Do you remember those silly things called Beanie Babies?
When I was about 12 years old they were all the rage. I saved my hard earned babysitting money to buy Beanie Babies. In fact, the whole reason I joined ebay on January 19th 1998 (almost 12 years ago!) was to bid on Beanie Babies.
This isn't my picture, but it might as well be because this accurately represents the collection I had going. Somewhere I have a hard copy (thank goodness for digital cameras now) of me surrounded by Beanie Babies, hopefully I can find it when I go home for Christmas in two weeks and post it here.
I had "lots of some!"
I remember the very first time I laid my eyes on a Beanie Baby. It was at my friend Tiffany's birthday party and she unwrapped a pink pig (it's actually in that top picture, bottom row, middle creature). I wish I could remember it's name, cuz yes, each Beanie Baby comes with a name tag and poem. I was fascinated. I had to have one.
So I started searching online for retail stores that carried Beanie Babies. I found a place called Merry Tails that was a few blocks away from where my dad worked at Adobe in Seattle.
One night my dad surprised me with my first ever Beanie Baby: a green frog (also in the picture at the top, middle row, middle creature. How random that of all the hundreds of Beanie Babies made this one picture has the two that I remember most...it's meant to be). I was ecstatic. I jumped around the room and acted more like a five year old than a 12 year old. A few nights later, my dad came home with a whole bag full of Beanie Babies. Again, I jumped off the walls. But then bringing home Beanie Babies became an expectation rather than a treat and each time my enthusiasm dwindled. "You bring home one and a person is grateful. You bring home five and it's 'any more?'" I was an ingrate. But still my collection grew. I remember paying $20 for a stupid ghost Beanie Baby at a sports store. Ha. That was like four hours of babysitting down the drain!
Eventually I grew older and wiser, my obsession died down, and I sold off my Beanie Babies one by one on ebay.
And that's my random memory of the day.
That's a fun memory! My sister has quite the collection of beanie babies! :)
ReplyDeleteI actually call that kind of ingratitude the "beanie baby syndrome". I use that example a lot in my seminary lessons and church talks. Thanks for giving me the material!
ReplyDeleteBeanie babies... I wasn't into them but I do remember the rage, man peeps were really into them!
ReplyDeletePez are cooler! I still haven't outgrown that!
ReplyDeleteI had a lot of Beanie Babies, too. We saved a couple of them, cut the tags off, and gave them to Miles to play with...including that exact same green frog. It's kind of funny to see him using them as actual toys.
ReplyDeleteSavannah has Beanie Babies...she has named them and everything. I wish that she wasn't in to stuffed animals, but what do you do! LOL.
ReplyDeleteI still have all my beanie babies they are in a box in my parents basement. Maybe when I have kids someday they can play with them.
ReplyDeleteDUDE. In 1998 I was 17 and worked at a store that sold Beanie Babies. It was insane. People would line up outside the door on the mornings when we got the new ones in. They would sit in the parking lot and watch for the UPS truck on random days. It was CRAZY! That's my beanie baby memory.
ReplyDeleteAre they worth anything? I have tons still... Maybe I will sell them. That would be pretty good money... Maybe...
ReplyDeleteI am pretty sure his name was "Snort"!! Did you ever see our collection at our house?? We still have CRATES of them!!
ReplyDeleteBrian's Mom was obsessed with Beanie babies, He has told me stories that one time his mom bought 100 happy meals to get the mini ones so she could have a complete set. She also made Brian wake up at 3 AM to go wait in line because there use to be a limit on how many you could buy. Can you believe that actually happened?
ReplyDeleteHaha! I love this post Paige! We used to have an insane collection of Beanie Babies (probably more than in the picture) and one summer we had a garage sale and advertised Beanie Babies on the posters and we had a swarm of people come just to buy Beanie Babies! And my mom too only joined eBay to buy Beanie Babies for us too!
ReplyDeleteToo bad they aren't really worth much anymore because I think my mom still has a bag of them in the garage! Haha!
love the post. way to take us all down memory lane! i think i only had 20 or so but i'm pretty sure they're somewhere at my parents' house still. my favorite was always the little brown otter. i'm pretty sure his name was seaweed...
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