If you tried to buy any of the new A$2 Bluey collectable coins online when they went up for sale earlier this month, you probably saw the same message thousands of others did:

Our Online Shop is temporarily unavailable due to high demand.

The single most valuable product released that day — a 99.9% silver coin, featuring the Heeler family – quickly sold out. It’s since been listed for resale online for as much as six times its original $115 price.

As a researcher who’s tracked rises and falls in the price of silver, the huge price premium on those rarer silver coins got me wondering: how much extra are people paying for the Bluey brand itself, versus the coin’s silver content?

The answer? Quite a lot.

Online ballots to buy Bluey coins

The latest sales frenzy for the latest Bluey coins was entirely predictable. The Royal Australian Mint and Australia Post have run the same playbook before, with sold out coin sales in September 2024 and October last year.

The online ballot – run by the Mint through online platform EQL – allocates limited edition coins to a lucky few, then Australia Post handles the public release.

Australia Post’s website crashed within minutes of this year’s launch.

Happy collectors who managed to buy one of the latest silver coins before they sold out have since shared their photos online.

Silver content vs the Bluey premium

There are now dozens of Bluey-themed coins from the Royal Australian Mint released over the past two years, including:

For most of these, their “value” is whatever buyers are willing to pay for a limited edition Bluey product, with no obvious price floor.

But for the coins made of silver, it’s a different story.

Huge prices for the rarest Bluey coins

For the coins made of 99.9% silver, based on their weight we can neatly split their price into two price factors: what you’re paying for the silver content, versus what I call the “Bluey premium”. That’s the markup you’re paying for a limited edition Bluey collectable.

The price of silver has risen almost threefold since the first Bluey silver coins went on sale, from around US$29 per ounce in September 2024, to around US$75 an ounce this month.

But that silver price rise accounts for only a fraction of the increase in Bluey silver coins over time.

You can also see how much the Bluey premium has grown for the rarest, most valuable silver coin: the first “dollarbuck” from 2024.

It’s since been resold for $1100 – more than 11 times its original $99 price.

Online prices for the silver coins vary. Current eBay listings for that same 2024 silver dollarbuck now sit above $1,500. That high price is likely to be largely down to how few of the coins were issued.

Read more: Silver and gold hit record highs – then crashed. Before joining the rush, you need to know this

What to be wary of with ‘emotional’ assets

Bluey coins belong to what financial economists call “emotional” or “alternative” assets, alongside art, stamps, fine wine, sneakers, luxury handbags and Pokémon cards.

This is an asset class that has surged since the pandemic, driven by online marketplaces, retail trading apps and a generation comfortable mixing nostalgia with portfolio thinking.

Will those high prices last? Academic research in this area is surprisingly thin, partly because transactions on rare assets are only sporadic and prices can vary so much. This makes it hard to say whether investing in these sorts of goods will work out to be a good deal.

Past research has shown the real returns on stamps, art and wine over the period from 1900 to 2012 came in at around 2–4% a year – well below investing in shares. But some collectables have fared better, with one 2020 study concluding investing in Lego had offered better annual returns than stocks or bonds.

So the long-term payoff for buying collectables is mixed.

Protect your own dollarbucks

That doesn’t mean collectables like Bluey silver coins are a bad buy. Since launching less than two years ago, they have appreciated in value more than might have been expected.

And if you managed to snap one up at its original price, as a piece of Australian cultural history your kids might appreciate inheriting, they make a genuinely lovely keepsake.

The trouble starts when buyers pay $500 or $1000-plus on eBay, expecting prices to keep climbing. That’s where most researchers would say buyer beware.

If you are considering long-term resale value, it’s best not to let your kids play with these coins. In the collectables market, unopened packaging is a big part of the resale value.

An unexpected global phenomenon

Australia’s most famous TV export was jointly commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Britain’s BBC Studios. For two years running, it’s been the most streamed TV show in the United States.

Current ABC managing director Hugh Marks recently said it was a $300 million mistake to hand over the overseas streaming and merchandise rights to the BBC, which continues to reap a fortune from them.

But not even Bluey’s creator Joe Brumm foresaw the show becoming a global juggernaut, saying in 2024:

We didn’t know if we’d even finish the first episode. It was quite possibly going to land me in debt or in jail. Whenever I’m getting a bit immune to Bluey’s success, I put myself back there and I’m like: ‘Man, you did it.’