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Ty Warner: Beanie Babies
built 445 days ago
Although Ty Warner and his booming, privately-owned bean bag company still remain very secretive, Ty Inc. makes a point of staying somewhat connected with the consumer. Retailers are warned to keep Beanie prices low, around $5-7 is recommended, or risk losing their Ty account. Ty briefly set up a link on their Web site for for consumers to report faulty retailers, but the response was so overwhelming it had to be removed.
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Ty, Inc. was founded in 1983 after its founder, Ty Warner saw stuffed cats in Italy that were unavailable in America. Ty's Beanie Babies are one of the most popular collector items. Ty toys all have red heart shaped labels affixed to them with the word "Ty" written in white.
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On December 29th's Ty Talk Cyberboard, Ty Warner of Ty, Inc. announced that he will triple the donations generated from the New Year's Eve Beanie Millennium voting. As previously noted, voters will donate 50 cents via credit card; this means Ty, Inc. will donate $1.50 for every 50 cents - ... generating $2 per vote for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
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After 18 years with Dakin, Warner went out on his own. Touring Italy, Warner came across toy stuffed cats that inspired him to create Ty Inc. Ty's first ten plush cats sold for $20 each. They are worth far more today. 1993 was the dawn of the Beanie Baby. Ty Inc. was never the same. The Internet is an excellent place to track down Pillow Pals and other creatures from Ty Inc.
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Ty Warner, President and owner of Ty Inc. has graciously donated to the American Red Cross throughout the years. In response to the tragic occurrences of September 11, Mr. Warner donated more than $2 million, which was generated through the sale of three unique Beanie Babies, for Red Cross disaster relief services nationally and locally.
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Warner's business strategy was novel. He did not spend money on advertising. He selectively limited production of certain Beanie Babies to encourage collectors. He did not distribute Beanies at large department stores to encourage the perception that Beanies were an elite offering. As a result of these strategies, collectors would enthusiastically await and buy up new products with a secondary market emerging where some Beanies sell for $1000 or more. At their peak of popularity, some Beanies reached a price of $5000, despite selling for as little as $5 in stores.
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