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In about 1995 Mr. Troutbend stopped collecting used science fiction paperbacks (he has about 7000 of them) and started collecting Beanie Babies and other similar toys sold by Disney.
In the mid-1990s he and some of his aerospace buddies decided Beanie Babies were an investment, and spent a lot of time during the lunch hour driving around town to find the latest and fill in their collections. When we went to Disney World in Orlando every year, Mr. Troutbend would take a day to go to every gift shop in every Disney park to find "In the Park" sets, such as the Frontier Land set that is Chip n Dale, Donald Duck and family, Mickey and Minnie Mouse all in western garb. One year his suitcase was a 12 pound carryon (total weight at the airport check-in) going and more than 40 pounds coming home.
When McDonald's had the mini-Beanie babies, he bought multiple Happy Meals, as many as 10 a day, to get them. Since he can't bear to waste food, he tried to eat it all, and I swore I could smell it as I rounded the corner into our driveway. Buddy the Cat even had his own bags of fries.
Fortunately or not, depending on how you look at it, about 7 years ago Mr. T's Beanie collecting was replaced by gambling and cigars, but now he has the toys and paperbacks stored waiting for the day when they gain some value, which I don't think will be in our lifetime.
If we die and don't tell anyone where all that is stored, the storage place can auction it all off to get their back rent, which doesn't seem to be such a bad solution.
I never bought any, but DH did managed to win one of the Canada buddies that was selling for $100 at one time. He sits in a box in my basement, while I fume that I didn't sell it on ebay while he still had value!