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55-506: Created in 1993, Beanie Babies emerged as a major fad and collectible during the second half of the 1990s. They have been cited as being the world's first Internet sensation . They were collected not only as toys but also as a financial investment , due to their high resale value. Warner introduced Beanie Babies at the 1993 at North American International Toy Fair|World Toy Fair in New York City, New York. Manufacturing began in 1994, and

110-442: A Beanie Baby named "The Beginning." In early 2008, Ty released a new version of Beanie Babies called Beanie Babies 2.0 . The purchase of a Beanie Baby 2.0 provided its owner with a code to access an online Beanie Babies interactive website. The website has since been shut down. Beanie Babies are deliberately under-stuffed. This led to a criticism that the toys looked "cheap"; however, this set them apart from most stuffed animals on

165-454: A Minnesota man was imprisoned, fined, and put on probation for involvement in smuggling counterfeit Beanies. During the wake of Beanie Babies' success, Beanie Baby-centric publications were issued. One of the largest was Mary Beth's Bean Bag World , a monthly magazine dedicated to Beanie Babies and competing plush toys. It ran from 1997 to 2001. In August 2021, Beanie Babies was the season 1, episode 4 feature on Vice Media 's Dark Side of

220-477: A collectable for either more or less than what they originally paid for it. Special or limited edition collectables are created with the goal of increasing demand and value of an item due to its rarity. A price guide is a resource such as a book or website that lists typical selling prices. Products often become more valuable with age. The term antique generally refers to manufactured items made over 100 years ago, although in some fields, such as antique cars ,

275-469: A collection can be a relaxing activity that counteracts the stress of life, while providing a purposeful pursuit which prevents boredom. The hobby can lead to social connections between people with similar interests and the development of new friendships. It has also been shown to be particularly common among academics. Collecting for most people is a choice, but for some it can be a compulsion, sharing characteristics with obsessive hoarding . When collecting

330-472: A huge secondary market for the toys and increased their popularity and value as a collectible. They systematically retired various designs, and many people assumed that all "retired" designs would rise in value the way that early retirees had. The craze lasted through 1999 and slowly declined after the Ty company announced that they would no longer be making Beanie Babies and made a bear called "The End". Some time after

385-500: A new demand for Beanie Babies. As a result of this artificial demand, consumers began buying Beanie Babies in bulk from the Ty website to relist them on auction sites for highly inflated prices. Beanie Babies began to emerge as popular collectibles in late 1995, and became a hot toy . The company's strategy of deliberate scarcity, producing each new design in limited quantity, restricting individual store shipments to limited numbers of each design and regularly retiring designs , created

440-457: A part of the obsession. Some people might see those who follow certain fads as unreasonable and irrational. To these people, the fad is ridiculous, and people's obsession of it is just as ridiculous. The third is, after it has reached a peak, it drops off abruptly and then it is followed by a counter obsession. A counter obsession means that once the fad is over, if one engages in the fad they will be ridiculed. A fad's popularity often decreases at

495-444: A rapid rate once its novelty wears off. Some people might start to criticize the fad after pointing out that it is no longer popular, so it must not have been "worth the hype". Types of IoT Security Devices Collecting The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining items that are of interest to an individual collector . Collections differ in

550-484: A role in both the motivation for keeping a collection and the impact it has on the collector's life. These factors can be positive or negative. The hobby of collecting often goes hand-in-hand with an interest in the objects collected and what they represent, for example collecting postcards may reflect an interest in different places and cultures. For this reason, collecting can have educational benefits, and some collectors even become experts in their field. Maintaining

605-427: A well-defined set that can in principle be completed, and others seek a limited number of items per category (e.g. one representative item per year of manufacture or place of purchase). Collecting items by country (e.g. one collectible per country) is very common. The monetary value of objects is important to some collectors but irrelevant to others. Some collectors maintain objects in pristine condition, while others use

