Black-Market Christmas – Zhu Zhu Pets

Now that Black Friday is well behind us, it’s time to get serious about finding that great gift. As luck would have it, my daughter wants one of the hottest toys for 2009.

You guessed it, she wants Zhu Zhu Pets!!!

For those of you who are lucky enough to not know what they are, watch this commercial:

She first told me about Zhu Zhu Pets a couple of months ago, after she saw a commercial for them during Saturday morning cartoons (darn cartoons). She made me come and watch it with her so I knew what she was talking about.  They seemed cute, but nothing special.

They didn’t look like they’d be very expensive, so at first I encouraged her, saying things like, “We’ll add it to your list” or “Make sure to and tell Santa.”

I never would guessed how much those words would come back to bite me!

I was right about them being cheap($8-$10), but that is only if you are lucky enough to find them.  They’ve been flying off the shelves for weeks.

A Mom in my daughter’s dance class told us the story of how she got lucky and found some for her daughter.  She was walking by just as they were unloading the boxes.  She grabbed two for her daughter, then continued her shopping.  But she quickly went back to grab two more for her nephew.  When she got there she found a lady putting all the rest into her cart.

Here’s the best part, she told us that she figured that lady must have a pretty big family.

Yeah right.  We may live in the sticks, but we have ebay in South Dakota and that lady is making a killing right now.  They may be hard to find in brick & mortar stores, but they are available online, such as Amazon marketplace (For added enjoyment, read the comments on Mr Squiggles).

I don’t blame people who scooped them up for $8 and are trying to make a quick buck.  Heck, my Dad did this during the cabbage patch kid craze in the 80’s. He got stuck with some extra, so I got one even though, as a young boy, I had no interest in those dolls (Honest to God I had no interest. OK, OK, maybe there was a slight level of curiosity, but that was it!).

I’m sure there are many people who will pay plenty to make sure that Santa doesn’t disappoint there precious little angels.   Just today my wife’s step-sister called to tell us that she talked to Toys R Us and was informed of a great deal.  A couple of the Zhu Zhus and some accessories for only $100.

What a deal!

The funny thing is that we’ve already bought our kids their presents.  But the grandparents are freaking out about not being able to find them.  My folks ended up buying some generic hamster in a wheel (hoping that my daughter won’t notice).  And my in-laws have enlisted almost everybody they know to find one.

It’s all rather comical really.

How about you Happy Rock readers, have you been sucked up in the Zhu Zhu matrix?  Or have you managed to escape it somehow?

If you promise not to tell I’ll let you in on what my daughter IS getting.  I have it on good authority that Santa is bringing “my precious little angel” a Yo-Yo.  And there will also be a letter from Santa informing her that if she’s really really good, she’ll get a Zhu Zhu pet in the spring*.

🙂

Until next time,

-DD

*Our local Target has discontinued Zhu Zhu Pets due to the fact that the company that makes them is too small to keep up with demand.  They expect to start carrying them in March.