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A Beanie Baby is a stuffed animal filled with plastic pellets, or "beans," rather than stuffing (see PVC). A Beanie Baby is thus a form of bean bag. more...

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The original Beanie Babies were made by Ty Warner through his company Ty Inc.. Ty claimed rightful ownership of the name and of all of the designs of their various "beanies." Other companies marketed imitation beanbag-stuffed animals, as well as parodies such as the "Meanie Babies".

The official Beanie Babies were mostly in the shape of animals and were usually brightly colored. Each Baby came with his or her own name, a birthdate, and a bit of humorous poetry. For example, the poem of Bongo the monkey went:

Bongo the monkey lives in a tree

He's the happiest monkey you'll ever see

In his spare time he plays the guitar

One of these days he will be a big star!

This information was all contained on a red, heart-shaped hang tag usually affixed to the animal's ear. The condition of the hang tag is one of the main factors in determining a Beanie Baby's value, and hard plastic covers molded in a heart shape are available for its protection. In some tags, the letters "ty" actually are in a 3D form, slightly lifted as to create a more futuristic effect.

Intended as children's toys, they became a popular adult gift item. Beanie Babies are a kitsch cubicle decoration. Hundreds of different Beanie Babies were created, often resorting to more obscure animals such as aardvarks, nutria, or chameleons in the process. One popular "series" within the Beanie Baby menagerie was the use of teddy bear-shaped Beanies, the basic pattern of which was repeatedly re-used, but with different colors and names. The bear model was frequently used for commemorative purposes, and special bears such as a Fourth of July model and even a Diana, Princess of Wales commemorative were created.

Starting in late 1996, a faddish craze of collecting Beanie Babies began. The craze lasted to around the year 1999. In a buying frenzy reminiscent of the Cabbage Patch Kid mania of the early 1980s, several speculators purchased these collectibles en masse in hopes of making a fortune years later from being able to sell rare specimens. Ty fed the frenzy by systematically retiring various designs. However, much like the Cabbage Patch Kid fad, so many people had delusions that purchasing large numbers of these collectibles was a good investment, that very few people profited from the craze. Like tulip mania, this was a toy-sized example of an economic bubble.

During the beanie baby craze, the rarest beanie was considered to be the Royal Blue elephant Peanut. Peanut was common in a lighter hue, but the dark blue version consistently sold for thousands of dollars. Wingless Quackers, a bright yellow duck, was another rare find. Chilly the polar bear, the all-black version of Zip the cat, Derby the horse with the fine mane, and Humphrey the camel also commanded top prices. Special edition beanies, such as the #1 Bear or the Billionaire bear that were given to Ty executives, were also particularly hard to come across. Throughout the collecting mania, the bears were usually the most sought-after beanies, and thus they carried higher market values. Sometimes earlier editions of a common beanie baby--such as the "old face" Teddies, would be more rare than the newer versions.

Read more at Wikipedia.org