Desperate beanie babie hunters search for the Germania Bear.
How to become a billionaire: produce a line of cute, basic animal figures stuffed with beans. Put them on the toy market, wait until they become wildly popular, then stop production of several favorites. Thus, a collectible is born. Continue to do this until there are so many “retired” models out there that collectors will pay anything for the rarest of the menagerie breeds. H. Ty Warner, of Ty Inc. fame, began this practice in 1993. The trading frenzy created by his Beanie Baby™ line has far surpassed the Coleco Cabbage Patch Doll™ mania of the eighties. Fans and critics seem to agree on one thing – it has all gotten out of hand. Most babies start out at about eight dollars, but some toy stores jack up prices illegally on what they know to be more obscure animals. Dealers for the so-called “secondary market” swindle the trusting. One website lists, for instance, “Pinchers the Lobster” as having been retired in 1993 and sells the cuddly crustacean for $3000. An honest peddler’s website sells the same Beanie for $40, with a retirement date of 1997. Those who live in Germany may be contentedly oblivious to the stateside Beanie Baby hysteria. But not for long. In late 1998, Ty Inc. introduced “Germania, the Bear Beanie Baby.” The generic bear with the German flag sewn to its chest is only being sold in Europe – until greedy US secondary dealers get their hands on some. Friends you haven’t heard from in years will be calling. In her desperation to be “first on the block,” one American girl targeted the MUNICH FOUND website in hopes of wangling one from our staff. She wrote, “I will spend between five and seven dollars for the bear.” But the bear is out of her league. Germania is cheaper in his native land, about DM 300; but immigrants to the U.S. start at $500.