Is Ty getting more involved with collectors?

Ty Warner has kept up an image over the past years of his company, of an illusive, secretive man. He has stayed out of the limelight of the beanie craze, but still gained a ‘celebrity’ status among collectors. However, now he seems to be more involved with his company and more connected to the collectors.

In the past few years Ty Warner has been spotted at a couple world-wide Trade fairs, such as the Spring Fair at the Birmingham NEC in the UK, where he spoke and chatted to retailers and collectors. This special year, of the 10^th anniversary of beanies also marked a special introduction of the Decade beanie. Ty Warner attended this years Toy Fair in New York and to the amazement of collectors had promised a signing of 100 Decade beanies on the day. Ty also chatted with the retailers attending the show who were lucky enough to get that special bear signed and posed for photos with collectors.

Ty also posts more regularly on the Cyberboard now, answering questions and commenting on posts made by members. When collectors see that famous username ‘Ty Warner’, interest and excitement is sparked as people can’t wait to see what the biggest name in beanies has posted.

Competitions on the Ty Official homepage are one of the most talked about events of the moment when the contest is launched. The most recent competition was launched for Halloween 2002 and the prizes included 25 signed Scared-e the cats which were given away to lucky members who were citizens of the USA.

Signed beanies also have been seen more regularly within recent years, such as during the joint-promotion between Ty Inc and MasterCard. When collectors registered for a Ty MasterCard, they received the free beanie named MC. To many collectors surprise, when their free MC bear arrived in the post, theirs was signed! A number of collectors have found their products ordered from the TyStore have been signed also .

In 2001 we saw the introduction of the Ask Ty feature on the Ty Homepage. Here collectors can ask questions relating to Ty himself, his company and his beanies. In the early days of this feature, collectors hardly ever heard an actual answer to their questions, but recently, questions have been answered plus an extra comment by Ty.

When speaking to Ty myself at the NEC Spring Fair in Birmingham, he told me that he also visits some of the top internet websites dedicated to his beanies, such as Ms Janie, BeanieMom, and Randy and Theresa's Beanieholics.

So is Ty getting more involved with collectors? Ty still seems to be the illusive and secretive character that he always has been, but maybe he wants to be more involved with the collectors of his products?

Ty has been the biggest name in plush toys for the past few years, and the collectibility of his products is closely linked to the secrecy of Ty himself. Will Ty’s involvement affect the value of his rarer products? Only tyme will tell!