Wooden Toys Recalled
In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Käthe Kruse Doll Co., of Troy, N.Y., is recalling about 2,400 Selecta wooden toys. The balls included with these toys are banned because they present a serious risk of choking deaths to young children.  More...

Icicle Christmas Lights Recalled
Jingle Bell Enterprises Inc., of Philadelphia, Pa., is recalling approximately 100,000 sets of miniature Christmas lights and icicle-style lights. These lights have undersized wires that can easily pull out of the plugs and individual light sockets, posing fire and shock hazards.  Note:  This style of lights seem to get recalled every year.  More...

Play Beanie Trivia Here!
Test your knowledge and have some fun!

Internet Threat Leads to Arrest
Federal agents on Friday arrested an 18-year-old Florida man and charged him with making a threat against Columbine High School that frightened officials enough to close the school, scene of an April massacre, officials in Colorado and Florida said.  Michael Ian Campbell of Cape Coral, Florida, was arrested by the FBI and charged with transmitting a threat to injure another person, the Tampa FBI spokesman Brian Kensel said.  More...

Santa Arrested!
Santa Claus was arrested today as he distributed toys at Bonham Elementary School in San Antonio. Old Saint Nick was cuffed and led away by two police officers into a waiting police car. But don't worry. Ted Lee of the San Antonio Bar Association says Santa should be out in time for Christmas Eve. He was charged with the non-existent crime of "illegally distributing presents at a public school." He'll be tried before Federal Judge Ed Prado in front of a jury of third graders. Teenagers will serve as prosecutors and defense lawyers in the case as part of a project to acquaint children with the legal system.

Major Retirements
Will there be any left???
Retired are (Link lists a retirement date of 12/12/99):
Buddies
Snort, Jabber, Rover, Pinky, Waddle, Stretch, and Snowboy!
MORE - See Ty NewsFlashes

Ebay Files Suit Against Bidder's Edge
Bidder's Edge (www.biddersedge.com) announced that eBay,  has filed suit to seek to block Bidder's Edge from searching and displaying eBay's auction listings on the Bidder's Edge Web site.  The suit seeks to stop Bidder's Edge's search engine, which enables users to quickly and easily access millions of items listed at leading person-to-person and merchant online auction sites, from accessing the eBay Web site. Among several objections, eBay claims that Bidder's Edge violates eBay's copyrights and intellectual property. Bidder's Edge believes eBay's arguments are not justified, especially since the information eBay is trying to protect is not its own, but rather is data generated by eBay's sellers.  More...

More Buddy Retirements
Chip, Gobbles, and Spinner Buddies Retired!
Ty NewsFlashes

Retirements, Retirements - Ho, Ho, Ho!
The following Ty Products have been Officially "Retired"
Beanie Buddies:  Humphrey, Hippity, Bongo, Jake, and Peking
Attic Treasure: Spruce
Ty NewsFlashes

Ty Really Halting Beanies for Good
New Year's Eve will be the last day of production for Beanie Babies, the maker of the popular stuffed critters says.  Ty Inc. broke the news with a cryptic announcement on its Web site Thursday, saying only that production will stop Dec. 31 and warehouses will be cleared of surplus.  Many collectors and fans had been expecting a new line of the toys from the company.
Ty Inc. spokeswoman Anne Nickels said she "had no idea (why)" the cuddly toys will be discontinued, adding that the decision to stop production was made by the firm's owner Ty Warner.  "We're just as much in the dark here as everybody else," she said.
More...

Lot's of deals on Sierra's Trading Post!
Check out all the deals and list your item for free!  Click Here

Series 3 Price Guide Updated!
Series 3 Price Guide
More Price Guides

Mary Beth Comments on "The End" of Beanies
While retirement for current Beanie Babies® is imminent -- and the end of an era fast approaching -- America's love affair with these cozy characters is far from over. Mary Beth agrees. "Retirement news, and uncertainty about forthcoming plans of Ty Inc., have caused unfounded worries in the marketplace," she stated.  Mary Beth went on to say, "I strongly believe that a brand new product line will be launched -- featuring counterfeit proof fabrics and holographic hang tags -- which will attract a new breed of collectors and encourage existing ones to come along for the ride".  More...

Mary Beth Comments Further on "The End"
Mary Beth Sobolewski, editor in chief of Mary Beth's Bean Bag World Monthly, believes that Ty, Inc., will release a new line of products as a successor to its soon-to-be-retired Beanie Babies. "It's unlikely that Ty will simply roll over and watch company revenues drop when it no longer has any Beanies in the pipeline, so we believe they are planning a new series in the hope that lightning will strike twice," Sobolewski says. "If that's true, it will be an exciting opportunity for new collectors to get in on the ground floor when prices are still low."  More...

