665 - Beanie Baby Madness - Reverse Dollop

Summary

Summary of "The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds" Episode 665 - Beanie Baby Madness - Reverse Dollop

Release Date: January 7, 2025

In Episode 665 of The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds, titled "Beanie Baby Madness - Reverse Dollop", hosts Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds delve into the phenomenon of Beanie Babies, exploring their rise to cultural ubiquity, the strategies behind their success, and the widespread mania that enveloped collectors across America. The episode, enriched with humor and insightful commentary, offers listeners a comprehensive look into one of history's most notable collectible fads.

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1. Introduction to Beanie Babies and Ty Warner

The episode begins with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds discussing their upcoming tour dates, swiftly segueing into the core topic: Beanie Babies. They introduce Ty Warner, the mastermind behind the Beanie Baby empire, highlighting his early life challenges and his foray into the toy industry.

• Gareth Reynolds [06:00]: "Ty Warner was born into a house of chaos. His mother was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and his father, Hal, struggled to provide emotional support."

2. The Birth of Beanie Babies

Delving into the origins, the hosts explain how Ty Warner leveraged his sales prowess to establish TY Inc., initially focusing on plush stuffed animals. Warner's innovative approach combined low prices with high volume, targeting smaller retailers to build brand loyalty.

• Dave Anthony [11:23]: "Ty and his dad had a super weird relationship, but it taught him invaluable sales techniques."

3. Marketing Genius and Controlling the Fad

A significant portion of the discussion centers on Ty Warner's uncanny ability to control and manipulate the Beanie Baby craze. By continuously releasing new designs and strategically retiring certain models, Warner created a sense of scarcity and urgency among collectors.

• Gareth Reynolds [13:05]: "Ty would say, 'Control the fad,' and he did. Retiring certain Beanie Babies at just the right moment kept demand soaring."

They introduce Lena Trivedi, a pivotal figure in the marketing team, whose creative contributions, including personalized poems and detailed catalogs, enhanced the desirability of each Beanie Baby.

• Gareth Reynolds [34:55]: "Lena pitched that they use the space on tags to include birth dates and poems, adding a personal touch that collectors adored."

4. The Craze Unfolds: From Niche to Mainstream

As the episode progresses, Dave and Gareth narrate how Beanie Babies transitioned from niche collectibles to mainstream obsession, particularly among mothers and children. They recount the frenzy of "Beanie hunting" and the establishment of Beanie Baby checklists that fueled the competitive collecting spirit.

• Gareth Reynolds [31:05]: "Mothers in Naperville started obsessively collecting Beanie Babies, treating it like a scavenger hunt."

5. The Role of Technology and Secondary Markets

The advent of the internet and platforms like eBay exponentially amplified the Beanie Baby craze. The hosts discuss how online auctions and trading forums became hotspots for enthusiasts, turning Beanie Babies into high-value commodities akin to cryptocurrencies.

• Dave Anthony [57:38]: "It's like crypto, but with stuffed animals."

6. Counterfeits, Crime, and the Dark Side of the Fad

No discussion of Beanie Baby madness would be complete without addressing the rise of counterfeits and associated criminal activities. The hosts illustrate incidents of theft, smuggling, and fraud, emphasizing how the high demand led some to exploit the market unscrupulously.

• Gareth Reynolds [86:46]: "Beanie Babies were like high-value currency. People were smuggling them in hidden compartments, treating them like cash."

7. The Decline and Aftermath

Despite the overwhelming initial success, the Beanie Baby mania eventually peaked and began to decline. The hosts analyze the factors contributing to the downturn, including market saturation, declining interest, and the challenges of maintaining exclusivity.

• Dave Anthony [101:18]: "Ty announced it was over, and suddenly, everyone realized Beanie Babies were just toys again."

8. Legacy and Cultural Impact

Concluding the episode, Dave and Gareth reflect on the lasting legacy of Beanie Babies. They discuss how the craze influenced future collectible markets and the lessons learned about consumer behavior and marketing strategies.

• Gareth Reynolds [116:35]: "Peggy Gallagher's obsession with completing her collection exemplifies the profound impact Beanie Babies had on individuals."

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Gareth Reynolds [06:03]: "Ty and his sister Joy grew up in a Frank Lloyd Wright House in LaGrange, Illinois."
• Dave Anthony [11:07]: "He's a salesman and he's an unlikable salesman."
• Gareth Reynolds [13:28]: "Ty was a master at selling useless shit to people and making it seem really important."
• Dave Anthony [31:21]: "Wait, adult adults now want them."
• Gareth Reynolds [57:14]: "This is like a marketing strategy gone wild."
• Dave Anthony [86:46]: "Beanie Babies were like high-value currency."

Conclusion

Episode 665 of The Dollop masterfully navigates the intricate web of Beanie Baby Madness, offering listeners both laughter and enlightenment. Through engaging storytelling and sharp analysis, Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds paint a vivid picture of how these once-innocent stuffed animals became symbols of a fleeting yet fervent cultural phenomenon.

For those unfamiliar with the Beanie Baby craze, this episode serves as both an entertaining and informative exploration into the dynamics of collectibility, market manipulation, and the human desire for possession and status.

Transcript

[Dave Anthony]

We're going on tour. And this is.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's been a while.

[Dave Anthony]

March 2025 is when our tour is happening. First of all, we're going to Tempe, Arizona, maybe our favorite city of all time.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's the best.

[Dave Anthony]

That is on March 16th. And then we go to Albuquerque, New Mexico, maybe our favorite city ever, we've ever gone to. That's on March 17th. And then we go to Oklahoma City.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Which is our fav. We often say that it's our number one.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, it's our number one. The best city I've ever been to. That's on March 18th. On March 19th, we're going to be.

[Gareth Reynolds]

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, our favorite city, without question.

[Dave Anthony]

And then we head to Dallas, Texas, on March 20th.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Our favorite city.

[Dave Anthony]

There's never been a better city than better.

[Gareth Reynolds]

If you don't like it, you're a Dallas hole.

[Dave Anthony]

Thank you. And then we go to Houston, Texas, on March 21. City, which is by far the best city. And then we end our tour in Austin, Texas, on March 22 at the Cap City Comedy Club.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's the best city in the entire world. Number one city in the world.

[Dave Anthony]

You can get tickets@dollar podcast.com tour. The Dollop is brought to you by Rocket Money Money. We've both saved a lot of money with Rocket Money at this point.

[Gareth Reynolds]

So much money. I bought a rocket.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah. Not sure what's going on, but I don't either. Yeah, so I had subscriptions that I had no idea about, especially ones with my kid who just made them and I forgot when he was 5 or whatever. So they were on there for years. And then Rocket Money's like, hey, you're paying for this. And then I also had one of my Internet was. They redid the whole subscription, and I got a new router. Like, it just shows up one day because Rocket Money saved me, like, 300 bucks a year. So it's a great service. This is a good time to do it right. You're getting organized with all the New Year stuff. You're setting goals.

[Gareth Reynolds]

New Year, Everything's going well.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah. A lot of people look at their finances and goes, where am I at? Rocket Money. It's gonna hit your goals. It's gonna help you find all your subscriptions in one place, and you can easily cancel stuff you forgot you were paying for. So it's great.

[Gareth Reynolds]

We're both fans.

[Dave Anthony]

Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings it shows all your subscriptions in just one place. You know exactly where your money's going. And then, you know, you get ones you don't want anymore. Kick them. Kick them to the curb. Like Gareth and Curb kick. Radio Kick was radio packers nonsense that.

[Gareth Reynolds]

He had going on. Right. That happened.

[Dave Anthony]

You have a Packers problem. So. Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of 500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year when using all of the app's premium features. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to Rocket Money.com dollop today. That's a Rocket Money.com dollop Rocket Money.com dollop doll up.

[Pam]

Oh.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, boy.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It started.

[Pam]

Poor Dave. He's going up.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Whoa. Well, that's not supposed to happen, but that's fine. Is that your.

[Dave Anthony]

I forgot to tell you this, but.

[Gareth Reynolds]

You'Re not allowed to do drops during my episode.

[Dave Anthony]

I set up a thing where every time I talk musical start.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, that's really gonna affect the episode.

[Dave Anthony]

It's gonna be fun.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's gonna be very problematic for this.

[Dave Anthony]

It's a vibe.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's not great. All right. So welcome to the Pollard reverse Dollop. I'll be reading the story to Dave.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh.

[Gareth Reynolds]

To me and my mother.

[Dave Anthony]

I thought it was Pam, and I was sitting it out.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Why would you be. Should we do a regular intro?

[Dave Anthony]

You're.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No.

[Dave Anthony]

No listening.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No. You're watching the Dollop on the All Things Comedy Network. And moment. This is a bi annual event. Shut up. It's going great. Where. Where rarely I. Marshmallow enthusiast, croc owner. You are nodding to this part. And electric car enjoyer Gareth Reynolds reads a story, American history.

[Dave Anthony]

To my friend Gareth Reynolds, who knows nothing about anything.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And tonight's guest is my mother, Pam.

[Pam]

Good evening.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Good evening. Good start. It's nice and hot. Yeah. How are you feeling? Are you excited?

[Pam]

Oh, honestly, I can't explain the excitement.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Is it a bit strange?

[Pam]

It's a bit strange.

[Gareth Reynolds]

This is all a bit strange.

[Pam]

It's all a bit strange. Yes. I'm glad I've got Dave, who will direct me in the right direction.

[Gareth Reynolds]

He will not be directing you.

[Dave Anthony]

Pam and I are dating, by the way.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I'm gonna need to. I'm gonna actually have Dave to leave. I'm gonna actually need you to leave. I'm gonna need you to leave right.

[Dave Anthony]

Now for a couple weeks.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I'm gonna need you.

[Pam]

He likes dinosaurs.

[Dave Anthony]

I do.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I'm gonna need you to get out I'm gonna need you both. Actually, I need you both to leave. I can do this alone. No problem. Just how you used to do it. Do you know that? That's how the show started, was Dave just used to read the stories out loud to himself in a closet and just shout.

[Dave Anthony]

This is very passive.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I don't.

[Pam]

I don't.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And then he found the money maker. Did he? Yeah.

[Pam]

Yeah.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Pam]

Well.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And then he found his little quarterback.

[Pam]

But he had a good thing to start with. And then you came along.

[Gareth Reynolds]

That's not what I'm saying. September 3, 1944. Year of our Lord Buddha.

[Dave Anthony]

No.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. You're in my world, asshole.

[Dave Anthony]

That wouldn't be the.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Shut up. H. Ty Warner was born into a house of chaos. He was named after Ty Cobb, but the H that started his name stood for nothing. It was an affectation his mother had insisted on, which I believe you did with me. With a D. Right. You always wanted me to be D. Gareth Reynolds.

[Dave Anthony]

She made up a letter.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. The mother just wanted to attack on an H. She.

[Pam]

No, I wasn't sure about Gareth.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. You wanted to go.

[Pam]

I wanted Justin or Benjamin, I think.

[Dave Anthony]

Well, Benji. Why would she. Why would she.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's Benjamin.

[Dave Anthony]

Benji. Why would she.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Benjamin? Yeah. She just tacked an ape.

[Dave Anthony]

Why didn't she just. Benji. Why didn't she just name him that from the beginning?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Buddy, listen to me. We're not doing that. We're not. We've been through many versions, and the fact that in the first 30 seconds of the story, my mother has somehow trumped Garfi with giving you Benji is problematic. Anyway, so the H stood for nothing. So Ty and his sister Joy grew up in a Frank Lloyd wright House in LaGrange, Illinois. During his childhood, his mother, Georgia, was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic.

[Dave Anthony]

There you go.

[Gareth Reynolds]

His father, Hal, didn't handle that or being a dad very well. It was a rough life in many ways. One that didn't give Ty a tremendous amount of love. Which is funny so far. Right.

[Dave Anthony]

It's hilarious. This is like a dollop start.

[Gareth Reynolds]

One night, Joy woke up to find her mother standing over her with a knife. Joy said, quote, I don't think they knew how to give us love. Well, yeah.

[Dave Anthony]

Did she. Did she stab?

[Gareth Reynolds]

No.

[Dave Anthony]

Okay, then it's love.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And this is Mom. You have to understand where Dave grew up. Someone standing over you with a knife is just. That's a good evening. That's a bedtime story.

[Pam]

Well, it sounds like perhaps maybe she was doing Sunday lunch and she Was carving up the beef.

[Dave Anthony]

That's right.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Wow.

[Dave Anthony]

She's carving up beef. She's a beef carver. Late night beef carvings.

[Pam]

She came in to tell Joy, dinner's ready.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Which cut you want then? Which cut you after?

[Dave Anthony]

You ready? You ready?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Hello.

[Dave Anthony]

Go now.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Get out. Ty's dad, Hal.

[Dave Anthony]

It's good, right?

[Pam]

Yes, it's a good day.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Ty's dad, Hal, was gone a lot. As a toy salesman, he made a nice living, and he was able to financially provide for the family. But that was all he provided. Unless you count unwanted sexual advances towards his daughter, because he provided that too. You don't need to jump in. Ty's father once locked Ty in a closet for being too affectionate towards his mother. And another time, when Ty didn't clean up his dog shit, his dad got rid of it. The dog, not the shit.

[Dave Anthony]

Not the dog shit. He kept his shit.

[Gareth Reynolds]

The dog shit probably went too.

[Dave Anthony]

Did the shit stay as the pet?

[Gareth Reynolds]

The shit stayed as the pet and he got rid of the dog.

[Dave Anthony]

That's fair.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And then he was like, clean up your shit. Shit.

[Dave Anthony]

The shit was shitting.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. Shit, shit. The shit. Shit.

[Pam]

Did he paint a face on it?

[Gareth Reynolds]

All right, that's. Now. I don't know.

[Dave Anthony]

Where did he tape hair to the top?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Who's a good little buddy? He must smell my shit.

[Pam]

Sounds like the magic roundabout.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Okay, so Ty was sent to St. John's Northwestern Military Academy to be their problem. And after he was out of the house, his parents separated. Ty claims that he thrived at the academy. He graduated with honors and with the rank of fly sergeant. But his sister said that that was all bs. She said that he hated it from all the hazing and he was once stabbed. But either way.

[Dave Anthony]

Wait, wait, that was that part of the hazing, or we just leave that.

[Gareth Reynolds]

As like a sizzle, like bacon, pop like popcorn, die. Like stabbed.

[Dave Anthony]

He was like, that's. That's actually worse than people not liking you at military school. It's. If you get stabbed, that's way beyond like. No, but you don't like that guy.

[Gareth Reynolds]

You get one of those.

[Dave Anthony]

I don't think you do get a bad.

[Gareth Reynolds]

You get a little.

[Dave Anthony]

I think you just go to the hospital.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. They give you a little wrist badge.

[Dave Anthony]

A wrist? Yes.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. You get a wristband. Yeah, yeah, that's the same. I mean, look, it's like if I.

[Dave Anthony]

If I was. If I got stabbed, I wouldn't be like, people don't like when you get stabbed.

[Gareth Reynolds]

When you get stabbed. Good Lord. If. Imagine if Dave. Dave will Be stabbed. After college for one year he went to LA to try to act for another five. And then he moved back to Chicago, moved back in with his dad.

[Dave Anthony]

So we just did five years of him trying to act.

[Gareth Reynolds]

We just did five years of commercial auditions. Five years of Groundlings.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Five years of being on a veil.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Five year. You know, we've all done it. Five years of kids birthday parties where he's peeing in bottles in his car making balloon animals and he's going to meet some weirdo in a Walgreens parking lot who's giving him his costumes for the weekend.

[Dave Anthony]

Benji.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Giving him his costumes for the weekend.

[Dave Anthony]

Benji.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And he's asking him, he's at. Benjamin, you son of a bitch. My name is a Benji. It's Benjamin. I can already feel this coming at me for the next five years at this time. Ty's father Hal was a salesman who worked at Daken. I think it might be Dakin. Either way. Dakin. Well, look at you. A $200 million a year toy company. My mother worked in toy sales.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh yeah.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I thought she might be able to lend a hand to some of this. So it's a big toy company?

[Pam]

Yes. I can't remember what they sold.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I'll tell you what they sold. They specialized in stuffed animals.

[Pam]

That's right, Dakin. Yes, yes.

[Gareth Reynolds]

With no real prospects.

