Hippity, Hoppity, Floppity and Moppity have come to Ann Arbor for Easter. But don't expect these cuddly stuffed animals from the Beanie Baby collection to stay in local stores for long.
The Crown House of Gifts on State Street completely sold out of its latest shipment of 3,000 Beanie Babies in just three days.
"It's really hard for us to get them in stock since the company is so backordered that they can't get them out to the stores," employee Emma White said about the toys that are turning out to be the Cabbage Patch Kids of the '90s. "They sell much more than anything else in the store. The demand is just incredible."
These hand-sized, bean bag creatures were conceived by Kalamazoo College graduate H. Ty Warner. They come with a birthdate, a poem, a $5 price tag and a playful name like Inky the Octopus, Spike the Rhinoceros or Crunch the Shark. The appeal of these huggable, understuffed toys is broadly based and includes children, college students and parents alike.
"Probably about one-third of our sales are to college students or even parents who want to collect for themselves," said Katie Eory, an employee at the Crown House of Gifts.
Engineering first-year student Kelly Zagorski said Beanie Baby fever has caught on in her residence hall room.
"They're cute, they don't cost very much and they make great gifts," Zagorski said. "I have the skunk, one of the cows and the penguin, and my roommates have about 20 more."
University alumna Tiffany Heutal visited the Crown House of Gifts last week to add three green bunnies named Hippity to her collection of about 40 Beanie Babies.
"My friend got me into it," Heutal said. "You go to the store and you buy a couple. I mean, some of them are really cute, but it's more like the craze."
First introduced on a small scale in 1993, Beanie Babies are without question the toy of the moment. According to Ty Inc. spokeswoman Anne Nichols, annual sales increased 1,000 percent in 1996 and are on track to grow another 1,000 percent in 1997.
Beth Callas, an LSA first-year student, attributed these figures to Ty Inc.'s ability to make its product the latest fad.
"I think they sell because they're marketed well and everyone rushes to buy them," she said. "My sister has eight and her friend has, like, 40. They just collect them."
MBA second-year student Greg Lipper pointed to low prices to explain the Beanie Baby success.
"One of the big reasons they sell is the cost. Parents are fueling this thing more than the kids," said Lipper, whose daughter owns the owl, giraffe and one of the bunnies. "Because they pay in increments of $5, they are not aware of how much it's costing them to buy 50. It's a pretty smart marketing ploy."
While Beanie Babies are relatively inexpensive in the stores, at Ty Inc.'s Web page - which has had more than 1.5 million visitors so far - the market gets more competitive. Beanie Babies come in about 70 different characters, some 20 of which are no longer produced. The price of these harder-to-find Beanie Babies can skyrocket to more than $150 per animal or even $1,500 for some of the original figures, according to the Web page, http://www.ty.com.
ROB GILMORE/Daily
Scoyeon and Sooyeon Lee admire some 'retired' Beanie Babies that now reside behind glass at Aussie Outfitters in Briarwood Mall. These rare 'babies' sell for about $80-$250 each.