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660-638: A wide variety of respects, most obviously in the nature and scope of the objects contained, but also in purpose, presentation, and so forth. The range of possible subjects for a collection is practically unlimited, and collectors have realised a vast number of these possibilities in practice, although some are much more popular than others. In collections of manufactured items, the objects may be antique or simply collectable . Antiques are collectable items at least 100 years old, while other collectables are arbitrarily recent. The word vintage describes relatively old collectables that are not yet antiques. Collecting

715-430: Is a childhood hobby for some people, but for others, it is a lifelong pursuit or something started in adulthood. Collectors who begin early in life often modify their goals when they get older. Some novice collectors start by purchasing items that appeal to them and then slowly work at learning how to build a collection, while others prefer to develop some background in the field before starting to buy items. The emergence of

770-400: Is already popular at the time. Recreation and style faddists may try out variations of a basic pattern or idea already in existence. Another way of looking at the spread of fads is through a symbolic interaction view. People learn their behaviors from the people around them. When it comes to collective behavior, the emergence of these shared rules, meanings, and emotions are more dependent on

825-517: Is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture , a generation , or social group in which a group of people enthusiastically follow an impulse for a short time period. Fads are objects or behaviors that achieve short-lived popularity but fade away. Fads are often seen as sudden, quick-spreading, and short-lived events. Fads include diets , clothing, hairstyles, toys, and more. Some popular fads throughout history are toys such as yo-yos , hula hoops , and fad dances such as

880-448: Is passed between generations, it might sometimes be that children have inherited symptoms of obsessive–compulsive disorder . Collecting can sometimes reflect a fear of scarcity, or of discarding something and then later regretting it. Carl Jung speculated that the widespread appeal of collecting is connected to the hunting and gathering that was once necessary for human survival. Collecting is also associated with memory by association and

935-488: The Macarena , floss and the twist . Similar to habits or customs but less durable, fads often result from an activity or behavior being perceived as popular or exciting within a peer group , or being deemed " cool " as often promoted by social networks . A fad is said to "catch on" when the number of people adopting it begins to increase to the point of being noteworthy or going viral . Fads often fade quickly when

990-660: The 90's entitled "Beanie Babies Go Bust". A documentary film about Beanie Babies, titled Beanie Mania , was released in December 2021, on HBO Max . In July 2023, Apple TV+ released a comedy-drama film titled The Beanie Bubble , based on Zac Bissonnette's 2015 book The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute . In the late 2000s, Beanie Babies modeled after characters from popular children's franchises by Nickelodeon , DreamWorks and Paramount began appearing. These included characters from cartoons on

1045-602: The English curios , and the origins in Paris, Amsterdam and London of the modern art market have been increasingly well documented and studied since the mid-19th century. The involvement of larger numbers of people in collecting activities came with the prosperity and increased leisure for some in the later 19th century in industrial countries. That was when collecting such items as antique china, furniture and decorative items from oriental countries became established. The first price guide

1100-868: The Nickelodeon television channel such as SpongeBob SquarePants , Dora the Explorer , Blue's Clues and The Backyardigans , as well as characters from DreamWorks Animation movies such as Shrek the Third , and 20th Century Fox 's Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs . Beanie Babies have been produced for characters from Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole and Guardians of Ga'Hoole book series, Scooby-Doo , Hello Kitty , and Peanuts . Recently Beanie Babies modeled after Disney characters have been created, including Mickey Mouse , Minnie Mouse , Winnie

1155-691: The Pooh , and Olaf from Frozen . In addition, they have produced toys based on characters from the Disney Junior TV series Doc McStuffins , Pixar films like Cars and Finding Dory , and Marvel Comics superheroes. They have recently partnered with Universal Pictures , Sony Pictures Animation , and Hasbro for characters from franchises such as Despicable Me , Sing , and My Little Pony . Beanie Babies have expanded their Nickelodeon lineup with characters from PAW Patrol , Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Peppa Pig . In January 2020 Katy

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1210-501: The Ty Website URL and a call to action printed underneath the poems and birthdays that commanded audiences to visit the company website with text that read: Visit our web page!!! As a result, hordes of consumers were visiting the Ty website to gain information about Beanie Babies which was unprecedented. Ty is the first business to leverage their website to connect and engage with consumers of their products. This effort evolved into

