There are many confusing issues
surrounding Beanie Baby trading cards. On this page, I will attempt
to answer to the best of my ability questions that have been posed to
me frequently, and which may be of general interest to people trying
to get started collecting these cards. If you would like other questions
answered, please email me.
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Q. Will Ty Introduce
a Series 5 (This question was put to Ask Ty)
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A. I've been so busy with some great new . . . . I’ll just say
IDEAS, that I haven't had a chance to even think about a new series.
So there we have it. It doesn't look like a Series 5 any time
soon. But lets keep asking!
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| Q. What are
the rookie cards. I have some birthday cards with rookie on
(ie squealer) and some without (ie velvet), help. |
A. While most Americans may
think this is obvious, it can certainly be puzzling for our European
friends. This is a term from Baseball cards and indicates the first
season for a new player. This does not affect the value of Beanie
cards at all, but for baseball cards, the rookie cards are generally
the rarest and most valuable. |
| Q. How do you
tell the colors of the Ty foil cards |
A. Let's start with Series 1
Series 1 come in Red, Blue, Silver and
Gold
On the Original 9 cards, the color is
whatever the "Original 9" is written in. This is usually in the
top left corner of the card. For the Pinchers
shown on the Series 1 chase page, the card shown id Red.
For Retired cards, It is the color of the Retired
circle. The Left shown is a Blue Lefty
For Birthday and Rookie cards, the color is
the color of the Beanies name. However, it is not a solid color
on the Red and Blue, but graduates to gold. The Silver and Gold
cards are a solid color. The Tabasco
shown is Red.
For Series 2, the foil colors are Blue, Green,
Silver and Gold
The Rare Bear cards are distinguished by the
color of the words "The Bear" under the name banner. Take a look
at the card on the Series 2 chase page. It is a Green Libearty.
The Retired cards have an colored oval in the
bottom left of the card. An example of this is shown on the Series
2 Canadian page. At the bottom of the page is a Gold Bumble
The Birthday and Rookie cards again use the
color of the Beanie name. The Series 2 chase page shows a blue
Peanut.
Series 3 contain a lot of different cards,
but the basic colors are Teal, Magenta, Silver and Gold. As in
previous series, the gold cards are numbered.
Retired cards: These are the ones that everyone
really hopes to get in Series 3. It is easy to know if you have
one because it is card but not rectangular. Both long sides of
the card are cut. These cards are also numbered. To tell the color
of these cards, just look at the background color.
Next in line are the Classic commons. These
are the same as the commons from Series 1 and 2 except they are
marked as classic common cards. These cards are uncolored.
Then there are the Beanie and Buddy cards.
These are the clear acetate cards (plastic) with one curved side.
Up one side of the card is the name of the beanie. This determines
the card's color.
Birthday/Rookie cards. These too are determined
by the color of the Beanie's name.
And finally there are the Wild cards. These
are the ones with the ring of stars around the Beanie. It is the
color of those stars that determine the cards color.
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| Q. In Series
3, there are special cards in a case. How big is a case ?
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A. For all of the Ty card releases so far there are
6 boxes in a case. Each box holds 24 packs with an average of 8
cards per pack plus some for of special insert. For series 1 the
inserts were a puzzle card and the checklist. In each box was an
oversized card called a slider. For series 2, the pack inserts were
the trivia card and the checklist. Boxes of cards had the poster
which showed all of the series 1 cards on one side and the series
2 on the other. For series 3, the pack inserts are the sticker cards
and the checklist. The boxes contain a tear-a-bear card inside of
which is limited edition card. Also in series 3 for the first time
there is a special insert in the case. Series 4 followed the same
format as Series 3 |
| Q. The prices
in Mary Beths magazine are a lot higher than your prices. How can
you do this ? |
A. Well, I wish I could charge what Mary
Beth says they are worth. However there are a number of basic reasons.
The first is that the lead time to print a magazine is long, almost
2 months. So the prices you see in there are the prices from about
2 months ago. When a new series of cards first come out, the prices
are high, but then drop quite rapidly. After some time the prices
will stabilize and then creep up. At this point in time Series 1
prices are rising while 2 and 3 are dropping. The second reason
is that those prices are "retail" prices. These are the prices you
could expect to pay in the Mall or in a boutique store. They have
to pay rent on the building, pay for staff etc. On the web, things
work differently and I don't have those costs. Its just me and my
house full of Beanie cards. The third is that the real value of
the cards is set by you the buyers of the cards, not the sellers.
If the cards are priced too high, then they will not sell. I price
the cards based on the bulk costs that I am able to get them for.
By buying in bulk, I expect to get better prices than buying them
individually. That is how I make a little bit from every sale. |
| Q. I have a
Series 2 retired card which has both a silver and a green retired
symbol on it. Is it worth anything |
A. In all of the Ty beanie card series,
there have been a number of different types of error cards. Interestingly
many of the errors seem to only occur in one series. The most common
category of error is a mis-registration error, where something,
including the retired symbol in this case, is printed in the wrong
place. The silver one that you mention is actually just the hole
in the other parts of the card where it was meant to be printed.
It is hard to put a value on these cards. While some people are
prepared to buy them because they are an oddity, most people don't
want them and consider that it detracts from their value. So in
this case it really is that they are worth what someone will pay
for them. |
| Q. Who or what
is Cyrk and what is their relationship to Ty |
A. Cyrk is a completely separate company that does
marketing and promotional programs for various companies. One of
these companies is Ty and they have the responsibility for running
the membership programs that brought you Clubby, Clubby II the Clubby
buddies and the Trading cards. All of the products that they produce
and ship are authorized by Ty and produced as if they were Ty products.
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