By 1994 Warner was producing several breeds of Beanie Baby, each with its own name. Though they sold moderately well, Warner noticed that discontinuing certain products made them more desirable. Then he realized that once he retired something, it created this frenzy. His holdings include the Four Seasons hotel in New York and enough California vacation property to form a small nation. That amounts to more than a hill of beans, baby.
Life always seems clearer in a bar.
It's not until you wake up the next morning that you realize the woman you took home was a Brazilian transsexual and your idea for packaging ketchup and mustard in a single bottle wasn't such a cash cow after all. But it was in the middle of a heavy drinking session with the boys that Gary Dahl came up with the toy as quintessential to the '70s as the mood ring and the gravity bong. They bark, they crap on the carpet, Bob Barker firebombs your house when you don't get them spayed, etc. Dahl joked that his pet rock was the perfect no-maintenance pet. In no time at all, everyone was getting stoned.