[Dave Anthony]

That's why the dad was there. Because he liked to stuff the dog to stuff little things.

[Gareth Reynolds]

With no real prospects and sick of moping around, Ty became his dad's sub rep at the company. Ty was selling plush stuffed animals. Now mother, what would you call plush? Do you know? I kind of know what it is. I don't know if you have a better definition of a plush stuffed animal.

[Pam]

Well, they were just soft.

[Gareth Reynolds]

So Ty and his dad had a super weird relationship.

[Dave Anthony]

Really?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yes. Believe it or not, Dave, Ty had major daddy issues. On more than one occasion, Ty would date women that his father had previously dated. Because he was jealous of the attention his father gave to those women. And he wanted to prove he was just as good as his dad. Super normal stuff.

[Dave Anthony]

I mean, you also want to like. I can tell you it's great to like show a woman that you're a better lover than your.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Now Dave, I don't want you to pull any punches just cause my mother's here, so.

[Dave Anthony]

Well, it's weird cause we're dating, so I don't want to get things shut.

[Gareth Reynolds]

You got Benji going. You're dating her? I mean, we are like on page three. Holy shit. This is an absolute night. I don't think I'll get to the end of this. So Ty quickly became the best earning salesperson at Dakin. He was making $100,000 a year in the late 60s, which would be like $800,000 a year in today's money bucks. He even ended up making more than the CEO off of his commissions. Tai was also learning what worked in the toy business. Low prices, high volume, and avoiding the big box retailers for the more ma Pa smaller stores. Tai quote, I learned marketing impulse items from Dakin. They were the best. End quote. It would give him an innate ability to predict what would work and what wouldn't. And as his fellow sales rep, Mike Ingram said, they all really appreciated. Quote from Mike Quote he was a smart ass shithead. He was arrogant and thought that he was somebody that he wasn't. I would guess you're gonna be hard pressed to find anybody who liked him. That's pretty cool. It's like a Dave Yelp.

[Dave Anthony]

He's a salesman.

[Gareth Reynolds]

He was a salesman. Yep.

[Dave Anthony]

And he's a. He's an unlikable salesman.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. But his supervisor, Paul Roche, on the other hand, also didn't care for him. Quote, I never liked him as a human being. I didn't find any level of trust between him and the company or him and anybody else at that time in his life. He was very selfish, totally into himself. So you probably think, were they just jealous?

[Dave Anthony]

No, I'm thinking he was raised by a terrible father and he is also a total piece of shit.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Hmm. It's weird how being raised by a shitty father will make you a piece of shit, isn't it? Everybody. Everybody watching at home, were they jealous? I don't think it was that. Quote from Roche again. I don't think anybody was jealous of him because we all knew he had a lousy life. He had no close relationships. They were close insofar as they served him. No real friends. None. That was part of the guy's problem. He was into work and pussy in that order. Once you scraped the surface away just a little bit, he was an asshole.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, well, how do you feel about that, Pam? That got a little graphic.

[Pam]

Yes. Yes. It was very graphic, wasn't it?

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah.

[Pam]

Now, what was this? How old was he then and what year?

[Gareth Reynolds]

So this is like the. I mean, this quote is probably after the fact, but he worked there during the 60s and 70s.

[Pam]

60S and 70s.

[Dave Anthony]

Is this the guy the book Working Pussies about?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dave Anthony]

Okay. Yeah, yeah. All right.

[Gareth Reynolds]

In that working Pussy call. In that order.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah. No, he shows you how to get it both.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Now, how you feeling? Dave dug a little bit deeper for us.

[Pam]

I think I might want to read Prince Harry's share.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Might be quite mild that you're not Prince Harry's book. As Ty was getting ready to go off on his own endeavor, Hal, Ty's father, died in 1983 from a heart attack.

[Dave Anthony]

God damn it. I loved him.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I know. So he passes away and Ty didn't tell his sister for five days. He did this to alleged by Joy, his sister clean out his father's collectibles and sell them. So in other words, to beat her to the inheritance money. Warner would later state to people that he was given a $50,000 inheritance. However, there's evidence to suggest that that figure was more like 200,000. So he just kind of like he.

[Dave Anthony]

Took the money, he sold the stuff?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yes. Yeah, he sold the goods.

[Dave Anthony]

And even though he's making basically $800,000 a year, he needs a little extra cut. He needs some extra scratch.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Well, the reason why he's doing this is because he wants to start his own business.

[Dave Anthony]

The toy. Yeah, toy business.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Oh, I skipped this part. Sorry. So he was like the best salesman at Dakin.

[Dave Anthony]

How does he skip things?

[Gareth Reynolds]

I don't know. We were talking about Prince Harry's pen.

[Pam]

I think it was because we distracted in studio.

[Gareth Reynolds]

We were talking about Prince Harry's penis.

[Dave Anthony]

Like, he can't keep track of his story just because you bring up something else.

[Pam]

He's got add, whatever that is.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Thank you. Thank you, Mom. Sorry. No, it's fine.

[Pam]

Just a joke.

[Gareth Reynolds]

You can't get that medication in this country. So he basically, he starts going when he's going out on his sale calls when he's still a sales rep for Dakin, which is what you were. You were a sales rep?

[Pam]

I was a sales rep.

[Gareth Reynolds]

So that's basically what he does. So when he's going out on these calls, he's. He starts pitching the people his company. Well, like, stuff he's thinking about. He's like, what would you think about that?

[Dave Anthony]

Future toys.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Future toys. And. And then the word gets back to Dakin that he's doing that. And they're like, hey, are you starting your own business or something? He's like, no. And. And then they hire a private investigator.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, my God.

[Gareth Reynolds]

He was like, no. Not only is he starting his own business, he has an office. Like, so they. So they realize. So he's using that money that he took from his father. The inheritance and his own money to start his own business.

[Dave Anthony]

So are we supposed to be mad at this guy because he's a go getter?

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, no, of course not. The toy business in the American dream.

[Dave Anthony]

The toy business is ruthless and brutal. How many people did you kill when you were a toy rep?

[Pam]

I didn't kill any, but I was very close.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah.

[Pam]

Yes, I was very close to doing it.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. But you hit people with your car. You always told me.

[Pam]

Yes, I did.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Pam]

Yes, I did.

[Gareth Reynolds]

You hit a deer with your car?

[Pam]

I did. Well, the deer hit me.

[Dave Anthony]

Did you eat it?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, we ate it that night.

[Pam]

No, we didn't.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, we ate it raw out back. You know, we have this story about. We lived in Brown Deer is where I grew up. Brown Deer, Wisconsin. And there was. We had a dog that was like £150 and a Labrador. A Labrador. And this dog, like, I mean, just love to eat. So don't be making Jose comparisons and stuff, because that's not what anyone's after. But the dog would. Like, he just. For like a week, like, he stunk. He just had the worst gas. And we're just going, what is going on? Like, this is next level. And then a cop came to our door and goes, just so you know, I saw your dog in the woods eating this, like, old, rotting deer carcass.

[Dave Anthony]

Cool.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And so our dog just was going out there just like, eating its guts and then coming back.

[Dave Anthony]

And you should have fed it.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, we didn't feed it, so £150.

[Pam]

But what's nice is that in those days, the police were really nice. They'd come and join us.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Excuse me.

[Pam]

Sorry.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Still, fellas, thank you for all that you do. You're doing amazing work and we really appreciate it.

[Pam]

I'm referring to the English police.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, the bubbies. You American cops, they're murderers. So it's 1986, and Ty's starting his own business. He doesn't know what to call it, but genius takes time. So he thought about it long and hard.

[Dave Anthony]

American Girl.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And Ty went with Ty, Inc. And the logo would be Ty in a heart. So his company, his name's Ty and his company's called Ty.

[Pam]

Do you recognize that, Dave?

[Dave Anthony]

Nope.

[Gareth Reynolds]

You recognize that?

[Pam]

Oh, yes.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Okay. Interesting.

[Dave Anthony]

That's not a thing.

[Gareth Reynolds]

So the headquarters were opened just outside of Chicago, and Ty's first line of plush was to be a line of Himalayan cats that would be floppy, cuddly, and furry.

[Dave Anthony]

Sure.

[Gareth Reynolds]

They had to have the cuddle factor. And there were beans in the butt and the feet which gave them the feature of what he called poseability. As Ty would say, quote, no one had put the combination of understuffed with beans. All the animals were stiff and hard and there, you'll see is.

[Dave Anthony]

Hell, yeah. What the fuck?

[Gareth Reynolds]

That might have been the pussy he was talking about earlier.

[Dave Anthony]

That's terrible. Who wants that?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Who what doesn't want that? It's got posability.

[Dave Anthony]

It looks like I got burned on the face and shot out of a cannon.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Well, what's funny is one time it took a shit and the dad got rid of it, which is crazy because the dad's first of all dead. And that's not a real cat.

[Dave Anthony]

That's not a real cat.

[Pam]

Was that a Beanie Baby, that one? No, no, that was what he started off with.

[Gareth Reynolds]

That's a Himalayan cat.

[Dave Anthony]

That's the beginning.

[Pam]

Yes.

[Dave Anthony]

So that is what he came up with.

[Pam]

We had a Himalayan cat. Do you remember?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, that's who it is. This picture, fun fact, took nine hours because he was, like, insistent that they got it right.

[Dave Anthony]

Shut the fuck up.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Well, when you see it, you know that it took work. That's what he wanted to get it right. Also, Ty had now started dressing like Willy Wonka.

[Dave Anthony]

Yep.

[Gareth Reynolds]

There are no pictures of his face.

[Dave Anthony]

I'm gonna take off.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, no, you gotta stay. That door is locked. That door is locked.

[Dave Anthony]

What in the fuck are you talking about?

[Gareth Reynolds]

So there's no pictures of that face.

[Dave Anthony]

What do you mean there's no pictures of that?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Believe me, I've tried to find him dressed as Willy Wonka, but he would. Basically, he would do it for toy shows or sales appointment. He would have Italian scarves, hot pink suits, or pink ties and pink socks he would match. He also walked with a prop cane and he drove a Rolls Royce. I mean, Dave, think about it. He wanted to get people talking. He wanted people to be like, hey, who is this guy? Or like, hey, what's with this guy? Or this guy's really weird, right? Or like, hey, I hate this guy. You know, stuff like that. And I think that look really did it.

[Dave Anthony]

That look would do it. Absolutely.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And get ready, because I'm also going to have a Willy Wonka face.

[Dave Anthony]

Benji hit me.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Most bench too bizarre. Benji. But he still had this drive to make cuter, softer stuffed animals.

[Dave Anthony]

Gotta go cuter. Always be cutering.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Terrible word.

[Dave Anthony]

It's a microphone, Mom.

[Pam]

Oh, sorry.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Don't forget, that's a huge part of this whole thing. I know.

[Pam]

I'm so sorry.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's not just you and Dave hanging Out like you have been for the past couple days.

[Dave Anthony]

Really?

[Pam]

Sorry. Well, that's why I was looking over, because I'm so.

[Gareth Reynolds]

You can look at this and you can do the mic.

[Dave Anthony]

It's like when we're candlelight at a restaurant.

[Pam]

Yes. Yes.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Oh, sorry. Aaron, can you get a bucket? I just need something to sort of put my guts into. Okay, so. 1993, Tye Inc. Employed 14 people in its main five room office facility. Ty was about to turn 50, and it made $1.3 million that year. But things were about to get wild. See, he'd acquired this patent to make this special synthetic fur, and he began using it on a new line of plush. It was a $5 line of bean bag animals that he called Beanie Babies.

[Dave Anthony]

Here we go.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Well, someone else came up with the name, but it's still technically true. And that's what he called them. Ty, quote, In 1983, I built my company on great quality and great prices. My only retail points were $5 and $10. I believe that these retail price points were critical to our success. End quote. He also wanted them to be palm size so the kids could hold them or put them in their pocket or fit them in the back in their backpack.

[Dave Anthony]

That's what I do with mine. I still have.

[Gareth Reynolds]

That's smart. The first Beanie Babies were Legs the Frog, Cubby the Bear, Quack the Duck Chocolate the Moose, Pinterest the Lobster Spot the Dog, Squealer the Pig, Splash the Whale Flash the Dolphin, and Patty the Platypus. Let me tell you about Patty the Platypus. Patty the Platypus was named after his girlfriend, Patricia Roche.

[Dave Anthony]

Sure. Wait, he has a girlfriend now?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yes. So yes, yes, at this point he has a girlfriend. She kind of was integral to coming into. Integral to coming up with, like, the product line with him. She even had two kids from a previous marriage, and he would kind of like test the beanies out with them, and they'd be like, ah, oh, I don't like this. Or I like that. So he's kind of test marketing with them. They were pretty much living together in a shared house. Okay. So now, like I said, they were opposable plush and they were called Beanie Babies because of the little beans in them, but they weren't stuffed with beans. Ty made sure they had enough beans to be full, but not too many beans to be unposable. So those are the beans and the beans and Beanie Babies. Now, Ty was excited with his new. Are you done?

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, I'm Gonna open up a drink and have a little sippy sip.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's just a little distracting. So Ty was excited with his new line, but when he unveiled Beanie Babies at the Rocky Mountain Toy show, nobody cared. Still, he believed in his babies.

[Dave Anthony]

You ever been to the Rocky Mountain Toy Show?

[Pam]

No, I wondered where it was. Where was that?

[Gareth Reynolds]

I would be in Colorado.

[Pam]

Colorado?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Dave Anthony]

Rmts.

[Pam]

Mts.

[Gareth Reynolds]

RMT Mountain Toys.

[Pam]

Oh, oh, oh, right. Yeah. He's really into the lingo.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, he's good. Dave's one of the fastest acronym. Yeah, yeah, he's very good. But you would go to a lot of toy shows. Yes, that'd be a place where they would present a bunch of toys.

[Pam]

New York in particular is the main place. New York.

[Dave Anthony]

Now, is anybody ever who's like, hey, you want to come to my hotel room and cut open a toy?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Hey, what do we. Hey, just drinking at a bar. What do you guys want to do after this? I was thinking we'd go up to my room and just cut open some of the Beanie Babies and slowly squish them out. Just see what the beads are like. And then we can suck the beads or just, you know what? Do whatever we want with the beads. We have another round of Manhattan. Let's get some more bad hat. Then we'll go to my room. I have like 30 Beanie Babies that I just got from Ty the Willy Wonka guy. And then we could just go up there and cut him up. And then we could just make a bean pile. Who's you guys down?

[Dave Anthony]

No, I'm gonna stay here.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Oh, you want to do it in the bar? Can we cut open beanies in the bar, sir?

[Dave Anthony]

I don't know. I just don't want to cut them up.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Do you want to rip a bean?

[Dave Anthony]

No, I don't want bean. I don't want to do any beans.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Do a bean bump. Just go ahead and do a key bean.

[Dave Anthony]

No, I don't want a bean. I'm not a bean guy.

[Gareth Reynolds]

That's a bean off my hand.

[Dave Anthony]

It's not.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Hey, so, going to stall two. I left my credit card with some beans on the toilet paper thing. Hurry.

[Dave Anthony]

What? What's supposed to happen with your credit card?

[Gareth Reynolds]

You just cut a nice hot line of bean. Hurry. I don't want bean. What?

[Dave Anthony]

They're also pre mo.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Bean.

[Dave Anthony]

They're little plastic things.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Oh, dude, I know it. Some of it's not going down well.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, because it's plastic.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Oh, shit, dude. I think some is lung based now.

[Dave Anthony]

Well, yeah, it's Plastic.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Oh, man. I am so fucked up.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah. You're gonna die.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I'm living. Okay. So then he introduced more Beanie Babies, even though nobody gave a shit. Then here comes Ally, the alligator, Blackie, the bear, Bones, the dog, Chili, the bear, Daisy, the cow, Diggers, the crab, Goldie, the goldfish. Happy, the hippo, Humphrey, the camel, Inky, the octopus. Lucky, the ladybug missed the unicorn. Picking the panda, Swirly, the snail, Slither, the snake, Speedy, the turtle, Trap, the mouse, and Spinner, the spider.

[Dave Anthony]

Who the wants the spider?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Hey, who. What? Look at Spinner.

[Dave Anthony]

Like, I get all those except for the Dave.

[Gareth Reynolds]

What an admission that you get all those. Well, the.

[Dave Anthony]

The rest of them, you're like, I could see a kid cuddling with that. Maybe not the snake.

