Keepsaker’s Korner
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A
publication of the Okie Keepsakers Collectors Club of Tulsa OK |
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Sponsored
by Becky’s Hallmark 41st
& Garnett 628-1766 |
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October
2001 |
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Club Officers |
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President: Rita Randall 341-1696 |
Treasurer: Sally Turner 838-8179 |
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Vice Pres: Dana Blando 628-0063 |
Secretary: Teresa Pattison 250-2693 |
Next Meeting is Thursday October 11 at 7pm
OKCC meetings are held on the second Thursday of each month. We meet at Becky’s Hallmark, 11109 E 41st (northwest corner of 41st & Garnett, next to Furr’s). Next month’s meeting will be November 8th.
At the October Meeting
It’s Swap and Sell time!!!! Bring your goodies to sell and bring your $$$ to buy!
Domestic Violence Intervention Service
DVIS has requested donations of towels, wash cloths and children's medicines: childrens tylenol, cold & allergies, kleenex, toothpaste, toothbrushes.
Check out your mailing label
Since it’s the beginning of the fiscal year again club dues are due. Check out the mailing label. If you’ve paid your dues your label should show the date as 7/02. If it shows anything else this will be your last newsletter!
Happy October Birthday to ….
Kathy Teeters Oct 6
October Debut – This weekend – October 6
Don’t forget this weekend, October 6th is the debut of the newest ornaments as well as the first opportunity to get Santa’s Toy Chest, the next piece in the Night Before Christmas set. And remember to bring your passport with you to get your next sticker!!
Okie Keepsakers Meeting Minutes September 13, 2001
President Rita Randall called the meeting to order and welcomed everyone. There were no changes to the minutes
Vice President Dana Blando: Remember to sign in on the attendance form. She also had photos taken at the KC Jubilee as well as the ornaments we received.
Treasurer Sally Turner: was unable to stay for the meeting so Rita read the Treasurer’s report:
$759.45+ Beginning balance
195.00+ Dues paid
50.00+ Pins, t-shirts, bags
20.00+ Donations towards Melita Farrell’s dinner
10.15- Scrapbook
60.00- September contests
134.90- 50 Chairs
19.04- September Postage
800.36+ Ending balance
Secretary Teresa Pattison announced that the September newsletter had been put on the internet and that next month those with internet address would not received a hardcopy version unless they specifically asked for one. Those asking for hardcopies were Terri Legrand, Trisha Roethe, BK Dreyer.
Sponsor news: Earline reminded us to get out 2nd sticker on our passport on October 6th. Santa’s Toy Chest which goes with the Night Before Christmas set will be available beginning that weekend. There will also be about 20 other new ornaments available that weekend. There will be Gold Crown bonus points with the purchase of 3 ornaments. She also passed around the brochure for the new silver ornaments Miles and Memories and welcomed your comments on them. They went to market last week and will be getting in a lot of new OU and OSU items and holiday items. She also read the thank you note that Lyndia Farrell had sent. Someone asked about the free ornament coupon that was coming out in magazines this Fall. Becky said that they would have plenty of these ornaments available and will be able to get more. (See the Hallmark News below where I repeated the news and what magazines the coupon would be in. I would bet that the coupon will also be on hallmark.com.)
DVIS – Debra Kirk didn’t know yet what DVIS needed for next month so wait until the newsletter to see what to bring next month.
Sunshine Committee – Terri Legrand sent a card to Bonnie Lueck Mangan who had an emergency room visit after a fall.
Hospitality – Next month’s volunteers are Georgia Tunnell, Sandra Paskvan, and Alice Sandkuhl
Old Business – Rita thanked all those responsible for getting the chairs!
New Business – At the KC Jubilee, the club sold $146 of pins. We could have probably sold more if the club table could have been manned all day.