1265-628: The beginning of the Beanie Babies boom. Later in 1995, Ty was forced to end production on the popular toy Lovie the Lamb, owing to an issue with suppliers in China. CEO Ty Warner came up with the solution to tell retailers that Lovie was merely discontinued, and even suggested that many other Beanie Babies would be discontinued as well. This news would spread via word of mouth, as motivated sellers began to stock up on Ty plush toys while they still could, thus creating

1320-417: The bundles the toys were offered in; other retailers refused to buy Beanie Babies. Around the same time, Ty, Inc. began restricting production and distribution: stores could buy only 36 of each character per month. Warner also decided to "retire" characters after a certain period of time, meaning their production would eventually cease. The resulting scarcity led to a significant increase in sales, and it started

1375-439: The collectible nature of Beanie Babies: Warner was keenly aware that the Beanie Babies bubble could burst and eventually started requiring retailers who sold Beanies to also stock other product lines by his company if they wished to continue selling Beanies. None of these lines did as well as Beanie Babies, although they kept the company alive after the fad ended, and eventually some became successful in their own right. Ty, Inc.

1430-426: The cues of the situation, rather than physiological arousal. This connection to symbolic interactionism, a theory that explains people's actions as being directed by shared meanings and assumptions, explains that fads are spread because people attach meaning and emotion to objects, and not because the object has practical use, for instance. People might adopt a fad because of the meanings and assumptions they share with

1485-526: The dangers of the fad. Not everyone completely abandons the fad, however, and parts may remain. A study examined why certain fads die out quicker than others. A marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, Jonah Berger and his colleague, Gael Le Mens, studied baby names in the United States and France to help explore the termination of fads. According to their results,

1540-468: The fad, some might start to see it as "overcrowded", and it no longer holds the same appeal. Many times, those who first adopt the fad also abandon it first. They begin to recognize that their preoccupation with the fad leads them to neglect some of their routine activities, and they realize the negative aspects of their behavior. Once the faddists are no longer producing new variations of the fad, people begin to realize their neglect of other activities, and

1595-466: The faster the names became popular, the faster they lost their popularity. They also found that the least successful names overall were those that caught on most quickly. Fads can fit under the broad umbrella of collective behavior , which are behaviors engaged in by a large but loosely connected group of people. Other than fads, collective behavior includes the activities of people in crowds , panics, fashions , crazes, and more. Robert E. Park ,

1650-757: The first effort to collect art by private patronage, this way artists could be free for the first time from the money given by the Church and Kings; this citizenship tradition continues today with the work of private art collectors. Many of the world's popular museums—from the Metropolitan in New York City to the Thyssen in Madrid or the Franz Mayer in Mexico City—have collections formed by the collectors that donated them to be seen by

1705-450: The first iteration of the Ty website, the first business-to-consumer website designed to sell to consumers directly. To go along with the launch of the Ty website in 1995, all Beanie Baby hangtags were printed with the Ty website URL and a new piece of text was added with the company's name and the following message Visit our website. As a result, many consumers visited Ty's website for more information on Beanie Babies. This endeavor would mark

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1760-615: The general public. The collecting hobby is a modern descendant of the " cabinet of curiosities " which was common among scholars with the means and opportunities to acquire unusual items from the 16th century onwards. Planned collecting of ephemeral publications goes back at least to George Thomason in the reign of Charles I and Samuel Pepys in that of Charles II. Collecting engravings and other prints by those whose means did not allow them to buy original works of art also goes back many centuries. The progress in 18th-century Paris of collecting both works of art and of curiosité , dimly echoed in

1815-661: The highly popularizing effect of Oprah's Book Club . Though some consider the term trend equivalent to fad , a fad is generally considered a quick and short behavior whereas a trend is one that evolves into a long term or even permanent change. In economics , the term is used in a similar way. Fads are mean-reverting deviations from intrinsic value caused by social or psychological forces similar to those that cause fashions in political philosophies or consumerisation . Many contemporary fads share similar patterns of social organization. Several different models serve to examine fads and how they spread. One way of looking at

