Beanie Babies Fever Hits Full Boil at Show

There are levels of madness when it comes to Beanie Babies.

There are die-hard collectors--folks who wait hours to pay big bucks for a bean-filled animal they will plunk into a clear plastic container and never, ever touch.

And there are the profit-seekers, who know every detail about all 146 Beanie Baby models and have stepped into the toy industry’s hottest phenomenon to make enough, they hope, to help pay their children’s college tuition.

On Saturday, close to 5,000 buyers of all extremes and 100 vendors converged in a cavernous building at the Orange County Fairgrounds for the Beanie Fest Trade Show, one of dozens that have cropped up in Southern California in the 18 months since the craze of collecting the bean-filled toys became an international hobby.

The vendors swapped, hawked and showed off the pocket-sized stuffed animals that retail for $5 and have sold for up to $5,200 each.

The hard-core collectors were on a mission, scouring rows of tables for the rarest of Beanie Babies. Rita Goodwin of Capistrano Beach had one called Employee Bear--and she sold it for $4,600.

“It was one of only 400 ever made,” she said, noting that one year the bears were given out as Christmas gifts to employees of Ty Inc., the company that manufactures the toys.

Many shoppers did little more than gawk at the little stuffed animals.

Kim Barlow of Costa Mesa, a collector who organized the event, said the dolls’ cuteness sparked widespread appeal, but the decision by Ty Inc. of Illinois to discontinue certain Beanie Babies quickly increased their value.

“I kept thinking the madness would have to die down eventually,” said Barlow, 40. “But it just keeps multiplying. When you have that kind of an attachment, it sort of takes on a life of its own.”