Beanies Beanies Beanies!!!
Compilation guide to buying beanie babies
This information pack incorporates all the unique buying techniques covered by all the beanie baby information auctions on eBay(tm) as of 6-1-98. This means that every valuable idea, technique or method employed by those vendors to acquire beanie babies at the lowest possible prices have all been included. We hope you find this information to be valuable and we wish you the best of luck in your quest.
Technique 1
Go through the yellow pages directory and list all the stores that you think would sell Ty Beanie Babies. Categorize them by such titles as specialty shops, hallmark stores, hospital shops and the mom and pop stores. Then choose your first group to target, let's say Hallmark stores since they seem to get the largest quantities of beanies. Call the stores nearest your home. First ask for the name of the owner, not the store manager. Ask to set up an informal meeting between you and the owner. Tell them you have a unique idea that you feel will benefit them.
Here's the proposal to present to them:
1. You will buy beanie babies from them at the retail price of $5-6 and resell them for $10.00+, depending on if they're new releases, hard-to-finds, etc.)
2. You will sell them via the Internet, local shows, classified ads, flea markets, etc.
3. You will split the profits from the sales -- 70% for you since you incur the cost of advertising and shipping, and 30% for the owner, which is additional profit for them since they have already sold them to you at their retail price.
4 You want the opportunity to purchase up to half of the shipment they receive. That way they are still selling them to the general public and no one else will know of your partnership.
5. In order to protect their privacy, you will not divulge the name of the store or the owner
Now for what you want in return.
6. You want the opportunity to purchase any 4 beanie babies received at wholesale cost of $2.50. This is fair since you are going to the trouble of making them extra money. You may be able to negotiate larger quantities if you try. This vendor claims that this is exactly how they bought PVC and PE Princess, Erins and several retired pieces at $2.50 a piece. They also said they had little luck with this proposal at the larger stores such as Hallmark but struck gold with the mom-&-pop stores.
The mom-&-pop operation that took her up on the deal was very excited at the proposal. They had a no-frills contract drawn up and notarized. Three weeks later the store received their next shipment form Ty and as luck would have it there was a newly retired Brown Face Teddy and Tank. It also contained three dozen of ten other styles and the owner offered the vendor eighteen of each at their $5.00 retail price.
The vendor now had a total of 180 beanies for resale including 36 retirees at a total cost of $900. The vendor put it on a credit card and before the bill came, had made enough sales to pay it off.
7. The next step was placing a free classified ad in the local Shopper's Guide. The response was overwhelming. The vendor advertised the common beanies for $10 and the retired Teddy and Tank for $40 each and sold out completely within less than one week for a total of $2,880.
Here's the breakdown:
Beanie Sales |
$2,880 |
Owner's 30% profit |
$864 |
Vender's 70% profit |
$2,016 |
|
|
Expenses: |
|
Cost of Beanies |
$900 |
Shipping |
$105 |
Advertising |
$0 |
Total |
$1,005 |
|
|
And this was the first transaction! The store owner was delighted with the $864 and they have been doing business ever since.
Technique 2
It starts off by saying almost every Ty dealer in the country is set up on a supply/demand basis. This means the dealer must be able to sell what he or she buys in any given period of time. Most dealers send Ty a large amount of money and Ty then decides how many and which beanies the retailer gets. Retailers must turn their inventory quick. When a retailer requests an order of Beanies, there is a portion of the shipment that must be first sold before they can reorder more.
Everyone in the business wants new releases because they sell the best. Ty requires prepayment of orders and this can put a strain on dealers, especially small ones.
That is what you capitalize one. Get on the phone and call all the dealers you can find. Start with the ones that know you. Talk to the owner because they make the kind of decisions that you need.
Here is your proposal:
You will be willing to buy any or all beanies they'd be willing to sell for 50-75% over cost. You don't care which ones they are. The best time to do this is when rumors begin to appear about new beanies coming out because they must move their inventory to acquire more from Ty remember, Ty doesn't set limits on how cheap dealers can sell them, only on how high they sell them for.
Technique 3
Set up a meeting to talk to a retailer. Tell them you have an idea that could make them some extra money. And you do all the work.
1. Ask them to give you a portion of their shipment to sell for them. This will cost you nothing and means a great deal to the retailer.
2. Tell them you'll in turn sell the beanies on eBay(tm), newspapers, classifieds, etc. and will give them the profits. They not only make $7 per beanie but will be selling more which is their goal. The $7 per beanie is the maximum amount aloud by Ty. The extra money, saying you sell one for $10 which is very typical lets you break even on the ones you will be able to buy at cost from the owner. This not only moves more product for them but also makes them more money without doing the extra work.
3. Your benefit will be the opportunity to keep a few of each beanies at cost. Now you're buying your collection from between $2.50-$3 a piece.
4. You can also sell many of the regular beanies for higher profits and split it with the retailer or keep it.
Technique 4
First go to eBay(tm) and do a search on beanie babies. This can also be done by looking in the newspaper classified section. There you'll see retailers selling on the secondary market. Yes and against Ty's regulations. But they're selling in bulk to make a quick $200-$300. They usually don't set up at a flea market or do trade shows for fear of being turned in to Ty. If they sell at all on the secondary market against Ty rules, then they're going to do it where they can't be recognized. That's where they get $75 for a Princess or top dollar for Erin.
These retailers are more than happy to make $4-$4.75 per beanies in lots of forty or more. By doing this they make the quick bucks in no time at all. And the currents will be retired sometime. Since you can't buy any beanie at Hallmark for $4, this is a good way to buy although it does take some sizeable amounts of cash to buy 30-40 at a time.
Note: This vendor claims to have acquired over one hundred beanies this way, most of which were recent retireds.
Well that's it. All these vendors claim these techniques have worked for them and they say they'll work for you and I guess given enough time and effort they probably will. Like anything else in life, nothing is free... well, almost nothing.
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So Where are the best places to sell beanies on the Internet? That answer will vary depending on who you ask. With out any doubt, eBay has more beanie babies than any other site and more beanies means more people. However, this doesn't always translate into higher unit sales. With so many people selling, this often drives the price down on many beanies.
If you do a search for beanie baby auctions, eBay doesn't come up on the top listings on most search engines. As you would expect auctions that specialize in beanies do. These auction sites may not have as many beanies for sale but they have more people bidding on a per unit basis. This has the fortunate (if you are a seller) affect of driving the prices up a little higher. Other dealers have noticed this and, consequently, there are many dealers listing their beanies on these auctions with higher reserves. This only adds to the affect of raising the perceived price by contrast -- a rising tide lifts all boats. Although these dealers may not sell many at these inflated prices, it makes it easier for the average collector to sell at market value or even higher.
As with any auction, caution is always in order and some time spent observing the auction before jumping in is well advised.
We've put together a small list of auctions where beanie babies comprise the largest part of their sales. But there are many more that can be found using any search engine, using "beanie baby auction" as the search string.
www.wjztv.com/beanies/index.html