Teresa Cheung of California has received a 5-star rating for her ingenious program (BeJeanie).
Teresa Cheung, mother of two, chemical and computer engineer has successfully designed the ultimate software program for collectors.
BeJeanie is colorful, user friendly and offers a complete history of information on Ty Beanie Babies and various lines.
Teresa has also designed a fabulous website
located at www.bejeanie.com
this site is filled with a wealth of information, updates and
price guides.
I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Teresa last year during
a Beanie show. I found her to be extremely friendly, very professional
and full of energy.
I personally use BeJeanie software and have found it to be a wonderful
reference tool. My favorite feature is that I can always update
my data by visiting the BeJeanie website. No other software compares.
Teresa is a very proud woman and her enthusiasm towards her product
is indescribable. She has agreed to allow me to interview her.
What sources do you use to determine
your prices in your pricing guide section?
We (actually, I) use every possible sources that we can find,
from magazines, books, Beanie shows, talking to collectors and
most of the entire Internet! We subscribe to every Beanie magazines
and purchase all Beanie books published for our software-pricing
guide monthly. We cruise the web everyday. We check out prices
at the Ty Guestbook, the final closing prices at various auction
sites such as eBay, buy sell prices at beaniex.com, price guide
at beaniemom.com, etc., the toy-box, wallos, etc. The information
is quite overwhelming... but someone got to do it!
We put out three prices for each variation
of Beanie Babies, Teenie Beanies and Beanie Buddies every month:
"BeJeanie Low", "BeJeanie High" and "Composite"
Using all the reference resources, we determine BeJeanie Low and
High prices for each toy, then we input in all the major reference
price lists into our software and using the calculated average,
we determine an industry's "Composite" price for each
toy.
We believe we have the most comprehensive non-bias (we do not
sell Beanie Babies) reference source price guide on the Internet
today... we have reference prices on every variation of every
Beanie Babies, retired and currents, (starting April 99, including
all 75+ the sports promotions ones), Teenie Beanies and Beanie
Buddies at pricelist.htm
What inspired you to design a program
that tracks Beanie Babies and other cuddly toys?
My kids, what else! They started to collect and play with Beanie
Babies in 1997. I was searching everywhere to purchase these cuties
for my then 10-year-old daughter and 7 year old son as incentive
and reward for their schoolwork and to practice their music, etc.
Beanie Babies became a family activity. I got hooked too and began
collecting. I want to know how much our collections are worth.
I noticed there were so much pricing information everywhere and
no Beanie Babies software to handle all the data! I also noticed
many collectors are girls like my daughter, and this is another
way to introduce young girls to computers in a fun and rewarding
way! You see, I am a big gender equity fan and most entertainment
and children software programs cater to boys and men with their
sports and violence. Since I am a computer and engineering consultant
and very handy with database programming, I decided to commit
my work to a new adventure and develop a software program for
Beanie Babies collectors. I want it simple and fun enough for
young children, but sophisticated enough for the seasoned Beanie
collector. I believe I have achieved that! BeJeanie is all point
and click, with lots of the latest news, information's and prices
on Beanie Babies, Teenie Beanies, Beanie Buddies and other cuddly
toys!
How popular has your program been?
We have lots of BeJeanie fans and we hope to work on our publicity
so more Beanie collectors will know about us! We have been receiving
great comments from whoever that popped in our website or installed
our software. Here's an unsolicited comment we just received from
someone who purchase our software posted at our special Club BeJeanie
guestbook:
Comments:
THIS IS THE BEST SOFTWARE OUT THERE.
IT IS BETTER THAN OTHER ONES I HAVE BOUGHT IN THE PAST.
KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK.
THANKS!!!!!!!!!
Do you anticipate on designing future
programs?
Oh yes, we are starting to get requests from other types of collectors
such as Barbie's, or Beanie Collector Cards, or MatchBox cars
to have a program similar to BeJeanie that is fun and easy to
use to help them catalog their collections. So far, it is a matter
of time... there just isn't enough time in a day already. We most
likely will have several of program upgrades before we move onto
other collections. BeJeanie is in her second major release already
(Version 2.0). It is a huge cataloging and pricing program that
included detailed collections lists, checklists, transaction records
and address book. The next thing we are going to upgrade is the
ability to use and convert to different currencies such as the
English Pounds, German Marks , Canadian dollars, etc. Our Canadian
users called to tell us they have to convert their Beanie Babies
prices into US dollars before they input into the BeJeanie program.
With the next BeJeanie upgrade, just a couple of clicks in the
beginning will take care of that!
How has your family been affected
by your work?
Not much! I have always worked from my home office for over 10
years since I have children. Just like I have been doing for the
past 6 years, I dropped everything at 3:10 PM everyday to meet
my kids at the bus stop and we go for a snack together. One thing
for sure, they understand what I am doing now with Beanie Babies
and the BeJeanie software! When I was previously working on my
engineering project, designing waste treatment systems, etc.,
they have no clue what I do! Now, they brag about me to their
friends!
Does your family participate in your
work?
Not much, but they are very supportive! My husband proofreads
most of my writings and my children help me with the Beanie Babies!
A television crew came to visit to film about BeJeanie, and my
son and a neighborhood girl were shown playing with the Beanie
Babies. My daughter was too shy and refused to be on camera!
I would like to thank Teresa for developing such a wonderful product for all collectors to enjoy.
I would also like to thank her for allowing me to interview her, its been a pleasure.