Passions Spill Out From Beanie Baby Mailbag

The mail has been piling up lately, and though I’d love to be out there walking the Valley boulevards in this triple-digit heat, duty requires me to sit inside this air-conditioned office. Your correspondence just cries out to be shared.

Most of the mail lately came as reaction to two columns, one about the Beanie Baby Bandit who struck a Sherman Oaks novelty shop, the other about the ex-boyfriend of a former Beverly Hills High student. Why, if that Meanie baby maker was up to speed, we’d be able pay exorbitant prices for Meanie Bill, Meanie Ken, Meanie Linda. . .

Speaking of Meanies, consider this fulmination from someone with the e-mail moniker “Croaker”:

Why is it that we can’t read a story about secondary market Beanie prices without some [seven-letter expletive deleted] making a statement like “Meanwhile, millions of children go to bed hungry.”?

Um, because millions of children do?

As if, were people not buying those secondary market Beanies, those “millions” of children would magically stop going to bed hungry.

Magically? Well, no. It would take time, hard work, a worldwide moral awakening. . .

You mentioned a price of $1,300 for Web the Spider. Are you under the impression that the $1,300 that is paid evaporates? Perhaps the seller gives $100 to feed those hungry children. Perhaps they donate $200 to a leukemia research center. Perhaps they give $500 to Jerry’s kids. Perhaps, just perhaps, it’s none of your damn business what they do with it! Whatever they choose to do, the money stays in the economy.

Now Croaker has me thinking. Beanie Babies are made in China for an American company that sells to a global market. Even as those “secondary market Beanie prices soar,” the Russian economy collapses. Coincidence?

If you want to go after the big productivity wasters in our society, the ones that we aren’t given a choice about supporting, save your condescension and condemnation for the federal government, not people who are simply exercising their freedom of choice (what is left of it, anyway) and spending their money on harmless bean toys (as opposed to, say, guns).

So, to sum up, I think what Croaker is saying is this: Beanie Babies, good. Feds, bad. As for guns, well, they’re probably OK in the defense of Beanie collections.

I said it before, I’ll say it again: Get a grip, people.

To my knowledge, there have been no homicides linked to Beanie crime--crimes that would not exist if people just treated these toys as, you know, toys. But armed robberies can become lethal, and people have gotten hurt recently.

Carol Garcia and her husband were beaten a few months ago by Beanie robbers who ransacked her Beanie business in Santa Ana. She wrote:

Although I appreciate the humorous side to your article, I have a different perspective. We were not just robbed, but had our heads beat in (with barbells). . . . We had weeks of recovery, suffered tremendous financial loss [and] live in fear, as only one of our attackers was caught. (He’s in state prison now for 3 years). . . .

I would like to ask you to please spread the word about crimes over Beanie Babies, so that people are more aware, more streetwise. At this moment there are families getting ready to hold Beanie Baby garage sales each weekend. They casually name the rare, retired beanies they have for sale in the classified, then go on to give their home address.

I worry for these people. Beanie crime not only hit us but dozens of other naive folks across the states. Beanie dealers just don’t seem to think it can happen to them. I didn’t.

And if you are robbed at home, most Beanie Babies are not covered on your insurance policy at replacement value. You would need an attachment to your policy to be covered.

Has there been a Beanie insurance scam yet?

I suspect that most people, including those who buy Beanies for their kids (at primary market prices), find it all a bit absurd. Cindy Randall of Woodland Hills, I think, expressed it well:

It makes me sick to see people throwing away good money on something that has 50 cents worth of material and I’m busting my hump trying to raise money for diabetes research so my 5-year-old and others won’t have to grow up with all the health problems associated with the disease. There are children starving in our own country, homelessness, etc. Have people gone mad?

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to him at The Times’ Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311, or via e-mail at scott.harris@latimes.com. Please include a phone number.