Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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BEANIE BABIES NOW. THEN IHk BHl PEACE BEAR NOW $35 THEN $5 ? $***. BRONTY NOW $2,500 THEN $5 BUBBLES NOW $60 THEN $5 "THEN" prices are based on " T/s recommended prices at iniHal roloaco Pipfnroa fqIron frnm My First Greenbook, the official guide to Beanie Babies. Glover b HA .tiitiptK*. 4vX?X4^ -X \f. <+h # ' : . ^ ^ x$sg|s a - :,*? * :.. * <... '?tt'4k 4A- ifv .-. ' * g K; ? .! !#?,**?#| : : - ** ?( #A U* ?* v 44 ?- ?< ? ', I? i *? V'aN . .. ;g !: ** *'^ jMB[|l|[|F1ii^^^^^ . . /S"'' y-'fr Danny Glover brought a two-man sh Hughes to Columbia. I Buy an ad in Tl send your lore i special, or just just $5, money Ty's Beau Babi news editor SARA LADENHEIM Lions and tigers and bears. Oh my. Not quite the wonderland that Dorothy saw when she ventured down the yellow brick road, but for Beanie Baby lovers, it sure came close. Qa+invJaxr fknro tirnro raror AC\ Pnanio kJCll/Li-L Uibig YY ^ UYW "XV/ XJ^CU-XX^ baby merchants, and collectors brought forth their little cuddlies and presented them to the public in the first annual Beanie Baby expo sponsored by the Jamil Shrine Temple and the Daughters of the Nile. Beanie Babies are becoming America's fastest growing collectibles. Beginning in 1993 the toy manufacturer Ty Inc. sought to establish a toy line that kids could purchase with their allowance money. The "original 9" Beanies were the brown bear, "Cubbie;" the purple platypus, "Patti;" the red lobster, "Pinchers;" the killer whale, "Splash;" the white dog, "Spot;" the pink pig, "Squealer;" the dolphin, "Flash;" the frog, "Legs" and the moose, "Chocolate." The initial response was amazing, and grew as the line grew. Ty Inc. President and CEO Ty Warner decided to expand the line and "retire" several of the already-existing Beanies. By the time 1996 rolled around, an estimated 200 million Beanie Babies had been sold, 100 million of those in 1996 alone. Of those retired, the most rare and hard to find are "Trap," the mouse who is also the smallest Beanie, being only 4 inches long, "Tank, version 2," the armadillo, "Teddy, Cranberry New Face" and any of the dinosaurs. Of those mentioned, the prices be gin at $350, and go on up. At the expo, an extremely rare specimen of "Bronty" the blue tye-dyed dinosaur, with its tag perfectly intact was going for $2,500. Beanies don't have to be retired to be expensive. While Ty Inc. lists the price of every Beanie past and present as being around $5, on the "secondary" market prices are almost imrings eqi : : ! % . jl|P|- | x ^ x ^ | tow that spreads the messages of M lie Gamecock an to that someone someone. For can buy you low I*** " : Lie Jy es mediately marked up to whatll - 1 1 /? 1 A ever ine mercnant ieeis is appropriate, s "Retired or not, people are going ( to pay whatever price you set," said ( Hilde Haepe, a merchant from Beau- j fort who traveled to Columbia for the i show. While in many retail stores, prices t are set at "Ty" standards, most local private merchants sell Beanies for any- 1 where from $8 to $10. Hallmark, Saassy t Stores and Learningsmith sell them for t $5.95, while at the expo, prices started 1 at $12. Of the nine new Beanies, the s price began at $12 and went up to $25 i for the tye-dyed iguana "Iggy." ? "For me, it is all in the collecting. It 5 began as I searched for them to make my granddaughter happy," said Margie S Lee, expo organizer and collector. "It 1 ended up being that I was getting them t to make me happy." 1 Don Stewart of Aiken, S.C. col- i lects purely for self-enjoyment as well. ^ urj i.? l J Decline Dauies are euie, lovauie, anu \ they give us all an emotional response that we all need." Adrienne Lexy of Atlanta feels it is simply a trend that needs to be cashed in on while it lasts. Of her collection of nearly 1,300 Beanies, she intends to keep only about fifty when the fad is over. "I came here today to sell as many as I could. I have successfully traded 3 and sold about 19 so far," she said. Every person at the expo had one v question for the merchants: Where is t the Princess Bear, and how can I eet r her affordably? i To commemorate the goodwill and t peaceful messages that Princess Diana c symbolized to the world before her death t in August, Ty Inc. issued the "Princess j Bear." i Originally released to benefit the \ Princess' favorite charities, Ty Inc. j pledged to donate all funds received 1 from the sale of the bear. Once released t on the market, any pledge that was a issued was ignored by the public on the c uality, ci\ mKMSEK3BSE\ ', ': '= c SEAN RAYFORD Asst. Photo Editor 1 artin Luther King, Jr and Langston O-VL t & Yeah, I yr-s^-NHapp dl \Q><& e|i?