[Pam]

No, not the snake.

[Dave Anthony]

But the snake spider. Like, what kind of creepy kid do you have that's like, hi, Daddy, Daddy, I want the spider. Give me the spider.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Daddy, dad got drunk last night and cut it open and did some bean lines.

[Dave Anthony]

What happened to this?

[Gareth Reynolds]

My spiders open Or. Or you were like, oh, my God.

[Dave Anthony]

My spider made eggs.

[Gareth Reynolds]

That's what I was just going to say. You cut it open. You're like, oh, my God, that spinny's pregnant. Hey, Aaron, you want to toss me what I gave you?

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, my God. There's actual props.

[Gareth Reynolds]

There's props. I got Daisy the cow. Oh, Beanie.

[Pam]

I remember you had quite a few.

[Dave Anthony]

So they still sell?

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, I didn't sell these. I did not have Beanie Babies.

[Pam]

Yeah, they still sell them.

[Dave Anthony]

Wow. It looks like Jose.

[Gareth Reynolds]

What a fucking asshole. Okay, so Ty also stuck to the principles that he learned at Dakin. He knew to sell to smaller stores. It bred loyalty to his brand. They needed his sales. It's better selling to 40,000 accounts than it is to five accounts. It's more difficult to do.

[Dave Anthony]

Always said that.

[Gareth Reynolds]

But for the longevity of the company and profit margins, it's the better of the two. You've always said to sell the 40,000 accounts.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, that's one of my sayings.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And in what capacity is that? Because you are a dollop, right?

[Dave Anthony]

I mostly sell the dollop to small stores. That's where we do all of our business. Like, I'm not going to work with the, like, bigger. Like Circuit City and Toys R Us.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Okay, I've got some tough news about Circuit City.

[Dave Anthony]

What?

[Gareth Reynolds]

And Toys R Us, to be honest.

[Dave Anthony]

What are you talking about?

[Gareth Reynolds]

There's no. Do you notice how those places where they used to be are now just Halloween stores?

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, they do. Like, A seasonal.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Dave Anthony]

Circuit City.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Circuit City. You're now.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah.

[Gareth Reynolds]

By the way, do you ever wonder what a Halloween store is? Like in say January?

[Dave Anthony]

Are you fucking doing? Stand up to the kids camera a little bit. What are you doing?

[Gareth Reynolds]

This is my world. You're in the dojo. Welcome to the dojo.

[Pam]

What's the dojo?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Exactly? We're gonna find out. A dojo. Go to the intro, Aaron. So most companies would release a product and leave it out there and if it didn't sell well, they would discontinue it and move on. But not Ty. Ty Warner would keep changing his product, like by making a new Teddy Beanies face. Rounder versus flat. Which he did. If he had an idea on how to make a Beanie better, he would simply start making a better one and he would leave like the one out there and he'd be working on another one and it was all just kind of doing so.

[Dave Anthony]

So it's called updating.

[Gareth Reynolds]

That's right.

[Dave Anthony]

Always, always be working on your product.

[Gareth Reynolds]

That's right.

[Dave Anthony]

Like if you have a spider, make it a better spider. Turn it into.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I lost a lot of time.

[Pam]

He's really good. He should have been a marketing manager.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, well, I don't know. Did you hear that? Nothing really came out at the end.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh no. I made an octopus.

[Pam]

It's a marketing plan.

[Dave Anthony]

Turn a spider into an octopus. Now you got a black Blacktopus.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Don't encourage that with that.

[Dave Anthony]

We didn't encourage it. Have you ever heard of the Blacktopus Beanie Baby.

[Pam]

Spocktopus.

[Dave Anthony]

The Spoctopus.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Anyway, it was all doing so.

[Dave Anthony]

So this is what our dates are like.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Oh, well, it sounds like a fucking nightmare. It was all doing so. So. Until he had a revelation. Prompted by a lamb named Lovey, seen here.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, shit.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Drunk.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, I would cuddle the fuck out.

[Pam]

Love is lovely.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Lovey is lovely.

[Pam]

So sweet.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Do you remember when I was a kid growing up, I had a lamb.

[Pam]

You did have a lamb.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And I wasn't nearly as good at that. And I threw up on the lamb.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh yeah.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And you washed it and we kept it.

[Pam]

And you. I gave it to you when you moved. You've got that.

[Gareth Reynolds]

When I moved.

[Pam]

Well, one of your 300 moves.

[Gareth Reynolds]

When I moved out of the house.

[Pam]

I. I gave you lambie. Yes, you had Lammy. Because it was real fur. It was real lambs fur. And you've got it. He's got it. I don't know.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I don't. You're accusing. I do not have lambie.

[Pam]

You do.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I do not.

[Pam]

You do.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I'm telling you. I know all of the things that I have, and I don't have lamb.

[Dave Anthony]

You had real fur.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It was actually a real lamb. And then it just had passed away. Because I didn't know that.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, I had a. I had a little sheep, but it had real insides.

[Pam]

Did it.

[Gareth Reynolds]

So Lovey sold very well in hospitals. However, in 1995, because of some fabric issues with suppliers in China, Lovey had to be discontinued.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, damn it.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Buyers seemed like, Dave, they were upset by this news, so the decision was made to not say that Lovey was discontinued, but retired. This, for some reason, made buyers less angry and more intrigued.

[Dave Anthony]

It's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

[Gareth Reynolds]

This tactic was not invented by Warner, but was one he utilized over and over again.

[Dave Anthony]

It's stupid.

[Gareth Reynolds]

He did have a skill at selling people this way. One of his former execs quote, he was a master at selling useless shit to people and making it seem really important. That's exciting.

[Dave Anthony]

That's really. What an impressive. Well, you should put that on your gravestone.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, yeah. Well. And wait, isn't that just kind of the American economy?

[Dave Anthony]

You know, that's. That's capitalism. It's just like, how can I sell this absolute garbage?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Around this time, kids in Chicago were starting to like Beanie Babies. And as kids do, they told their parents that they wanted to collect more.

[Dave Anthony]

Here we go.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And in the small suburb, suburb, suburb of Naperville, Illinois, a few mothers were helping their kids acquire them, but also began to fall in love with the Beanie Babies themselves. And since you couldn't go to Toys R Us or Walmart to get them with ease, they would need to drive around Beanie hunting. It felt like a quote scavenger hunt.

[Dave Anthony]

Wait, adult adults now want.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yes. So like the kids. The kids like them. And then like mothers in Naperville, fuck are they doing with you? Falling in love. They just start loving them. But the thing that they start to kind of fall in love with is that you have to kind of find them. So it is like a collection thing.

[Dave Anthony]

It sets off a collection. I found the spider and you don't have it.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yes. Here's a quote. What was available, how many were available when they were produced? And we had to find this all out on our own. And so they liked that.

[Pam]

Can I. Can I tell you one of my little tales?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Sure.

[Pam]

That when I. I used to go and deal with buyers in the small shops, and if there was a delivery of Beanie Babies. And there was a mother in there. They would all. They would shoot. They would phone around and tell all their friends that the Beanie Babies were arriving and they'd follow the UPS trail.

[Gareth Reynolds]

You will find more of this coming.

[Pam]

It was ridiculous.

[Dave Anthony]

She told me on the story on Wednesday night.

[Pam]

Did I?

[Gareth Reynolds]

And in 1996.

[Pam]

Sorry, I won't repeat.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And she doesn't even understand. Yeah, microphone. No, it's actually. If you're going to talk about dating Dave, that can be off mic. And in 1996, one mother, Becky Phillips, began noticing these adults were harder to find than others. So. So they began. So she's. This is Becky Phillips. She starts going crazy and she's finding that they're hard.

[Dave Anthony]

She starts going crazy.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Becky also was the one who discovered that there were differences in the Teddy's faces, like I mentioned earlier.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, my God.

[Gareth Reynolds]

So if you look here, you see you got Old Teddy, got a bit of a boxier nose, and then you got round Faces Teddy. And so she's the one who's like, wait, these teddies are different. And once word got out about Flat Face Teddy, or as they call it, Old Face Teddy versus newer rounder Face Teddy, the plot thickened even more. More and more mothers began collecting beanies, kind of obsessively. It kind of triggered, like we said, this collection mentality. Exchanges and trades were common, like drug deal at toy stores or malls. Moms would meet up and they would betrayed, quote, two tobaccos for one kiwi. So it was all very sort of like, crazy. And yeah, it's basically these mothers are like meeting up places, like exchanging beanies for ones that they don't have.

[Dave Anthony]

What in the fuck is happening?

[Gareth Reynolds]

By 96, beanie fever was spreading through the Midwest. Bongo the Monkey was being sold faster than they could get them. At one Wisconsin location in Christmas 95, one Midwest retailer recounted that bongos were just sitting on the shelves, but by January 1996, quote, they took off like crazy.

[Dave Anthony]

Like bongos.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Like bongos. Much like bongos.

[Pam]

Does it say which Wisconsin retailer?

[Gareth Reynolds]

I don't have that information, but I will certainly get back to you all as soon as I do.

[Dave Anthony]

The camera's not on you. It's on us right now. The couple, certainly. That's the couple cam. And then they got the single cam over there.

[Pam]

Oh, oh, I see. Wait a minute.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Oh, this is when.

[Pam]

This is you and I when we're together. Oh, I get it. Oh, how sweet.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Shut up, everybody. So tweaks were being made, like I said, and not just to the plush items and beanies themselves. Lena Trivedi was a 19 year old that was hired at TY in 93. TY had complained that the TYE tags, those little hearts were boring. Cause they just had this to and from on them.

[Dave Anthony]

I agree.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yes. So Lena pitched that they used the space there. You can see the to and from.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. That's Daisy.

[Gareth Reynolds]

That's Daisy the cow.

[Dave Anthony]

Give Lena a raise.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, she hasn't done anything yet after. Give her a fucking raise. That's not what she did. So Lena pitched.

[Dave Anthony]

Lena, you're hired at a tie company.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No. So Lena pitches that they use that space to give them a birth date and a poem. Ty asked for a poem. So she started with Stripes the tiger. The poem Stripes was never fierce nor strong. So with tigers he didn't get along. Jungle life was hard getting by. So he came to see his friends at Tai. And she added. Stripe's birthday, June 11, 1995.

[Dave Anthony]

I am over the moon with what's happening.

[Pam]

Isn't that beautiful?

[Gareth Reynolds]

You're excited.

[Dave Anthony]

This is. This is the best thing that's ever happened. It's so lovely that Beanie Baby was born. It came out of another Beanie Baby on that day.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, that's right. And actually, in America now, you're not allowed to choose whether you want to have your Beanie Baby or not. This is awkward. Warner loved it. He loved the idea. And he asked her to write one for the other. 86 beanies in one day. Except he told her that he would do the one for Patty the Platypus. Now, I told you before, that was named after his girlfriend. Well, that was now his ex girlfriend. You see, things with Patricia had gone south. Ty had never given her a salary, even though she was essential to the sales and the design she was paid. But he tried to nickel and dime her the whole way as much as possible. With the promise.

[Dave Anthony]

That's what you do with a girlfriend.

[Gareth Reynolds]

With the promise that he would one day take care of her.

[Pam]

Oh, I know, I know. You are that one. As is exclusive.

[Gareth Reynolds]

After their breakup, Patricia had accused Ty of stalking her for two years, knowing where she was every day during that time frame and even following her on a vacation she had taken with her new boyfriend.

[Dave Anthony]

Well, what's he supposed to do?

[Gareth Reynolds]

The anger. That's not good for you. The anger that Ty held came across in the Patty the Platypus poem that he wrote.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, God.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Ran into Patty one day while walking. Believe me, she wouldn't stop talking. Listened and listened. To her speak. That would explain her extra large beak that was in the Beanie Baby. So ravenous Midwest mothers are now going to more and more extreme lengths to get Beanie Babies. They would call Thai Incorporated headquarters to find out which ones they were missing, what stores may have them anywhere in.

[Dave Anthony]

The U.S. okay, this, this is a great example of how we had nothing to do in the 90s.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. This is like. This is a like conflation of so many 90s things in one among them. One thing I was watching this woman who ended up like running a Beanie Baby thing. She was like. I mean, I was working a full time job basically like six hours a day. And I was like, six hours a day of full time job. Like that's what we used to be like, man, I work my ass off six hours and now it's, I gotta do this and I gotta do this. And we're just like. But yeah, there is like, there's. It's. It's a combination of many things. But the, the women would. And again, it's not just mothers, but it was mainly mothers. They would call Thai Inc. And they would find out which ones they were missing and what stores may still have them. They would call the Chamber.

[Dave Anthony]

Imagine having to feel these calls.

[Gareth Reynolds]

They would call, they would call the Chamber, Chamber of Commerce.

[Dave Anthony]

I hate calling about Slinky the Binky. I want to know when he was born and then what, what, what states he was shipped to.

[Gareth Reynolds]

We told you before, Slinky the Binky is not one that we have made.

[Dave Anthony]

No, there's a Slinky the biggie in a 76 station in Des Moines.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Okay.

[Dave Anthony]

My friend Sheila saw it when she was on a trip.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Okay.

[Dave Anthony]

And she.

[Gareth Reynolds]

We'll go there.

[Dave Anthony]

It's definitely.

[Gareth Reynolds]

We have to actually keep this line open for other calls. So. So good luck. Hello. I also got it. Goodbye. So they would also call chambers of commerce and they would see what shops had them in a city. And then they would call those stores and then they would find the Beanies.

[Dave Anthony]

But why are they calling? Imagine being at the Chamber of Commerce.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Look at it. Look at it.

[Dave Anthony]

It's some lady's like, hey, where, where.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Are Chamber of Commerce, the Beanie Babies? Look at it.

[Dave Anthony]

I fucking see it.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Do you? Because it sure doesn't feel like you see it with your attitude, which is getting worse and worse.

[Pam]

Can I just tell you another little tale? Sure. Shut up. No, well, there was a just.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Should we explain to everyone you just pulled the tissue out of your sleeve? Yeah, I'm just gonna Like a magician, but who uses the magic.

[Pam]

That was a Beanie Baby Magic Handkey.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, okay. Yeah, it's pretty good.

[Pam]

But anyway, so this retailer told me that she was coming into a shop one day and there was a huge queue outside. It wasn't open. They opened at 10 or whatever. There was a huge queue. And she went to open the door and one of the customers pushed her and told her to go to the back of the queue.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Oh, my God.

[Pam]

And she went to. She said, yeah. She said, I'm opening up my store. And they were waiting for Beanie.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Move it, loser. Hey, how did you get a fake key to this store? Where? Some of us are looking to figure out how to do that. This lady's picking the lock.

[Dave Anthony]

She should have gone to the back of the line and been like, sorry, we're not opening up until I get to the front.

[Pam]

Yeah, and there was another story because I.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Okay, hold on. I'll give you a story. Another story soon.

[Pam]

Okay, thank you.

[Gareth Reynolds]

So naturally, the search got wider and wider. February 12, 1996. Peggy Gallagher. So Peggy was spending thousands of dollars and long distance phone calls and found a treasure trove of beanies in Germany. So what the fuck? So she. So she calls this place in Germany and she orders 100. Yes, we have beanies. We have the Beanie Babies. Which Beanie Baby are you looking for?

[Dave Anthony]

She wants a spider.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Now, hold on. Why are you so interested in all of our beanies? Explain to us the intelligence you have that we've omitted. I think there's something going on with the beanies. Yeah, they just put cameras in all the beanies. You haven't even said you beanies.

[Dave Anthony]

The Americans are garlic. About the pig.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Ze vant 30 squealers. So she orders 198 beanies. She orders 30 chili the polar bears, 36 Peking pandas, 84 old faced teddies, 36 trap the mouses, 12 patty the platypuses. All at $7 a pop, and all in all cost her about $2,000. She's gonna make bank in 1996. Beanie lunatic. And Naperville mom Joni Hirsch Blackman interviewed TYE for the July 1 issue of People magazine. The article begins with quote, they have soft heads, floppy ears and squishy bodies. They're also small enough to fit in your pocket. But to store owners like Richard Guernady, whose suburban Glenview, illinois shop sold 5,000 of the pint sized stuffed animals in the week before Valentine's Day, Beanie Babies are huge. End quote in the article. Gurnady predicted, the guy whose store it was predicted that Beanie Babies would be, quote, the biggest thing ever in retailing. Elvis, Sinatra, and the Beatles combined. True. And this story kind of takes the Beanies from a little bit more of a niche market to the mainstream. More people know. And this was the only real interview that Ty Warner would ever give was this one early on to this woman who was a Naperville mother who was obsessed with Beanie Babies.

