Quote from: Shinobi on July 13, 2011, 08:33:44 PM

How are they different? They are hoarded, people are making absurd claims on their value, and there is no underlying usable value other than speculation, and no institutions of any force that would be invested to prop their value. At least I can snuggle with a beanie baby.

I see the parallels you are trying to draw. Beanie babies, like POGS, baseball cards, Yo-Yos, and numerous other collectibles had a substantial rise and fall as the fad faded.

Rather than a collectible, I like to think of Bitcoin as intellectual property. An experiment in the feasibility of a P2P currency. I agree that the absurd claims of value, government conspiracy fanatics, and immature posts by some in the community are doing nothing to further the Bitcoin cause. But there are a good number of people here who have a rational idea of what Bitcoins may or may not become.

Those that think they'll be buying a pound of gold, a home, or whatever with 1 BTC... just let them go. They've reached a state of delusion that you simply cannot get through. Not worth the effort.