Bammers, Limited Treasures, Others Challenge Ty

By Mike Jacquart

Pet rocks were a fad. Furby is probably a fad. But Ty Beanie Babies, from all appearances, are here to stay.

At least that's the message being sent by thousands of collectors, who are still scooping up every new Beanie Baby as soon as they are released, and at the same, are buying the retired ones as fast as their budgets will allow.

True, some prices have leveled off in recent months, and a few examples, like the once-in-demand Princess bear, have seen their values tumble drastically. But that doesn't mean Beanie Babies are fading away. These kinds of fluctuations are not uncommon in a collectibles market that has developed so rapidly.

The mainstream media continue to send mixed messages about the Beanie Baby market and its future. According to some accounts, the Beanie Baby market is sailing along merrily. Other reports insist that savvy collectors are bailing out now, and taking their profits before the market sinks.

The truth is undoubtedly somewhere in the middle. Just like any hot collectible, there are some speculators content to grab their short-term gains and move on, ready to jump on the next hot market. But, at the same time, there are also many collectors in it for the long term.

Dealers and collectors agreed.

"I don't think the market is dying, but I think it's shifting to other lines like Bamm Beanos [actually now known as Salvino's Bammers], Limited Treasures, Disney and Warner Brothers," said Bean Bag collector Shawn Brecka of Stevens Point, Wis. "Some other lines [not Ty] are easier to find. I think a lot of people are buying Beanie Babies and other [plush]."

Halo the Angel Bear ($40 range) is one of the Ty Beanie Babies in demand at Paul & Judy's Coins in Arthur, Ill.

"There's still a tremendous interest in Beanie Babies," said Paul Schrock of Paul & Judy's Coins in Arthur, Ill., stressing that 1998 was still his "best year ever" in sales.

Schrock admitted that any Beanie Baby "priced over $100 is slow moving." He added that "prices are more realistic now. Any product has a life cycle, and I believe we're in the middle part of the life cycle for Ty Beanie Babies."

Erin, left, and Princess, brought $200-$300 each when first issues, but a pair can be purchased today for under $30. Inexpensive Beanie Babies are still good sellers but not Beanie Babies that cost $100 or more, dealers said.

Schrock also believes that Ty is making a mistake by not retiring Princess and Erin, two highly-desirable Beanie Babies that brought prices in the $200-$300 range for each before prices began to tumble.

"I'm getting $18 each and $29 for the pair," he said. "If [Ty] retired them, the market would be 20-30 percent stronger."

Ron Hawk, operations manager of the Beanie Barn in Hamilton, Ohio, said, "Some [collectors] have switched allegiances [to other Bean Bags], but others are very loyal to Ty. They'll buy a Bean Bag, find out it's not Ty, and say, 'No thanks, I'll wait until Ty comes out with one."

Non-Beanie Babies are also good sellers for both Hawk and Schrock. Bammers are especially hot, they said.

In fact, Randy Clausen, a Bammers distributor in New London, Wis., said his firm has moved $500,000 of Bammers - Bean Bag bears that depict the names and uniform numbers of baseball stars like Mark McGwire and Ken Griffey, Jr. As well as baseball standouts, Bammers will also soon include National Football League (NFL) and National Hockey League (NHL) stars (see toy news for more information).

Dealers said Bammers are popular because they attract sports enthusiasts as well as collectors of plush Bean Bags.

"I still think they buy it because of McGwire's name and Sosa's name," said Wayne Salvino, whose firm is involved in a legal battle with Ty, which charges that Bammers copy Beanie Babies. "Sports licensing is a billion-dollar industry. We were lucky enough to offer them something unique."

"[Salvino] Bammers are doing something right," Brecka said. "Sports seems to be where the market is headed. Lots of sports dealers were already involved."

Indeed. Although not embraced by every sports fanatic and dealer, Beanie Babies and other Bean Bag toys have had a tremendous impact on the sports collectibles industry, perhaps even keeping some of them in business.

Illinois dealer Sally Grace has experience in both markets. Grace sold sports cards since the mid-1980s before switching to Beanie Babies two years ago. She says that dealing in Beanie Babies is more profitable and more fun.