[Dave Anthony]

Normal.

[Gareth Reynolds]

So that exposure didn't only help Warner and Tye Inc. But it made Gurniti come up with the first official Beanie checklist. A list of all the beanies ever made on the market. Retired duplicates, old ones, new ones, all of them. And this just kind of kicks it all up another notch. As one mother said, quote, I'll do the Midwest X ray. My downfall was the checklist. Once you have a checklist, you don't know what. You don't look at what you have. You look at what you don't have.

[Dave Anthony]

I don't have the Salamander.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Dave Anthony]

Where are you from, Miss Sammy the Salamander?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Excuse me, miss. Where are you from?

[Dave Anthony]

What's that?

[Gareth Reynolds]

You're from Naperville?

[Dave Anthony]

We moved around all over.

[Gareth Reynolds]

What are you even American?

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, it's a little bit American. I just, you know, from all over.

[Gareth Reynolds]

All over the world or all over?

[Dave Anthony]

I started in. In California, and then I also lived in.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Your accent is just like a melange of a bunch of weirdos.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, like I said, I'm from all over.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Hold on. This is that German lady. This is a German. We want to know what you want for svishy. Thanks to the women of Naperville, the People article, and the new Beanie checklist, The sales of Ty Inc. Increased 1,000% in 1996. The company's sales were $280 million, and Ty brought home 98 million. Some say it was the mothers who elevated Ty, but people who knew Ty said he also was a part of it, pulling the strings. Quote, ty doesn't fart without planning it weeks in advance.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Which is what you do.

[Dave Anthony]

That's a really good example of someone who knows how to plan, like, a really. A really good. Lee Iacocca is known for that. Like, really good businessmen will be, like, looking at the cow.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I actually can't. I'm actually farting. June 9th and the 10th. 10th I'm available.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, no. I'm gonna have a. I'm sorry. Looks like I'm.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I have a 10am fart and 2. I free up a little. Which means more farting.

[Dave Anthony]

Gareth?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yes?

[Dave Anthony]

The dollop is brought to you by Helix Sleep. So, Gareth, I have started using my. My Apple watch when I sleep too. Keep track. Keep track of my sleeping. You know you can keep track of all your sleep data.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Is that right you're doing? What are you finding?

[Dave Anthony]

Great. I'm actually sleeping awesome. Because I'm on a Helix mattress. I've done this before and it was terrible. And that was before Helix. I was not sleeping well at all. Like, truly did not sleep well. And now that I'm on a Helix, banging them out, I might be going to the Olympics in the sleeping.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Not possible. I also love the Helix. I have my mother staying with me. She's on a Helix and just loves it.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, my whole family's on. We're all on Helix mattresses.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I've been tracking your sleep for a while, too, and it's uncomfortable. Interesting.

[Dave Anthony]

I would like you to not.

[Gareth Reynolds]

My plan is to enter your dreams and take full power.

[Dave Anthony]

Okay. Not a thing that we're doing.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Take the power at all back.

[Dave Anthony]

So look, here's what we're saying. Here's. Here's the offer. We're going to throw you for this. Great. So it's a mattress. It comes. They deliver it to you. It comes in a box. You open up, it puffs up it. It does a whole thing. You can also get pillows and stuff. So go to helixsleep.com dollop for 25% off site wide, plus two free dream pillows with mattress purchase. That's helixsleep.com dollop For 25% off site wide, plus 2 free dream pillows with mattress purchase.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Helixsleep.com Dalapa yeah, like they say, Helix, we're going to enter Dave's dreams.

[Dave Anthony]

I need everyone to stay out of my dreams. Coming Helix. Don't do that.

[Gareth Reynolds]

We are going to take it.

[Dave Anthony]

Squarespace.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Dave. We love them.

[Dave Anthony]

Squarespace all in one. They do it all. It's a website company, but they do it. You can get domains. You can do.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's just a website. It's a business builder is what it is.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, it is a business builder. You're right. The dollop. We are big fans of Squarespace. We have all of our websites with Squarespace.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Every one of them.

[Dave Anthony]

Every single one.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Your site, my site, our site, our source site, all of it.

[Dave Anthony]

It's because. It's because they do everything and it makes everything.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Squarespace has a site and it is obviously a Squarespace now, Gareth.

[Dave Anthony]

They have a fluid engine that's Right. Do you want to?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Well, it's like a flux capacitor, but for your website. So what this is, is this is an ability to time travel and go back into a time when there were not websites and you could take the market for yourself.

[Dave Anthony]

So that's wrong. A fluid engine, a next generation website designed system from Squarespace. Super easy to unlock unbreakable creativity. Start with a best in class template that they have there. Customize every design detail with drag and drop technology. It's desktop for mobile or mobile. Either one. You can do either one.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Exactly.

[Dave Anthony]

So just, you know, get fluid engine. Get, get involved. Get built in and ready to go.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Your mom's gonna hit on you.

[Dave Anthony]

They also have a. What? They also have an online store. Sell your products in an online store. Whether you sell physical digital service products, Squarespace has all the tools you need to start selling online. And then you can have an asset library.

[Gareth Reynolds]

That's right.

[Dave Anthony]

You can upload, you can organize and access all your content from one place.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. You got a ladder moving across all the stuff.

[Dave Anthony]

No, that's again not it.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Hire a person to dust it.

[Dave Anthony]

Nope. With the new asset library, you're able to manage all your files from one central hub and use them across the Squarespace platform. Again, I don't have any idea what we're doing here or what it's like.

[Gareth Reynolds]

If Indiana Jones about Back to the Future. If you go to your asset library, look, from the second floor you might notice a big X that could be a 10. Now you're about to last crusade with your dad.

[Dave Anthony]

That's not true at all. So head to squarespace.com for a free trial and when you're ready to Launch, go to squarespace.com dollop to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It belongs in a museum. Things get fucking crazy. So now places.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, things are already crazy.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, they're not. Stores were now running out of beanies. You know, ravenous fans winding lines outside of malls. I'm not saying like two, three hour lines. We are talking 16 hour lines. People hanging out outside what you were talking about.

[Dave Anthony]

It's a fucking stuffed animal.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Stores were forced to put up signs saying that they were sold out basically all the time. Sorry, sold out of beanies. With that, parents who wanted a specific beanie would have to look elsewhere. So newspapers were now taken over with want ads. This is like every page Beanie Babies. Every page Santa. Yeah.

[Dave Anthony]

$50.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Well, that means Santa was looking. Yeah, Santa was like, look, the elves. The elves quit. Santa's Hello. And what's the ad supposed to say? Santa and I need some Slithery the snakes.

[Dave Anthony]

Here's all the names. Daisy the cow. Ring of the raccoon. Crunch the shark.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Dude.

[Dave Anthony]

Spike the rhino Jabber.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Let me tell you, the GG editing I had to do in this to just not say everyone. Because it's like, everyone. I'm like, this is also insane. Like, they just. They're just nuts. So Ty Warner has figured out the game by now. He would do tours of stores, and if one wasn't selling well, he would just say it was retiring, and then people would go wild for it. He would also retire beanies that were scarce already and drive collectors nuts. It was called, quote, controlling the fad. That was a phrase he was known to use a lot and swear by. With all this happening, Lena Trivedi also gives Tai some value advice, valuable advice. That year, we're in 96. She said the company needed to create this thing called a website. Now, this is before people could really process what the Internet was illustrated here.

[Dave Anthony]

What the Internet is.56.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Pass. I wasn't prepared to translate that.

[Dave Anthony]

As I was doing that little tease.

[Gareth Reynolds]

That little mark with the A and then the ring around it at. See, that's what I said. Katie said she thought it was about. Yeah. Oh, but I'd never heard. I'd never heard it said. I'd always seen the mark, but never heard it said. And then it sounded stupid when I said it. Violence at NBC.

[Pam]

In the Lunchroom the other week.

[Gareth Reynolds]

There it is. Violence at nbcge.

[Dave Anthony]

Com.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I mean, what Allison should know. America, the violent Internet is that.

[Dave Anthony]

How do we not keep that as our slogan?

[Gareth Reynolds]

That's becoming really big now. What do you mean that's big? How does one. What do you write to it? Like mail?

[Dave Anthony]

No, a lot of people use it and communicate. I guess they can communicate with NBC writers and producers. Allison, can you explain what Internet is?

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, she can't say anything in 10 seconds or less.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, my God.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Studio shortly. Such a prick.

[Dave Anthony]

America, the violence.

[Gareth Reynolds]

That's a better day.

[Dave Anthony]

That's the best. That's our slogan.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, that is.

[Dave Anthony]

That sound is totally us.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Isn't it amazing?

[Dave Anthony]

I mean, this is.

[Gareth Reynolds]

We are talking. Talking so long ago, and we're like, so much worse. But then we're a little worried about this Violence in America, buddy. You have no clue what's about to happen. So only about 10% Americans were on the Internet at this time. Ty had a lot of questions, why and how it worked, but he trusted Treviti So he agreed. But he quickly ran into an issue. TY.com was already scooped up. A dad had bought it for his son. Some dude is like, ty, you're getting a website. Obviously, Ty Warner sued him because he owned the trademark for Ty, but he lost the lawsuit, and then he paid the guy $150,000 for the domain.

[Dave Anthony]

Wow.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And, boy, was that website worth it when you got to lay eyes on it. Ty opened a website. For many people, the hunt to complete and expand their collection became a quest.

[Dave Anthony]

Wow.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Pretty good, right? Good grooves.

[Dave Anthony]

Wow.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Good tunes.

[Dave Anthony]

The Beanie Wizard.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That guy is in jail. So thenewtie.com had blogs, games, a list of all the Beanie Babies. Even easier to see what beanies were in demand, new or retiring. The site also became a community where people could go and trade and swap beanies.

[Dave Anthony]

I honestly haven't heard a word you said after blogs, so I need. I need to read a Beanie Baby blog. Are the. Are the Beanie Babies blogging? Are they having the Beanie Babies blog as Beanie Babies?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Dave, to answer your question, yes, having the Beanie Babies blog. A lot of communication from the website is on behalf of the beanies.

[Dave Anthony]

Sure, they have.

[Gareth Reynolds]

There's even voices of beanies.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, fuck, yeah.

[Gareth Reynolds]

So you can, like, hear one of them or whatever and, like, people.

[Dave Anthony]

But it's also. I'm a spider.

[Gareth Reynolds]

But it's also. I'm sorry, Christopher. Walking the spider.

[Dave Anthony]

I am a spider. Spider.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I'm a spider. But it's also like a community. So it's like, people are going there and they're, like, able to now trade forums, forums, chat rooms, want ads, online sex. I don't know if they did sex stuff, to be honest with you.

[Dave Anthony]

Can you put the spider in my bottom?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Looking for someone to put the snake inside me while I bar spider beans. I fancy the lobster. I beg the lobster.

[Dave Anthony]

I a platypus.

[Gareth Reynolds]

All right, look.

[Pam]

Oh, be quiet, you bragger.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Looking to sell beanies that have had orgasms achieved upon them. Sir, you can't post that on here.

[Dave Anthony]

Barely used.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Only once, sir. Why? I'm just letting them know. So it connected. People looking for retired beanies or older versions of ones, or ones that were scarce at this time. 51 had been retired. So you would see messages like this, I have Teddy 97 and Snowball. I need maple. So if you have maple and don't have Teddy and Snowball, email me and we can trade. Or this one, which is just nuts. It has all the little things they Want that are like the little distinctions. Hello, I need a mint or a non mint Spook. Not spooky. Coral, grunt, Kiwi, Lefty, Liberty, Manny, Radar, righty Sting, Tabasco, Tusk, Bongo, Brown tail, Happy Gray inch, felt antenna, Inky tan, Lucky, Retired versions, Bumble, Magic, different thread, mystic, fine mane, Nip, old versions. Patty, Magenta Pride, Sly Brown belly, stripes, dark tank, Old versions and zip old versions.

[Dave Anthony]

So brown tail and brown belly were lovers.

[Gareth Reynolds]

He's like this all the time. The site didn't sell any product, but it would get so many hits that it would often crash. And people were making bank. The OG Naperville mothers had collections that were worth far more than they'd ever expected. Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Remember before Peggy Gallagher, back when she called Germany? Remember for those 30 chilly the polar bears, 36 Peking pandas, 84 old faced teddies, 36 trap the mouses and 12 patty the platypuses that cost her two grand. Remember?

[Pam]

Yes.

[Gareth Reynolds]

That was now worth $300,000. Prices kept going up, up and up and up. Some collectors were making $30,000 a month on Beanies. It was like.

[Dave Anthony]

This is like crypto.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It. Oh, Dave. I see no connection. It was full on crazy. These are the feet.

[Dave Anthony]

This craze is just.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's scary of Beanie. They're just cute crazed. That's the new Patty.

[Pam]

Oh, there's the collectors.

[Gareth Reynolds]

You ready? They've been waiting hours for Coach House gift store to open. I like the duck. We got two raccoons, two skunks and two spiders.

[Pam]

I see. You have to admit they're cute.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Here's a quick lesson on this Beanie craze. A company called Tye makes them, releases them with different names.

[Dave Anthony]

They're all named after something. An animal. An animal.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Basically. They haven't done like funguses, then retires them one at a time. There's Snorts, Seaweed Jabber Jay. When they're first released, you can get them for about five to seven dollars. Once they retire, the value goes up in like two years. They're worth like $245 and stuff. He's worth about $4,000. Meet employee Bear and his owner, Joy Brzeguella. A Beanie Baby collector resold it to her for about 400 and he ended up being worth about 4,000 to Joy. My tie dyed Lizzie, I bet is very much like a Mickey Mantle baseball card. And it's a social event. It's how she met good friend and fellow collector. I love them and I'm obsessed. Debbie Searstens it's like going back into a second childhood. It can be an expensive second childhood. Debbie spent eighteen hundred dollars on this hard to find bear.

[Dave Anthony]

I wanted it so badly, and I wanted a good one.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Beanie Baby values may explain tight security at the gift store we visited.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, we gotta keep everybody behind the.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Line just in case Beanie collectors get out of hand. I think a lot of people see them and see dollar signs. No trouble today. Every beanie crazy buyer.

[Dave Anthony]

What can I get for you?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Young man goes away content. Debbie Janavik, Fox 13 News. You guys, how great was the 90s hair for men?

[Dave Anthony]

There's a black hole I need to fill inside of me, and I need to just buy things because I'm actually.

[Gareth Reynolds]

They walk amongst us. They want. We were all there and complicit.

[Dave Anthony]

That was. That was a horror show.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's a nightmare. It is a total nightmare. But Dave again. Then ebay launched.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, fuck.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And this only fueled the fire more. Now you could get whatever you wanted from anywhere, which made a Beanie Baby stock market. The bidding would get very high. People were now quitting their jobs. 7 to 10% sales on eBay were Beanie Babies. It was next level.

[Dave Anthony]

What? How?

[Gareth Reynolds]

7 to 10% sales. Well, this is when it first launches. When ebay first launches, it essentially is just for Beanie Babies. Like, it's other stuff that people like. Holy shit. You got one of these, like, you know, you could finally post your, like, sexy, like, I fucked the lobster. You know, if ebay just, like, kicks it up a notch. But if you think that things couldn't get any more out of control than ebay, then buckle up, brother and mother.

[Dave Anthony]

Okay. But there's no actual buckles here. Like, we just have chairs.

[Gareth Reynolds]

There's Buckle the Clam. I love Buckle the Clam. Put it on your crotch.

[Dave Anthony]

He fits in so good.

[Gareth Reynolds]

All right. One company is about to get into the Beanie Baby game and take this thing from a thriving fad to straight up mass psychosis.

[Dave Anthony]

Fucking hell.

[Gareth Reynolds]

In 1996, McDonald's approached Ty about doing a Happy Meal giveaway. Ty was kind of precious with the brand and preserving what he had.

[Dave Anthony]

Let me just say right now, this is a bad idea.

[Gareth Reynolds]

For instance, he pulled the plug on a Beanie Baby TV show.

[Dave Anthony]

Fuck yeah, he did.

[Gareth Reynolds]

He was worried that it would take away the child's ability to create its own character.