Door Prizes were won by:
$25 gift certificate – Heather Murphy
Misc items donated by Dana - Bob Wilson, B. K. Dreyer, Vicki Greedwade, Elaine Wibben
Terri Legrand made a presentation to the club. She and her husband Stephen came up with the idea of having glass votives made in honor of our 10th anniversary. Bartlett-Collins Glass makes glassware for all occasions for family reunions, civic functions, school banquets, etc. and so they had some very nice ones made for the club!!! There are some left for those who were not at the meeting. She'll be bringing some to all the meetings from now on until everyone gets theirs. They are a nice cobalt blue with white snowflakes with the inscription “Okie Keepsakers Collectors Club 10 Years Together 1991-2001”. Thank you very much Terri and Stephen for your great idea in helping celebrate our 10th anniversary!!!
Contest winners:
Stocking contest: 1st Kay Schwartz, 2nd Dana Blando, 3rd Debra Kirk
T-shirt design contest: 1st Rita Randall (Snoopy Detective ornament “10 Years and Still Searching”), 2nd Rita Randall, 3rd Earline Kennon (Donna Lundy is checking into the t-shirt costs)
Chat
Online with Keepsake Artists!
Joanne
Eschrich & Sue Tague Answer Your Questions
Is
there something you've always wanted to ask a Keepsake Ornament artist? Your
wish may come true when your favorite Keepsake artists jump online to chat with
collectors. Mark your calendar for Tuesday, October 16, at 8 p.m. (Central
Time), and get ready for an exciting, enlightening hour. Joining us for this chat will be
Keepsake artists Joanne Eschrich and Sue Tague. Joanne's shining star this year
is the magical Frostlight Faeries Collection, and Sue is well known for her
yearly collections of lovable Merry Miniatures. Both artists have sculpted
numerous Keepsake Ornaments and collectibles in 2001. (Follow the link at the
bottom of this article to see their creations.) You can register for the chat as early as October 1st!
Find complete instructions here on October 1st. from hallmark.com
Hallmark News
Here’s a repeat item from the August newsletter which was questioned at the September meeting: Watch for full page adds in magazines like Martha Stewart Living, Country Living, "O" the Oprah Magazine and People during the 4th quarter for a coupon for a FREE 'Twas the Night Before Christmas Santa Ornament.
Looks like Kiddie Cars and Merry Miniatures are ending in 2002. And Legends in Flight, Lunchboxes, and Dr Seuss will be ending this year. The "monthly" Merry Miniature set for the year 2002 will be teddy bears dressed for each month.
And it looks like all of the artist signings for the rest of the year have been cancelled as well as both of the remaining Jubilees.
Check out your local Hallmark stores. I was at the mall and dropped by the store there and they had a bunch of the new Mitford snowmen stuff out!!! Some of it is too cute.
Ty News
Retirements:
8/30 July Birthday Beanie
8/31 Cheery the Bear Beanie Baby
9/7 Classy the People's Beanie Baby
9/10 Darling the dog Beanie Baby
9/11 Majesty, Carmella, Genevieve, Elizabeth, Eva Attic Treasures
9/13 Mooch and Rufus Beanie Babies
9/14 August Birthday Beanie Baby
9/20 Neon and Pinchers Buddies
9/21 Prince and Lips Buddies
Ty introduces AMERICA the bear. All proceeds will go to the Red Cross. He’s a blue bear with the American flag on his chest and red, white, and blue neck ribbons. Check him out here:
http://www.typromo.com/America
Check out eBay auction #1643832125. It’s a signed America bear. The description reads: “We are proud to offer this America Beanie Baby autographed by Ty Warner to benefit the American Red Cross disaster relief fund. A certificate of authenticity directly from Ty will accompany this very special Beanie Baby. Bid with confidence as this item is being listed and authenticated by Ty Inc. the creator, manufacturer and distributor of Beanie Babies” . As of this writing the high bid is $15,300. The auction ends Friday, October 5th.
At the Boston show, Ty introduced 9 Christmas ornaments. They are a little bigger than the Teenies, are called Jingle Beanies, have a corded ornament hook and are in same fabric as the original Beanies: They are 1997, 1998 and 1999 Xmas Bears, Halo, Peace, Quackers, Red Rover, Twigs and Loosy the Goose.
