Herds of Beanie Babies at Cow Palace Somewhere between the Princess Di Beanie Babies ($139), the Venezuelan-made Willie Mays baseball cards ($70) and the cloth Betty Boop dolls in black lingerie ($20), collecting frenzy reached a fever pitch. The Cow Palace on Saturday provided ample reasons for Bay Area residents to come in out of the rain, with three collectors shows offering the finest in sports memorabilia, Beanie Babies and dolls. With thousands of items running between 50 cents and thousands of dollars, cash registers were ringing loudly. "We were just looking for something indoors to do," said Michele Rowland of Burlingame, who was there with her 7-year-old son Mark. "I'm a big Giants fan and he loves Beanie Babies, so this seemed ideal." Perhaps the biggest mobs - the kind that caused total gridlock in the aisles - were seeking out Beanie Babies, the hottest toy in recent years. They were priced between $5.99 for the newest ones and as high as $200 for the hardest to find - including a blue Princess Diana tribute bear, which sports a single embroidered rose. Vendors said the buying frenzy that has surrounded the floppy little animals in recent years has hardly abated. "We don't really know why - we just like 'em!" said Michael Michela, 7, of San Francisco. He says his collection now has 33 critters in it. His mother, Angelica, said, "It's not a bad hobby for a child. They are cute and sweet and not that expensive." Said Jerry Clarke, who was there selling a Beanie Baby handbook, "If you look up "Beanie Baby' on the Internet, you'll get 850,000 sites." Why are the relatively old-fashioned little stuffies so popular? Laughed Clarke's partner Carol Duggan, "If we knew that we'd make our own!" In the same hall, scores of sports collectibles were for sale - everything from Robbie Thompson-autographed baseball jerseys to old Wheaties boxes to baseball cards. Newer cards went for half a buck. The precious original cards of early greats like Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle, sold for around $2,500. Side by side in one case were two seemingly identical 1967 Willie Mays cards. But one was listed at $200 and the other at $70. What was up with that? "One of these was made in Venezuela," said Mike Wentz of BMW Sportscards. He turned it over and sure enough, on the other side were stats in Spanish. "There's also more demand for the English version, and fewer of them." But there was far more to the expo than cards. Such items of interest as Barry Bonds light switch covers ($4) and Willie Mays bobbing-head dolls ($485) were also up for grabs, as were nonsports items like memorabilia from the world of rock 'n' roll (a John Lennon decanter was listed at $90) and show biz (an autographed glossy of actor Alan Alda fetched $45). One of the oddest displays was a huge wall of Wheaties boxes, collected over the years by Bill Burita of Santa Cruz. Hottest item: a box with a holographic image of a sports hero on it - a limited edition from a few years back. And there was hockey star Wayne Gretzky on a box of Sugar Crisp. Do some people think Burita is crazy for his obsession? "Oh sure," he smiled amiably. At the far end of the hall was the autograph area. Some sports legends charged big bucks for an autograph - Jerry Rice seemed to be the most expensive at $89 - and others do it for free, like Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, World Championship Wrestling heroes. "We've been waiting an hour and a half!" said tired dad Dwight Enright of The City. "But my son is a big fan, so it's cool." And, in the smallest hall, swarms of women and children attended the doll show - a wanton display of all things fussy and feminine. With a few exceptions. "Well, John Wayne here is always popular," said Ernie Coopman of Ernie's Playland in Marysville. "And here's Mark Twain and Dwight Eisenhower and Groucho Marx. They should sell for around $169 but for this show I'm letting them go for $120." The Beanie Babies and sports memorabilia expos are also taking place Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for kids. |