[Dave Anthony]

That's right.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Which I think is pretty empathetic.

[Dave Anthony]

I don't want to hear. Hear the voice of the crab.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, you want to make the voice of the crab.

[Dave Anthony]

That's right. In my head, the crab's like, hi, I'm the crappy. But then you get them on TV show. Hey, what the you doing? I'm the crab.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Listen, as the censors, we have an issue with the crab.

[Dave Anthony]

What do you mean I'm the crab? Go yourself.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Like it's that a derogatory Italian and also the swearing on a kids show is just not allowed.

[Dave Anthony]

Watch. Go eat my ass. You bad.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Talk to us as the crab and talk to us as the man who's making the show, please. You.

[Dave Anthony]

I'm the crab. You talk to the crab, but you talk to nobody. I lead the Beanie Babies.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Rocco the crab. Hey, yeah, don't worry about it. We figured it out.

[Dave Anthony]

How about I cut your neck, TV guy?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Hey, come on, relax. Don't be shellfish.

[Pam]

Very good.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Get away. So he passed on.

[Dave Anthony]

Can we cut that shelf? Can we cut live? Can we go back to cut the shellfish?

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, no, no, that. That stays in. No, we're.

[Dave Anthony]

We're gonna keep that.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, because we want to give you an authentic experience tonight. It's important to us that you get to see us, warts and all. This is the show.

[Dave Anthony]

You're watching Benji's World.

[Gareth Reynolds]

All right, everyone calm down. Ty. Even Spielberg wanted to put Beanie Baby in his movies over and over again. Ty said no over and over.

[Dave Anthony]

They were in Minority Report.

[Gareth Reynolds]

He. He passed on. They're doing what we thought they were doing the whole time. It's a good joke if you know the film. It's. It's.

[Dave Anthony]

We're actually going to watch it.

[Gareth Reynolds]

He passed on serial kids. Books, clothes, sporting event giveaways. Hell, even a perfume. But McDonald's really, really wanted to do this.

[Dave Anthony]

What the fuck would the perfume smell like?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Like a sweaty woman who had shoved a child out of the way for an alligator. McDonald's presented a rare opportunity to lure lower income consumers.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, yeah, the poor people.

[Gareth Reynolds]

This would act as a sort of first hit is free to them, then drive them to the stores. More and more, he was still on the fence. But when Mickey D's offered him over $100 million up front, guess what?

[Dave Anthony]

He shouldn't have done this.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It was time for beanie babies at McDonald's.

[Dave Anthony]

Are they tiny? Are they tinier than regular Beanie Babies?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, they're teeny teeny. They're called teeny teeny babies.

[Dave Anthony]

And do they come in a Happy Meal?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, they do. It's a Happy Meal giveaway.

[Dave Anthony]

Fuck yes.

[Gareth Reynolds]

So he. Ty, agreed. Actually, Dave, all Your questions are about to be answered. The promotion was to last five weeks and would be promoted through TV ads. First I got Pinky, then I got Pinky. I got Pinky and Patty in the same week. What?

[Dave Anthony]

Vanessa, catch something.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Teeny Beanie babyitis. Now, at McDonald's, your kids can get Teeny Beanie Babies and a Happy Meal. Real Thai beanie Babies in a mini size to toss, tuck or just plain love. One's in each. $99 hamburger Happy Meal. You buy your kids this Teeny Beanie Babyitis. Will she outgrow it? Not necessarily.

[Dave Anthony]

Hey, I would like to order 74 Happy Meals. Sir, I need 74 Happy Meals.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Do you sell sad meals? Do you sell sad meals?

[Dave Anthony]

Hi, I'm here to order some pathetic meals. I don't have a life.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Do you have a lonely man who broke up his marriage? Two early meals, please.

[Pam]

Anyway, anyway, well, this is where my little bit comes in.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's very important. Let's go.

[Pam]

That this one customer. When McDonald's were doing that, they'd buy the Happy Meal and they would take the meals to the toy shop for the staff. Because they didn't want the food.

[Gareth Reynolds]

They just want the food.

[Pam]

So they donated the food to the toy shop and they didn't want the food.

[Dave Anthony]

That is not even slightly because. Yeah, they just wanted the toys.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, of course they were getting rid of the toys. Experience.

[Pam]

Teeny Beanie.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Teeny Beanie Babies. Teeny Beanies. The Teeny Beanies.

[Dave Anthony]

Who wouldn't eat the fries, though? Though. That's one thing. I hate all McDonald's.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I hate all McDonald's except the fries.

[Pam]

They are nice. The fries are good. They're lovely.

[Gareth Reynolds]

The fries are good.

[Pam]

Splash of vinegar.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I don't.

[Pam]

Sorted.

[Dave Anthony]

Okay, now it got really.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, it's really weird. Now imagine, I mean, in England, it's not weird, but here, if you were like. And vinegar for my chips, they're like, ma'am, this is a McDonald's. I'm sorry, what sort of fish do you have? What is the McFish like? The McFish is actually a Beanie Baby, to be honest with you. We just cooked the inside of a Beanie Baby and then deep fried it. On April 11, 1997, the Happy Meal teeny Beanie giveaway began and people were in big fuck. McDonald's made 100 million teeny beanies. And it quickly became clear that wasn't enough. They stopped the ads. That ad after two days. They did not need ads. On the contrary, they wanted to stop the madness. One franchise.

[Dave Anthony]

Because they Couldn't keep up with the people who wanted to buy.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yes.

[Dave Anthony]

So they're selling out. So they're looking bad because they put something out as an advertisement and there's not enough.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It just got out of.

[Dave Anthony]

This is exactly what happened with our book, which you can get on Amazon. Yeah.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Which is a great website. One franchise owner told CNN, quote, We're getting 15 to 20, sometimes 25 calls every half hour since 6:00 this morning. Quote, do you have Beanie Babies? Which ones do you have? What time are they going to start selling them? Some people were they.

[Dave Anthony]

Was it. Could you order the Happy Meal with the specific Beanie Baby, or did you get a surprise Happy Meal? What's in it? Because isn't that what a Happy Meal is?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Essentially, you couldn't. You couldn't request.

[Dave Anthony]

You couldn't request.

[Gareth Reynolds]

You. You couldn't. You. But it gets so out of control that there were certainly things that there was an order that they were going to sell the Beanie Babies in. So they were trying. They were trying to not just be like, oh, okay, here you go, you got. They were like trying to kind of parse them out a little bit. But the people are crazy. Some people would come into what you were saying, mother, and order 100 Happy Meals with the request that McDonald's, quote, keep the food calls spike to 100 calls per hour. One Ohio manager instructed employees to answer the phone, quote, Good morning, McDonald's. We have the moose and the lamb. It was also putting the employees under great stress. Customers became vicious and deranged trying to get the beanies. And McDonald's was actually panicking a bit at this level of demand. To counter the ravenous beanie people at McDonald's, they began to set a limit per customer. In turn, the collectors began using disguises. They even began message boards where they could trade disguises to maximize the beanies. Fights broke out, too. Two weeks into the promotion, McDonald's was out of Teeny Beanie Babies.

[Dave Anthony]

Holy shit.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It was supposed to last five weeks.

[Dave Anthony]

What in the fuck? Just the popularity of Beanie Beanies was incredible.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Beanie Babies were in the news news again. WCFT News time is 2:03. McDonald's better call the Ronald Police for today. McDonald's announced they'd have to cut short their kid's meal Teeny Beanie campaign due to the simple fact that they're out the Ronald Police.

[Dave Anthony]

Is that a thing?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. They shot Grimace in the back. They threw a bag of heroin at his feet.

[Dave Anthony]

They tased the hamburger.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. The hamburglar they shot the Hamburglar and then they put a gun in his hand and they were like, he's started it. And they're like, where's your body cam? And they're like, oh, my hand was over it. For some reason. We're making it about the state of police in America, which is not going great.

[Pam]

It's not good.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It isn't?

[Pam]

No.

[Dave Anthony]

You want to hear my McDonald's story?

[Pam]

Very nice. Oh, yes.

[Dave Anthony]

I was in a commercial. The perky morning coffee guy.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Were you? Can you imagine seeing Dave and being like this? Happy Go, lucky fella.

[Dave Anthony]

Well, welcome to knowing what a fucking actor is.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I like your Winchit stuff.

[Pam]

I wish you could. You've got to find that advert. You've got to find the ad. Have you got it?

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, I could. I wonder if it's still.

[Gareth Reynolds]

He's converting all his VHS right now. I am.

[Dave Anthony]

I don't have. I don't have that one. I do have an MTV promo. I was in.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Oh, Dave.

[Dave Anthony]

I played Jackie Beats husband.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Oh, my God, Dave. Who's Jackie Beats?

[Dave Anthony]

Jackie Beat is.

[Pam]

What's mtv?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. His mother. Oh, boy.

[Dave Anthony]

We. I've already.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Then one day, the unthinkable happened.

[Pam]

It is. It's a bit. Have you got Alzheimer's?

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah. Early onset. But it's great.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Good for you.

[Dave Anthony]

That's why I don't remember any of the episodes.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Me either. Then one day, the unthinkable happened when a truck in Atlanta accidentally dumped several hundred international bears and Stretchy the ostriches on a freeway during Russia.

[Dave Anthony]

I'm killing people. I'm fucking killing. I stopped the car and I just grab a bunch. I mean, it's money. It's money.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Well, that's what they did. One motorist said he saw it. Quote, at least six or seven motorists leaning from their cars to scoop up the Beanie Babies with one hand while they kept rolling with the other hand on the wheel.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, I mean, you've trained. If you're into Beanie Babies, you've trained for that kind of moment.

[Gareth Reynolds]

This is a trainable moment. Yeah, absolutely. After the promotion ended, employees were given pins in some shops that read, quote, I survived the attack of the teeny Beanie Babies.

[Dave Anthony]

That's fun now. They're having fun now.

[Gareth Reynolds]

The already frenzied Beanie market went frenzied. Dear. One large toy shop, Zany Brainy.

[Dave Anthony]

Which.

[Pam]

Oh, I remember zany.

[Dave Anthony]

Is it a chain or is it just a.

[Pam]

It was a chain, yeah.

[Dave Anthony]

Hell, yeah, it was.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Had people answer the phone, quote, thank you for calling Zany Brainy. We do not have any Beanie Babies in stock right now. So things. Now.

[Dave Anthony]

But I don't buy it. I'm going there anyway.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, you're not buying anything, sir.

[Dave Anthony]

No, but like I know you said on the phone you don't have them, but I'm here.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Where are the. Where are the Beatties?

[Dave Anthony]

I know you got. I know you got a special stocking back, if you know what I mean. What do you need? What do you need? What do you need from me? You want. You want to.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Look, I don't want any. I just am looking for the Beaties.

[Dave Anthony]

You want to. You want to trade a car?

[Gareth Reynolds]

This guy's offering his car for some Beanie Babies.

[Dave Anthony]

I want. I want Mr. Monkey time.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Mr. Monkey time.

[Dave Anthony]

Mr. Monkey time. I just wanna.

[Gareth Reynolds]

So we just gotta start here. This guy's out of his tits. So why don't we just put a baseball on the body of a doll and tell him that it's Ms. Monkey.

[Dave Anthony]

I want the Mr. Monkey time with the tits.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Okay, so here's. Look, just.

[Dave Anthony]

You know what I mean?

[Gareth Reynolds]

I don't know what we're going to do for the tits. Just get a couple like, Hacky sacks and glue it to the doll and then just tell this guy it's $25,000.

[Dave Anthony]

You got the jerk off, lamb.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Okay, so we got to call the police and get this guy out of the shop. For a minute there, it sounded like we could angle something, but this guy again is talking about kind of whacking into the beanies, which for us is not cool.

[Dave Anthony]

You could. You know what? I'll take just the tits. Just give me the monkey tits.

[Gareth Reynolds]

So look, I. I don't know where we're at with this guy because now he just wants monkey tits, which sort of, like, is the worst, craziest thing I've ever heard. But it's also really easy to do.

[Dave Anthony]

There's beans in those, right?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, there's beans in the beans.

[Dave Anthony]

They can stand up on their own.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, these tits can stand up on their own beans.

[Dave Anthony]

All right, okay, so I'll take. I'll trade the car for that.

[Gareth Reynolds]

So these. This is called beans debating. And a lot of our customers seem to be doing a lot of the single dads come in here to beans debate.

[Dave Anthony]

My wife hasn't slept with me for six weeks. I need one of these Beanie Babies.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I wonder what her problem is. You're such a catch. All right, so things are nuts now. Nuts. There were Beanie auctions. No no, no. There were Beanie auctions. Dave, shut up.

[Dave Anthony]

In the fuck is.

[Gareth Reynolds]

That's a beanie.

[Dave Anthony]

I can't believe this country can't handle Covid.

[Gareth Reynolds]

That's a beanie. Of course he makes it, ladies and gentlemen. We're not trying to turn this into a Kovich. There were. The beanies were like the stuffed Rolling Stones, okay? Everybody wanted a piece. Beanies were in the news.

[Dave Anthony]

WBB O talk radio. Hotter than Cabbage Patch Dolls, Smurfs, Hula Hoops, and Pet Rocks ever hoped to be. Beanie Babies are in the news today. A Hallmark store in Columbus, Ohio, had over 500 people waiting in a line over two blocks long starting this morning at 5am the store opened at 10, and even though there was a limit of three Beanie Babies per customer, by noon, they were sold out. Unfortunately, over 200 people were still in line and they were upset, but the owner promised more Beanie Babies would be in by next week. I imagine they'll probably start lining up sometime soon. Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

[Gareth Reynolds]

This is crazy.

[Dave Anthony]

What a voice, though, huh?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Great voice. Great. But face for radio. Yeah.

[Dave Anthony]

You don't want to see the rest of it.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, no, that's. That's the guy who comes in asking for monkey taste. Divorcing couples were being forced to split their massive Beanie Baby collections up one by one in courtrooms.

[Dave Anthony]

Will you fucking stop it right now?

[Gareth Reynolds]

I will not stop it.

[Dave Anthony]

What? They're. They're actually picking in front of the fucking judge?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. So they couldn't figure out who got what, so the judge basically gave them the dodgeball rules and were like, you each get to pick one, and then they just separate it into two piles. The judge at one point during that case said to me, like, now. Now, hold on one second. Did you or did you not buy the squeal or the pig from the mall? You know, I'm just trying to get a sense.

[Dave Anthony]

I don't care about the house.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I want the spider. All right? So it's. It's wild. And listen, I'm not saying that things got out of control, but you are saying that.

[Dave Anthony]

You've said it a bunch of times.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Well, let me just say that. That there was a Beanie wrap, Benji. Oh, yeah. Let me tell you a story about.

[Pam]

A tidy Ty Suzu who created these.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Bees that make me high little beans in their bodies and cute little faces.

[Pam]

And addicted to them.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Been to all kinds of places, smuggling beans upstairs. It's no lie. And it all ain't at all on a guy named Ty's Beanie rat. It's a beanie wrap. It's a beanie rat. Top of all tied up.

[Dave Anthony]

I just. I'm so.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Tell me you're not gonna be singing.

[Dave Anthony]

Times when I'm so upset. I'm a white person.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Tell me. Oh, okay. We're not gonna do that.

[Dave Anthony]

Yes, we are.

[Gareth Reynolds]

That white woman is fine. White people don't look. I think, first of all, white people are great at rapping and they're never are better than what it's about. Beanie babies.

[Dave Anthony]

She did have mad flow. That was pretty. That was Eminem ish.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Like, I get that rap.

[Dave Anthony]

I would actually. I would actually.

[Pam]

I think it's quite catchy. I might be singing that when you.

[Dave Anthony]

Drive me up to let's not.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Thank you. Yes, exactly. Liking the way that the promotion worked, Ty opened up the idea of sporting events. The Cubs were in the midst of a season average attendance was under 20,000 the day of the beanie giveaway.

[Dave Anthony]

Cubs weren't good.

[Gareth Reynolds]

The Cubs weren't good. I know you tried to harden.

[Dave Anthony]

Let's nail down this era.

[Gareth Reynolds]

So the average attendance was under just 20,000 the day of the giveaway. The attendance was just shy of 40 double so. Other Other major league baseball teams followed suit. And attendance rose an average of 37% on beanie giveaway days. Here, people line up to make sure their front before the stadium opens to get a beanie baby.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And who obviously could forget the beanie King?