1870-436: The internet as a global forum for different collectors has resulted in many isolated enthusiasts finding each other. The most obvious way to categorize collections is by the type of objects collected. Most collections are of manufactured commercial items, but natural objects such as birds' eggs, butterflies, rocks, and seashells can also be the subject of a collection. For some collectors, the criterion for inclusion might not be

1925-432: The items they collect. After a collectable has been purchased, its retail price no longer applies and its value is linked to what is called the secondary market . There is no secondary market for an item unless someone is willing to buy it, and an object's value is whatever the buyer is willing to pay. Depending on age, condition, supply, demand, and other factors, individuals, auctioneers, and secondary retailers may sell

1980-578: The koala was released. Ty announced that 100% of the profits from the sale of Katy will go to the Australian-based animal rescue organisation, WIRES (Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service Inc.).In April 2020, H. Ty Warner pledged that 100% of profits from the sale of a limited edition Beanie Baby bear named "Hope" were to be donated to the United Way Worldwide COVID-19 Fund. On March 2, 2022, Warner declared all profits from

2035-425: The man who created the term collective behavior, defined it as "the behavior of individuals under the influence of an impulse that is common and collective, an impulse, in other words, that is the result of social interaction". Fads are seen as impulsive, driven by emotions; however, they can bring together groups of people who may not have much in common other than their investment in the fad. Fads can also fit under

2090-399: The market which could not be posed easily. Ty Warner has said that this understuffing method made the toys look "real". Another important design element is the tag. Since the beginning, Beanie Babies have included two tags for identification: a heart-shaped "swing tag" at the top, and a fabric "tush tag" at the bottom. Both tags have been redesigned completely over time. Between 1994 and 1996,

2145-556: The need for the human brain to catalogue and organise information and give meaning to ones actions. Collecting is a practice with a very old cultural history. In Mesopotamia , collecting practices have been noted among royalty and elites as far back as the 3rd millennium BCE. The Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty collected books from all over the known world at the Library of Alexandria . The Medici family , in Renaissance Florence, made

2200-436: The ones that introduce certain fads, but other people must choose to adopt those fads. Others may argue that not all fads begin with their adopters. Social life already provides people with ideas that can help create a basis for new and innovative fads. Companies can look at what people are already interested in and create something from that information. The ideas behind fads are not always original; they might stem from what

2255-469: The original announcement that the company would stop production, Ty asked the public to vote on whether the product should continue; fans and collectors voted "overwhelmingly" to keep the toys on the market. At its height of popularity people would flip Beanies for as much as ten-fold on eBay . At their height, Beanies made up 10% of eBay's sales. Some collectors insured their purchases for thousands of dollars. Following are key factors that contributed to

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2310-534: The other people who have adopted that fad. People may join other adopters of the fad because they enjoy being a part of a group and what that symbolizes. Some people may join because they want to feel like an insider. When multiple people adopt the same fad, they may feel like they have made the right choice because other people have made that same choice. Primarily, fads end because all innovative possibilities have been exhausted. Fads begin to fade when people no longer see them as new and unique. As more people follow

2365-413: The perception of novelty is gone. The specific nature of the behavior associated with a fad can be of any type including unusual language usage , distinctive clothing , fad diets or frauds such as pyramid schemes . Apart from general novelty, mass marketing , emotional blackmail , peer pressure , or the desire to conformity may drive fads. Popular celebrities can also drive fads, for example

2420-511: The sales of Beanie Babies during the month of March would be donated to Save the Children, an organization providing emergency assistance to those in Ukraine. Warner has donated over $ 300 million to various charities since the start of the company. Most recently, 100% of profits from a newly released "Max" the dog Beanie Baby will be donated to NEXT for Autism. Fad A fad , trend , or craze

2475-419: The spread of fads is through the top-down model, which argues that fashion is created for the elite, and from the elite, fashion spreads to lower classes. Early adopters might not necessarily be those of a high status, but they have sufficient resources that allow them to experiment with new innovations. When looking at the top-down model, sociologists like to highlight the role of selection. The elite might be

