Many Collectors Skip Athletic Stuff to Get to Adorable
Stuffed Beanie Babies HOUSTONIANS had the chance to rub elbows with sports celebrities like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Roger Clemens at the 12th annual Tri-Star Collectors Show in the George R. Brown Convention Center. But hundreds of the estimated 15,000 people that attended the show over the weekend breezed past the autograph signing and sports memorabilia trading to look at the hottest collectibles in today's market -- Beanie Babies. For the first time, a Beanie Expo was held in conjunction with the annual sports collectibles show, which features dealers from various parts of the country. "Beanie Babies are hot -- it's like baseball cards in the '80s," said Mandy Fuerst, public relations manager for Tri-Star Productions, which puts on the Houston show and several other collectibles shows. The Beanie show was paired with the sports show, which ended Sunday, in hopes of enticing visitors to browse both kinds of exhibits. "We really just wanted to add something to our event," Fuerst said. However, most Beanie enthusiasts at the show couldn't care less about the sports cards, magazines and jerseys for sale at the other end of the convention hall. "We just came for Beanies," said Meghan Shoefstall, 12, of Nederland. Meghan and her sister, Kendell, 11, have been collecting the plush beanbag animals for about a year and a half, and have been looking for a few rare Babies for almost as long. Meghan would like to capture Trap the mouse, and Kendell hopes to catch Flutter the tie-dyed butterfly. "I'm trying to finish off my collection," Meghan says of the 200 Beanie Babies she and her sister own. But to do that, they must obtain many of the costly retired Babies, ones no longer made by Ty Inc. The toys usually retail for $5, but a price list distributed at the show lists Trap for $550 and Flutter at $500. But the sisters won't pay more than $375 each for their prized selections, and that's only if they come with the original tag attached. (Because the animals are not distributed in boxes, tags are extremely important to Beanie collectors -- a bent or missing tag can reduce the value of the animal up to 50 percent.) Meghan, wearing an "I love Beanies" T-shirt, and Kendell speak of the animals' distinguishing characteristics and their Beanie searching, often on the Internet, as if they are certified Beanie experts. They know the difference between each generation's tags, which represent which year the animal was produced. Kendell explains that the most recent tags include both the animal's birthdate and a poem describing the animal's nature. This knowledge is far more than they possessed when their mother bought their first Beanies -- Mystic the unicorn for Kendell and Curly the bear for Meghan. "(Meghan) didn't like his name, so she cut the tag off. This is before we knew what Beanie Babies were," said Sherri Shoefstall. Now that they are aware of the value of the animals, the sisters call stores in the Beaumont, Orange and Galveston areas every day when they arrive home from school to track when shipments will come in. Meghan said they once camped outside a Hallmark store at 5:30 a.m. to await its 10 a.m. opening and a chance to get more Babies. "We had to race people to them," she said. But the Beanie phenomenon isn't limited to children. Many adults also collect the Babies, like Houstonians Don Spence and Jaymes Young, who both came to the show strictly to look for the animals. Spence, carrying a shopping bag full of Beanies, got the duo hooked on the Babies while he helped co-workers at a previous job look for them about a year and a half ago. They now own more than 300, and brought about 100 Beanies with them to trade with fellow owners. "We try to trade because the fun of it is trading them," Young said, adding that they often help others locate Beanies they need. "I never knew how big this thing was. They're really cheap, inexpensive gifts," he said. Occasionally they sell a Beanie or two, but never for more than $10. "We're not in it for a profit," Young said. Spence agreed, saying, "It's nice for kids because its not really expensive for the most part." Of course, they quickly added one must buy current, not retired Babies to avoid the high prices. It's clear they have also caught the Beanie Babies fever -- Young took an overnight trip to Canada to buy Maple the bear, a white bear emblazoned with a Canadian flag. Although it is available in the United States, Young paid $8 in Canada, compared with $150 here. And as with most collectibles, the longer an animal has been on the market, the more its value increases -- which is what Cindy Boggs of Dallas noticed as she collected Beanie Babies for her three daughters. "We got a lot of extras as we collected for the kids," said Boggs, who with her husband, Jack, ran a booth featuring rare and retired Babies at the show. Cindy Boggs started collecting a little more than a year ago, and found a way to turn her collection into a donation for the Buckner Children's Home orphanage in Dallas. She collected a full set of Beanie Babies, which is currently on display at the Dallas Museum of Natural History and is being auctioned off to benefit the orphanage. The starting bid is set at $55,000, and bids are being accepted until next month. Not only does collecting Beanie Babies give Cindy Boggs a chance to help non-profit organizations, but she said it also holds great investment potential and provides a second income for their family. "It takes hold of you and pulls you with it," she says of collecting. Attending their first Beanie show, the Boggses brought about 200 rare and retired Babies to sell, including the royal blue version of Peanut the elephant, distributed for only one month in 1995 and worth $3,500. Perhaps the hunt for the Babies is what keeps collectors searching -- and possibly from comparison shopping. "If you see one, you're afraid it won't be there when you come back," Young said. |