[Dave Anthony]

Me.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Hey, you beaners out there in beanie land? This is the Beanie king. Hey, you looking for Garcia? Looking for the weenie? Looking for the three bunnies.

[Dave Anthony]

We got them.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Call the 800 number at the bottom of your screen. We buy, sell, or trade beanies 24 hours a day. That's right. Or you can email your request. We got all those hard to find beanies you've been looking for. And remember to pick up a mini dome tent at your favorite gift store. The Beanie King makes them and wants you to have one. Beanie babies. We got them. Is it the Beanie King? At the Ohio State Fair.

[Dave Anthony]

Can you play the first thing he says again? The first sentence.

[Gareth Reynolds]

This is the beanie cage.

[Dave Anthony]

I was really hoping he didn't say that.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, there's. There's a couple.

[Dave Anthony]

Come on. He said beaners.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Okay.

[Dave Anthony]

How does he not know?

[Gareth Reynolds]

He's still shouting. How does he.

[Dave Anthony]

How did he not know? You don't say beaners.

[Gareth Reynolds]

There's that. Which is offensive. And then he also says, call the 800 number at the bottom of the screen. And it's a 2, 4, 8, number.

[Pam]

2, 4, 8.

[Gareth Reynolds]

But by the way, that's who's in charge of England right now.

[Dave Anthony]

No, he's more sane.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, okay. Society at large had lost its goddamn mind. You can see here a sign for the Iguanas Comic Book Cafe. Buying all retired beanies, spending thousands in cash. We pay the most for mint beanies.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, the mint ones taste the best.

[Gareth Reynolds]

That's exactly right. I'm not. Yeah, you're right. Ty now opened a new $14 million headquarters near where his old office was, with one big change. There were no signs of it being the spot for Beanie Babies, no Tye signage or tynage, as I like to say. And in 96, Warner began tweaking his own appearance, eyes and facelifts. The main book I use from Zach Bissonnet, quote, the 20 year odyssey of Plastic Surgery, funded by the largest personal fortune in the history of stuffed animals, is the first thing anyone who sees Warner will notice. Although the cosmetic work began years before, he notably was wealthy, more recently he's used black sheep embryo injections to further maintain his youth.

[Dave Anthony]

I do that.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. And that's just from a beanie baby. In 1997, eBay auctioned off $500,000 of Beanie Babies. Those who are still selling were seeing an increase of 500% in profit. Beanie babies were accounting for 6% of eBay's total annual.

[Dave Anthony]

It's good drop out.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Two weeks before 1997 rang in. Tie.com shut down. Aside from a countdown clock that said, quote, are you prepared? Then on January 1st, the names of the newly retired beanies were announced. This sent people racing to the stores to get them before it was too late. The site's traffic spiked upwards of 3,500%. Prices rose. It was easy money. Chops the lambs price went up 500%. But this is all in the secondary market. The beanies still cost $5 in store. The beauty was the paranoia of what would be next. It got the people buying unpopular beanies all in the hopes of it being the next big Beanie. There's constant worry and panic trying to predict who would be retired and when.

[Dave Anthony]

It's like, why I bought dogecoin.

[Gareth Reynolds]

That's so much dogecoin. Because Elon, your bully.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, that's right.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Trivedi, the woman from before, admitted that they knew this and used this on ty.com employees would write updates through the voices of the Beanies.

[Dave Anthony]

Okay, I gotta go.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Who would speculate on newer retired Beanies? What Is she said we were able to use the voice and kind of manipulate the market, so to speak. So to speak. So a single cryptic message from the info Beanie could spark a buying frenzy.

[Dave Anthony]

And they would put this up on the website?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yes. On ty.com there would be messages on behalf of like, Kiwi would be like, Kiwi the koala would be like, I think they might retire this beanie. And then people be like, oh, shit, I think it's a sign. So they are just like pulling the strings.

[Dave Anthony]

So one beanie's coming on being like, hey, this is Marty the monkey. I'm gonna kill Francis the Fucker.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, no, no, no. Nothing about what I said says that.

[Dave Anthony]

That Francis the fucker was my favorite.

[Gareth Reynolds]

By the way, that's not a beanie. That's the one with the monkey tits. From a woman quoted in Business Insider. Quote, it was a full on frenzy. During several Beanie Baby quests. My son was trampled by a herd of women racing to the shelves to capture an endangered animal. The last Ziggy the zebra. Perhaps.

[Dave Anthony]

It's not an endangered animal.

[Pam]

Absolutely.

[Dave Anthony]

It is a stuffed animal.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Absolutely.

[Dave Anthony]

It's not endangered.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Absolutely. They were endangered.

[Dave Anthony]

It's not endangered.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Absolutely endangered. Remind me to tell you what one guy does with beanies. Now online and has a successful business. It was also a real job creator. There were clothing lines for Beanies, Beanie furniture bags for Beanies, clear cases for Beanies. The clear cases, because that's right, they were no longer for being plain, played with and enjoyed. They were just to be tuned in cases to keep their value.

[Dave Anthony]

Who the fuck puts a vest on a Beanie Baby?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Oh, come on. You want your beanies naked. And the periodicals. Yes, the periodicals. There was Beanie World magazine, which was bimonthly.

[Dave Anthony]

What's in it? What is it saying?

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's a lot of stuff about what Beanie, what beanies they think are coming up. But it was also a lot of prices and it was a lot of where you could find beanies and which beanies were more valuable. So you have all these Beanie periodicals kind of flooding the market with different information and telling you, oh, this beanie is worth like $800 or this beanie's worth $600. But it was bimonthly, meaning that it was once every other month. Or was it twice a month?

[Dave Anthony]

Well, bimonthly could be also twice a month.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Interesting. Really got you by the balls. Mere periodicals followed, like the Beanie Encyclopedia, a complete unofficial guide to collecting Beanie babies. Beanie mania. Beanie mania. 2. For the love of the Beanies Encyclobenia. My favorite. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beanies. Beanie Mania Guidebook. The Unauthorized Beanie Guidebook. Beanie Babies Collector's Guide. Rosie's Price Guide for Ty's Beanie Babies. Pocket Idiot's Guide to Ty Beanie Babies. The Official Beanie Basher Guidebook. Ty's Beanie Value Guide. The Beanie Invasion. The Unofficial Beanie Baby coloring book number four. There were over 100 beanie price guides.

[Dave Anthony]

Beanies in space.

[Gareth Reynolds]

So yeah, we're not gonna do any more issues. But not everyone.

[Dave Anthony]

He must have gotten so many offers to do movies.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I can't imagine. I mean, I. Offers for everything. Yeah, like he was. He was.

[Dave Anthony]

Yes.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Everything. But one publication was not happy with the madness. Beanie Digest wrote a rare dissent piece. The recent Thai retirement announcement has turned previously normal level headed individual into crazed Beanie hoarding fanatics. Okay, so then in the real world where this was all normal and fine, you got to.

[Dave Anthony]

What's normal?

[Gareth Reynolds]

The Beanie Baby culture.

[Dave Anthony]

How is it. You said in the real world.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Dave Anthony]

In the real world it's not normal and fine.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, this was Dave. This was happening a lot.

[Dave Anthony]

It's not fine.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Most people had a Beanie Baby, so you would see a lot of heated negotiations. Beanie negotiations were fierce. Like right here, basically.

[Dave Anthony]

What would you take on? That's one of each.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I'll total price for all of them. Where I got them marked is 44. I'll go 4200 on the whole set. That's what program is. Everything.

[Dave Anthony]

Okay, well, I'm gonna consider it. I'm not gonna commit right now, but I mean it seems $200 off for me. It's kind of about lot of room for me to resell it. What, 19, 20. Okay, get me on this then.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I've got to go with the two and I'm out of here. This guy's the best. 2000 altogether. This one's the new face. Violet, Teddy and second generation hang tag. It's a real pretty piece.

[Dave Anthony]

And what we trying to get to?

[Gareth Reynolds]

This one's 2200 for Don because he has to because he's got to make more money.

[Dave Anthony]

I thought it was 10,000. How much is this one?

[Gareth Reynolds]

That one is for you. 4.

[Dave Anthony]

Tag is rough on him. And how much you asking for this?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Four.

[Dave Anthony]

4,000 for this?

[Gareth Reynolds]

So any mom just changed. They went 4 to 48 on Derby and 4 to 47 on Brownie or vice versa. One or the other. I can't Remember, it's just absolutely crazy.

[Pam]

Absolutely bonkers. I remember it though.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I don't remember. I mean, I certainly don't remember this level. I mean, I guess I was younger so. But I was like, I, I, I.

[Dave Anthony]

Mean, I remember people I didn't know they went for this much. And I'm also like, what the are they thinking? They think they're never going to stop going up in value.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yes. Well, look, I mean Playboys, it is there. Yes. They do not see the end in sight at all. And, and why those videos are so insane is because the level of seriousness and the amount of money when you're talking about a fucking beanie baby, it's a toy. Yeah. It's not even really a toy anymore.

[Dave Anthony]

There's this thing about Playboys is that's what guys thought play. They also thought Playboy was an at least all this value and they would.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Man the amount of things that I went through as far as like thing like little things like this. Like there's the tulip craze, which was nuts. There's the other one is the Franklin Mint.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh yeah.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Which did all the collector plates and stuff like that. You know, it's just, I don't know, there's, I mean, again like we're saying like bitcoin, there's like some hole that. But if you. This was particularly strange though, because the economy is like, you know, there's a lot more money, a lot more. Like that's just it.

[Dave Anthony]

Everyone's flush in the 90s. Everyone's just kind of rolling.

[Gareth Reynolds]

They lost their minds. Okay.

[Pam]

And so many men.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, that's the.

[Gareth Reynolds]

By the way, those dudes, you're like, buddy, you for sure know that one of them is just like, you want to see my beanie weenie? You know, like, those dudes def. They have like a real like kind of like sheen to them.

[Pam]

Yeah. But yeah, they're shining.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah.

[Dave Anthony]

Once it, once the, the women jumped on it first and drove the value. But once there's value to it, then the dudes roll in.

[Pam]

Yes.

[Dave Anthony]

To make money.

[Pam]

Yes.

[Dave Anthony]

It's everybody because it's, let's face it, it's with the women. It's love. They love it.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, everyone was nuts. Everyone was nuts.

[Dave Anthony]

So they love, they love it. They, they have an emotional connection, but the dudes don't stop talking. Just cold hard cash.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Stop talking a little bit. So beanies had certainly crossed into every facet of selling and marketing, which I.

[Dave Anthony]

Don'T know how to begin on this. And I'm just going to tell you right now, I think the best Beanie Adam ever. And we go to breakfast especially.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I mean, we're going to. We're going to put this up.

[Dave Anthony]

And once you realize what all's in it, we're putting on music. Robert and I are gone for us tonight. It doesn't matter. When something's that good and literally sells itself, that's how hot this is. I'm gonna tell you.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's.

[Dave Anthony]

It's SF 8084. SF 8084. This deal is so good that I. I can hardly wait to read the.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Net tomorrow to hear what people have to say about what we did. Folks, we have literally.

[Dave Anthony]

There are 28 Beanie Babies in here.

[Gareth Reynolds]

When you consider retirement, that can literally.

[Dave Anthony]

Pay for everything right now. Yes, sir. With.

[Gareth Reynolds]

What the.

[Dave Anthony]

What's happening with the retired prices?

[Gareth Reynolds]

94 different Beanie Babies.

[Dave Anthony]

And if we could, we'll put with 14 new releases and with 28 retired. Or we can just put with 28 retired, since the new releases are really.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No longer new releases.

[Dave Anthony]

So what that means. Here's what you got, and we're gonna do something special. Is this it right there? We're gonna give you the 400 Maple Bear Free in this package.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Look at that.

[Dave Anthony]

That's like if Randy Johnson wasn't fully formed.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's like if you smushed Matt Foley and Randy Johnson into one, we're getting. Get the 400 Beanie Baby. Yeah, but you saw. There's almost $2,000 and, like, some of.

[Dave Anthony]

Them for all of them, or just.

[Gareth Reynolds]

That was for the 28 set.

[Dave Anthony]

Okay.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, 28 in the set.

[Dave Anthony]

That's a deal.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, maybe I'll take it. No, it's not available anymore.

[Dave Anthony]

I'm gonna get it. What's the number again?

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, no, no. The number's not active. I called it. Believe me, I called it. He's just. Hello? What are you looking for? The Beanie Baby. That guy, by the way, look out. So as one would expect me, he'd.

[Pam]

Just come out the pub.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I think he had just come out the pub.

[Pam]

He'd fallen out the pub.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I mean, if you're on a QVC show selling Beanie Babies, sobriety is not something you need to worry about at all. Yeah, I would definitely be drinking it.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I would have a beanie that had, like, a little flask in it, and I'd be, like, unscrewing its little, like, unicorn top and being, like, a beanie cozy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A little beanie flask. Yeah. Okay. So as one Would expect. Expect in a world that values money as much as we do. Crime followed suit. Where there's money to be made, cheaters are there to exploit it.

[Dave Anthony]

There we go.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Happy the Hippo had a $900 value and was stolen from a Beanie Baby show in Andover. In nearby Nashua, New Hampshire, hundreds of beanies have been stolen, some valued at over $1,000. A detective investigating the heists said it was totaling more than $15,000 in the same area. Said, quote, I think we're probably a microcosm of the entire United States. States. And they were in Sherman Oaks. An armed robber went into a toy store and made everyone suck carpet while he stole around $5,000 in beanies. Someone said, quote, he didn't want the cash register. All he wanted was the Beanie babies.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, my God.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Christmas 97 at O'Hare International Airport. 456 counterfeit grunt. The pigs were seized by U.S. customs officials in Orlando the following January 8th. A separate collectors had each been taken for $1,500 when they thought they were purchasing chili. The polar bears, 25% of secondary market beanies were estimated to be fake or counterfeited for their high value. But no beanie was counterfeited more than royal blue peanut. Royal blue Peanut. The elephant was going for $5,200.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, I fell for this.

[Gareth Reynolds]

All collectors coveted a peanut like Dave. But upon receiving, some would find issues. Quote, the blue dye came off, end quote. They would say when it touched water.

[Dave Anthony]

I'll never forget when I just. I, I, I slept with. Slept with Peanut. And I woke up, and my whole chest. My whole chest was.

[Gareth Reynolds]

You took Peanut into the bath and you like a smurf. Oh, you sweated on it.

[Pam]

You were really sad.

[Dave Anthony]

I was really sad.

[Gareth Reynolds]

He was blue because he was blue. Mother. God damn it. If you're looking for more insight into what a beanie criminal did.

[Dave Anthony]

Smurf kink. After that.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Stop. Stop for a no. Okay, okay. This beanie criminal will elaborate.

[Dave Anthony]

I ripped a lady off of $1,500. And the way I got started with that. I was watching inside edition one night, and they were talking about beanie babies, and I was like, hey, I need to find me a beanie baby. So I skipped class the next day, go around all the shop. I was looking for this thing called Peanut, the royal blue elephant, which was selling for $1,500. They didn't have any of those, but they did have these little gray beanie baby elephants that were selling for $8. So I bought one of Those stopped by another store on the way home, picked up a pack of blue dye. Go home, try to die. The little guy didn't work out too well. Get him out of the bath. Look like he's got the mange. Posted it online. A big picture of one she thought I had the real thing. She wins the bid and I'm got her to send me fifteen hundred dollars. That's the first crime I committed online. At that point I also found out the first real lesson of cybercrimes. If you delay a victim long enough, if you just keep putting them off, a lot of them get so exasperated, they throw their hands in the air, walk away, and you don't hear from them again.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And none of that's where the video just cuts off for some reason.

[Dave Anthony]

None of them complain to law enforcement.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, they just. Yeah, they're embarrassed. Yeah, embarrassed that they were like I was looking for a blue elephant and he, I gave him 1500. And they're like, Miss. I mean, I feel like this is on you.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, it's on you. You bought a stuffed animal.

[Gareth Reynolds]

But you know, it's great. More jobs. Beanie Baby authenticators could now make a six figure income.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, well, people don't realize this, but the late 90s were driven by. It was, it was called the Beanie Baby Bounce.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Weird that you sort of struggled to get.

[Dave Anthony]

No, no, it was a Beanie Baby Bounce. And it was. The whole economy was basically just driven.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yes. Driven by beans and Beanie Babies. Well, advice shows began to pop up on how to spot fakes. High budgeted shows like this one right here.