September 3 releases include:
Beanie Babies Fraidy the Cat, Creepers the Skeleton (?), Haunt the bear, Scary the Witch(all are Halloween themed) and October Birthday Bear
Beanie Buddies: Radar the bat, Spooky the ghost, Tangerine the bear
Attic Treasures: Buck squirrel, Carlisle bear, Tudor bear UK exclusive, Rhine bear German exclusive. Halloween themed: Vlad bear bat, Hagatha bear witch, Devlin bear devil, Carver bear pumpkin.
This tidbit from a Ty retailer: Ty has realized that many American's are having difficulties finding USA flags and patriotic symbols. I have recently been told that Ty will reintroduce Baby Curly with the Americana sweater. As we all know Ty changed the sweater on this bear sometime ago and has now decided to change back so that American's can proudly own an American patriotic symbol. Baby Curly has always been one of my favorites and always sold well. I expect this bear to fly off the shelves. I would venture to say many parents would be purchasing it for their children as a part of history. I have also been told that there will be a price reduction from Ty on this bear. This means that Baby Curly will be released again at a lower price.
And don’t forget the Ty credit card. You get M.C. Beanie after your first purchase using the card and then if you spend $5000 using the card in your first year you get another exclusive beanie on your 1 year anniversary.
New BBOC club:
Beginning September 24, Ty’s new club website is up and running! It is http://www.beaniebabiesofficialclub.com/ or you can link to it from ty.com. A new club kit will also be available at your favorite Ty Authorized Retailer. This kit contains Clubby IV the Beanie Baby in his own display case, information for people who would like to become new members of the Club, ordering guidelines for exciting exclusive BBOC products and a special surprise! Each Clubby IV Beanie Baby wears an official BBOC button. You may get a gold button, a silver button or a multicolored button. And, Ty Warner himself actually autographed some of the buttons!
At the website or with the order form included in the kit,
club members can purchase up to 2 of each of these items: Clubby IV Buddies
($10 each), BBOC Beanie Boppers ($9 each), BBOC Jingle Beanies ($12 each).
Offer valid until December 14th, 2001. This offer is available only while
supplies last. If you would like to
place an order over the telephone call 1-877-797-8218.
If you have you gold or platinum membership numbers from previous years you can register at the web site and get a “permanent” club membership number. Or you can wait and get a number when you purchase the new Clubby IV. I luckily found one of my older membership cards and was able to register and place my order! Can’t wait to see the Jingle Beanies!!!
October releases http://www.ty.com/announcements/octoberintros.html
Beanie Babies: Beani the cat, Kirby the dog, November birthday bear, Mistletoe the bear (new tyle), 2001 Holiday Teddy, Jinglepup (he’s too cute!)
Beanie Buddies: 1997 Holiday Teddy (in 3 sizes), Loosy, Snowball, 2001 Holiday Teddy Unity (Ty Europe Exclusive)
Attic Treasures: Santabear, Mrs Santabear, Weatherby, Chillings, Logan (Ty Canada exclusive)
Boyds helping victims
Inspired by The Head Bean's memories of his first teddy, the Folks at Boyds present a spectacular mohair Boyds bear, Teddy B. Bear...gar-un-teed to tug at yer heartstrings, as you remember your first teddy bear.
On Saturday, October 13, 2001, you will have your ONLY opportunity to buy our Special Event Teddy B. Bear (that's right, he's only with us for ONE DAY) for just $9.50...with a $20.00 purchase of Boyds Stuff!. And since he's only available on October 13, ya know he's gotta be extra special. Teddy B. Bear is Genuine Mohair with real suede paw pads. He's fully jointed and hand-stitched with antique-style shoe-button eyes...All the touches you'd expect in Antique Mohair Bears of Yesteryear! He even has an exclusive enameled button to match the people-sized Boyds Bear Paw Button , available only on October 13th
Boyds will contribute $1.00 to the New York
Firefighter's 9-11 Disaster Relief Fund for every 'Teddy B. Bear' sold for the
Special Event. When we created our bear and called the event, 'A Day to
Remember,' we had more cheerful memories in mind. But now, it seems more
fitting and proper to remember the victims and the heroes of the terrorist
attack September 11th.
