Ty Inc. (the company who produces Beanie Babies®) has been very successful in creating plush toys for children that are inexpensive and produced with high quality materials. Now that Beanie Babies® are one of the most sought after collectibles on the market, Ty Inc. introduced Beanie Babies Official Club® Collector's Cards.Series I collector's cards, which were introduced in late October of 1998, have become one of the hottest new collectibles. A month after being out, Ty announced that they were officially sold out. Most people had never even heard of these cards until the announcement. As a result, some cards (autographed) have sold for thousands of dollars. Now, it's virtually impossible to find a sealed pack.
Each pack contains 9 different collector cards, a "Puzzle Card" and a checklist, and retailed for $1.99 - $3.99 in the United States. Ty printed a total of 12,109,032 packs (this number is important for figuring out stats).
There are 149 cards that are divided into 4 categories.
- Original Cards - Numbers 1 - 9
- Odds of Getting an Original 9 Card
- Retired Cards - Numbers 10 - 24
- Birthday/Rookie Cards - Numbers 25 - 49
- Common Cards - Numbers 50 - 149
The rarest cards are those autographed by Ty Warner, the creator of Beanie Babies®. He autographed one of every type of card for a total of 296 autographed cards in the world. Each card is stamped 1/1. This means there is only one card of that color and type that is signed.
The cards are packaged and shipped to the retailer in display boxes containing 24 packs of cards and within each box there is a Slider Card.
Each case contains 6 boxes (or 144 packs).