The End's Diary - The End is Near...
We just found out what the important news was that our friends at Ty had to tell us! We found out that when we all retire on December 31, there will be no new Beanies to replace us! Can you believe it! I just can’t imagine the playroom without any Beanies in it! I asked our friends at Ty what’s going to happen to all of our toys and games. They said that they would donate them to the shelter. I guess that is a good thing. Oh my goodness! I just realized something! I really am the last ever Info Beanie! Gee, that makes me a little sad. I’m going to go and talk to the other Beanies and see what they all think about this. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Good night!   http://www.ty.com/share/beanie/info2/December1999/page08.html

Ebay Refuses Seattle Riot Items
E-Bay is refusing to allow bidding for tear gas canisters, rubber bullets and other items from last week's violent demonstrations in Seattle. E-Bay says it won't list such items for sale because of doubts about their lawful owners. Many items offered for sale apparently belong to the Seattle Police Department, and the auction house does NOT allow the sale of stolen merchandise. 

New Virus Spreading on the Web
A new breed of computer virus spreading through Internet chat rooms this week could let its creator effectively control infected computers remotely.  The virus, W95.Babylonia, comes disguised as a Y2K fix, making it the sixth known virus preying on the Year 2000 glitch. But more worrisome to computer security experts is the virus's ability to update itself with potentially malicious instructions from Japan.  "The virus writer can write code to do anything he wants to," said Vince Gullotto, director of Network Associates' anti-virus research team. "There's nothing else even close to it."  More...

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H&S Media Sponsers Skating Competition
On Saturday December 11, 1999, the Special Olympics 1999 Chicago Ice Skating Competition will give athletes and their families not only an opportunity to witness great performances, but also to enjoy the holiday spirit in a Puffkin® bean bag toy party sponsored by H&S Media, Inc. -- publisher of Mary Beth's Bean Bag World Monthly magazine.  More...

Hasbro Cuts Jobs, Closes Plants
Hasbro will cut 2,200 jobs, or 19 percent of its work force, close two plants and shift much of its manufacturing to Asia. It will also discontinue some of its underperforming toys.  Hasbro announced a broad reorganization of its business on Tuesday, which will allow the  toymaker to expand its offerings of high-tech toys and its popular core brands, including Furby and Pokemon.  More...

Ebay Suffers Another Outage
The company acknowledged problems with its auction bidding and listing systems on its announcement board at 7:56 a.m. PT Tuesday. In a subsequent message, the company said its systems were down from about 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. PT, and blamed the problem on a "hardware issue."

The End Bear - Series 4 Limited Edition Card
Auction of Card 362/400 gets no Bidders  click here.
The End Bear, which appears as a holographic card,  also appears as a special limited edition card.  There are only 400 of these cards produced and all are signed by Ty!  With the card comes a "Printers plate" which on the back says: "Congratulations!  You are one of the lucky recipients of a Limited Edition The End Bear Collector's Card.  Only 400 of these cards have been produced in Series 4, and each card is autographed by Ty.  To authenticate the rarity of these Limited Edition Collector's Cards, you are being provided with one of the 400-issued "Printer's Plate" versions of The End Bear Collector's Cards.  Four "plates" are required to print each card - one representing each of four process colors:  cyan, magenta, yellow and black.  This plate represents the cyan tones used in the printing of the original cards."
CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES

Beanie Buddy Price Guide Added!
Just Added a Beanie Buddy Price Guide with up-to-date prices!
In the future you can find the link of the "Price Guide" page
Beanie Buddy Price Guide

Beanies at #42 on Lycos Top 50
Beanies climbed 2 notches last week and landed the #42 most searched for terms according to Lycos.  "Christmas" tookover the Top spot held by Pokemon for 5 weeks.  More...

Mad Magazine Not Convinced Beanies are Over
The editors of MAD Magazine, America's foremost experts in dumbness, have chosen the Y2K Panic to top the list of the second annual "MAD 20," the humor monthly's year-end review of  "The Dumbest People, Events and Things of 1999."
#15 on the list is "The Beanie Babies' Fake Retirement."
More...

New Y2K Virus Can Be Devestating
The W32/Mypics.worm comes in an e-mail without a subject line and contains a message that reads "Here's some pictures for you!" At first, the worm acts like Melissa, immediately sending itself to as many as 50 listings in a user's Outlook address book. The mass-mailing will not be triggered if the virus recipient doesn't use Outlook.
But the e-mail also contains an executable attachment, labeled Pics4You.exe, which infects the user's PC with the worm if it is opened. Once opened, on Jan. 1, 2000, the worm also overwrites part of the hard drive of the infected PC. If that PC is rebooted anytime after the New Year, the worm has the potential to completely reformat the hard drive, causing a loss of data. The glitch will try to disguise itself as a Y2K problem.  More...

Stolen Goods Recovered on Ebay
Having all but given up hope of recovering a prayer shawl and other religious items stolen from his car, Morris Sochaccewski took the advice of a friend and looked for the items online.  Sure enough, on the online auction site eBay, he found what he was looking for: "Beautiful Hebrew Prayer Set in 2 blue velvet pouches," read the description.  A few clicks and a $395 bid later, Officer Ken Driscoll arrived at the seller's home, eight blocks from Sochaccewski's house.