Disney Kellogg Alliance
New alliance unites Disney characters with Kellogg breakfast foods Kellogg Co. and the Walt Disney Co. on Wednesday announced an agreement in which the cereal giant will have exclusive rights to develop and market breakfast foods based on Disney characters. Mickey Mouse and friends, Winnie the Pooh, the Disney Princesses and characters from The Lion King, 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan, as well as characters from Disney/Pixar's Toy Story, will be the stars of breakfast foods that will include ready-to-eat cereals, Pop-Tarts toaster pastries and Eggo waffles. The new offerings are targeted for worldwide distribution, beginning in 2002. Kellogg will also join a group of sponsors at Disney's theme parks and resorts, becoming the "official sponsor of breakfast" at Walt Disney World, Disneyland Resort and Disneyland Paris. Kellogg's breakfast foods will be featured at select "character breakfasts" and sold at restaurants in the theme parks and resorts. In addition, Disney and Kellogg agreed to co-develop promotional programs by Disney's entertainment properties, including film, television and theme parks, with Kellogg's exclusive character rights. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
By DAVID HAYES The Kansas City Star
Date: 08/22/01 22:15
Like most consumers, Sara Couchand keeps most photographs of her two preschool-age sons and the rest of her family in boxes or on computer discs stashed in drawers around the house.
That Couchand family photo pandemonium started to change this week.
On Tuesday, Couchand, who lives two miles from the Mexican border in tiny Hereford, Ariz., received a package in the mail from Kansas City. Inside was a small, accordion-style photo booklet featuring her two sons. She had designed the booklet on a Hallmark Cards Inc. Web site a week earlier.
Couchand was among dozens of people this summer who tested a new product that Hallmark spent millions of dollars and more than a year developing.
On Friday, Hallmark is scheduled to launch that product on the Web at www.hallmarkstories.com.
The online publishing project allows consumers to design their own "Snap Books," magazine-style photo albums or full-size photo scrapbooks online. Once the design is complete, Hallmark prints the product in Kansas City and mails it off.
"It's fantastic," Couchand said shortly after opening the Snap Book.
Hallmark is hoping to hear a lot more comments like that in the next few months.
Stories is Hallmark's third foray into the "memories" market, one of six areas where the company is trying to focus its future business. Last year, Hallmark bought The Picture People, a chain of 200 photo studios, and the company also has moved deeper into the conventional photo album and scrapbook market.
Hallmark Stories, however, is an entirely new product. Hallmark has bet heavily that increasingly Internet-savvy consumers, coupled with a surge in scrapbooking, will make the product a winner.
A mix of 140 or more programmers and computer experts, artists, writers, marketing specialists and others spent more than a year developing the project. At least 60 employees worked on the project full time.
Hallmark is partnering with Hewlett-Packard Co., which is providing storage for consumers' photos online. And the company is in the process of cutting a deal with a big retailer that would promote the Web site through one of the nation's largest photo processors.
"It's a logical place for us," said C.J. Howe, who led the Hallmark Stories project and is in charge of business initiatives for the company. "Memories are an incredibly relevant topic for consumers wherever we go."
Howe said Hallmark's research found that photographs are among a family's most cherished possessions but that a variety of factors often keeps consumers from displaying them as they'd like.
"They tell us they don't have time," Howe said. "They also tell us it requires creativity, and they say, `I'm not a creative person.' Then there's planning.
"Hallmark is incredibly powerful at two of those. What we've always struggled with is the time thing. These digital tools have really helped us overcome that third one."
Hallmark Stories was designed to make it easy to put together a photo album without making the process cost-prohibitive, Howe said.
The Stories "Snap Book," a wallet-size product with seven pages of pictures and text, sells for $19.95 for a set of three. An 8- by 10-inch, 16-page, magazine-style "Memory Magazine" costs $29.95. An 11- by 13-inch "Memory Album" costs $44.95.
