**HEADLINE: THE BUNNY THAT BROKE STARBUCKS: Why This Collection Feels Like a "Beanie Baby Frenzy" Meets a Dutch Golden Age Bubble**

HEADLINE: THE BUNNY THAT BROKE STARBUCKS: Why This Collection Feels Like a “Beanie Baby Frenzy” Meets a Dutch Golden Age Bubble

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(MILAN/AMSTERDAM) – History buffs and market analysts are drawing startling parallels between the chaotic global launch of the new Miffy x Starbucks collaboration and one of history’s most infamous economic manias: the 1637 Tulip Bulb Crisis of the Dutch Golden Age.

Watching fans trample each other for a ceramic bunny sipping a Frappuccino, Dr. Elias Voss, a historian of economic bubbles, told CNN: “This isn’t just a merch drop; it’s a societal replay of the ‘Tulip Mania.’ During that era, a single bulb of the ‘Semper Augustus’ tulip could cost more than a house. Today, a single Miffy cup – a minimalist, stylized rabbit – is being scalped on eBay for $2,000. The object is almost secondary; it’s the frenzy of owning the unattainable symbol of status.”

But the comparison doesn’t stop at economics. Dr. Voss notes the “Beanie Baby Effect” of the late 1990s is equally potent. “That bubble popped, leaving millions of ‘rare’ plush toys worthless. We are seeing the exact same ‘collector FOMO’ [Fear Of Missing Out] here, with fights breaking out in Milan and Shanghai.”

The final layer of irony is the national origin of the mascot. “Miffy is Dutch—the very nation that gave us the Tulip Bubble,” adds Voss. “The same country that saw rational traders lose their minds over a flower is now seeing them lose their minds over a cartoon rabbit on a cup. It is a perfect, recursive historical