"I love the trading card industry and I love Beanie Babies," she said. "It's a great mixture when you combine the two at shows and in shops, because now you have something the whole family can do. Before, the wives would stay at home saying they didn't want to go to a card show, and now the wives, husbands and kids all come together."

Special giveaway Beanie Babies, like Glory, given out at the 1998 baseball All-Star game in Denver, instantly sell for hundreds of dollars.

The sports tie-in is why Hawk believes Limited Treasures' new line of Bean Bag toys featuring the signatures of NFL stars like Randy Moss and Barry Sanders will be even hotter than Bammers.

Planet Plush and Ty Beanie Buddies - basically larger version of Beanie Babies - are among the other strong-selling lines at the Beanie Barn, Hawk said. Planet Plush feature cities and states (mostly cities), such as New York / Big Apple Bean Bag, Peach / Atlanta and Rocky (Colorado) and Sunshine (Florida).

Winnie the Pooh is among the best-selling Disney miniature Bean Bag plush characters, according to Bean Bag collector Shawn Brecka.

Brecka said she sees a lot of interest in Disney miniature Bean Bags (especially Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh) and Warner Brothers (especially Scooby Doo) lines.

"They're such endearing characters," she said. "And Liquid Blue's retired Delilah is pretty hot, although it's fairly easy to get."

Dealers said they do not see a lot of interest in the Disney and Warner lines at their secondary market outlets. Do collectors prefer to shop for these Bean Bag characters at Disney and Warner stores?

"Disney's not collectible," said Schrock. "They can't retire them and then just reissue the same character with a different tag. They're good products, they're just not collectible."

But Beanie Baby enthusiast Jon Brecka (Shawn's husband) believes the enduring popularity of characters like Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse gives these plush items strong collectibility potential.

Beanie Baby or Bammer, Warner or Disney, it's obvious that while this market is changing, it's far from dying.

Reports from Trade Fax and Sports Collectors Digest also contributed to this story.

Misfits Bean Bags Selling Out in Hours

Did you get to see Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer this Christmas? What about Santa Claus or Herbie the Elf?

If you were looking for the plush Bean Bag versions of these toys - made exclusively for CVS Pharmacy by Stuffins - you probably had a heck of a time. That's what most collectors are saying after their quests to find the Island Of Misfit Toys Bean Bags failed. But that doesn't mean it wasn't a fun search. Here's what one collector, Cerella Sechrist of Red Lion, Penn., had to say.

"Because I am not too familiar with what is popular these days in the toy industry, when [Toy Shop associate editor] Merry Dudley asked me to procure for her a complete set of The Island of Misfits Toys, I willingly agreed.

"She told me ahead of time that because of the popularity they promised, I might have difficulty obtaining a few of them. I thought that in a smaller town, such as York (Penn.), that they surely wouldn't be quite as sought after. I was proven wrong.

"Every Monday morning, I would drive the 15 miles to the local CVS store to purchase the two most recent additions to the set. The clerks began to recognize my face and began conversations about the toys that were selling with such wild popularity. They even warned me that coming in on Mondays was probably not a safe idea if I wanted to be assured of that week's toys availability.

"The CVS clerks told me my best bet was to come in first thing Sunday morning, right when the store opened, because every week the store was filled with toy collectors looking to purchase that week's edition of Misfits. I took their advice and began making my weekly outing to the store on Sunday afternoons. I was very fortunate in that every week there were at least a handful of toys left for purchase. Until the final week, that is.

"I made my weekly outing to CVS, and as I entered the store, I immediately started for the usual display on the far side of the room. Upon reaching it, I saw that no toys had been placed on the display that day. Puzzled, I turned toward the checkout and knew in a moment's relief as I saw the Misfit display boxes resting on the counter. As I started toward them, my heart sank. They appeared to be empty. I rushed toward the display and felt my heart start beating again as I spied one of each toy lying in the very bottom of the box.

"Without hesitation, I rushed to the counter to make my fortunate purchases just in time to hear a nearby clerk say, 'We're out of those already?'

"I was lucky indeed."

The preceding material was written by Mike Jacquart. 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.