You may not know this but it wasn't that long ago that the "Tickle Me Elmo" dolls caused a craze. People got into fights over that (I know someone who was unfortunate to work at a store where they were out of them and had a customer threaten them for one).
There were these toys before that called "cabbage patch dolls". People got trampled to death for them. Ever see the movie "Jingle All the Way"? It was that sort of thing.
There was that PS2 shortage a few years ago...
I do agree with Hagar when he says that things have changed and not for the better...