The Beanie Babies Bubble

9/3/13
The Beanie Babies Bubble | Mental Floss
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The Beanie Babies Bubble
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T he 1900 Olympics featured a live
pigeon shooting event. T he winner
bagged 21 pigeons.
IMAGE CREDIT:
© Kevin Horan/Corbis
Nothing says “Destined to hold its value indefinitely” quite like a teddy bear stuffed with plastic
pellets. Or so collectors thought in the late 1990s, when Beanie Babies, the plush stuffed
animal brainchild of Ty Inc. founder Ty Warner, were sweeping the national collecting market.
But what made these little stuffed critters a billion-dollar industry that sucked in both children
and adults?
A number of factors contributed to the beanbags’ meteoric rise as collectibles. Ty’s brass
originally envisioned the product line as a set of inexpensive, high-quality stuffed animals that
kids could afford. Prices were generally around $5, low enough that kids could get the whole
set of Beanies. Ty eschewed normal distribution chains for stuffed animals; the company
avoided big chain discount retailers in favor of smaller gift-shop type outlets, a decision that
made the product seem classier and rare.
Moreover, the Beanie Babies themselves received constant tweaks. Colors or names
changed, their trademark ear tags would be subtly redesigned, and, most importantly, Ty
retired certain models, further spiking collector demand.
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9/3/13
The Beanie Babies Bubble | Mental Floss
As you may remember, the secondary market for the toys absolutely exploded. By 1996,
Beanies had graduated from kids’ fad to full-blown collecting craze. It seemed that almost
any Beanie could conceivably become the next hot limited edition, so collectors snapped
them up as soon as they hit store shelves. A royal blue Peanut the Elephant, which was only
produced in limited quantities for a short time in 1995, could sell for over $3,000. Other
individual Beanies, like a wingless Quackers the Duck, fetched prices well over $1,000
apiece. The good times were never going to stop rolling, and Beanie Babies seemed poised
to replace the less-adorable dollar as the nation’s currency.
B R I L L I A NT Q UE S T I O NS F R O M Y O U!
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That is, until the good times promptly stopped rolling.
By 1999, the craze had started to lose steam. Most of the newer toys hadn’t appreciated like
their predecessors, possibly because the market was so flooded with bean-filled animals.
(Ty’s revenues had ballooned to over $1 billion, which represents an awful lot of stuffed bears
flowing into collectors’ hands.) In 1999, Ty announced it was completely retiring the entire
Beanie line, and although a fan outcry convinced the company to revive the line in 2000, the
hysteria was dead.
Are We Still Worried About >
the Bermuda Triangle?
SUBMIT A QUESTION
Certain rare Beanies still have significant value, but they’re far below their heady late-90s
peaks. Peanut the Elephant seems to be bravely soldiering on; examples of his royal blue
variant have pulled in four-figures on eBay in recent years. These examples are exceptions,
though; the great bulk of speculative Beanie purchases seem to be worth a few bucks at
most.
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