Please
provide a bio.
(We've tried to come up with stuff we haven't listed in other
bios but let's face it we're pretty boring)
We'll be married for 20 years later this year and have a 17 year-old
son named Jeremy who does not share our love of Beanie Babies
and refers to us as "Beanie Freaks." Jeremy prefers
to be listed as "The Beanie Hater!"
Randy is 40 years old and is the manager of a professional photo lab. He likes reading comic books and has been collecting them for over 28 years. He also collects baseball cards and books by favorite authors. He has read every book printed (over 181) about the pulp hero Doc Savage. (Why he is proud of that nobody knows.) He also likes to collect Beanie Babies, of course
Theresa is 37. She's a registered nurse and works at a local nursing and rehabilitation home. She loves to garden (HGTV is a must watch) and enjoys just about every craft imaginable. She also loves to read but prefers the best seller's lists instead. Favorite authors include Mary Higgins Clark, John Grisham, James Patterson, Tess Gerritsen, and others. She's a pack rat who has items from childhood that she just can't bear to part with. Rather than compiling entire sets of items she prefers to collect favorites of many different lines including Hallmark Christmas ornaments, Boyd's Bears, Precious Moments, Disney items and the list could go on forever. She's been active in Girl Scouts in the past (over 12 years without having a daughter) and volunteers with other children's activities whenever possible. Both Randy and Theresa enjoy supporting Jeremy's activities. The family is members of Second Baptist Church in Greenville.
Please
describe the most visited sections on your website.
No doubt that would be the main page where we post the news stories
that we either find or have contributed by readers. After that
it would be the rumors section followed by our Beanie Tales section.
Beanieholics
is a very popular site. Please give some background as to why
you chose to post it and how it has affected your life.
When the Beanie Baby-collecting bug first bit Randy he just had
to learn everything he could about them and would spend hours
on the Internet looking for information. He started sending stories
he found to Joe at the Ctoys website and you would think that
he was a published author the first time he
saw his name posted there. That just made him more determined
to find more info. Theresa saw how much he was enjoying himself
and thought that it would be a good idea for him to start a site
of his own so that he could post stories there but he wouldn't
hear of it. Theresa, knowing him all too well, went ahead and
signed up for a free page at Geocities, taught herself HTML and
got the page set up. After that she got Randy to sit down and
put a few stories on. Then she couldn't keep him off the page.
Once CToys posted a link to our site it took off from there and
has kept growing every since. As to how it has effected our lives,
there is a lot less sleep and less watching of television as we
try to keep up with news and email that we receive. The best part
of doing the page has to be the great people we have come in contact
with through email.
Throughout
the course of operating your site, what has been the most difficult
question to answer?
We didn't get into Beanie Babies at the very beginning, since
we only seriously started collecting them in the fall of 1997,
so questions about older Beanie Babies are difficult for us to
answer. We research through the books we have and will contact
other Beanie "Pros" to help us answer the questions
we are unsure of. Of course we are not afraid to say we don't
know an answer to a question. We are definitely not experts on
the subject.
Probably the question that we still can't answer, and is really
kind of silly, would have to be "why don't we make any money
from our website?" We started it as a hobby and never even
considered making money. We continue to receive a lot of offers
for advertisements, etc. but we just haven't had the urge to go
that route yet, but sometimes it's tempting with as many hours
as we put into the site. It's like a second job!
In
your opinion, how has the Beanie market changed in the last year?
This is
one topic that we don't agree on. Randy's take on it is that there
are not as many secondary market people involved or people collecting
on speculation trying to make money. Also he doesn't believe that
as many collectors are buying duplicates of styles either. (Theresa
laughed at that answer because Randy wants two of almost everything!)
He feels the majority of people collecting now do so because they
love Beanie Babies and while there may not be as many sold as
in years past, the hobby is still strong. Theresa also believes
the market has changed over the past year but knows a lot of people
that still only buy Beanies because they believe they'll be able
to sell them for a huge profit. We don't think that is why people
should collect them, but what can you do! She thinks that Ty sending
older Beanies to retailers in order to be able to purchase the
newer ones has only resulted in the shelves becoming overflowing
leading collectors to believe the market is dropping. Randy believes
that the sales reps are responsible for the extra
orders of older Beanies. We both believe that Ty has been stepping
things up this past year to keep collectors interested in what
is going on. Remember when they would retire and announce Beanie
Babies the very same day and then there would be nothing for four
or five months? Now announcements and
retirements are spread out over days and weeks and again that
is done to keep collectors involved and interested. Also the slower
sellers are being retired more quickly which only makes sense
for Ty to do. That way they can bring out something new that they
know will sell.
Do
you believe Ty's current market strategies are effective or do
they need addressing?
While we may not always agree with what Ty is doing, you can't
fault his market strategies because there has never been a children's
toy that has resulted in the buying frenzy created with new shipments
for as long as Beanie Babies have. Other fads have risen up and
fallen away in the last few years but Beanie Babies have survived.
We would like to see different Beanies be produced rather than
having a lot of the same type. And we believe an earlier release
date on the holiday Beanies would be beneficial. It would allow
more collectors to be able to find them in time.
What
has been your favorite aspect of Beanie collecting and why?
It continues to be the thrill of the hunt. Nothing beats finally
tracking down a Beanie Baby that eluded us for a while. We especially
love those days when we have extremely good luck and end up with
what we call a "Beanie-high."
While
posting news, how do you determine if your source is creditable?
Items that we are not sure about are usually regulated to the
rumor's page. The majority of stories that we post in the news
section come from online newspaper articles, the Ty website or
other reputable Beanie Baby sites where we always give credit
to the original posting.
What
are your views on rumors being posted on your site?
We do not post every rumor that we receive. There are some we
know are not true in that they are rumors about items that have
surfaced before and have been proven wrong. Some rumors are too
far fetched to be true and we try to stay away from those. The
ones that sound plausible, interesting or make you think are the
ones we are most interested in. We hope that if we like it so
will our readers.
What
have been the most challenging issues Beanies have plagued you
with?
Besides not having an unlimited amount of cash to shop with, the
most challenging issue would probably be storage. It's hard to
have a normal looking house (necessary when your child is a senior
in high school and is humiliated to have friends over-which we
suppose could also be listed as a challenge) when you have stuffed
animals everywhere and no small children to blame them on!
E-mail
is always a way to communicate with collectors. How has Beanie
collector's viewpoint changed over the last six months?
Collectors, we feel are becoming more patient. More of them are
waiting to find new Beanie Babies at retail instead of rushing
out and paying high prices for them when they are first released.
It takes them a little longer to find what they are after but
they seem to view this way of collecting as a challenge and enjoy
it very much not to mention keeping more cash for other purchases.
How
do your viewers currently feel about the secondary market?
The secondary market is a touchy subject with some readers. Most
of it has to do with how they manage to get hard to find releases
before their local Ty retailers can. We do have readers that say
that their time is valuable and don't mind paying the secondary
dealers extra for it. Others just simply can't stand them at all.
But let's face it, there will always be a secondary market for
Beanie Babies. Secondary market prices are the accepted values
for Beanies due to supply and demand. Most of our readers don't
have a problem paying secondary prices for retired items but don't
want to pay higher for the current ones.
What
is the most popular question asked through e-mail?
The most asked question has to be whether a Beanie Baby is worth
more if it has the wrong hang tag or tush tag on it.
