ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 27, 1997 TAG: 9703270014
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR THE ROANOKE TIMES
Every Friday, Catherine and Caroline Ludwig visit their favorite stores in search of Beanie Babies, cuddly toy animals stuffed with plastic beans.
They've collected more than 80.
"People chide us," said their father, Kirk Ludwig, of Roanoke. "They ask us, 'How do you spend so much money on these things?' Quite frankly, we've spent more money on dolls and games that they don't do anything with.
"The creativity aspect [of Beanie Babies] is what's most appealing. [Catherine and Caroline] set up hospitals, schools, Beanie Babies villages. They allow the kids to use their imagination. They just inspire creativity."
Every two years or so, a toy captures the public's fancy - Trolls, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Cabbage Patch Kids, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
What begins as modest popularity turns into frenzy, where children's wants result in adults' frantic searches. Soon, the frantic searches erupt into bidding wars and outrageous prices.
Now, just as the Tickle Me Elmo fiasco of the last Christmas season has subsided, in flop Beanie Babies.
Not that they're so new. The little toy animals - made of feltlike polyester fabric stuffed with tiny plastic pellets - have been around for three years.
But lately, Beanie Babies' popularity has soared. The Beanie Babies Connection on the Internet is full of desperate e-mail requests for some models and greedy offers to sell others, with prices ranging from $10 to $450. The manufacturer's suggested retail price for the critters is $5.
Stores can't keep them in stock. Just try to find one in the Roanoke Valley. Try to find one for Easter.
"We get them in, and they're gone within a few days," said Jeanne Pitner, manager of Imagination Station at Towers Shopping Center in Roanoke. "I can't even tell you how many times we've reordered. I hear it's going to take at least a month to get more in now."
At Capt. Party at Tanglewood Square in Roanoke County, a woman who'd driven in from Smith Mountain Lake on Tuesday was nearly in tears after discovering that the store was all out of the cuddly creatures.
"I want them for my grandbaby," said the woman, who declined to give her name. The baby is due in July.
A sales associate said the Capt. Party stores at Tanglewood Square and on Williamson Road received 22 cases of Beanie Babies two weeks ago. Each case contained 108. That's 2,376 Beanie Babies.
"We sold out in a week," she said. "Between both of our stores, we can't keep them in. I have kids 3 years old who want them and adults in their 40s and 50s who are collecting them."
Beanie Babies are the creation of Ty Warner, owner of Ty Inc., based in Oakbrook, Ill. Handmade in China, each of the 103 Beanie Babies models has a name and birthdate.
Twenty-six of the 103 models have been retired. The value of those has skyrocketed. A mint condition "Tabasco" the bull was selling over the Internet this week for $250; "Flutter" the butterfly for $350.
What is their appeal?
"They're cute," said Zuri Pryor Graves, 9, of Roanoke. "They're squishy and floppy, and if you hug them, they melt into your body."
Zuri has seven Beanie Babies - "Seymour" the seal; "Ziggy" the zebra; "Rover" the dog; "Cubby" the bear (her favorite); "Inch" the worm; "Claire" the dog; and "Wings," a winged pony .
Zuri's collection encouraged her to make her own version. She took some white fleece material, some honest-to-goodness beans and made "Pola" the polar bear - a wife for Cubby.
Children like Beanie Babies because they're affordable - toys they can buy themselves, said Pitner of Imagination Station.
That was what their creator intended. In a Wall Street Journal story last year, Warner said he designed the line of stuffed toys to sell at a price that children "with pocketbook money and allowances" could afford.
Although the suggested retail price is $5, some retailers - who pay $2.50 a critter - are selling them for as much as $7.50.
Retailers "should be happy to double their money," Warner told the Wall Street Journal. "Anything over that is just taking advantage of an opportunity and milking it."
Warner also has had to contend with knock-offs - fakes, imitations, less-than-the-originals. "Beanpals," "Bean Sprouts" and "Beanbags" have been spotted in some Roanoke Valley stores.
Ty Inc. has issued this caveat to collectors: "Don't be fooled by imitations. Our efforts are continuously devoted to eliminating any confusion that may occur in similarities with other products and the Beanie Babies Collection."
But one shopper at Capt. Party said she could care less about authenticity.
"These are just as real," she said Tuesday, digging through a box of stuffed critters called "Flipples" and "Home Bodies."
"What's the big deal about the Beanie Babies?"
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN THE ROANOKE TIMES. Nine-year-old Catherineby CNBLudwig, left, and her sister, Caroline, 6, have 85 Beanie Babies in
their collection. Easter Sunday promises a few more. color.