[Dave Anthony]

What does the royal blue paint sell for?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Right now it sells for about $5,000. And chili, chili sells for between 2000 and $2400.

[Dave Anthony]

That's a big reason to be concerned.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Here about counterfeit beanies. Right.

[Pam]

These are.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Some of the counterfeit beanies are on the high price end. So you have to be very careful.

[Pam]

And know your bed beanies and educate.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yourself on these beanies. What is counterfeit and what is not counterfeit? Because you were spending a lot of money for a collection.

[Dave Anthony]

Can I just.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Dave, Dave, jump in.

[Dave Anthony]

May I just say, who gives a. It's a stuffed animal. It could be fake. It can, it can be fake. It's a stuffed animal. What the fuck?

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's not like it's a baseball dollars.

[Dave Anthony]

It's.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's not like it's a baseball card.

[Dave Anthony]

It's a stuffed.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Why is it different than a baseball card? Why is different than a baseball card?

[Dave Anthony]

Because a baseball Card is stupid, too. Yeah, no, it's. It's dumb to. It's dumb to. To collect them, but they're actually a real thing.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Are they?

[Dave Anthony]

This is a stuffed animal.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I mean, it's a little dumber, I agree, but it's all very dumb. Speaking of which, mom, do you remember when one day you cleaned out my room and threw out two baseball cards?

[Pam]

I do.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Do you know which ones they were? Wade Boggs Rookie card. Robin youn rookie card Threw him out.

[Dave Anthony]

I cannot believe we are dating.

[Gareth Reynolds]

God damn it. I this for so long, I forgot bring that up because he so mean he did it. Dave, that's who you. Dave, that's who you're hitching your wagon to.

[Dave Anthony]

Why did you throw them out?

[Pam]

I didn't know what they were.

[Gareth Reynolds]

She just. But they were like. They weren't just like, sitting there. They were like in cases. They just tossed them. I don't know what they were.

[Dave Anthony]

You just threw.

[Gareth Reynolds]

But they are like. They were so valuable.

[Pam]

Yeah, but they were just a man with a baseball. I didn't know what they were.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I mean, put it like that, it sounds stupid. By the way, Wade Boggs and Rob Miyan, a lot of baseball card stores or like sports memorabilia stores ended up becoming Beanie Baby.

[Dave Anthony]

Course they did.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Because they were like, well, we'll go where the money is.

[Pam]

So would those calls be worth anything more?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Oh, only like eight times what they were back then, which was a shitload.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah. We'll talk later.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. No, no, they would. That would be worth a shitload.

[Pam]

It would.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah.

[Pam]

They wouldn't.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yes, no, they would.

[Dave Anthony]

It's very.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Mom, we're not with you. No. Baseball cards go up in value. Oh, yeah.

[Pam]

Well, anyway, I had a Princess Diana, but.

[Gareth Reynolds]

By the way, by the way, by the way.

[Pam]

What would that be worth?

[Gareth Reynolds]

By the way, Princess Diana Beanie.

[Dave Anthony]

Is that.

[Pam]

Yes.

[Dave Anthony]

Is that a real thing?

[Pam]

I did have one. Somebody bought me one.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Hold on. Just. First of all, if you're curious, that was the Beanie. International smuggling also became an issue. I call it the snuggle smuggle. Britannia The Bear retailed for about $8 in the UK, but also sold on the secondary market for around 500. The US. $8 in the UK. 500 in the US so, yes, people would make trips specifically to the UK to purchase Beanie Babies. Canadian customs said, quote, people are smuggling Beanie Babies in similar places to where they hide drugs, such as hidden compartments and the spare tire holders.

[Dave Anthony]

Why?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Because they're cheaper in other countries. In the us, They've just Gone. Totally.

[Dave Anthony]

But that doesn't matter. You don't have to hide them. You can just drink.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, you did. Because eventually they had to pass, like, certain limitations on how many beanies. I didn't. I took this out. But eventually they had. Because people would be bringing back so many. Like, they opened a suitcase. No, it wasn't. Fine.

[Dave Anthony]

Why?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Because eventually Ty had to set. Like, Ty Incorporated had to set a limit of how many beat, like carrying $10,000 in your suitcase.

[Dave Anthony]

How can he do that with the globalization? Like, you can't stop me from bringing in stuffed animals.

[Gareth Reynolds]

The customs considered them to be so valuable that it was basically like sneaking in high levels of currency.

[Dave Anthony]

Fuck this country.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Well, it's the country that God smiles on the brightest, isn't it?

[Pam]

If you say so.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Thank you.

[Dave Anthony]

Wow.

[Gareth Reynolds]

On August 31, 1997, Princess Diana was killed by the Queen.

[Pam]

So she wasn't killed Queen.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, absolutely.

[Pam]

That is not right.

[Gareth Reynolds]

That's what the paper. That's what the paper in front of me says.

[Pam]

Absolute rubbish.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah. No, they.

[Gareth Reynolds]

What do you know?

[Pam]

Well, because I know that's not right.

[Dave Anthony]

Well, let's. You're right. They broke her heart and then they killed her.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Okay. Anyway, let's just agree that on August 31, 1997, Princess Diana was killed by the Queen.

[Dave Anthony]

No.

[Gareth Reynolds]

What?

[Pam]

She was killed in a crash in a tunnel.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yes. By the Queen. That was orchestrated by the royal family. The Queen.

[Pam]

She couldn't have hobbled out there to do anything like that.

[Gareth Reynolds]

They said, give us a sign, and the Queen went.

[Dave Anthony]

The Queen did this?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. I don't think so. Anyway, Princess Diana died, and then eventually her son wrote a book about putting. Putting lotion on his todger. No, that's true.

[Dave Anthony]

A lotion his mom used to use. That reminded.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Put her on her lip.

[Pam]

Yeah. Yeah, that's. That's peculiar.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I do that with Nivea on my penis. Thank you. Okay.

[Dave Anthony]

He's into taboo porn.

[Gareth Reynolds]

So on October 29th that same year, a purple Princess Diana bear was released. This is what you had, right? That's what I had.

[Dave Anthony]

That's what you had. There she is. It reminds you.

[Gareth Reynolds]

What?

[Dave Anthony]

That reminds me of Princess Diana.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Well, actually, what's funny is, it's like a horror film. The Queen ended up killing that bear. Isn't that crazy?

[Dave Anthony]

There's a great video of the Queen slicing it open and sticking her fingers in.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I'm the Queenie baby. Philip.

[Pam]

Queen Bean, come here. Come and see what's inside this bear.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Now. The Diana bear. Warner only allowed orders. Only allowed orders of 12 Diana Bears per store, making them scarce from the beginning.

[Dave Anthony]

Sure.

[Gareth Reynolds]

The bear raised more than $20 million for the memorial fund. Quote. It's certainly keeping their name out in the lights, said Frank Ryson, who is the editor mag of magazine playthings. Quote, they're latching onto the hottest name in the world right now, Even though she's dead.

[Dave Anthony]

Hold on. There's a magazine called Playthings, and it's about stuffed animals.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Some guy at a porn shop, he got a penthouse and a playtest.

[Dave Anthony]

This only has stuffed animals. I was thinking of other stuffed things.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Excuse me. None of the guys are doing it to the animal.

[Pam]

There was a magazine Plaything.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I thought you would know that.

[Pam]

Yes. It was a trade magazine, but it.

[Dave Anthony]

Just seems, like, really bad.

[Gareth Reynolds]

The giraffes in the center fold. You're like, oh, man, look at Jizzy the giraffe. Once an officer found a Diana bear at a crime scene and said, quote, I thought, good heavens, this bear is worth $400. What's it doing here? It was actually worth $2,000 at the time.

[Dave Anthony]

What?

[Gareth Reynolds]

People couldn't leave Beanie babies on their car dashboards for fear that their cars would be broken into.

[Dave Anthony]

And that. That was the shame because I always want to keep my collection on the fucking.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Well, do you remember back in the day, people would have them all on the back of their car? Yes. So eventually, people like, we can't do this. Police had records of beanies being exchanged directly for heroin.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Employees at Thai were stealing beanies, too, Sneaking them out in their pants and their shoes and their bras, making up fake orders. But the craziest story of crime is in West Virginia, where Jeff White and Harry Simmons were security guards at a lumberyard who had talked about starting a trading biz with beanie babies. Simmons gave White a stash of Beanie Babies to sell for a couple hundred bucks. But when White isn't giving him the money, they have an argument. Jeff White came back and found Simmons at work, and he shot Simmons execution style near the timber. While White was in jail awaiting his sentence, he called his mother and said, quote, I cannot go into prison. The Beanie Baby Killer. He did. The author of the main book, Zach Bisonette, that I used for this research, interviewed the Beanie baby killer in 2014. And before the interview started, White, the killer, asked him, quote, so them Beanie babies, are those still hot? A 1998 USA William Weekend poll said 64% of Americans owned a Beanie Baby. Stores were running out of all of them. The Good news was, in 98, Peggy Gallagher had gotten every Beanie Baby and was keeping up on all the new ones. Her collection was valued as enough to put all of her kids in college for four years at Harvard. Dave's favorite sell.

[Dave Anthony]

Sell high.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And just when it couldn't get any more crazy, another McDonald's giveaway was agreed upon. Why? And if you thought thought the first one was nuts, you're nuts.

[Dave Anthony]

Come on.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Because the 98 one was even bigger and wilder. Now McDonald's is going to have 250 million teeny beanies. And they took one week off of the promotional run to make it four weeks. 12 beanies in total were to be.

[Dave Anthony]

Offered with a week off.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I think they. Yeah, pause.

[Dave Anthony]

A beanie. Pause.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, it was supposed to run four weeks. I think the first one was supposed to run five weeks. So, yeah, they took. Yeah. So it's like smaller time frame, more beanies. So they're like, we'll definitely be okay.

[Dave Anthony]

They have a Jose.

[Gareth Reynolds]

What? No, that's.

[Pam]

Oh, it is Jose.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Okay.

[Pam]

Yeah.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I mean, I'll take it. Sure. That's like one of the nicer things.

[Pam]

That is. And that's sweet. You need to get a hold of one of those.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, I'm good.

[Pam]

Yeah. It's worth going to jail to get that.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, I agree.

[Gareth Reynolds]

What, killing a guy?

[Pam]

Shooting.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Hey, come with me. By the timber. I got it. So this right here, the 12 beanies again, gives people a list, a mission, and they wanted it accomplished. McDonald's had its larger ever sales in a US store the first weekend of the promotion. Demand was so high that McDonald's had to limit it to five beanies per visit and implement a two hour waiting period in between. Mothers and grandmothers then put together search parties. They used cell phones to scout which stores had any of the teeny beanie babies they were missing. In Pennsylvania, a McDonald's manager called the cops. Quote, I responded and observed approximately 50 people standing inside. Officer Brown of Lancaster said, quote, they said they were waiting for Zip the cats to go on sale. The employee said, the cat will not be sold until all the dobie dogs are gone. And there were still over 100 dogs to be sold. Employees said it would be at least an hour. But for Tye Inc. And Ty Warner, it was all working. 1998 beanie sales hit $1.4 billion. Warner took home 700 million.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, my God. Do you know how much surgery you can get for that?

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, it's a whole. You could be a Beanie Baby.

[Dave Anthony]

I would walk out of there it.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Turns into a beanie baby.

[Dave Anthony]

100%.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Be a cat, it just turns himself into a beanie. Ty. Yes, lovely.

[Pam]

Meow.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, he's taking beans out of his chest. Ty became more and more greedy. Lena Trivedi, who we talked about a couple times, who came up with the poems, the website, all that, was still making $12 an hour.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh my fucking God. Now I hate this guy.

[Gareth Reynolds]

She has to be paid $120,000 a year. 1.4 billion. She has to be paid $120,000 a Year. More than fair. It was denied and she quit.

[Dave Anthony]

What a fucking asshole.

[Gareth Reynolds]

On December 1, 1998, ty.com posted a message, quote, surprise, guess what? We're letting you know one month in advance so your collection can grow. The countdown's begun, so don't hesitate. Get out to the stores before it's too late. This is our promise, our guarantee. Never again in our stores they will be. Our final goodbye to our retirees will be on December 31st, New Year's Eve. I take issue with that. Rhyming Retirees Eve sounds like the Beanie wrap, lady. Beanie Wrap. Over the next two weeks, 26 beanies were to be retired. Halfway through 1998, every beanie that had been retired sold for more on the secondary market than its original price.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh my God.

[Gareth Reynolds]

For the new year, January 1, 1999, Ty came out with a whopping 24 new beanies. They had never been released that many at once. So they put out 24. They all dropped at midnight. Now that was a lot of beanies.

[Dave Anthony]

Marty the mole rat, he's never put it that many at once.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, this is the most.

[Dave Anthony]

He's shooting too high, getting greedy. You should once you fired what's her name?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Lena Trevine.

[Dave Anthony]

Once he fired, fired Lena. He was fucking doomed. The curse is upon him.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Well, to be fair, he was putting out Floody the flounder because he was flooding the market. That's a fun little ad lib we like to do here on the dollar.

[Dave Anthony]

Stop it.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Call the 800 number below if you're interested.

[Dave Anthony]

Please don't talk to the camera.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Oh, okay. You're right, Dave. It was considered too much. It was flooding the market. You were asking too much of your buyers. You've been settling them all over the place and now you're going go get 24 more. People are like Jesus Christ. And they were right. The 1999 retiree beanies did not go up in value. And this sent shockwaves through the beanie collecting world. Uh oh, for the first time, people saw that sometimes the retiring wouldn't spike the price.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, shit.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Patty was at $1500 in the spring of 98, but in the summer of 99 was just $700.

[Dave Anthony]

Uh oh.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Quackers had been valued at $3500 in the spring of 98 and was now valued at 1600 in the summer of 99.

[Dave Anthony]

I bought quackers at too.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Ty announced to friends, quote, that was quackas mother. Damn it. Can't believe you're together. Ty announced to friends quote, we're shutting it down. He decided it has run its course and he wanted to focus on his next sure fire hit, Project Beanie Kids.

[Dave Anthony]

What? No. Fuck. I'm absolutely terrified.

[Gareth Reynolds]

They are.

[Dave Anthony]

I just grew up in my throat.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Actually. These were filled with throw up. They weren't filled with beans. People barfed in the felt.

[Dave Anthony]

What in the is that?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Didn't you always want to know what a nippleless man going through a midlife crisis would look like?

[Pam]

A Scottish nipple.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Christ almighty. Can you believe the act we're following? I don't think we'll be as successful as the bloody beast. Look at me, I've got a big scar on my arm and no nipples.

[Dave Anthony]

I've been electrocuted.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I've been shocked.

[Pam]

Donald, where's your trousers?

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's the beanie up. Yeah, they're disgusting. They were nightmare fuel. And friends told him they were, quote, ugly, but he believed in them. He would reply to skeptics, quote, who's the billionaire here? When he was on the list of. When he was on the list of. Of Forbes 400 richest Americans, he gave a copy to every one of his employees.

[Dave Anthony]

The Beanie Babies or the magazine?

[Gareth Reynolds]

The magazine.

[Dave Anthony]

Magazine.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. But he was giving okay, one year for his employees. He gave everyone their salary matched as a bonus.

[Dave Anthony]

So like $12,000?

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, like there were some people were making bank like sales reps and stuff like that. And then this year he gives them all a beanie baby. On August 31, 1999, ty.com. released the name of the new beanies and some bigger news. Quote, very Important notice on December 31, 1999, 11:59pm, all beanies will be retired, including the above. One of the new beanies was named the End. And it had written on its tie tag, all good things come to an end. It's been fun for everyone. Peace and hope are never gone. Love you all and say so long.

[Dave Anthony]

Wow. It's such a dumb idea. He could have just reeled it in and put out. Like, we're only putting out two this year.

[Gareth Reynolds]

He's panicking.

[Dave Anthony]

He's panicking because the value is going down. But he. This is not the way to go.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No. And. And it. You'll see right here, I mean, he's acting like a lunatic.

[Dave Anthony]

Like when Schlitz Beer changed their formula.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, this is. I mean, this is also. Yeah, right. You've told me that story before.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah.

[Gareth Reynolds]

This is the. He's Ray Liotta and Goodfellas looking at the helicopter right now. He's making wild decisions. And again, he's kind of insulated himself so that people don't really, like. He doesn't really listen to anybody anymore. Lena Treviti was like, well, he's a billionaire.

