purchases, Mary said. They traded those they wanted for

purchases, Mary said. They traded those they wanted for those they didn’t.

“That’s the first shipment we’ve gotten since March,” Mary said. “The last shipment we got 23 styles. We order two dozen of each style.”

The Ty Company, which makes Beanie Babies, limits the styles and number which stores receive. Stores must order at least a dozen of each style they do order.

Faith Mountain has two back orders and a current full order.

“Ty has put some serious restrictions on ordering the Beanie Babies,” Mary said. “And you can only have one order per month. They come when they come and they send what they send.”

And, customers will go to any length, even trying to determine when UPS deliveries will take place, to get the cuddly babies.

But it wasn’t always this way. Last fall Faith Mountain, which has been selling them for almost two years, had 200 or more on the shelf. They sold but not any better than any other stuffed animal, and not as well as some.

Then Ty began retiring babies. And, people started buying them by the grocery bag full.

“We’ve had them for years,” said Michelle Adams of Rare Finds in Washington, Va. “Mother (Eve Willis) used to cut off the tags because she thought they looked better without them. Some kids came in one day when she was doing that and said ‘Don’t do that, that’s what we like about them!’ so we stopped. After that someone got the idea of naming them and then retiring certain ones and now they’ve taken off.”

Michelle said she can make several calls and her shipment, 1,000 in a box, will be sold. “They go very quickly.”

She said some people buy $100 worth or more, and for a $5 item that’s quite a bundle of babies.

Right now she still has some of “Pugsly,” the pug, “Waves,” the dolphin, and “Claude,” the crab (who by the way is a famous artist and who