Source: Seattle Times

Northwest Life : Tuesday, October 06, 1998

by William S. McTernan
Newsday

The Beanie Baby bubble may be about to burst.

Harry L. Rinker is sure of it. So sure that he has this to say in his "Official Guide to Collectibles" (House of Collectibles, $19.95):

"A general feeling has developed that prices have reached the ridiculous level. Many Beanie Babies advertised in the hundreds of dollars are going unsold . . . The market is flooded with Beanie Baby price guides . . . A few years from now, their only value will be the ability to look nostalgically back on the craze and think `If only I had sold then.' "

Rinker is president of Rinker Enterprises, an information service for dealers and collectors. He's written several books about collectibles including dinnerware, tableware and silverware.

"I'm not so much a collector as an accumulator," he said, "but I do have a sense of what's happening with collectibles. And I can assure you that, within a year, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth among the Beanie Baby collectors."

There are an estimated 40,000 of them. And there are thousands of Beanie Baby Web sites, almost all of them devoted to selling the plush little animals that were created by toy designer Ty Warner.

Since their introduction in 1994, Beanie Babies have become inescapable. You can't buy a newspaper or a quart of milk without encountering a sign offering to sell the creatures, often by name: "Gracie the Swan" or "Grunt the Razorback" or, heaven help us, "Iggy the Iguana."

Ty Warner sensed right at the outset that a perception of scarcity, even an artificial one, boosted value. And so, "retiring" Beanies like "Humphrey the Camel" propelled the plush dromedary from a $5 toy to an $800 collectible.

"So Ty made half a million Humphreys and they were snapped up by scalpers and hoarders," said Rinker, "but those retired Beanie Babies are losing value rapidly." Rinker's guide bears him out. "Ally the Alligator" has dropped from $40 to $15; "Bumble the Bee" from $300 to $125.

Rinker is not alone in his gloom. In the October issue of Beans! magazine, collectibles analyst Shawn Brecka asserts that "the number of retired Beanies offered for sale increased faster than the number of buyers."

Says Rinker: "The ship is sinking. If you have Beanie Babies, unload them. Sell them anywhere. . . . There's a three-month window of escape. After that, buy a crying towel."