If you have forgotten about Beanie Babies, those stuffed animals that were all the rage in the late '90s, Elaine Steel's collection may refresh your memory. The Burnaby resident has gathered thousands of the things - zebras, giraffes, dolphins, you name it. Beanie Babies started in 1993 with nine original animal characters. Ty Warner, creator of Beanie Babies is now one of the richest people in the world, thanks to profits from the plush toys. The NOW chatted recently with Steel about her Beanie Baby collection:
Question: What are Beanie Babies, for someone who's never seen them before?
Answer: A Beanie Baby is actually a stuffed animal that was created for children. They are like a beanbag, and they were designed to fit in the palm of your hand. When they first came out they were selling for about $5. The whole point of that was children usually get about $5 allowance a week, and they were designed for children to be able to afford to have a little collection.
Q: How many do you have?
A: There are approximately 3,000. The last time I counted, there were 2,800 or something and I lost count. So way over 3,000 now.
Q: Wow. How much would you say your collection is worth?
A: If they are $10 apiece, it would probably be worth $30,000.
Q: Tell me about the first one you picked up.
A: The first one I got was a Princess Diana, and that was in 1997, she died in August I believe. I got it for Christmas in December from my mom.
Q: What was it about the Beanie Babies that drew you in?
A: Everybody started collecting them. It was sort of the in-thing to collect. Originally, I was just collecting the little teddy bears. I thought they were kind of cute. From then, I just kind of got obsessed. I just got addicted to collecting them. They are all so cute. If you had to ask me which one was my favourite, I actually don't have a favourite.
Q: I won't ask you to pick favourites then, but what is your most prized Beanie Baby, the most unusual or valuable?
A: It's a Beanie Balls, and it's bigger than a basketball, and it's rainbow colours. It's actually called Gumdrop.
Q: Tell me about your family. What do they think of this?
A: When my mom passed away in 2001 - she was the one that brought me the first one - and when she passed away in 2001, I only had 30, and I thought that was a lot. My dad is a collector of bottles and memorabilia from the Royal Family, and he kind of encourages me to collect stuff. - Every weekend when he comes over for a visit, he brings me a bag of Beanie Babies.
Q: Tell me about when these were really popular - what was going on then?
A: From '93 to about '99 maybe you couldn't actually get them on the market. People were lining up at the stores, and there was a café called Rainforest at Metrotown. I went there one time to get a maple (Beanie Baby), a Canadian one, and about 600 people were lined up before me, and the store opened up at 10 a.m., and I was there at 6 a.m.
Q: Why were people so crazy about them? Any idea?
A: I don't know if it's because they thought they were so cute or some people just wanted to sell them on the secondary market, 'cause everybody was crazy about them. A lot of people did it for investments. Like the Princess Diana I paid $20 for, you could probably buy it at Value Village now for $2, but at the time she was selling for $1,000 or whatever on the Internet.
Q: Do you collect other things?
Yeah, teapots. (laughter)
Q: And how many teapots do you have?
Oh, about 170. I'm in a one-bedroom apartment. I'm not a hoarder, everything is organized, I just have a lot of stuff. Nothing comes into the house that doesn't have a shelf.
