7/31/99  Ordering Policies for New Beanies  Bean Bag World got the inside scoop on the ordering policies on the new Ty Beanie Babies. When at a show, authorized retailers must locate their Ty representative to place an order. Retailers can order up to 48 each of the three new Beanies, 12 each of the two new Beanie Buddies, and 24 each of the new Pillow Pal. Retailers must show their official name badge when ordering. After an order is placed, the retailer must then verify their retail status with Ty officials. Retailers are allowed to place only one trade show order. Delivery is expected in approximately 3 weeks. This policy varies from the previous guidelines where only 36 Beanies and 6 Buddies in each style could be ordered at one time.

7/30/99  MAPLE RETIRES TODAY! http://www.ty.com/maple.html 

7/28/99  Ty's Website Announces more retirements today!  Newsflash reads "Scrambled" and Eggbert is now retired! http://www.ty.com/scramble.html  Also, the Attic Treasure "Bugsy" also retires! http://www.ty.com/bugsy.html  That makes 6 of the January releases now retired. Who will be next?

7/27/99  PATTI THE BEANIE BUDDY RETIRES TODAY! http://www.ty.com/pat-ret.html

7/26/99  BRITANNIA RETIRES TODAY! Newsflash on the Ty website this morning says "Cheerio" to Britannia. http://www.ty.com/cheerio.html

7/25/99  Ty Making Beanies Scarce: According to Mary Beth Sobolewski in her weekly column in the Sun Times, Ty Warner is getting back to his old strategy of making beanies more scarce and therefore more collectible which could be the reason for all the recent retirements of new beanies. http://www.suntimes.com/output/beanie/bean25.html

7/22/99 Sneak peeks on the Ty website of the new Inch Beanie Buddy, Sparkler the Pillow Pal, and Schweetheart Buddy! http://www.ty.com/sneak1.html  These buddies have actually already been shipped and several retailers have had them this week.

7/21/99  RETIREMENTS CONTINUE: Quackers the Duck beanie buddy retired today! http://www.ty.com/qua.html

7/20/99  NIBBLY THE RABBIT  RETIRES!  Another newsflash on the Ty website today states, "Until we meet again......hoppy trails" http://www.ty.com/retired-nibbly.html
This is now the fourth of the January 1999 releases that has retired meaning that these beanie were only produced for a few short months. Does this mean that Ty was not happy with that group of new beanies that were released in January? It's very unusal for this many "new" beanies to retire so shortly after they were introduced.

7/19/99  EWEY THE LAMB RETIRES! An official newsflash on the Ty site today says, "Wool See You Later".  http://www.ty.com/retired-ew.html

7/14/99  PEACE RETIRES! Another day of retirements at Ty today. Peace the Bear is now retired. http://www.ty.com/retire-p.html  Ty has also finally put pictures up of the new beanies, Flitter, Lips, and Birthday Bear. http://www.ty.com/sneak1.html 

BEANIES INVADE SEARS TOWER SKYDECK  CHICAGO, IL  (July 13, 1999) - There is no escape - Stretch the beanie baby has invaded Sears Tower Skydeck in celebration of the 25th Anniversary of "Chicago's Highest Attraction".  All Sears Tower enthusiasts that log onto the official Sears Tower Web site at www.sears-tower.com can indulge in the excitement of the 25th Anniversary and have a chance to win an official Sears Tower Commemorative Card and 1 Stretch beanie baby. Commemorative Collector's Cards are limited with a production of only 1,500 cards.  Each card is numbered and the first 8 cards in the series will be given away to 8 lucky winners off the Sears Tower Web site.  All remaining cards will be available for purchase on the Sears Tower Web site in a Commemorative Collector's set .  Each set will include one (1) random Collector's card, one (1) Skydeck ticket and one (1) Stretch: the ostrich beanie baby. The card series represents the 4 construction stages of Sears Tower. 

Visitors to the Web site also have the opportunity to purchase all 4 Commemorative Collector's Cards in a set with 3 Skydeck tickets and one (1) Stretch beanie baby - receiving an additional Skydeck ticket FREE. In this way, a visitor will be guaranteed the receipt of all 4 different cards.  The cards are designed such that each builds on the last - the background graphic on the reverse side of each card forms a portrait of the Sears Tower when pieced together.  All Skydeck tickets purchased online are good through 1999. This Commemorative Collector's Card series is just part of the action-packed 25th Anniversary celebration. All Skydeck guests in 1999 have the opportunity to sign a guest book that will be placed in the Sears Tower2000 Time Capsule.  The time capsule will become part of the Skydeck on lower level 2 until it is reopened in the Year 2100.  Check www.sears-tower.com for upcoming special events, as well as operating hours and prices.

7/13/99One of our subscribers sent these scans of the brand new beanies he was able to pick up in Florida: You can also see the full views of these scans at http://members.tripod.com/cloud5015/showreleases.html  Thanks Derek aka Cloud5015 for sharing these with us!

Letters are being sent to Ty retailers in Canada informing them of the the end of the 'Plush' line. Similar letters expected to hit USA retailers next week. The letter reads as follows;
Dear Madam or Sir:
We are currently working in our accounts to bring you special surprises to your July and August shipments. We are working very efficiently with the BBOC to bring you the Clubby 2 Newsletter and two other exciting offers. Please note that some products that you have ordered will be cancelled due to a "wrap-up" of our plush collection. You will also be receiving in early September a special new and exciting display for your Attic Treasures, Beanie Buddies, and Beanie Babies products. Please note that we will notify you as soon as possible to tell you what our new products in most of our categories will be. Please Post this letter in your store front and remember only TYME will tell what our next surprise is.

Does Ty REALLY own the rights to the words "beanie" or "beanies"?  According to one our subscribers, Ruth at Bargain Beanies, Ty is throwing his weight around trying to intimidate small businesses and website owners into giving up their domain or company names because of copyright infringement and unfair competetion. But are these people really doing anything wrong? Ruth has written a letter to the popular news show 20/20 with her views on the subject. Below is an excerpt from the letter:

Recently Ty, Inc., the manufacturer and trademark holder of Beanie Babies, has been sending cease and desist letters to the owner of websites with "beanie" or "beanies" in their domain name.  In these letters, Ty, Inc. claims the he owns the trademark to "beanie" and "beanies" and threatens continued legal action unless our domain names are changed and we send him financial records detailing all of our sales since the inception of our sites.

Many website owners have already complied with his demands in order to avoid these legal troubles, but I'm planning to fight him and am trying to rally the other website owners to join with me.  There are more than 1,500 websites with a domain name including "beanie" or "beanies", which is quite a large group to reckon with if we band together.  There are many more websites with "beanie" in the name on such sites as geocities, yahoo, etc., but there is no centralized listing of all the owners of these sites so Ty will have a very difficult time finding them.

I am sure that we can prevail because Ty, Inc. does not own the trademark rights to either "beanie" or "beanies" and is, therefore, being deceptive in his cease and desist letters.  According the US Patent and Trademark Office, Ty, Inc was informed last April that he was denied the trademark on the term "beanies" and has also recently been informed that his application for the term "beanie" has been  temporarily denied.