike. I had brought Peanut in a big Ziploc baggie. We stood in a hallway and I showed them Peanut, and at a simultaneous moment, they handed me $1,000 cash and I handed them Peanut. They quickly closed him into a lucite box. I was able to get full-price because the tag was still on. (And to think that I had never cut it off simply because I thought the heart-tag was cute.)

But here's the thing: I kind of miss Peanut. He was really a cute little toy. I didn't really want to sell it, but if I didn't I think I would have always thought about how I missed my chance. That $1,000 actually helped fund my portion of the move to Arizona later that year. Still, how funny is it that someone paid $1,000 for a tiny stuffed animal my sister had purchased at a gift shop in New Hope, PA, on a whim? By the way, I bought her a Beanie Baby out of appreciation, and took her to dinner. Later, the remainder of the money bought my first car in Arizona (at a seedy car auction, which is another story for another day).

One more detail about this story that I really love: before I knew I was harboring a super-rare Beanie Baby, I used to spend a lot of time hurling it across my room into the eager jaws of my dog Sam, who would slobber it up and carry it to his bed and sleep on it. I kept that detail out of the financial dealings at the time.

But yes! If you ever see a dark blue Peanut, chances are it was probably mine at one time, and it lived in the paneled basement bedroom in Middletown, NJ with a dorky girl obsessed with comic books and her dog. I miss you Peanut, and if you are reading this, I hope you are well!