I admit it... I'm addicted!
Written: Nov 01 '99 (Updated Jan 19 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: cute toys, meant to be reasonable prices
Cons: secondary market, obsessive collectors
The Bottom Line: Something I never saw myself doing was collecting stuffed animals, now here I am doing just that!
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| manky's Full Review: Beanie Babies |
I highly doubt any collector actually set out to become one... I certainly didn't. I just was going to by Gobbles because he had the same birthday as myself. Then the next week I was back at the same shop, looking over others, and quickly adopting one whose birthday was that exact day... and on it went.
Ty had a great marketing vision and purpose: to create cute, fun, cheap toys for children. Unfortunately it spiraled quickly into a huge mess of avid collectors (and some vicious ones at that!).
I admit I'll stop by every Hallmark I can just to see what they've got in stock. The people at the Beanie Baby pawn shop in the mall where I go maybe only once every two months... actually recognize me when I walk in. I've tried really hard to not get obsessive... but sometimes there's that one you just can't get your hands on.
I don't have hoards of beanies in plastic cases all over my house, I have a simple collection (with basic tag-protectors) I refuse to pay more than $15 for a hard to find beanie... and stay at the accepted $5 to $7 for the rest.
It's sad that the whole phenomenon has made some so hard to acquire, and so expensive when you can.
I gave a different one out to each of my younger cousins at Christmas last year, and they loved me for it (their parents did also). They all got retired beanies, and I has paid normal prices for them! We all won in that one!
The toys themselves are great for kids, whether they sit on a shelf and look pretty, or you do the unheard of and cut the tags of to play with them. My friend's mother got hers years ago and uses them as tools in her swimming classes, to show kids how to keep their heads in or out of the water. She also has them swim after them... hush-hush though, you don't want to let too many collectors know about that!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
manky
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Amancay Maahs
Location: Hood River, OR
Reviews written: 85
Trusted by: 45 members
About Me:
Young woman from Oregon... spent time in Argentina learning the language, and to love life!
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