Beanie Bubble
Sure, prices are insane--but how long can they last?
The excitement caused by new and retiring Beanies escalated last year when Ty started announcing retirements on its Web site (www.ty.com) instead of quietly pulling the versions from its lineup. On the secondary market, the cost of Beanies--old and new--rippled ever higher. Forget about the latest styles, which Ty conveniently announces weeks before they are available: The newest 14 releases, trumpeted more than a month ago, are already hard to find in stores and are selling for three to four times their original price on the secondary market--if you can find them.
Home run. Prices for some popular Beanies (bears are the most prized) jump out of kilter as soon as the toys appear. On July 7, Glory, a new white bear with red and blue stars, was distributed to everyone who attended the All-Star baseball game in Denver. Outside, scalpers offered $100 to $150 to anyone willing to part with the bears and the commemorative cards that came with them. Four days later, America's Store, a home-shopping channel, was selling All-Star Glories for $599.
Meanwhile, some authorized Ty retailers capitalize on the public's insatiable appetite in their own way. Some take their shipments straight to the secondary market, where dealers pay handsomely for their wares (there's no law against this). "We pay a lot in cash to people who don't want to show a paper trail," says Michael Jacks, owner of Shazam, a secondary seller of Beanies in Columbus, Ohio. Other retailers jack up prices on popular styles. A Washington, D.C., gift shop, for example, sells all its Beanies for $5.95 except Erin, a popular green bear introduced for St. Patrick's Day, and Princess, a purple bear honoring Princess Diana. Both are tagged at $90 each. Ty abhors both of these practices and says it will stop supplying Beanies to retailers who knowingly sell to the secondary market. It has told its retailers it wants them to price the toys at about $5.
Kids hate it when stores sell Beanies at a premium. In Houston, Suzy Weber's three children, ages 10, 8, and 5, got the collecting bug after the second appearance of Teenie Beanies at McDonald's in May. But it wasn't easy to satisfy them. Some stores were sold out. Others charged a fortune--or told customers they had to buy $50 worth of merchandise or five other Beanies if they wanted one of the popular ones. "After the first couple of weekends of going from store to store trying to collect them, the kids just gave up," says Weber. "Kids can't afford to pay $80 to $100 for a bear."
Tush tags. Collectors focus on minuscule details to justify paying exorbitant prices. A new Chocolate the moose costs $5 to $10, but a "first generation" Chocolate can fetch $1,000. The difference? An older version of the heart-shaped "Ty" tag on the moose when it's sold. "You will pay a lot more for the first-generation tags because you know they are the oldest versions of these Beanies," says Mary Beth Sobolewski, editor of Mary Beth's Beanie World Monthly ($59.90 for 12 issues, 800-310-7047). Beanies actually have two tags: The other one, the "tush tag" (it's attached to the Beanie's rear end), frequently carries misprints and mistakes, particularly on newer Beanies. Collectors shouldn't dwell on them--"Most of them are worth less," says Sobolewski. Still, some collectors firmly believe that a mislabeled tag is extraordinary and will pay more for it.
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