Source: Chicago Sun-Times
December 10, 1999
BY CARLOS SADOVI STAFF REPORTER

Why stop now?

That's what Beanie Babies lovers were asking Thursday after Oak Brook-based Ty Inc. said that on Dec. 31 it will stop making the cuddly critters--and not just replace current Beanies with a new line of them, as fans and collectors had speculated since late August.

That's when the secretive private company had made a cryptic announcement on its Web site that it would "retire" all current Beanie Babies at year's end.

But just what that meant, Ty never explained until Thursday, when another Web site message announced that there will be no more Beanie Babies and that the company plans to clear out its surplus of the little stuffed animals.

"Now, it's confirmed," said Leonard Tannenbaum, president of Beanienation.com, an Internet auction site dedicated to Beanie Babies. "That's a big thing."

The last new Beanie will be produced on New Year's Eve, Ty Inc. spokeswoman Anne Nickels said Thursday.

"I have no idea [why]," she said, adding that company owner Ty Warner made the decision himself. "We're just as much in the dark here as everybody else."

One factor might be the Pokemon craze. Tannenbaum and others said sales of Pokemon cards and gear have hurt sales of Beanie Babies.

"Our Pokemon sales have flown, but Beanie sales haven't," Tannenbaum said.

But he and others said they wouldn't be surprised if Warner came back with some new collectible.

"There is anticipation that something new will come out," Becky Estenssoro, publisher and editor of Naperville-based Beanie Mania magazine, said of Warner.

Mary Beth Sobolewski, editor-in-chief of Bannockburn-based Mary Beth's Bean Bag World magazine, also expects something new from Warner.

"It won't be Beanie Babies," she said, "but something slightly smaller and something more counterfeitproof."

She said the company has had a stubborn problem with counterfeits.

Maria Trevino, who manages Candy Junction at the Merchandise Mart, which sells Beanie Babies, said she expects Thursday's announcement will trigger another rush, just as there was after the Aug. 31 announcement.

"People are crazy, buying their Babies," Trevino said. "They buy everything. They want them all."

Ty Inc. began selling Beanie Babies in 1993 and took in what was estimated to be $250 million in one three-year period. Adults went wild for the little collectibles, driving their prices far beyond the original $5 each they paid for them--as much as $6,000 apiece for the rarest ones.

Ty fed the frenzy by routinely "retiring" Beanies.

"We don't see how they can stop making them," said Kristin Lueken of Bollingbrook, who collects Beanies with her 4-year-old daughter, Linnea--nearly 100 so far. "They are making so much money. Maybe they'll take a year break and release them again, and the people will go crazy again."

Linnea lays the stuffed animals out on her bed when she goes to sleep.

"They should keep on making them," she said, "since I like them so much."