beanie babies value

sociolog y of the phenomenon of is an example of a product of popular culture based on the sales and revenue of this toy ty warner inc created an empire worth over 6 billion in 1995 there was fear that this hot commodity was slowly losing interest to the general public to their surprise there was exponentially increasing demand for the product resulting in a profit of 250 million in the following year with substantial re sale value in the secondary market in 2008 they released a follow up line 2 0 marketing strategies much of the success of can be attributed to the marketing strategies of the company the ten strategies employed by ty warner included reasonable price ty warner wanted to keep selling at a reasonable price but did not want to mass produce them in doing so he followed steps 4 and 5 by limiting production and distribution by only selling to smaller retailers keep it secretive ty warner was able to keep people interested because they weren jaded by the constant advertisements that most large toy companies use when people don know what to expect it becomes more appealing surprise people unpredictability became entertaining to the mass public and made people even more eager to engage in the collection process of limit production limiting production ensured that keeping some rare would keep people excited avoid large chain retailers unlike most toys that are mass produced and retailed to major toy stores were sold at smaller more refined specialty shops this helped sustain the authentic image of simplicity because only a few different colors of fabric were used for each costs were kept low at the same time this simplicity appealed to everyone because what they saw is what they got personification personification made easier to relate to every had a ty tag with a unique name birthday and poem this only increased the excitement of the buyers because it was no longer just a stuffed animal variety producing a variety of attracted everyone because this  tactic aims to please everyone taste this ploy also made serious collectors more eager to collect every out there retirements retirement created frenzy among consumers when ty would retire a certain demand would increase while supply came to a halt risk every previous strategy that warner developed was a risk and he succeeded in going against the norm although his plan was unique and could have been a set up for failure ty warner founded an empire in creating a craze that was original citation needed this made competition to the wide variety within the product line of limited substitutes were rare and unsuccessful in the market place citation needed even so people thought they were making an individual and unique selection when in actuality their choices were confined within the ty inc corporation citation needed with the ten strategies and the limited competition ty warner had created a culture of his own in the way he produced citation needed mass culture even though one of the purposes of the ten marketing strategies was to avoid mass production were still mass consumed by the general public at the peak of their popularity citation needed by avoiding mass production ty warner gained an upper hand in the sales of toys he was able to keep a high demand of while still sparingly producing them citation needed collectibility began to emerge as popular collectibles in late 1995 and became a hot toy ty systematically retired various designs and many people assumed that all retired designs would rise in value the way that early retirees had the craze lasted through 1999 and slowly declined after the ty company s announcement that they would no longer be making and made a bear called the end the line was brought back with completely new styles in early 2000 as a result of an online vote over whether more beanies should be released many believe that the mass retirement and subsequent revival were a publicity stunt but had fallen out of favor with many children by the time the line was relaunched in recent years the popularity of has continued to fade some of the more common styles can be found fairly cheaply new designs continue to be released and increasingly include bears and limited edition items on december 27 2007 ty made a massive retirement of its line retiring over 240 styles of leaving only licensed characters key clip versions of popular styles popular store exclusives and country exclusives as current on january 2 2008 ty introduced a replacement line called 2 0 the next generation of the beanbag toys while the aforementioned current styles will continue to be produced and special will be released the remainder of future retail styles will be produced under the new line in which collectors can purchase their beanies and use a scratch off code to go online and play with their new pet in a virtual world much akin to other collectibles like neopets and webkinz tags the tags on beanie babies are considered a very important part of its value it is widely believed by collectors that a beanie without a tag loses half of its value every has at least two tags a swing tag also known as a hang tag ear tag or heart tag and a tush tag usually attached to the beanie s rear end both tags have gone through many changes over time these changes have become known as generations there are currently 15 generations of swing tags and 13 generations of tush tags additionally there are also extra tags for certain regions that include things like safety information to comply with the canadian stuffed articles act or the ce mark requirements in europe a few tag generations have become particularly noteworthy most beanie babies with first second or third generation hang tags have held their value or in the case of some harder to find styles increased in value while fourth and fifth generation hang tags indicate beanies that were available during the beanie fad beanie babies 2 0 in an attempt to beat out the webkinz craze citation needed in early 2008 ty decided it was time for beanie babies to go online this new version of beanie babies was called beanie babies 2 0 the purchase of a 2 0 provided its owner with a code to access a beanie babies interactive website rarity this section does not cite any references or sources please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources unsourced material may be challenged and removed january 2008 during the craze the rarest general issue beanie according to the winter 2000 edition of ty beanie babies published by collectors value guide was considered to be the dark blue variation of peanut the elephant peanut was available well into 1998 in a lighter hue but the dark blue version that was only made accidentally in 1995 rose in value because of its scarcity nana the monkey was considered the second rarest beanie baby because only a few early 3rd gen tags use that name instead of bongo