OK, I've taken all of your advice and...

Well, I don't know about Thomas Kinkade, but I like the way you are thinking. I think she should have her everyday stuff that sells really well, as well as some classier stuff that people pay a premium for. For example, she did a Christmas 2009 glass this year. She only painted 500 of them, each signed and numbered, and each with a certificate of authenticity. She sold out of those very quickly once the site went up. You can see a pic of that glass by going to categories>holidays>Christmas...it's the pic for the category, but is no longer available, honestly.

What about a "Glass of the Month" type club where members get the newest glass each month for their subscription. Somebody suggested that last time, and I had already considered it, but not sure it would be something people would want.

Tom

Sociology of Beanie Babies

The phenomenon of Beanie Babies is an example of a product of popular culture. Based on the sales and revenue of this toy, Ty warner Inc. created an empire worth over $6 billion. In 1995, there was fear that this hot commodity was slowly losing interest to the general public. To their surprise, there was exponentially increasing demand for the product, resulting in a profit of $250 million in the following year, with substantial re-sale value in the secondary market. In 2008 they released a follow-up line, Beanie Babies 2.0.
[edit] Marketing strategies

Much of the success of Beanie Babies can be attributed to the marketing strategies of the company [3]. The ten strategies employed by Ty Warner included:

1. Reasonable Price: Ty Warner wanted to keep Beanie Babies selling at a reasonable price, but did not want to mass produce them. In doing so, he followed steps 4 and 5 by limiting production and distribution by only selling to smaller retailers.
2. Keep it Secretive: Ty Warner was able to keep people interested because they weren't jaded by the constant advertisements that most large toy companies use; when people don't know what to expect, it becomes more appealing.
3. Surprise People: Unpredictability became entertaining to the mass public and made people even more eager to engage in the collection process of Beanie Babies.
4. Limit Production: Limiting production ensured that keeping some Beanie Babies rare would keep people excited.
5. Avoid Large Chain Retailers: Unlike most toys that are mass produced and retailed to major toy stores, Beanie Babies were sold at smaller, more refined specialty shops. This helped sustain the authentic image of Beanie Babies.
6. Simplicity: Because only a few different colors of fabric were used for each Beanie Baby, costs were kept low. At the same time, this simplicity appealed to everyone because what they saw is what they got.
7. Personification: Personification made Beanie Babies easier to relate to; every Beanie Baby had a Ty tag with a unique name, birthday, and poem. This only increased the excitement of the buyers because it was no longer just a stuffed animal.
8. Variety: Producing a variety of Beanie Babies attracted everyone because this tactic aims to please everyone's taste. This ploy also made serious collectors more eager to collect every Beanie Baby out there.
9. Retirements: Retirement created frenzy among Beanie Baby consumers. When Ty would retire a certain Beanie Baby, demand would increase, while supply came to a halt.
10. Risk: Every previous strategy that Warner developed was a risk, and he succeeded in going against the norm.[4]

[edit] Mass culture

Even though one of the purposes of the ten marketing strategies was to avoid mass production, Beanie Babies were still mass consumed by the general public at the peak of their popularity.[citation needed] By avoiding mass production, Ty Warner gained an upper hand in the sales of toys; he was able to keep a high demand of Beanie Babies while still sparingly producing them.[citation needed]
[edit] Collectibility

Beanie Babies began to emerge as popular collectibles in late 1995, and became a hot toy.[5] Ty systematically retired various designs, and many people assumed that all "retired" designs would rise in value the way that early retirees had.

[edit] Tags

The tags on Beanie Babies are considered a very important part of its value. It is widely believed by collectors that a Beanie without a tag loses half of its value. Every Beanie Baby has at least two tags: a swing tag (also known as a "hang tag", "ear tag" or "heart tag"), and a tush tag (usually attached to the Beanie's rear end). Both tags have gone through many changes over time; these changes have become known as "generations". There are currently 15 generations of swing tags and 13 generations of tush tags. Additionally, there are also extra tags for certain regions that include things like safety information to comply with the Canadian Stuffed Articles Act or the CE Mark requirements in Europe.
A few tag "generations" have become particularly noteworthy. Most Beanie Babies with first, second, or third generation hang tags have held their value (or in the case of some harder to find styles, increased in value), while fourth and fifth generation hang tags indicate Beanies that were available during the Beanie fad.

[edit] Rarity


This section does not cite any references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008) During the Beanie Baby craze, the rarest general issue beanie, according to the Winter 2000 edition of Ty Beanie Babies, published by Collectors Value Guide, was considered to be the dark blue variation of "Peanut" the elephant. Peanut was available well into 1998 in a lighter hue, but the dark blue version that was only made accidentally in 1995 rose in value because of its scarcity. "Nana the monkey" was considered the second rarest Beanie Baby; because only a few early 3rd gen tags use that name instead of Bongo. The early wingless version of "Quackers" the duck, "Chilly" the polar bear, the earlier versions of "Nip" and "Zip" the cats, "Peking" the panda bear; a series of colored bears named "Teddy" (which are even harder to find with the earlier "old face"), and "Humphrey" the camel also command high prices. Some special edition Beanies, such as the #1 Bear or the Billionaire bears (which are only available as gifts to Ty employees), are hard to come across and highly valued. Earlier editions of common Beanie Babies (particularly with first or second generation hang tags) are often sought-after by collectors. Particular hang tag variations in mint condition continue to make record prices on eBay.


In the hysteria of the late 90s, the bears were perceived to be the most sought-after beanies, and often carried inflated price tags - however, many of the popular bears have since turned out to be fairly common.

I built it using some open source php scripts. Wasn't easy, since I'm not a coder, but I think it's looking pretty good so far. Thanks for your compliment and please feel free to offer your suggestions. I posted the site over a month ago and have made a lot of changes based on the input here. I really appreciate any and all comments.

Tom