Things to Know Before You Buy or Sell Beanie Babies

It is important to state, right at the outset, that although there has been an escalation in the prices of Beanie Babies, especially over the past 20 months, there is no guarantee this trend will continue, although all indicators seem to point to continued demand and therefore, price inflation. I collect Beanies for the fun of it. If you are looking for a secure investment, try a bank!

Heart Hang Tags
There are now currently five different types or generations, of heart hang tags seen on Ty Beanie Babies. These tags are important to know, as they can serve as indicators as to when a particular Beanie was produced.

The first generation hang tag is a single tag that does not open. The word "ty" on the front is written in a "skinny" font type.

The second generation heart tag looks like the first, with one important difference....it opens like a book. In most of these, the inside reads : "To:_______From:______with love."

The third generation tags has "ty" written in a fatter, balloon type font, with the inside still reading, "TO____FROM:_____with love".

The fourth generation heart tag has the fatter "ty" balloon font, but now sports a yellow star with the words "Original Beanie Baby"on it. The inside opens to reveal a poem unique to each Beanie Baby, it's birthday (represented all in numbers), it's style number and at the bottom, it formally invites you to visit the Ty web site, which is given as: http://www.ty.com.

The newest or fifth generation heart tags look essentially the same on the front, except the font for the words "Original Beanie Baby" found within the yellow star, and the words on the back of the heart, now appear to be in a comic sans font type. Inside,on the left side of the tag, the phrase "The Beanie Babies Collection" has a registered mark (R) after the complete phrase, as opposed to the older tags, which had the registered mark after the word "Babies" and the trademark sign (TM) after the entire phrase. The right side of the tag has changed the most. The name now appears alone, in a comic sans font type, without the style number next to it. The birthdate is now completely written out, as opposed to the former practice of using numbers only. Finally, at the bottom, below the poem, it no longer invites you to visit the Ty website, it simply reads" www.ty.com".

Mistagged Beanies
When Beanie Babies first hit the market, mistakes in their tags were seldom seen. That was to change, however. Beginning around Januaryof 1997, more and more mistakes began to be seen, and of course, "collected" by the Beanie hunter. Tag mistakes are classified into 4 groups:mistagged, tag misprints, tag cover-ups and manufactoring "oddities". Here, we will briefly discuss mistagged Beanies, as it applies to collecting.

Although it is human nature to want something different, most collectors agree that Beanie Babies with incorrect heart tags are probably not going to escalate the price, for a very important reason. Heart tags can be tampered with, much more easily then the "tush" tags, and therefore, it is impossible to tell if the "wrong" tag was placed on the Beanie at the factory. Remember, once a heart tag is removed, the Beanie is no longer different, as the tush tag gives the correct information. It is far more important when you find a mislabled tush tag. Many such mistakes have occurred, such as the Maple/Pride mistake, the Echo/Waves switch and now we are seeing it among the new 98 releases. My advice is, if you find a mistagged Beanie, buy it, but also purchase a correctly tagged one. It is always better to be safe then sorry.