2530-543: The swing tags had "To" and "From" blanks in them for use as gifts. Starting in early 1996, the tags include four-line poems related to the Beanie Baby, and a date of birth for the toy. The poem and birthday concept was created by Lina Trivedi who is credited as authoring the poems on the first 136 Beanie Babies that were introduced to the marketplace. It was not uncommon for Beanie Babies to be accidentally shipped out with incorrect or misspelled tags, which sometimes increased

2585-510: The time frame is less stringent. For antique furniture , the limit has traditionally been set in the 1830s. Collectors and dealers may use the word vintage to describe older collectables that are too young to be called antiques, including Art Deco and Art Nouveau items, Carnival and Depression glass, etc. Items which were once everyday objects but may now be collectable, as almost all examples produced have been destroyed or discarded, are called ephemera . Psychological factors can play

2640-540: The toy's value. On occasion, the poems, birth dates and even the names have been changed on certain Beanie Babies. Early on, Ty had trouble finding retailers to order Beanie Babies. To get small retailers to stock the product, Ty introduced Beanie Babies at the 1993 Toy Fair in New York City. This event helped garner attention for the set of plush toys. In 1994, small local stores in Chicago, Illinois, began selling Beanie Babies for around 5 US dollars. Early in 1995, Ty created

2695-929: The toys were first sold in stores in Chicago, Illinois for around 5 U.S. Dollars. There were nine original Beanie Babies: Legs the Frog, Squealer the Pig, Spot the Dog, Flash the Dolphin, Splash the Whale, Chocolate the Moose, Patti the Platypus, Brownie the Bear (later renamed Cubbie), and Pinchers the Lobster (with some tags misprinted "Punchers"). Ty, Inc. has allowed only small, toy or gift stores to sell Beanie Babies. Sales were slow at first. By 1995 many retailers refused to buy

2750-575: The trend of collecting and reselling Beanie Babies. Their popularity soon grew into a national craze in the US. In 1996, Ty, Inc. released Teenie Beanies , a line of miniature Beanie Babies. They were sold alongside McDonald's Happy Meals to celebrate the Happy Meal's 17th anniversary. They also partnered with other companies. Ty, Inc. stopped producing Beanie Babies in December 1999, but high demand soon led them to reconsider. Production restarted in 2000 with

2805-426: The type of object but some incidental property such as the identity of its original owner. Some collectors are generalists with very broad criteria for inclusion, while others focus on a subtopic within their area of interest. Some collectors accumulate arbitrarily many objects that meet the thematic and quality requirements of their collection, others—called completists or completionists —aim to acquire all items in

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2860-411: The umbrella of "collective obsessions". Collective obsessions have three main features in common. The first, and most obvious sign, is an increase in frequency and intensity of a specific belief or behavior. A fad's popularity increases quickly in frequency and intensity, whereas a trend grows more slowly. The second is that the behavior is seen as ridiculous, irrational, or evil to the people who are not

2915-447: The world's first Internet sensation . Counterfeit Beanie Babies began to surface in 1997. Early on, cheap knock-offs and fakes of common Beanies were widely available at discount prices. Authorities cracked down on counterfeit Beanie Babies in the late 1990s. People were prosecuted for their involvement in the commerce of counterfeit Beanies. In 1998, UK authorities seized more than 6,000 counterfeit Princesses and Britannias. In 1999,

2970-568: Was the Stanley Gibbons catalogue issued in November 1865. The history of collecting is chronicled in the book Lock, Stock, and Barrel: The story of collecting . This well-researched book on collecting, written by Elizabeth and Douglas Rigby, was published by J. B. Lippincott & Co. , a major publisher in Philadelphia. "An important book as well as a delightful one. I recommend it urgently as

3025-532: Was the first business to produce a business to consumer website designed to engage their market. This is a major contributing factor to the early and rapidly growing popularity of Beanie Babies. By the time the first iteration of the Ty web site was published in late 1995 by Lina Trivedi , only 1.4% of Americans were using the Internet. In tandem with the launch of the Ty Website in 1995, all Beanie Baby hangtags had

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