^: mdary market. Dvernight, the bear more than quadru- W )led in value on the nternet. || The purple bear with a white rose imbroidered on the chest was exploitid so much in its first weeks of reease that Ty Inc. threatened to flood ?1 he market with the bears to divert J nose secondary market pronteers. (.ihis :|| las yet to be done, but remains a con- fl itant rumor for the Valentines Day ship- || nents.) Of the ten or so bears that were it the expo, none went for less than |i 5350. One merchant, sherry Longbow of Myrtle Beach, claimed / o have originally / , K)ught the bear for / . ^Isplk ts retail cost of / . :i 55.95. When asked j K vhy she had raised / he price of the $ B, "" >ear to $350, she 111 esponded, "Well w' ve all need to nake money in / his world, ? lon't^ we?" / hants and / here to I \ ncrease ! ^ ^ Jp ;?llecions and get a ^^ >eak at the new nine Beanes. The kids, for whom Beanie Babies vere created, were there simply to enoy Beanies and hope to find that one ittle cutie they will promptly rip the ag off and play with?an idea that ihould be what comes first when pur basing Beanie Babies. dl rights: opy editor CONNIE KAR1CKHOFF Tei sin "I have a dream," shouted the great Wo: irator to his audience. mo ttI dream a world," the great poet les: vrote. kn< Both Martin Luther King Jr. and tict ^angston Hughes shared a dream for Kii America. They saw love and underitanding for all people as the only route yea o harmony in this country. bee The dreams of these two legendary Kir nen were given new life Saturday when ictors Felix Justice and Danny Glover his ook the stage to perform An Evening per ,-j.L T J. I fc.'_ 4-1 VIM LAirigSIAJn UfLU 1V1UI UfL iXt U1C X\UgCl em Center. ha] Sponsored by the Office of Multi- filr ultural Student Affairs in celebration Let >f the upcoming Black History Month, He he program featured Justice and Glover [iving heartfelt and powerful readings grc f the works of the men who have so in- Soi ipired them in their own lives. Hu Afterward, they sat down together gu >n stage to field questions about the rin neaning of the messages presented. Justice began by taking the audi- spc ;nce back to April 3,1968, in Memphis, ly i n* -J. Kign iy Valentine's Da To: From: Jip' . . -i'- ''"' jSt- y- .":3: * . / # % V -ITfljjff llB^v <?: |- .(PP*1 ?- *'>**% messag in., the day before King was assasated during a speech to sanitatior rkers. Justice delivered the same ving speech on non-violence and self s love that King did 30 years ago iwing his life was about to end. Jus i left the audience in awe, much like lg did years before. A native of South Carolina and 30 ir veteran of the theater, Justice hae sn touring his one-man show aboul lg, Prophesy in America, since 1981 The stage was then turned over t< i j? /? -i t-v m long-time mena, jjanny uiover, wnc formed a wide range of Hughes' po s about life in America in the firs! [f of the century. Made famous bj is such as The Color Purple and the hal Weapon series, Glover spoke o: ighes as if they were old friends Glover read such poems as "The Ne i Speaks of Rivers," "Harlem Nighi ags" and "Birmingham Sunday; ighes'jazz rhythms and simple lan age tell honest stories that stil g true today. The two actors then returned to the )tlight together and, sitting casual Dn stools, accepted such question! V 'y? I Fill out thi I your mess; to Russell I Deadline i The ads w ? ' the Februi - ?. 4 m* / 77le Ga^cock e to USC' from audience members as how they 1 came to devote themselves to this project and where they feel race relations currently stand. Both Justice and Glover grew up during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s and have been deeply ^ s influenced by the words of King and I Hughes. Justice said that the summer he heard King speak "turned his life > around completely." The actors hope by bringing these . voices to life again, the dreams these j men shared might inspire Americans s today to fulfill them. Though we have ^ come a long way from the intense racial discord of the past, we are all still af- ^ " 11 .1 . nil it J * f. lectea Dy it, tney toia tne raciany mixea * crowd. But Justice and Glover are opti1 mistic. s "We've got to move faster in the com. ing years," Justice said. "We've got to 3 change." 1 ? it *>&.,, , is form with age and bring it House Rm 324. s February 10th. ill be placed in | try 13th issue.