Interesting Read: Concocted Beanie Baby Craze

BigAppleJak · Feb 22, 2015

I know it's not cards, but if your going to card shows in the 90's there was always a table with this stuff.

http://nypost.com/2015/02/22/how-the-beanie-baby-craze-was-concocted-then-crashed/

Hawk8 · Feb 22, 2015

There was always more than one table

RStadlerASU22 · Feb 22, 2015

Good read , thx ... Def a big deal in the 90s

Ryan

BamKat · Feb 22, 2015

I still see some on tables!

fordman · Feb 22, 2015

Yep, some card dealers even sold all of their stuff and invested only in beenies. They sold a bunch as well. Some even bought them, put them in safe deposit boxes thinking they'd send their kids to college on them. It was an artificially inflated market by TY by putting serial numbers on them, yet they didnt specify that the serial numbers were from lot #1 or lot #1 000. When collectors where bumping in to each other, both having #1 's of a certain beenie, collectors started figuring it out.

Hospital gift shops, Hallmark stores and specialty shops never had better selling years than they did when beenies where all the rage!

Fordman

TNP777 · Feb 22, 2015

I remember going on a field trip with some junior high students - early 2000s or so. We stopped at a Rotten Ronnie's (McDonald's) for lunch and they were giving away Beanie Babies in the Happy Meals. I had purchased one for my daughter and she ripped the tag off of it. A nearby girl just about flipped her lid when she saw it. "You've ruined the value!!!" she yelled in horror. I laughed and told her to relax, it's just a toy. She stared at me like I had grown a third eye.

All In Cards · Feb 22, 2015

I have a few trash bags filled with them. Use to have them in 4 glass ikea showcases. Wife and I went crazy, such a waste. Lol

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bigunitcards · Feb 22, 2015

The opening of that article is either misleading or unclear. It says there was a huge warehouse filled with product that was never sold. Are they insinuating that Ty "retired" certain animals by producing them, then never selling them? That doesn't make any sense. Making a short print run of an animal, then saying 'retired' makes great marketing sense. But making & never selling does not. I imagine the warehouse was at the end of their popularity & they just never sold them. But the article is misrepresenting this as some ingenious marketing tactic. Anyone else not get this?

Good read, but I don't get where they're getting 'concocted' from. There actual was a craze for beanie babies. Ty may have facilitated the popularity with the 'retired' phraseology, but that's far from concoction.

michaelstepper · Feb 22, 2015

These were insanely popular. My mom, grandma, aunts, cousins and GF at the time would search relentlessly. Eventually figuring out shipping days and and a network of friends that knew beforehand when a store had new ones. My GF had over 120 before it went crazy with 4th generation. It was nuts.
I fully admit there were a few I like the look of and still have in a box somewhere. Probably 6 or 7

Austin · Feb 22, 2015

I have a few of the baseball player Bam-Beano bears.

mrmopar · Feb 22, 2015

Starting Line-Ups went the same route, taking a cool toy and eventually destroying their future!

I am happy to say that I never once bought a Beanie Baby for myself but I will have to admit that my youngest son selected a few dozen when we'd make trips to the local card store and I gave my boys a few dollars per trip to spend. Of course, they were all in the dollar tubs. He selected them based on his liking of the animal and removed all of the tags as well. He has one that he has kept for years now that was his favorite, a lion of some sort. He used to take it everywhere (trips included). Now it is almost a joke that we ask him if "Li-Li" is going on our next trip, as he has been to so many places with us already. He is growing out of them fast though and soon it will just be a fading childhood memory.

michaelstepper · Feb 22, 2015

mrmopar said:
Starting Line-Ups went the same route, taking a cool toy and eventually destroying their future!

I am happy to say that I never once bought a Beanie Baby for myself but I will have to admit that my youngest son selected a few dozen when we'd make trips to the local card store and I gave my boys a few dollars per trip to spend. Of course, they were all in the dollar tubs. He selected them based on his liking of the animal and removed all of the tags as well. He has one that he has kept for years now that was his favorite, a lion of some sort. He used to take it everywhere (trips included). Now it is almost a joke that we ask him if "Li-Li" is going on our next trip, as he has been to so many places with us already. He is growing out of them fast though and soon it will just be a fading childhood memory.

Still something he or you should probably keep around. I know there's plenty of things I got rid of that later on wish I'd kept.

mrmopar · Feb 22, 2015

Being a natural collector, I encourage my kids to keep everything, but I won't intervene unless it is something more personal. If they want to toss it, then it will be their loss. In one case though, I have further tried to interfere. We saw the Harlem Globetrotters a few years back and I got them each a "special" logo basketball. Now they already had basketballs to play with, so these were supposed to be display pieces. My oldest got his signed by a few players and displays it in his room, but my youngest didn't. Now he has been wanting to use the ball for play and I have told him no…use your regular basketball. He is dying to use that ball and I would like him to keep it clean and unused. The ball itself obviously means nothing to him now but a piece of sports equipment, but I hope it will mean more later.

I try to obtain some sort of souvenir for any trip we take. A pin, coin, brochure or something that is special or pertinent to the trip. I would also try to find the souvenir spoons for the boys too. Those are the types of things I would stash away for them or old sports team hats, trophies, school awards, art projects, etc.

predatorkj · Feb 22, 2015

My grandmother has a lot of the Disney ones(which just might make them hold some value) as she is a huge Disney fan. Whether they are worth anything wouldn't matter to her anyways so no big deal.

But, after the way Sportscards tanked, I feel no sympathy for anyone who decided this was the next best thing. This was the 80's/90's Sportscards boom part two, just in another format.

Lancemountain · Feb 22, 2015

My mother got me a tie-dyed fish one

That's all I got

BBCgalaxee · Feb 22, 2015

The only bears which sold well for me were the bam beanos Yankee bear collection.

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michaelstepper · Feb 22, 2015

I have 3-4 different griffeys if anyone's interested. 3 small and a larger one

BBCgalaxee · Feb 22, 2015

My wife was somewhat into the craze back then.

Thankfully she wasn't into spending stupid money, but would occasionally pick up one or two and eventually wound up with a tub full.

I knew the market was going to crash making them pot holders since I went through the same thing with cards, but she liked them so I really didn't say anything.

One thing which I remember was totally ridiculous was a price guide which predicted what each beanie would be worth in the future.

BigAppleJak · Feb 22, 2015

Yeah, this guy didn't help much either.

BBCgalaxee · Feb 22, 2015

Folkssssss.....GET ON THE PHONE NOWWW!!!!

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