English 22
August 31, 2000

Picking up the soft pellet filled tiger, so appropriately named "India" brings a flood of memories forward which tumble over each other in a race to be reminisced and remembered. The small, red tag; lovingly protected in its clear plastic guard, the tiny stitched mouth and soft fur. Who would have thought a simple child's toy would become such an important part of my life? As I reflect upon the past two years, memories of hot and stuffy school cafeterias, freezing cold hotel conference rooms, hours racked up on my cellular phone, standing in mile long lines at McDonald's, school reports, and tons of other reminiscences which have been brought forth by a six dollar toy.

After being sucked into the Pok�mon, Yomega, Rollerblades, and Cabbage Patch Kids fad, (among many others), I swore I would not be pulled into the silly fad of "Beanie Babies", whatever those were. Little did I know, that four beanies would find their way from a tiny shop in London, and find a place in my heart. A bunny, a husky, a koala and a cat, each with their own personal name, birthdate, and poem were given as a gift when my grandmother returned with her friends from a cruise which toured Europe. She purchased the four toys when her friends were snatching up the collectibles by the bags. Though her reason for buying the toys were more of the high school sort. "My friends were buying them, so I did too," is what she told me as she handed me the cute little stuffed animals. After logging onto Ty.com, to my surprise I found hundreds of beanies, which ranged in price from five to over five thousand dollars, at that moment my rampage into the world of Ty Beanie Babies began.

While my mother was less than thrilled of my latest obsession, she helped me find a "Collector Expo" ad in the newspaper. The tiny little room was no bigger than the area my high school math class was held in, but yet hundreds of people were crammed into the little area, snatching up the little toys as fast as they could write checks. Our second 'show' was at the Ala Moana Hotel, where we saw a friend of ours. Jennie was the daughter of my grandmother's friend, and we later found out the beanies which were bought at London by my grandmother's friend was for Jennie. A ton of phone calls and emails later, Jennie became our Beanie Buddy, whom we called whenever we ran into a deal, to see if we should grab some extra for her, and vice versa. Once, we ran into a dealer willing to sell two beanies for fifty dollars each that was valued at several hundred dollars each! One of the beanies was made in memory of Jerry Garcia, while the other was a discontinued style, which I had been wanting since I first started collecting. I immediately ran home and phoned Jennie to see if it was worth the large 'investment'. She immediately began threatening me to either buy the beanies or she would take the hour drive from her house to purchase them for herself! Needless to say, I bought them.

Perhaps my favorite memory of my beanies would have to be the night I slept outside a store, waiting for them to open as they had just received a new shipment of hard to find Beanie Babies. My mom, Jennie, her sister Lisa, Lisa's two kids, and I slept outside of the "Endangered Species" store in Waikiki from 6pm to 6am on a Saturday night. We amused ourselves by walking around the block, quizzing each other's Beanie knowledge, eating, and just talking story. Come the next morning, the store's owner was prompted to come out and yell at us, then locked the door while we continued to wait. After two hours of yelling at him through the plate glass window, my mother and I left without so much as a glance at a beanie since we had to pick up my grandmother from the airport. Though I never actually got to buy a beanie (and I was second in line!) I did enjoy the experience to the fullest and would easily do it again.

Setting India back into it's rightful place on my shelf with it's three hundred and thirty beanie companions, I step back to take in the beautiful scene that is at the moment, my pride and joy: My Ty Beanie Babies collection. I've often been called less than brilliant for 'investing' money into a collectible, especially an item which is labeled collectibles, since such items almost always turn out to be worth nothing more than rubbish. My beanie dream is, in the near future, Beanie Babies become completely worthless so I can finish my collection with the 15 pieces I'm missing, each of which costs over a thousand dollars each. But I know my day will comeafter all, anything for Beanies!

Author's Notes: This was the first 'BIG' paper I wrote in college!