the early wingless version of quackers the duck chilly the polar bear the earlier versions of nip and zip the cats peking the panda bear a series of colored bears named teddy which are even harder to find with the earlier old face and humphrey the camel also command high prices some special edition beanies such as the 1 bear or the billionaire bears which are only available as gifts to ty employees are hard to come across and highly valued earlier editions of common beanie babies particularly with first or second generation hang tags are often sought after by collectors particular hang tag variations in mint condition continue to make record prices on ebay in the hysteria of the late 90s the bears were perceived to be the most sought after beanies and often carried inflated price tags however many of the popular bears have since turned out to be fairly common notable beanie babies main article notable beanie babies garcia the bear garcia the bear was released in january 1996 and retired in may 1997 he is a tie dyed bear that seems to be a tribute to jerry garcia of the grateful dead a group of differently colored dancing bears originally artwork from the back of an album cover was one of the band s many iconic images the guitarist and the bear share a birthday but the bear was supposedly born the year that jerry died aug 9 1995 the fast retirement for this beanie baby was due to an alleged lawsuit that the garcia family filed against the ty company claiming that the name garcia was used without permission from the family in cooperation with the lawsuit garcia was retired and a similar bear named peace was released the bright colors on garcia the bear made him one of the most popular beanie baby styles many people enjoy trying to find different colors on garcia and community of tie dye collectors continue to make the bear s value unpredictable princess the bear diana princess of wales died on august 31 1997 warner announced the beanie baby princess on october 29 1997 in honor of princess diana warner said that all proceeds would be donated to the diana princess of wales memorial fund the princess diana beanie baby was sent to vendors to distribute in the second week of december 1997 some vendors had to wait until february 1998 only 12 beanie baby princesses were released to each vendor initially but this changed due to strong demand decade the bear decade the bear was made in honor of beanie babies tenth anniversary decade bears were made in white royal blue red purple orange hot pink green gold brown and light blue counterfeit beanie babies counterfeit beanie babies began to surface in 1997 early on cheap knock offs and fakes of commons were widely available at discount prices but when the beanie craze began to fade counterfeiters started focusing on rarer releases and country exclusives although it is unlikely that people are still manufacturing fakes citation needed older fakes continue to surface on ebay citation needed some counterfeit versions of real beanies were made that had never been produced by ty for example there are some red fake pinkies and mint green fake quackers out there cases the fbi strictly cracked down on counterfeit beanies in the late 1990s and some people were prosecuted for direct known involvement in their commerce for example a st louis park mn couple was sentenced to prison probation and fines for their involvement in smuggling counterfeit beanies york north yorkshire england authorities seized more than 6000 princesses and britanniae from a ring media during the wake of beanie babies success many beanie baby centric publications were issued one of the largest was mary beth s bean bag world a monthly magazine dedicated to beanie babies and competing plush toys this magazine ran from 1997 to 2001 licensed beanies in the late 2000s beanie babies modeled after characters from popular children s franchises by nickelodeon dreamworks and paramount began appearing these included characters from cartoons on the nickelodeon television channel such as spongebob squarepants and dora the explorer as well as characters from dreamworks animation movies such as shrek the third and most recently 20th century fox s ice age dawn of the dinosaurs competitors this section requires expansion with other notable competitors in wake of the toy line s success in the late 1990s many competing plush toy lines were started these included puffkins meanies and various others references amy carr august 14 1997 those beanies are still hot and there s no sign of the craze slowing down daily herald http nl newsbank com nl search we archives p_product adhb amp p_theme adhb amp p_action search amp p_maxdocs 200 amp p_topdoc 1 amp p_text_direct 0 0ed02839938d2be6 amp p_field_direct 0 document_id amp p_perpage 10 amp p_sort ymd_date d amp s_trackval googlepm punchers the red lobster originally introduced in 1993 punchers was redesigned in 1994 and renamed pinchers 160 the perfect store inside ebay via google books becker h s 1982 art worlds and collective activity art worlds 1 39 ty warner s marketing strategy 2008 http www aboutbeanies com marketing html ty beanie baby beanies news ty beanie baby beanies news ty beanie baby beanies news ty beanie baby beanies news peace mania magazine chicago sun times search couple sentenced for selling counterfeit beanie babies news star tribune minneapolis mn highbeam research british authorities seize 6 000 counterfeit beanie babies ap online highbeam research want the scoop on the beanie industry for the millennium pr newswire 1999 12 10 http www highbeam com doc 1g1 58151402 html retrieved 2009 05 18 160 bossmin lydia ofelia de los santos june 1998 the new puffkins Read more about beanie babies value collectibles mary beth s beanie world 1 5 3638 160 new meanies could give beanie babies competition the sun herald pp 160 f6 http nl newsbank com nl search we archives p_product bx amp s_site sunherald amp p_multi bx amp p_theme realcities amp p_action search amp p_maxdocs 200 amp p_topdoc 1 amp p_text_direct 0 0eb6252a76e6e20e amp p_field_direct 0 document_id amp p_perpage 10 amp p_sort ymd_date d amp s_trackval googlepm retrieved 2009 06 12 160 external links ty s official web site v 160 160 d 160 160 e ty inc key people ty warner beanie babies list of ty beanie babies 160 beanie babies 2 0 160 clubby 160 decade 160 princess 160 teenie beanies other products beanie buddies 160 ty girlz categories 1990s fads and trends 1992 introductions 1993 introductions children s websites stuffed toys toys of the 1990s virtual pets virtual reality communitieshidden categories articles needing additional references from october 2007 all articles needing additional references articles with a promotional tone from march 2009 all articles with a promotional tone all articles with unsourced statements articles with unsourced statements For more info visit beanie babies value