Source: The Holland Sentinel

End of production of toys seen as attempt to rekindle interest

The Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) -- The maker of Beanie Babies says it will "retire" all the cute, cuddly creatures by the end of the year, causing kids to sigh and collectors to buy like crazy.

Is this the end of one of the hottest toy crazes of the decade? Or just a marketing ploy to revive interest in the plush, pellet-filled animal toys, the way comic books kill off their superheroes, then bring them back?

The company, Ty Inc., wasn't doing much to clear up the confusion.

An enigmatic posting Tuesday on the Ty Web site listed soon-to-be-released Beanie Babies, then said: "VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE: On December 31, 1999-11:59 p.m. (CST) All Beanies will be retired ... including the above!"

Company spokeswoman Anne Nickels declined Wednesday to say why the company made the decision -- or whether Ty would be making any new Beanie Babies after the first of the year. Company founder Ty Warner was unavailable for comment, she said.

Whatever the motivation behind the message, it certainly sparked interest. At the Beanie Baby auction site Collectingnation.com, the number of bids shot up 75 percent Wednesday. The Beanie bear Germania was selling for $175, up from $150 a week ago.

"Ty Warner is a very smart man. He knows how to create a product. He knows how to create demand," said Leonard Tannenbaum, president of the Connecticut-based site.

Since Ty began selling the toys in 1993, the privately owned company has distributed more than 100 characters, from dinosaurs and teddy bears to birds and zoo animals. The company's revenue was estimated at just $1.7 million in 1995 but had ballooned to $674 million by last year, according to NPD Group Inc., a market research firm.

Discontinued -- or retired -- models have been the hottest sellers, leading some toy industry experts to believe that Ty Inc. is simply trying to rekindle interest in the newer -- and perhaps oversupplied -- toys.

"Beanie Babies right now are really being bought now by the pure collector, whereas they were the rage a year ago," said Jim Silver, publisher of The Toy Book, a New York-based trade publication. "I would find it shocking that they would retire while still making millions and millions of dollars."

Beanies initially became popular because their price of only $4 to $5 was affordable for most children. Later, they became valuable collectibles for adults who could sell a single toy for as much as $1,000.

Anne Friedlander, an 8-year-old from Buckley said she hopes the company doesn't really intend to stop making the toys. She has little interest in the increasing value of the 123 Beanie Babies she keeps in a doll house -- many of them gifts from her grandparents.

"I don't really want to sell them," Anne said. "I want to play with them.

Copyright 1999. The Holland Sentinel.