The online program Hallmark designed to run the site allows consumers to arrange their photographs in almost unlimited formats. Hallmark has applied for a patent for the technology, said Tony Marshall, technology director for the Hallmark Stories project.
The site also walks users through the creative process, suggesting chapter titles and offering borders and decorations for the pages. Users can create their own chapter titles and type in photo captions explaining what's going on in each picture.
Hallmark thinks all that technology will save time for customers. The company estimates that after photos are selected, organized and transferred to the Web site, it takes about three hours to complete a photo album.
The company says it takes an average of 80 hours to complete a conventional photo album or scrapbook.
"A lot of companies have gotten into technology and then tried to determine what they can do with the technology," Marshall said. "We started with the creative capabilities of Hallmark. It's not technology for technology's sake. It's a use of the Internet to create a brand-new product."
As consumers place their photos on a page, the Web site's Java programming reaches into a large database of more than 1,000 formatted designs that allows them to redesign the page as needed. It also selects text and decorative artwork based on questions asked by the Web site. Once designed, the projects are printed by Hallmark on large Indigo digital printers.
Hallmark said the printed product should be delivered in less than a week.
"This whole process is very innovative in terms of us doing a lot of the work for you," Marshall said. "It's literally a Hallmark product that you design."
To get started, consumers can scan their old photos into their computers or use photos delivered by photofinishers on disc or delivered online through programs such as those offered by Shutterfly.com or America Online.
Initially, Hallmark is targeting mothers with children under 12, an audience the company estimates at 20 million.
"Mom is typically the memory keeper in the family," said Brenda Althouse, product manager for HallmarkStories.com.
Designing a Web-based product that allows consumers to have a big say in the product design process put Hallmark employees into new territory. Computer programmers attended meetings with artists and writers. Marketing experts met with technologists.
"Behind the scenes, it's all math. We don't like to think about that," said Laurie Monsees, editorial creative director for the Stories project. "They kept using the word `algorithm' in our meetings a lot."
Hallmark's creative team also found that consumer photos -- not the Hallmark design -- would dominate the project.
"In the beginning we were showing off our work a little bit," Monsees said. "Then we'd finish a product and see this very sophisticated language next to a photo of a Barbie Jeep.
"Now our work is more in the background, and that's OK. The pictures are the stars."
As a result, Monsees said, "your story is not going to be like anyone else's."
Stan Rice, who led the consumer research team for HallmarkStories, thinks the Memory Magazine will be the company's most successful product. "It's different from anything on the market right now," he said.
Hallmark will market the Web site through an e-mail campaign and direct-to-consumer advertising. The company will ramp up the project slowly, in part waiting for high-speed Internet access to reach more homes. Right now, speed is an issue.
Couchand, for instance, said uploading the six photos she used for her Snap Book using her computer's 56K modem took longer than designing the book.
However, that hasn't discouraged her. Now that she has started, Couchand said, she is planning to make a conventional photo album and compare it with one she makes online. And she sees more uses.
"Something like this would be a neat idea for my dad's photos," Couchand said. "He wants to give each of the kids a set of photos of his parents and grandparents. This way he'd only have to do it once."
Everything in Entire World Now Collectible
KIRKLAND, WA—In this suburb of Seattle, a man stops off for bread and milk on his way home from work. He's excited about his purchases, but not because he's hungry.
"This is awesome," said Marvin Humboldt, 46, lovingly holding his grocery purchases. "I've finally got the full run of the Wonder Bread 'NFL Legends' bags. And this gallon of 2% milk has a red dot on the cap, which means it's a first-run factory proof."
Halfway across the country, in Des Moines, IA, 34-year-old Janine Tompkins buys a bucket of Dutch Boy interior paint. She's not planning to do any home redecorating, though.
"This is the semi-gloss latex," Tompkins said. "Dutch Boy only made 12,500 of these in eggshell white this year. This one's definitely going straight into the display cabinet."
According to a report issued Monday by the North American Collector's Association, every single thing currently being manufactured is officially categorized as a collectible.
