This is Planet Money from NPR.

Hey everyone, Robert Smith here.

Every company wants its product to be popular, but it can cause trouble when that product becomes

not just hot, but too hot, part of an irrational bubble.

This episode, which we originally put out back in 2015, is all about how the company behind

the popular trading card game, Magic the Gathering, figured out a way to keep its game from

becoming a fat.

After the show, we have an update about a new way that they're trying to keep their business

bubble free.

All Fads start out the same way.

With this feeling inside that you just, you gotta have something that everyone else already

has.

For Zach Hill, in fifth grade, that thing was a tiny plus animal filled with itty bitty

beans.

It was named Garcia.

It was a tie-died teddy bear.

I was in the Hickory Ridge mall in Memphis, Tennessee.

I think I was trying to impress a girl or something, and I bought a Garcia for like $7 with

some allowance money.

Zach didn't know that he was at the beginning of a beanie baby bubble, because bubbles

always seem harmless at the first stage, just a simple fat.

Then, someone figures out they can make money by reselling that thing.

...