Beanie Babies Official Club Trading Cards:
An Inside Look At The Latest Collecting Phenomenon

By Claudia Dunne
Staff Writer
Mary Beth’s Beanie World Monthly

   

If collecting Beanie Babies isn’t challenging enough for you, check out the Beanie Babies Official Club (BBOC) trading cards. With four categories of cards in varying colors of print and insignia, this endeavor may prove as challenging as finding Glory in your local store for $5. Trading cards have been an instant success with Web sites popping up all over the Internet and message boards open for card trading.

The cards were introduced by Cyrk, a marketing company hired by Ty, Inc. to run all BBOC programs. Cyrk distributes Clubby, the BBOC bear, and now runs the sale and distribution of Ty trading cards. The Series I cards have already been retired, so expect the frenzy around this first series to escalate over time and to promote bidding wars on sites such as eBay.

JUST THE FACTS

The four categories of Series I Cards are The Original 9, Retired, Birthday/Rookie and Regular Issues. You may find the Retired, Birthday/Rookie and Regular Issue cards also referred to as "chaser" cards. The cards are available in packs at Beanie Babies retail stores. The packaging says there are nine cards inside; however Beanie World has found 7 to 13 cards in each pack, with eight being the average. When a Retired card was in the pack, there were routinely six other cards with it, making the pack short one card. One pack contained 13 Regular Issue cards. Each pack is supposed to contain eight trading cards plus a puzzle card. The packs are shipped to retailers in a box of 24 packs. Retailers purchase by the case, which contains six boxes. A pack of cards retails for $2, a box for $48 and a case for $288.

PUZZLE AND SLIDE CARDS

For every pack purchased, you should receive eight trading cards, a checklist and a puzzle card displaying a scene with Beanie Babies. There are eight different puzzle cards. One is untitled and has a tropical scene on one side with the dogs on the back. The other seven puzzles have titles: Born to be Wild, It’s a Dogs Life, Star Spangled Beanies, The Faces of Teddy, The Original 9, The Tropical Heat Wave and Winter Beanie Wonderland.

If you buy cards by the box, you get a "bonus" card (approximately 5"x7") which mirrors the scenes on the puzzle cards. The scene appears black and white until you pull the tab on the bottom and the scene turns to color. There are eight total and some collectors are calling them "slide" or "double- vision" cards. The only difference from the puzzle cards is the Teddy slide card has Clubby in the shot, and the untitled puzzle card is not represented in the slide cards.

THE ORIGINAL 9

The first category of cards pictures the Original 9 Beanie Babies numbered 1-9. They are hard to find and are printed on clear acetate. The title, Original 9, is printed in red, blue, silver or gold (which is the hardest to find). Each color has been printed in a limited amount.

For instance, one collector has a Chocolate numbered 815/884. This shows Chocolate is a silver card since the silver Chocolate trading cards are limited to 884. The prices in the buyer’s guide reflects how many of each color card was printed. The Original 9 category has some cards that are showing up unnumbered. Collector Roger Pierce has a clear Squealer with Original 9 printed in blue, which raises the question of whether there are also 4 colors of the Original 9 in an unnumbered series.

Handle the Original 9 cards carefully because they retain fingerprints. Holding them by the edges is suggested. These cards are quite rare and could be valuable trading tools in the future.

AUTOGRAPHED CARDS

Speaking of rare, there is a gold version of each card with Ty Warner’s autograph. Each of the 296 cards with an autograph has a number 1/1 on it. These are extremely rare and could be very valuable in the future. They are already being sold for commendable prices on Internet sites.

On the back of the card packages, Cyrk says the odds of getting one of the Original 9 or autographed cards is one in every 117 packs. That number is speculative and does not mean if you buy 117 packs you will get one. In four boxes of 24 packs, Beanie World received one Original 9 card — a red Patti. This beat the odds since we only had 96 packs.

RETIRED CARDS

The second category is numbered 10-24 and known as Retired cards. Although each one pictures a retired Beanie, not all retired Beanies have a Retired card. The front of each card has a foil, holographic background with a gold stripe running down the left side with the individual Beanie’s name. There is a "Retired" circle insignia in the upper right hand corner, which is red, blue, silver or gold. Once again, gold is the hardest to find and is numbered 1 of 150 cards issued.

Inside the circle insignia is the date the Beanie was retired. These cards are numbered 10-24 on the backside in a small white star in the upper right hand corner. On the back are little-known facts about the animal and the Beanie’s poem. The odds of finding one of these cards are one in every seven packs.

BIRTHDAY/ROOKIE CARDS

Category three is the Birthday/Rookie cards, numbered 25-49. Each has its name embossed on the front in either red, blue, silver or gold foil. To have a complete collection, you will need each card in all four colors. There is some confusion on the colors — the red really graduates from red to gold; the blue from blue to silver; the silver or a gold cards are pure silver or gold.

On the front, the Beanie’s birthday is written in gold. Some have a blue rectangular box with the word "Rookie." The background pictures vary with each card: Bessie in a pasture, Fetch in the barnyard, Glory in the sky and Clubby in a forest. The Beanie’s poem is on the back of these cards a number is in the upper right hand corner. The odds of finding one are one in every two packs.

REGULAR ISSUE CARDS

The Regular Issue or Common cards are the fourth and final category. Numbered 50 to 149, these cards feature every Beanie Baby not covered in the first three categories. Starting with Ally and ending with Zip, the Beanie’s picture is embossed (raised) and feels puffy. It seems some of these regular cards are in great abundance.

In purchasing 10 packages, Beanie World found five Sparky’s. Others in this category are already being referred to as "hard-to-find," such as Chilly, Teal Teddy and Caw. Similar to hard-to-find Beanies, it’s predicted there may be some hard-to-find trading cards.

WHAT’S NEXT

A Beanie World staffer who recently nabbed an exclusive interview with Cyrk reports all unnumbered Original Nine cards (the clear ones) are a production error and will not be continued. Therefore, all existing cards are expected to skyrocket in value.

Cyrk confirmed there are only 296 Ty-autographed cards on the market. Series II Trading Cards are expected on the market in March 1999.

The preceding material was written by Claudia Dunne. These are the opinions of the author, not the opinions of eBay, and therefore eBay does not validate the accuracy of or endorse these opinions.