[Dave Anthony]

Once you're a billionaire, you're like, I know how to do everything. And as we can see, that's true.

[Gareth Reynolds]

But for a moment, it did work. Well, people wanted to get their hands on the Beanies. A Fort Worth toy shop owner said, quote, it has been crazy, to say the least. It almost makes you think of the runs on the banks in the 1920s. Most people, honest to goodness, are in a panic. This gives you a quick sense of the panic. For years, nothing's been hotter than those cuddly little animals with cute little names. Almonds. I don't have almonds. Right. But abruptly this week, the makers of Beanie Babies, Tye Incorporated, announced over the Internet that it's over. So is it official? It's official. Shop owner Joe diamond had to post the news. Beanie Babies are dead. It's over. December 31st millennium. No more Beanie Babies. No. No more Quackers the Duck or Pinky the Flamingo. The company says every last one will be retired. That's why I'm here now. Bye. The news caused a frenzy in the Beanie world, especially among the adult collectors. Yes, I'm checking right now to see.

[Dave Anthony]

What I'm missing in my collection.

[Gareth Reynolds]

What happened was the chat room, actually, sir, Let it go. Leonard Tannenbaum's Beanie Nation website was overwhelmed with mournful messages. Like, the end is coming to them. This is really affecting their life more than most things that you guys have on the news. This, to them, is everything. That guy becomes a real piece of shit hedge fund manager. Eventually, half of the people took this as a time to start selling off their collections. A quarter started buying more, and an eighth said they were done. It was put just too much.

[Dave Anthony]

That's interesting. I. I don't know why people would sell them off. Unless it's like, because you would think, well, now that they're all going away, the value goes up. But I guess if you can't trade them, then the value is off.

[Gareth Reynolds]

I mean, it's. You know, you're panicking. Like, there's this market that has been.

[Dave Anthony]

First of all, I'm not panicking because I would never own Beanie Babies.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, you have a Daisy the cow right here, asshole. Why'd you get this stupid.

[Dave Anthony]

You're right.

[Gareth Reynolds]

You know, they're like. They're totally. I mean, I think you're right, but I also think, like, the lesson from this and from crypto to some extent is, like, once you see that modicum of downturn, fucking move, move. Okay, so he's done all that. Then. It's Christmas Day, 1999, and Warner makes an even weirder call that he posted on ty.com, quote after much thought. I am willing to put the fate of of Beanie Babies in your hands. You make the decision. You have inspired the Beanie Baby line through your devotion to them. There was a hotline set up where people could pay 50 cents to vote. The money went to charity. If they wanted Beanie Babies to keep going. 91% of voters wanted the Beanie Babies to stay. But obviously anyone calling would want that. Like, who's paying 50 cents? What's weird to me is there's like, 9% of people calling, being like, enough.

[Dave Anthony]

Well, that's the guy who's like, I lost my friend Jim to Beanie Babies.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, but paying 50 cents to be like, go fuck yourself, Beanie Babies. But it didn't work. It was over. Despite Ty trying to get it back. He couldn't. So many were just left with, well, Beanie Babies. It was once again just a toy. And on November 25, 2000, the unthinkable happened when Beanie Babies showed up in dollar stores.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, my God. The bottom. Wow. I didn't think it would happen that fast.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Even the classics were losing steam. Websites, like buying beanies.com popped up and didn't want to know what color or version or face you had or any of that. It offered 40 cents a beanie flat rate. 40?

[Dave Anthony]

They're penny stocks.

[Gareth Reynolds]

The Beanie Baby bubble had burst. The fall from grace was hard. By 2004, Tai was forced to put his own money into the company to the tune of $39 million. And it was all just kind of this blur.

[Dave Anthony]

So, wait, the little Beanie guys, the little Beanie humans, didn't the Beanie Kids.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No Beanie Kids. Believe it or not, Beanie Kids did not do well.

[Dave Anthony]

How is that possible? They were so cool looking.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Can you imagine the balls? You should just make your own. You should just sell stuffed balls at that point. If you think that that little thing, that little thing is gonna be like. Imagine people being like, this guy's a genius. He made Beanie Bears. What do you got next? This. This kind of. Yeah, it's kind of like murder.

[Dave Anthony]

Semi human child.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's like. It's like if a man. You know, the mannequin, this thing. Where are the nipples? I'm disgusted by nipples.

[Dave Anthony]

I know. I don't go to.

[Gareth Reynolds]

They don't have shirts.

[Dave Anthony]

I had my own removed.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Like, he was probably. Like, cabbage patches are probably freaking out.

[Dave Anthony]

This was his total. Yep.

[Gareth Reynolds]

So it was all a weird blur and kicking. A toy company or a toy while they were down where the Baron stained bears. Remember them?

[Pam]

Oh, yes.

[Dave Anthony]

Those little fuckers.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Now when you do, you remember those as the Berenstein Bears.

[Pam]

Berenstein.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yes. Well, it's Berenstein. And that's a whole oddity for another time. There's proves that there's. We're living in a matrix. But anyway. And the Berenstain Bears, which is what they're called, mad, mad, mad toy craze. They mock the lunacy of the era. The story. The story was of the kids wanting Berry Bubbies because everyone else had them and some had skyrocketed in value. And the mother says, the father says, just listen to this, said Papa, reading from a Berry Bubbies magazine he had found at the supermarket. A rare Berry Bubby was sold in Bearville for hundreds of dollars. Did you hear that? Hundreds of dollars. But at the end of the story, they were just left like most frantic Beanie collectors, saying to themselves, all you could do was look at them. Except they had this way of looking back at you and making you think about all the money you had spent on them. 99.5% of all beanie Babies in mint condition are worth less than they retailed for. And that is the sad reality for many While it's crazy and funny, a lot of people took out credit cards they could never pay back. Bankruptcies, college funds come and gone. And all they had to show for it was a bunch of partially stuffed beanbags that sat in a container in their basements.

[Dave Anthony]

It seemed like such a good idea.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It did. Like this woman who went bankrupt, our Beanie rapper. She is still paying off her debts. She has nothing to show up for.

[Dave Anthony]

It can't she. What about the album? Did it not sell?

[Gareth Reynolds]

She refuses to sell the platinum record that's in her recording studio. She's sticking to her guns. Poor lady. A former rep told a story about how he would see people with the wheelbarrows full of beanies who couldn't afford new clothes for their kids. People had gone all in. But while some went broke, Ty laughed all the way to the bank. That is until September of 2013.

[Dave Anthony]

Hell yes.

[Gareth Reynolds]

When Warner was brought up on tax evasion charges.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, yes.

[Gareth Reynolds]

He had apparently been withholding $100 million in a Swiss bank account from the IRS.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, yeah.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And Warner wasn't just under the gun. He'd also been under the knife. He's got a real sour. He has become a beanie. Warner spoke to the judge through tears and said, quote, I apologize for my conduct. I had great success with my company and I had so much to be thankful for. He was fined $53.5 million and given 500 hours of community service and no jail time. The federal sentencing guide says he should have gotten 46 months.

[Dave Anthony]

Wow. Fuck. God.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Here is a picture of his mansion's gates being repainted gold the day after the ruling.

[Dave Anthony]

Why are they being repainted gold?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Because he has the money. Because fuck you, that's fine. Warner is now a hotel tycoon. That's his whole own bag of beanies.

[Dave Anthony]

What hotels does he own?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Tons. He owns the Four Seasons in New York. He owns a couple Four Seasons. He owns ones in Santa Barbara. Tons. He actually lived at the top floor of the Four Seasons for ages. But he shuttered many of his businesses since COVID and his employees mostly hate him. There are many lawsuits and in 2021, his longtime partner sued him for 400 million after their marriage like relationship ended amid claims of years of abuse, physical and mental. Warner denied the allegations as quote, the lawsuit is a money grab filled with lies. Still, every seven years or so, it seems like rumors come out that make people think Beanie Babies may be valuable again. Like in 2007 when people bought into the rumor that the Princess Bear Alpha Diana was worth a hundred hundred thousand dollars. I said, wait a minute, I have that bear. Kelly Despotakis remembered her daughter getting that bear as a baby. First she told her husband he was up and into the basement in about 30 seconds flat.

[Pam]

Look.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And he has had two knee replacements looking for the bear. I found it. Then she told her daughter, first, I got super excited and just ran up and hugged her and I started crying a little bit. It would just be so great if this actually was worth a lot of money because I really need to pay for my college.

[Dave Anthony]

You're not going to college.

[Pam]

So sorry, do you think it wasn't.

[Dave Anthony]

Can you imagine taking that to Stanford and being like, so.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Like, yeah, actually, you're more Emerson material. No, it wasn't. Wasn't worth it. But what I love about that clip is the. She's like, they spent all this money on Beanie Babies. And she's like, I need college money. Like, America is just the fucking worst. It happened again in 2021 with the Princess Bear and a few others. People believed they would be worth thousands, but again, it was a scam. So that is the story of the cuddly crypto of Beanie bitcoin of commemorative plate plush. The saga is all pretty well summed up by Peggy Gallagher's sister, who, when reached for comment when Peggy completed her collection of all 822 Beanie Babies, her sister said, when her sister Peggy completed. The calm experienced with owning the collection comes only after the storm of the hunt. How did she do it? Thousands of dollars to Ma Belle looking for them. Hours on the computer trying to find people who could trade for what they needed. Harassing poor tie reps following overnight couriers thinking they had her Beanies. Why this happens or how this happens is beyond me. Peggy has had so many sleepless nights thinking of places that she hasn't searched and nightmares of calling a store as the targeted piece leaves the store to a lucky buyer. It is just about the time when hopelessness overcomes you that you just then happen upon the animal that has eluded you for so long.

[Pam]

Well, well, well.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And that's the story of the Beanie Babies.

[Pam]

Of Beanie Babies.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And let me say, the best book for this was the Great Beanie Baby Bubble by Zac Bissonnette. There's also a great documentary called Beanie Mania on HBO Max, which talks to a lot of the original mothers who were obsessed with the Beanie Babies and Beanie Go bust on Vice. But then there's Bloomberg articles, lots of YouTube videos, as you saw, and then just lots of local news clips and stuff. But that's the story of the Beanie Babies.

[Dave Anthony]

You said, I'm gonna save something till the end. Now I can't.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Oh, it was the guy. So this one guy, I don't know where he sells them, but his parents had a huge collection of Beanie Babies. And so what he started to do was he came up with a business where he cuts the head off the Beanie Babies. And he puts them on the little, like, mountings that you would put, like, you know, hunted animals on. And he sells those and he makes quite a little bit of money.

[Dave Anthony]

That's hilarious.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, there are a couple, like, Beanie businesses that have popped up, and there's, like, some good stories and ways, but it really is just, like. It's just a tragic story of, like.

[Dave Anthony]

He never started selling them again.

[Gareth Reynolds]

He actually kept selling them, and in, like, 2013, he tried to do something with these, which were called Beanie Boos.

[Dave Anthony]

Let me see. Beanie Boo.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Oh, my God. And he basically, what he did was it. Basically he created, like, a Beanie metaverse with beanies where you could become the Beanie and interact with other Beanies on this website component. But all of it is.

[Dave Anthony]

Now we're getting into sex stuff.

[Gareth Reynolds]

All of it is totally failed. You still buy Beanie Babies?

[Dave Anthony]

Did you buy that one?

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah, yeah. You could still buy. Yeah, they're everywhere still. Like, now I notice them everywhere.

[Dave Anthony]

So he's still making money off Beanie Babies?

[Gareth Reynolds]

He still makes money, but it's, like.

[Dave Anthony]

Not like it was.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, we're talking, but he still makes money.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, you know, he's a. He's a rich monster.

[Gareth Reynolds]

And now the company is more into, like, acquisitions, too. Like, AC Acquired, like, Bratz Dolls and, like, Garfield, I think, and stuff.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah, you gotta start buying.

[Pam]

This one's called Fudge.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah.

[Pam]

And his birthday is December 13th.

[Gareth Reynolds]

So you just had a birthday Fudge. Oh, that's nice.

[Pam]

Oh, look, he's with the. He's got the cows. Come to his party.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Oh, it's. Well.

[Dave Anthony]

Oh, that's fun.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's fun.

[Pam]

Yeah.

[Gareth Reynolds]

That's Fudge. So there you go. That's the.

[Pam]

Well, that was very interesting.

[Dave Anthony]

Benji, that was great.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Thank you.

[Pam]

It was great.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Thanks, Terry.

[Pam]

Yeah. Yeah. We mustn't tell Garfi, though.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No, don't tell Garfield.

[Pam]

Benji did a good job.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. No, tell Garfield.

[Pam]

He'd be a bit upset.

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Did you enjoy this time, Mother?

[Pam]

I did. It was very good. It was very.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Do you have any extra Beanie stories or any toy sale rep stories?

[Pam]

No, no, I think. I think you. I've covered all of them, but I just remember it was absolutely crazy. And as a toy rep, you were so jealous of the tie rep because. Because they were making a ton of money. We were all struggling, you know, trying to.

[Gareth Reynolds]

It's like pharmaceutical.

[Pam]

A little wooden tray.

[Dave Anthony]

It was on commission.

[Pam]

Yes, it was all commission.

[Gareth Reynolds]

So that was when he was matching the Salaries those people were making. You know, he was matching people's huge salaries.

[Pam]

But I bet he was cutting down on the commission because at one point, commission was probably 10%. But I bet when he got big and he seems nasty, I bet he cut it down to like 2%.

[Gareth Reynolds]

They were all. I mean, it seemed like the salespeople made good money. And then like, the people who were like, at the company, like, people are like, you're making millions of dollars. And they were like, no, like, they were just. He was screwing people left and right, you know?

[Dave Anthony]

Yeah. I mean, he's a billionaire. That's what they do.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Yeah. And like, you're saying, like, towards the end, it's like he fires or he just lets people go who are valuable. And it's like, those are the people that'd be like, dude, don't put 24 out right now. You know, but they're gone.

[Pam]

So, anyway. Very interesting.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Well, well, we want to thank you all for joining us this evening for the dollop. We hoped you have learned something about Beanie Babies and about yourself.

[Dave Anthony]

Benji's words.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Because at the end of the day, each beanie is like us. We're all snowflakes. Shut the fuck up. It's Gareth.

[Dave Anthony]

It's your. It's your.

[Gareth Reynolds]

All right, we're done. We're done.

[Dave Anthony]

Benji's words, not my song. Welcome to Benji's world.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Cut it. Aaron. Cut the goddamn fee.

[Dave Anthony]

Benji.

[Gareth Reynolds]

No.

[Dave Anthony]

Benji. And called it, quote, his jam pack.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Jam pad.

[Dave Anthony]

I'm the hippo guy, Dave.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Okay.

[Dave Anthony]

My name's Gary.

[Gareth Reynolds]

My name's Gary. Wait, is it for fun?

[Dave Anthony]

And this is not gonna become the Tickly podcast, okay?

[Gareth Reynolds]

This is like Adam on a five part confession.

[Dave Anthony]

My real display.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Now hit him with the puppy. You both present sick arguments.

[Dave Anthony]

No sleep Tell Hippo.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Now sleep Tell Hippo. Action. Corey, no.

[Dave Anthony]

Nicely done, my friend.

[Gareth Reynolds]

Oh, you like this podcast, do you? Then you're gonna love me on the road doing stand up. Go to garethreynolds.com if you are in Richmond Heights, Missouri. St. Louis, let's be honest. January 7th. January 8th. Indianapolis, Batavia. Batavia, someone said online. Illinois, January 9th through the 11th. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. January 12th. Minneapolis, Minnesota, January 15th through the 18th. Then I'll be in Buffalo, New York on January 30th. Rutherford, New Jersey, January 31st through February 1st. Brea, California. February 7th. Eureka, California. February 11th. San Francisco. February 12th. Sacramento. February 13th. Naples. March 24th. Charlotte, North Carolina. April 13th. April 14th. I will be in Raleigh, North Carolina. Virginia Beach. April 15th. Richmond, Virginia. April 16th. Lutherville basically. Baltimore, I think. April 17th, 18th, 19th, 19th. It cuts off there. And Winnipeg this summer, in May. Go to garethreynolds.com for tickets and information. You're the gear force. We need you. Gear force. Hashtag gear force. Gear force.