Attention, parents. Consider yourself warned: It looks like we have the makings of a holiday toy craze on our hands.
"For the last four years, there has been nothing comparable to the instant sales success within weeks of launch as Hatchimals," Juli Lennett, U.S. toys industry analyst at The NPD Group, told CNBC.
Hatchimals, an interactive toy that hatches from a plastic egg, has sold out online at Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, Amazon and at most Target stores. And the bidding is already getting fierce on sites like eBay.
"The closest comparable new launch of a property would be Disney Frozen in 2013, which had a movie tie-in. Hatchimals is off to an even stronger start than Disney Frozen," Lennett said. "This could be the 'Tickle Me Elmo' of 2016."
Spin Master released the toy in early October and it quickly started flying off the shelves. All five "species" of the toy — Pengualas, Draggles, Owlicorns, Burtles and Bearakeets — sell for around $50 and are very hard to find.
Adding to the frenzy is the fact that several major retailers have exclusive selling rights to specific types of Hatchimals. Wal-Mart is the only retailer that sells Burtles, Target has the exclusive rights to Bearakeets and Toys R Us is the sole seller of Owlcorns.
Representatives for Wal-Mart, Toys R Us and Spin Master were not immediately available to comment.
Kids must nurture the speckled egg in order to begin the hatching process. The toy will tap and peck at the plastic egg until it cracks open and a furry animatronic creature emerges. Then kids can interact with the Hatchimal and teach it to walk and talk.
An employee at a Target in Edgewater, New Jersey, told CNBC that the toy was sold out at that location and she had lost count of the number of times people had called the store looking for it.
Hatchimals can be found on eBay at prices ranging from $100 and to nearly $1,000, and on Facebook Marketplace for between $100 and $200.
Several eBay users have put the toy up for more than $9,999, but are accepting lower offers.
John Rodrigues, a firefighter from Rye, New York, is one of those sellers, but he doesn't expect anyone to pay nearly $10,000 for a toy.
"Unless it was going 100 percent to charity, I would never let anybody pay that kind of money," he told CNBC.
Instead, the high price tag was a tactic to lure eBay users who were searching for Hatchimals, and were curious about the most expensive options, to his auction page. Once there, users could click the "make offer" button and send in an lower priced offer.
Rodrigues said that several people have clicked the "buy it now" button, but had no intention of actually purchasing the item. He canceled those orders, but they still appear as sold items on his page.
He has made one sale so far, garnering $100 for the toy, and earning himself about $40.
The majority of eBay sellers appear to have sold the Hatchimals for about $120 each. A bundle of three Hatchimals sold for almost $300 and a bundle of four sold for $450.