If you were part of the ty beanie baby craze that became a major fad in the late 90’s, it was an exciting time that the whole family could participate in. Whether as a collector or as a seller, or even both. Ebay took off thanks to the beanies, as it was a popular place to buy and sell them.
Those adorable stuffed toy animals gave a warm and fuzzy feeling not only to kids, but especially to adults. Bringing out the kids in all of us!
I was part of that beanie craze in the height of it, as started my online success selling them on ebay and trading them by networking contacts (making new friends) in the US, UK, Japan and Germany too.
It really created an instant moneymaking opportunity as was popular everywhere, including here in Canada. Not only was I selling them on ebay, from all the retail purchases and trades of them, I also was selling them to people in my local area too.
Many millionaires were born out of that craze, whoever took the opportunity and scaled it. Ty Warner himself became a billionaire (presently worth around $17 billion). And if you invested in Ebay stock, at that time, it also would have been a moneymaking opportunity, as the stock grew in value and split many times. All around there was money to be made.
It afforded me to make investments including in real estate, where I eventually bought a really nice large home (which I since sold).
It’s amazing how these little collectible toys opened hearts (and wallets too!) in making people happy and uniting them. In my city, I made a lot of new friends who I traded with and sold beanie babies to. It was really hopping when a new shipment of beanies arrived at the stores, as we raced to get there in time to get first grabs at them before they were all gone, as were a limited amount available for each store. And even the stores limited the exclusive ones to one per person, so you had to bring a friend (or your whole family!).
And that was the whole idea that kept it going, as Ty would limit the quantity of each (particularly the exclusive country flag bears) and then retire them making a huge demand for them. Ty though did start to spoil it when, at the end of 1999, announced he would no longer be producing beanie babies and with that announcement came the release of The End beanie bear, then restarted again in 2000 after a public poll he initiated voted to keep the collectible toys on the market. After that it started to decline (the beanie bubble was bursting) when too many new ones were being released and retiring them even faster, so the beanie market got oversaturated. Collectors started losing interest as their collections lost value and sellers couldn’t no longer make enough money on them (other than on the old retired ones which were also losing value).
I remember my luck when a store in a nearby town had an old retired chocolate the moose beanie (one of the 9 original beanies first released) that the store owner found stashed away in her storage room. I raced there (my adrenaline going) and paid $100 for it and quickly sold it on ebay for $1,000. It was my biggest profit and greatest sale on one beanie alone. What an adventure!
Trading beanies with others around the world not only created new friendships but it actually united people on common ground, making everyone happy. Ty had country flag bears that were exclusive in each country it was issued to so you traded your country flag beanies to get them from those countries. The US had Libearty beanie, Canada had Maple beanie, UK had Brittania beanie, Germany had Germania beanie and Japan had Sakura beanie. Even though at one point brittania was worth more than maple beanie, I could trade my maple beanie for britannia in the UK for 2 for 1 (sometimes even 3 for 1), then I could trade 1 britannia beanie here in my area for 2 to 4 maple beanies. Then I could sell those maple beanies on ebay for around $100 each. You can imagine that kind of profit especially if you rinse and repeat.
The beanie babies were a product I enjoyed selling, trading and even collecting too. I still have some left from that time (that’s my libearty and midwest airlines red bearon beanies in the pic). I wish it had lasted longer but as they say all good things must come to an end.
Something good the world could really use right now. Why not we all unite by exchanging beanies, be focused on something positive, instead of exchanging hatred for an endless cycle of chaos and violence. Use a beanie as a weapon of kindness and peace offering, instead. It could even help an economy of a poor country by creating a source of income and keeping one’s time busy & productive.
Oh what a happier place the world would be if we brought back the beanie baby craze!
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