“It used to be that only certain particularly noteworthy or rare items, like Fantastic Four #1 or a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card, were considered valuable collector's items. That's no longer the case," NACA president Bob Gunther said. "If you have any objects of any kind in your home, in your garage, or on the floor of your car, don't throw them away. They could be worth big money someday. In fact, they're probably worth a lot of money right now."
Do you have a Taco Bell "Defeat The Dark Side... And Win!" cardboard cup-top playing piece from the restaurant's 1999 tie-in sweepstakes for Star Wars: Episode I lying around somewhere? Chances are you do, because more than 80 million of them were made. But don't throw it out: According to the March issue of Game-Piece Buyer's Guide, it's worth $295.
What about those free postcards handed out at record stores promoting bands nobody's ever heard of and who were dropped from their labels weeks after their debut releases flopped? They're netting big money on eBay. And anything put out before 1980—whether a toy, a set of flatware, or even an unopened roll of toilet paper found in a back cupboard of your grandfather's RV—is a bona fide antique worth anywhere from $100 to millions.
"See, normally, things that fall under the category of plentiful, undesirable junk would be worthless, simply due to the laws of supply and demand," said Fred Franks, a Parsippany, NJ, dealer specializing in 1970s-era sponges. "But nobody wants to sell what they collect, anyway: They just want to keep it and hoard it because it's so valuable. So, in this business, we're not talking about demand anymore, just supply, and lots of it. This has caused the value of even mundane, everyday objects to go through the roof. See this lint on my jacket here? That's at least eight, nine bucks worth of lint there. I have Internet quotes to prove it."
Manufacturers have caught on to the trend, releasing mundane products such as cigarettes, beer, and snack chips in special collector's "platinum" editions at marked-up prices. As collector mania spreads, even items like floor polish, paper plates, and rubber bands are becoming prohibitively expensive for many Americans.
Rarity, once a prerequisite for an item to have collector's value, is no longer relevant. An early sign of this shift occurred in the early '90s, when Marvel Comics encouraged fans to pre-order multiple copies of the much-hyped "Todd McFarlane's Spider-Man #1" because of the book's anticipated collector's value. The issue sold more copies than any comic book in history, but fans still hoarded multiple copies in special dust-proof Mylar bags, in part because of its unique status as the least rare comic book ever.
"Rarity is nothing. Do you have any idea how many Beanie Babies are out there?" asked Barbara Mason, editor of Beanie Baby Illustrated. "Let's put it this way: There are approximately twice as many Scoop The Pelican Beanie Babies on the planet Earth than there are actual pelicans. And they're worth more, too."
Age, once the other major determining factor in an item's worth, is no longer important, either. Items used to only get valuable over long periods of time. Not so anymore, says TransUniverse Collectibles, makers of the official Star Trek: Voyager Officers' Club individually wrapped toothpick assortment, which retails for $79.95 and is sold directly to collectors.
"Old? Are you kidding? Everything we sell here at TransUniverse goes straight to collectors with no middlemen the day we make it, because these Trekkie types insist on buying [the items] the first day they're out," TransUniverse co-founder Wayne Spoerl said. "We don't need to wait for it to become a collector's item over time—we just print the words 'Collector's Item' right on the package. They're valuable because we only make a limited run of, say, 500,000. Okay, more, but still."
With everything on the planet officially collectible, collectors have more items to choose from than ever. Objects such as plastic twist ties from speaker-wire packaging, the tin-foil lining of chewing-gum wrappers, and the little rubbery residue left in magazines when attachments are removed have all jumped sharply in value—and investors see no signs of a slowdown.
"I just sold some guy 3,000 gallons of factory runoff from a waste-processing plant in central Illinois," said collectibles dealer Gary Hammond of Louisville, KY. "The government tried unsuccessfully to get the stuff zoned for burial in three states, but now it's in this guy's basement in a glass case. Why? Because it was banned in three states, so now it's collectible. That's the beauty of this business—even stuff that absolutely nobody wants, somebody wants."